​After I wrote up the big hands-on post below, I had a chance to play one more game: EA's The Saboteur. Anyone who read my coverage of Open-World Superhero Smackdown 09 can probably understand why I'm not looking for another open-world game at the moment, but The Saboteur, which can reductively be described as Grand Theft Nazi, shows some promise and has me interested in seeing more.
You play an Irish racecar driver turned freedom fighter who helps liberate Paris by sneaking around and blowing stuff up. The demo level I played featured all of The Saboteur's main components: driving, stealth and firefights. You start off at a safe house, an area that's bright with color, and drive into the city, an area still controlled by the Nazis. Enemy territory is always easy to distinguish, as it appears in monochrome with only splashes of color. The driving element was fine, nothing too noteworthy in either a good or bad way. But the stealth mechanic is interesting - in the mission I played, I sneaked up on a Nazi guard, stole his uniform, and walked into their base on the way to destroy an artillery emplacement. Nazis don't pay you too much mind as long as you walk and don't run, jump, climb or otherwise act fishy. However, that's not enough. Simply stay in their view too long and they'll eventually see through your disguise. This twist on the formula adds tension and realism, but also adds frustration.

So I walked into Nazi territory, minding my own business (in that "I'm here to blow up your shit" kind of way" when my cover was blown by simply existing in view of enemies for too long and the shit hit the fan. Outgunned in enemy territory, I died. Quickly. The EA employee minding the station said that stealth can be more difficult than frontal assaults - which I consider a problem for a stealth game. I guess we'll see how that's resolved in the final game. Fortunately, the shooting mechanic that's apparently so important will feel familiar to many gamers. Like a lot of titles these days, it draws heavily from Gears of War's over-the shoulder third-person perspective. Gunplay is fast and frantic, fortunately lacking the fiddly aiming of games like GTA. Melee combat is similarly robust, with a melee toggle that opens up light and heavy attack options for deeper combat than other games in the genre. The one thing I didn't get to try was the Assassin's Creed-style parkour moves, but that gives me something to look forward to in the full release. Even with my concerns about the stealth being overshadowed by the combat, The Saboteur's GTA meets WWII formula is a unique one that's worth checking out.