Operation Flashpoint: Elite (Xbox)

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Other than a few model tweaks, little has changed graphically

The high level of realism in the ballistics model is by far one of the game's strongest features. You can't simply point and shoot, even on the rare occasions when you have rifles with scoped optics. Practice is needed to learn how to lead moving targets, account for wind, gravity and distance. For your first couple of missions, you may find yourself struggling to keep up with the AI, but once you find your soldier's feet, you'll derive no small satisfaction from being able to nail Russians from 300m with a quick double tap from your M-16. Equally important is the ability to find cover and use the terrain, as is being able to resist the temptation to break away from your squad and try and do everything yourself. Flashpoint's very much a team game: being impulsive generally results in you going home in a body bag.

Later in the game, you'll be given command of a squad, your mission performance being judged on how many casualties your squad takes. The transition from grunt to squad leader is one of the seminal moments in the game: the weight of responsibility comes crushing down on your shoulders when you realise that the consequences of the orders you give have lives attached to them. Lose your anti-armour team in an early infantry engagement, and a chance encounter with a BMP could mean the annihilation of your entire squad. You'll soon become very protective of your LAW troops and medics, especially when you realise that they're often the first people the enemy will go for. There's nothing quite like ordering your squad to creep up on an enemy position, ambush thirty troops, blast a couple of T-80 tanks with LAW rockets and totally clean house without a single casualty. It takes careful planning, timing and no small measure of luck, but there's no experience in gaming that matches that sense of exhilaration: not just being victorious, but having your whole squad cheat death and beat the odds.

The orders you give have lives attached to them

Genuine command ability and situational awareness is needed for the unlockable Resistance campaign, where you're tasked to fight a Soviet invasion force with very little in the way of equipment or personnel, and simple survival is as critical as fulfilling your mission objectives. Squad and radio orders are given using the D-pad, and you need to be able to keep your eyes both on the enemy and your own people, which is no mean task. The Resistance missions are significantly harder than the Cold War Crisis campaign; if squad command isn't your strong point, you would be well advised to persist with the first campaign before tackling Resistance (which is unlocked after a dozen or so missions) - if only to save yourself a lot of unnecessary restarts.

Flashpoint's a game that requires patience, commitment and a soldiering mindset; not the fastest trigger finger in the West. Murphy's First Law of Combat is "You are not a superman." That's something well worth remembering: fight like a one-man army, and you'll die like a one-man army. It's this fundamental shift in the game design away from making you feel powerful and instead reinforcing your feeling of vulnerability that makes the game so unique. It's not about cheap thrills; it's about crawling from cover to cover for an hour to reach the perfect sniping position and getting accidentally run over by a BMP that didn't even know you were there; it's about springing ambushes on armoured columns, knowing that if you don't get the attack right first time, you're all dead; it's about using your head instead of your weapon when being hunted through the woods by Spetsnaz. Even after a full four and a half years since the game was first released, the gameplay still stands up: within the soldier sim genre it's genuinely peerless in its scope, atmosphere, accuracy and execution. Okay, so the graphics suck, and it's slightly disappointing not to have the Soviet Red Hammer campaign included as part of the package given that it contained some outstanding missions, but Flashpoint remains a fabulous title.

Like the Mujahaddin, we're not afraid of Russians, but their helicopters are petrifying

Of course, if you already have the PC version, I can't honestly recommend that you purchase the game again. The PC version is technically superior, has a huge modding community and is available for just a tenner with all three Flashpoint campaigns. However, if you don't have a PC and have never played the game, then it's an essential purchase. With a bundled mission editor and Live support, the game has months of longevity, even without the Red Hammer campaign. Operation Flashpoint is the Aristotle Onassis of videogames. It may not be the best looking Sugar Daddy in the world, but it still is The Daddy: an experience that's rich, powerful and with more boys' toys than you can shake a stick at: guns, tanks, helicopters, jet fighters... As such, it'll keep managing to attract the beautiful people: the people who know that beauty isn't just skin deep.

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