Fans of the Warhammer 40K series, rejoice: the space marines are going to appear in their own game - I've seen some footage of it and it looks superb. While it's unlikely that Warhammer 40K: Space Marine will hit shelves before 2011, what I saw at a presentation by two Relic employees at the recent E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles was enough to impress.While it's a first-person shooter through and through, it has some nice elements which might just lift it from that crowded genre. One of them is the shaky cam feel to the action, and the other is the Goliath, which is a sort of radio-controlled killing machine that you can direct towards enemies using a laser pointer.

During the video demo, lines like "We crush the corrupt and unpure" and "We are the emperor's wrath" set the scene for some serious combat in this action-dominated game with some RPG elements (you can level up your characters).The guys from Relic, themselves die-hard Warhammer fans, hinted that there might be the chance of co- operative play where you can play as a team of marines. This game can't come fast enough.What impressed me most about the demo - and fingers crossed it is indicative of the entire game - was the setting: rural America, with not a soaring skyscraper to be seen nor any police patrolling the streets.The short demo took place in a shanty town, a run-down collection of houses, tents and shacks with overgrown weeds and grass at the front of houses, boards nailed to broken windows and wallpaper peeling from the walls inside. Scaffolding rests up against houses. Windmills and solar panels are bolted to roofs and structures.