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Xbox Live offers early taste of ‘Victory’

Hope you’ve been hoarding your ammo — the “Hour of Victory” is just days away.

Technically, Midway’s new soldier in the World War II first-person shooter genre doesn’t officially enlist until June. But Xbox Live gamers can lace up their boots early for a single-player teaser demo online starting May 30.

The demo will give players a taste of the fighting in the North African theater of the new shooter coming exclusively to the Xbox 360. Gamers can pick from one of three characters:

• Maj. Ambrose Taggert, a U.S. Office of Strategic Services operative and silent-kill specialist, who carries a knife and silenced Sten gun.

• Lt. William Ross, a British Special Air Service commando primed for frontal assaults.

• Sgt. Calvin Blackbull, an Army Ranger who specializes in sniper tactics and demolitions.

In the full version of the game, which takes you through the North African and European theaters, you’ll need to use all three to claim victory.

We haven’t tapped into any demos yet, but the trailers and screen shots we’ve seen so far show characters that look strikingly real. That’s to be expected, given that Hour of Victory is powered by the impressive Unreal Engine 3.0.

And if you’ve ever had the itch to carjack a Sherman tank, you can do it in Hour of Victory. Taking a page from the Pandemic Studios hit “Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction,” just about anything on the battlefield can be stolen and driven. As Midway officials put it, “if you can see it, you can drive it.”

Midway has been largely silent about Hour of Victory otherwise, so we don’t know much else about it apart from the brief glimpse the trailer offers, but hopefully it’s well armed — it’s stepping onto a crowded battlefield. With so many WWII shooters already available for game consoles and still more in the works for the next-gen platforms, Hour of Victory at least has the element of speed as an advantage.

At least two other promising titles won’t be ready for action for at least a few more months. Electronic Arts’ “Medal of Honor: Airborne” isn’t due to deploy until Aug. 28 (though it will fight on multiple fronts — the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PS2 and PC). And don’t expect to see the highly anticipated third installment in the Ubisoft/Gearbox Software “Brothers in Arms” series, “Hell’s Highway,” until Nov. 5.

But for the time being, Xbox 360 gamers will at least have a taste of Victory.