In game industry, military stakes out some more turf

The strategy game is a precise and deliberate one.
By VICTOR GODINEZ
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Who knew there were so many video game nerds in the military?
The Army recently cranked out its second video game, and the Marines are apparently cooking up their own take on virtual urban warfare. The latest title from the Army is "Full Spectrum Warrior" ($49, suitable for ages 17 and up) for the Xbox.
This title was originally developed as a simulation to train the troops in the basics of street-to-street combat, and publisher THQ has released a more civilian-friendly version of the game.
You get to command two three-man teams through a nasty spat in the capital city of the mythical Middle Eastern nation of Zekistan.
You don't play as a soldier. Instead, you view the action from a floating, over-the-shoulder perspective, and you can order each team to advance to a certain point, fire at the enemy, throw a grenade or evacuate a wounded comrade.
Biggest focus
The main focus is on leap-frogging each team from one cover to the next, making sure not to expose your troops to a line of fire that you haven't investigated yet.
If you get too confident and jog your team past two or three corners at a time, you're likely to walk right into a fortified machine gun nest and get torn apart.
While you can still carry on with one incapacitated soldier, any more casualties mean that you lose the mission and have to restart from your last save point.
This is not a game for bloodthirsty Rambos, but a precise and deliberate strategy game that just happens let to you watch the action from a grunt's-eye view.
It's also incredibly engrossing, if occasionally simplistic.
There are usually a couple of ways to take out enemy soldiers. Sometimes you can catch them out in the open and mow them down. Other times, if they dodge behind a destructible object such as a wooden crate, you can obliterate the object with machine-gun fire and then shoot the bad guys.
You can also lob a grenade over a heavily fortified position or fire a grenade out of your grenade launcher for more distant targets.
Ammo isn't infinite, though, and outflanking your opponent with one team while keeping him pinned down with the other is the best way to conserve your explosives for tougher foes.
Feeling constrained
Despite all those options, you'll still feel constrained at times.
For example, you can't enter any buildings; all the action is confined to streets and alleys, even when rooftop snipers are plinking away at your squad.
Also, while you do occasionally get to provide cover fire for tanks and armored vehicles, you don't ever get to order your troops to commandeer a tank or hop in a machine-gun turret.
Finally, your men don't always follow your orders as quickly as they should. Occasionally you'll order your men to open fire, and a couple of them will pop up from behind the car they've hunkered behind, aim their rifles and then drop back down to reload without firing.
These peek-a-boo confrontations are frustrating but don't really affect the outcome of the battles.
For Xbox Live aficionados, you can also play cooperatively online, with each player commanding one team, and you coordinate your movements via the voice headset.