LISTEN up soldier. Grab your weapon, find some cover and prepare for combat in Full Spectrum Warrior (FSW) an ultrarealistic war game based on an infantry training simulator used by the US Army.

As a huge fan of the Conflict Desert Storm series, I was keen to see what improvements could be made to the squadbased tactical shooter genre and developers Pandemic Studios have come up with a real winner.

You just know FSW is going to be a deep game as soon as you get to grips with the training section which teaches you the basic infantry tactics need to outwit and outgun your enemies.

The game itself is based on a light infantry training simulator designed by Pandemic for the US Army as a tool to train its grunts in squad tactics and procedures in an urban environment.

Obviously the US Army didn't want to give away all its tactical procedures via a video game but the results are fantastic especially when you manage to outflank an enemy with the use of suppressing fire or a smoke grenade.

By the time you get a couple of chapters in you will be skilled in mobilising your two fourman fire teams, Alpha and Bravo, under a hail of bullets using local terrain as cover to stop them being turned into Swiss cheese.

This is about the most accurate military game I have ever seen on a console.

A single bullet will put one of your team down requiring his fellow grunts to provide immediate medical assistance and carry him to the nearest field hospital. But take two casualties and it's game over.

All the resources available to the US Military are there to be used, recon flights, GPS maps, stateoftheart weaponry and last (but not least) top medical care courtesy of your field medic.

Combat takes place in the fictional Islamic nation of Zekistan and the ferocity of streettostreet combat against enemies armed with machine guns, RPGs and sometimes backed up with armour bears a striking resemblance to Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down which was based in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.

There is a problem with FSW though it's full of Americans who shoot from the lip as much as they shoot from the hip with enough bad language to make even Roy "Chubby" Brown blush.

Some of their comments are amusing but most are just embarrassing.

But all in all, if you like your war games as real as possible then this is for you. In fact, if you like your war games, period, then this is for you.

Saddle up private, things are about to get hot, very hot.

Rating: 4.5/5

PAUL PHANTIS

Full Spectrum Warrior on XBox.