• Always advance cautiously; you never know when the bullets will start flying. Charging recklessly ahead will almost certainly get you killed, since the Germans are pretty accurate even at the easiest difficulty setting.
• Crouch as often as possible. If you can get close enough to the Germans without them seeing you, your suppressing fire has a better chance of eliminating a few before they can react.
• Flecks of blood across the screen indicate that you were just hit from the front. White flashes along one side of the screen show that indirect fire is causing lesser damage from that direction.
• Don’t take too much damage: there are no health packs to be found. You and your squad won’t restore full health until the beginning of the next level.
• Situational view is key to planning out battle strategy, but remember that the only enemy troops you’ll see are the ones you’ve already detected. There may be others hiding in the immediate vicinity.
• Don’t forget that situational view is available during multiplayer games too. The action won’t pause while you use it, however, so make some quick decisions and jump back into the battle.

• Whether you’re in the single-player campaign or a multiplayer battle, keep tabs on your squad at all times. Remember to use the form up command to have them follow you. That’s particularly critical during multiplayer sessions, where unattended squads are easy targets for the other team.
• You can turn on your crosshair in the Options menu, if you’d rather not look down your gun sight. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, however, hitting the enemy is harder than in other first-person shooter games, simply because the Gearbox team wanted a more realistic feel.
• Reload your weapon every chance you get. It’s easy to get caught up in the heat of battle and move on to the next engagement without realizing that your gun is almost empty. Don’t forget to press the F key when standing near a fellow soldier to receive extra ammo from him.
• You can trade your current weapon for any you find along the way, but rifles are best-suited to your needs because they work well at long range. However, since you can carry two weapons at a time, a submachine gun makes a good backup, in case you accidentally find yourself face-to-face with the enemy.

Both Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood let you take squad-based battles online for multiplayer matches. They feature objectives that your team must either accomplish or prevent the other team from completing. (You can also set up multiplayer games on a LAN.)

You and your teammates each command a squad of computer-controlled soldiers, as in the single-player campaign. If you get killed, you can promote one of those soldiers to squad leader and continue playing as that person. You can also replace killed squad members with reinforcements, although you only have a limited number. If a teammate leaves during a session, you receive her unused reinforcements.

Skirmish Time

Earned in Blood adds skirmish contests to multiplayer mode. They can be played solo or cooperatively against computer-controlled opponents, with four types of battles available.

• Objective: As in regular multiplayer matches, you must achieve your goal or prevent the other side from completing theirs.
• Timed Assault: Destroy all enemies before time runs out. You gain extra time by using your squad to eliminate them.
• Defense: Stop waves of opponents from breaking through your defenses. Each is tougher than the previous one.
• Tour of Duty: Complete five American or German missions with one life and one squad. Three tours are included, each harder than the last.

Before the action begins, you can customize the enemy’s firing accuracy, use of tactics, and how much weapon fire is required to keep them suppressed.

The History Channel’s two-part special “Brothers in Arms: The Untold Story of the 502” features archival footage, interviews with surviving soldiers, and in-game video from Road to Hill 30. “The entire Gearbox team is very proud of our endorsement by the VFW and The History Channel,” Antal says. Wardwell adds: “We’re thrilled that The History Channel used our game footage.”

The special is narrated by Ron Livingston, who also stars in the HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers,” which, like Brothers in Arms, tells the story of Mission Albany. After midnight on June 6, 1944, nearly 7,000 members of the 101st Airborne Division parachuted behind enemy territory. Among their mission objectives was securing the four causeway exits behind Utah Beach, which was the right flank of the land assault.

Poor weather hampered pilots’ visibility, causing some to veer off course, while others took heavy flak from German anti-aircraft guns and were forced to deploy their men too early. As portrayed in the Brothers in Arms games’ opening cinematics, many soldiers were separated from their squads and lost weapons and other gear on the way down. Some found themselves trapped in trees, where they were easy prey for German soldiers.

Despite Germany’s vaunted “Fortress Europe,” the combined efforts of Mission Albany and the multi-national Normandy Invasion enabled the Allies to gain a critical foothold in France. World War II would last nearly another year, but June 6, 1944 marked the beginning of the end.

“This was a time when the freedom of future generations hung in the balance,” Antal says. “If Nazi Germany had won the war, the world would be a very different, darker, and bloodier place today. Freedom, as we know it, would not exist. I thank God the heroes of 1944 had the courage to stand up for freedom and defeat fascism.”

Stumped? Then you may need some help, thanks to the cheat codes that are commonly placed in most videogames. They allow you to, well, cheat and change the rules. This sometimes includes activating bonuses, unlocking secrets, and gaining access to new levels of gameplay.

To enable the cheats in Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood, use “bakersdozen” and “2ndsquad” (without the quotes; they’re not case sensitive) as your profile name, respectively. You’ll unlock all the levels and bonus content, as well as gain access to all available cheats, including the Authentic difficulty setting, which might have you yelling “I am FUBAR!” more than a few times.

To activate a cheat, pause the game and click “CHEATS” in the bottom left corner. You can make the game look like an old movie, give yourself and your squad infinite ammunition, and make your squad invincible (you’ll remain mortal, however).