Okay, I just played through the first few levels of Republic Commando. I picked up Republic Commando and Brothers In Arms at the same time, and I've played through a significant chunk of both games.

They're both very similar in the concept: Squad combat, where you control a handful of other team members. But the difference between the two, in terms of enjoyment, is night and day.

Republic Commando is just downright awesome. Once I turned off the "helmet" feature, I felt like I could see the playfield again. The HUD still gets in the way a little bit, but you get used to it.

The maps and missions in Republic Commando are very cool, even the first few levels are a lot more fun than the downloadable demo. The environments are detailed and engrossing, and the game engine is just beautiful. Loren, is that an in-house engine? Some of the cinematic stuff at the beginning was just breathtaking.

The squad features in Brothers In Arms are cool, you get a bit more control over your squad than you do in R.C. But the problem, and I really don't see a reason for this, is that the level load times in Brothers In Arms are abysmal. And there's no quicksave, and each time you restore a checkpoint, you have to wait anywhere from 1-3 minutes for a complete level re-load. Argh.

Republic Commando, on the other hand, looks just as good or better, and has nearly instantaneous level loads, and completely instantaneous quicksaves and quickloads. How did you do that?!?! That's utterly amazing.