I first saw Section 8 over a year ago as some amazingly cool concept art. The game appeared at the GDC recently complete with screenshots and it's certainly looking pretty nice so far. It's a sci fi shooter that liberally borrows its color pallete and general looks from Halo 3 and Tribes. Which is not a bad thing. As atmospheric as dark and dingy shooters are its about time we got something a bit more utopian and a bit less dystopian.

The game has a large multiplayer focus with a few twists. One of the best of which is that spawning isn't merely a matter of choosing a location to start from. When you respawn you actually 'drop' into the battlefield from orbit, streaking like a meteor to crash into the ground and hopefully crush an enemy on impact. Capturing bases unleashes some automatic defences and is usually accompanied by a nifty visual moment such as rockets launching or a ship landing and for quick travel players can use something called a Timegate to fax themselves around the map. Vehicles play a minor part in getting around as well.

Section 8 might not quite be anticopatometer material just yet but it's definitely one to watch for in the coming months.