Hour of Victory dated

Midway has whispered in our news ear this afternoon that Hour of Victory will be released on 22nd June.

The publisher is also giving you the chance to test the game out in a demo that it will release on Xbox Live next Wednesday.

In it you'll be able to play as any one of the three characters from the game, picking from their unique strengths to suit the situation ahead - which happens to be a nasty face-off in a rugged North African environment. You can either sneak in using the Cover Operative, snipe from afar with Army Ranger, or charge in all-guns blazing with the British Commando. What ho!

This sneak peak is designed to give you a feel for what the game's all about, which is swapping between the three soldiers on the fly to best achieve your goals. You'll play across various key battles from World War II, each intended to be vastly cinematic and engrossing.

A different team will be handling the multiplayer aspect of the game, with the necessary Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch modes. But there's also going to be a Devastation mode, which Midway described to us as "very similar to Halo 2's much loved plant the bomb game". You'll have to basically blow up your opposing team's bunker and radio station by planting bombs.

"Utilising Epic's Unreal 3 Engine, Hour of Victory has replicated the look and feel of WW2 Europe," a spokesperson from Midway told Eurogamer this afternoon. "Coupled with choice of being able to switch between characters such as a commando, sniper or covert op the game will look to significantly add to the WWII first-person shooter genre."

John Walker went and had a look at the game last month for Eurogamer, and was suitably impressed. The only problem seemed to be the same old WWII setting, something he considered starting another war to alleviate. Head over to our Hour of Victory impressions to find out more.