Brutally amazing are the words that come to mind when I think of Activision's Call of Duty - World at War.

The sounds of war have not been so clear and "in your face" in any other WWII shooter that I've encountered. First of all, you have the explosions, the gunfire, and the sound of bullets hitting all around you. Tanks, planes and automobiles also add to a great sounding replica of WWII battles.

But that is not all you get from the new COD - World at War; the voices/voice acting is also a major part of the game. The movie files before each mission consists of a small debriefing per say, with the narrator informing you of what's going on in that particular time of the war. In the actual game, voice and speech is also present anywhere from the screams of dying soldiers to fellow marines or comrades (if you're playing as Petrenko) shouting orders at you. Sometimes the speeches get a bit redundant (for example I was in a burning building and this dude kept saying "the building is going down around us" just about every 30 seconds), but those redundant occasions are far in between.

This game's graphics are purely amazing. War has not ever looked so good. Chaotic is the best way to describe what the screen displays. There is no order to war and this game shows it.

Ambushes, head on confrontations, flanking attacks, etc., are all part of the war and sometimes you can be lost in a hail of bullets and smoke. If you move forward you get chopped down by machine gun nests and if you turn back the snipers get you. Chaos is all around and you must learn to use that chaos to your advantage. The smoke grenades not only work well from a gameplay perspective, but the smoke also looks amazing. Finally, someone got it right; I've seen realistic smoke in other games before but at the expanse of lagging the game. In this game's case all the chaos around you, as clustered as it is, not only does it look great but it does not cause the game to lag a bit. Everything in this game looks impressive. The guns (and there are many of them) look very authentic, the player models are done superbly and the fire, the fire looks incredible. Everything in this game looks great; everything.