In military terms, Section 8 is referred to as " a discharge from the miltiary due to being mentally unfit for service." According to Southpeak Games and TimeGate Studios, Section 8 has a completely different meaning. It's an elite group of soldiers who complete missions that others would not even dare to take on. Call them insane or even suicidal, but with advanced military hardware and gear, these soldiers get the job done.

So what's Section 8 all about, well here's your intel. In the future, a rogue faction has started a civil war amongst mankind's colonies. To handle the growing unrest, Earth dispatches the elite 8th Armored Infantry, aka Section 8. At first, these soldiers may resemble a certain character we all know from a Bungie franchise. Sure they've got the big guns and the badass armor, but Master Chief they're not. Your mission is to drop in and secure points on the battlefield to repel this faction and bring peace once again.

I had the opportunity to play Section 8 at E3 2009 as well as have a chat with producer, Robert Siwiak of TimeGate Studios. My initial thoughts on the the gameplay was that Section 8 reminded me of Tribes and the Battlefield games. You must take control of specific points on the battlefield which allows to to spawn in those locations. Now before you say "been there, done that," let me explain what makes this game so unique. When you spawn in to the match, your not just being place in a certain location...you literally drop in from more that 20,000 ft. If you ever wanted to know what skydiving is like, then Section 8 is your introduction. As your dropping in to the battlefield you'll have some basic maneuverability, but most importantly you'll need to hit the brakes (B button) before you hit the ground because there is no parachute and your dropping like a bullet at top speed. Hit the brakes and you'll be just fine and ready for battle. Forget to hit the brakes and you go splat into the ground.

Once onto the battlefield, what you do is up to you but keep in mind that good strategy and teamwork goes far especially if you want to achieve victory. Always keep a good eye on what's going on so don't just run and gun. Your suit gives you the ability for both a speed boost which is good for both getting to the frontlines as well as dodging enemy fire. You also have a jet pack which allows you to get out of hairy situations or of course you can deal death from above which is also pretty cool. Now what would a game like this be without some extra heavy support. You can call in for tanks for the heavy artillary (can also carry more than one person), turrets for defense on both land and air, or even a mech to deal out some damage  which could make enemies focus in on you and not your teammates.

Section 8 has a wide variety of character types to choose from. Those of you familiar to Battlefield games should know the types. Not only do you have your basic assaul grunts, but you also have engineers, snipers, heavy machine gunners, and soldiers who specialize in heavy artillary like rocket launchers. These are preset classes, but one of the options that Robert showed us is that you can customize your own unique soldier. This type of customization will allow you to take whatever weapons you like and put them on your own character. Also during the course of the game, you'll be able to upgrade your abilities making you a bigger badass striking fear amongst your enemies on the frontline.

Another feature that separates Section 8 from the pack is called DCMs. These are random objectives that are thrown into the mix of battle for your team to complete. These objectives include escorting a V.I.P.or a supply convoy to even capturing points on the map. While all this is good for one team, don't forget that your enemies also know of these objectives and can also eliminate those precious V.I.P.s and can also capture the same points. DCM's can appear at any time during the campaign which keeps the gameplay fresh and the tides of war constantly turning.

While Section 8 does have a single-player campaign, it's really getting you ready for what this game will be talked about. That's the multiplayer function which allows for up to 16 players battling it out in a full scale war. Robert mentioned that there will also be dedicated servers able to handle even more players. Everything from the customizable classes, vehicle support, and even DCMs are here. The maps shown at the show were huge and take lots of time to get from place to place. Battles take place in more than one place so everything is not concentrated in one area. Also there's the addition of AI controlled bots who can take the place of human characters keeping battles full. The best part about these bots is that they're quite smart and will give you a challenge even on the easiest level.

Overall, this is just a small taste on what you can expect when Section 8 arrives on August 25 for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Keep tuned here to SFX360 for all the latest updates on this futuristic shooter.

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