I played a bit of the first attempt at porting this series to the original Xbox, I thought it was OK, I didn't hate it as much as some people, this incarnation almost nails it though. I won't dwell on the "realism" because I've never been in combat and wouldn't know if it was true to the way Marines fight or not.
Most of all this game is fun, it rewards you for being sensible and using your brain and punishes you for doing stupid things or losing patience with its slow, methodical nature.
Your AI squadmates are as dumb as a bag of hammers, they're good as spotters but not much else, half the time I seem to lose one or two, you order them to follow, set the formation, order them to hold fire and after moving 200 metres you turn around and one is gone:confused:
The enemy AI on the other hand is excellent, they use proper fire and movement tactics, will silently flank you, heal each other and they're co- ordinated with their air support so if a chopper sees you then you know a patrol will soon be on your case.
Predictably, I've played some sections of the missions multiple times and the enemies behave differently and the scenario varies each time.
You see really cool stuff happen like you'll open fire on an enemy squad and they'll run for it and get nailed by your gunship cover or get hit by artillery..really fun to watch:D
All I really wanted to say was that even though the first port sucked badly in most areas this one works pretty well, the graphics are adequate, on a par with Oblivion I'd say and the atmosphere is great, the sound design is outstanding.