We've been intrigued by Electronic Arts' upcoming Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 game Army of Two ever since we got an early look last year at some video footage. The mixture of ingredients assembled for the project at EA Montreal--the reputation for artistry and inventiveness of the Splinter Cell contributors and Ubisoft executives that EA had hired away, married to EA's vast resources, laser-like focus on maximizing one or two key elements in a title and a newfound commitment to original IP--made Army of Two one to watch.

That was reinforced by the behind-closed-doors demonstration at the May 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The session began with a trailer featuring footage of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address, in which he famously warned against the rise of the military-industrial complex. And while the rest of the demonstration focused on Army of Two's signature gameplay innovation--the thorough integration of co-operative play in both single-player and two-player modes--the promise was that the action would be topped off by some timely and provocative thematic content.

Our intrigue turned to concern upon seeing the game's first proper trailer last November. Sample dialogue:

"All right bro, let's do it."

"Who the f--k do you think you are, Terrell Owens?"

"Help me flip this thing over!" "Okay, I'll do it. Just shut the hell up!"

"Bad idea, man." "Shut the hell up!"

You can see for yourself by clicking on the clip just below.

Needless to say, this wasn't what we were expecting. And while the line readings and pacing were solid, unlike another trailer we've criticized, the whole thing sounded, well, bro-ish. It seemed like an aging hipster's idea of what the kidz might think is kewl, awkwardly trapped between the game's dialogue requirements--short and punchy barks that don't interfere with the gameplay--and the creators' desire to have the characters' lines be evocative and entertaining. We considered writing about it at the time, but with the Playstation 3 and Wii launches occupying much of our time, we decided to keep our powder dry.

Upon seeing this week's trailer (shown at the top of this post), however, we were moved to comment. First, the dialogue:

"I'm driving." "F--k you, I'm driving."

"You want a piece of this, huh?" "C'mon! Give 'em everything you got!"

[One mercenary rips a pickup truck's door from its hinges.] "I think you really hurt that truck." "Get behind me and shoot!" "Oh, that's clever. Who do you think you are, f--king MacGyver?"

"That's how we do it." "F--k yeah."

The problem isn't that Army of Two seems to have taken a more humorous turn than we originally anticipated. The problem is that it's not especially funny. It's juvenile, and generically so, as if cynically cobbled together from the collective unconscious of a focus group of 12-year-old boys. And while it does approximate the culture of insult that typifies many interactions between males, screenplays like Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" and William Monahan's "The Departed" do so much more evocatively. The same is true of David O. Russell's script for "Three Kings," whose blend of visceral action and biting humor would have been a great model for EA Montreal's project.

Fortunately, we've recently been informed that the studio is still feeling its way towards the game's final tone and dialogue, so there's still hope for Army of Two's script. We'll share the fruits of our conversation with the head of EA Montreal shortly.