Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Xbox 360)

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The gunner sections are great fun and look superb

On occasion you'll take the gunner's position in the attack chopper and be tasked with taking down the soldiers that are desperately trying to bring the chopper down. There's nothing all that new to these sections, but they do break up the standard missions and often look quite breathtaking. Not that the game as a whole isn't stunning; if there was any doubt of the next-gen-ness of the Xbox 360, that doubt should well and truly be cast aside. Everything from the lighting to the character models to the awesome recreation of the city is utterly phenomenal. A few slight frame rate hitches are disappointing, but as an early next-gen title, this has all the others beaten.

Audio is impressive too, with some great surround sound work and sound effects that will quite literally rock your sound system. Music is used sparingly, but when it kicks in it really works well, heightening the tension where necessary. The music that plays in the chopper in-between missions does seem a tad out of place at times, but it would be foolish to criticise the sound presentation on the whole for one slight annoyance.

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If one serious complaint could made about the single-player campaign it's how difficult it is. A big part of this is to do with the checkpoint system and the scarcity of health upgrades. It's impossible to increase your health during a mission unless you use an ammo crate, which are pretty rare, and this means that you'll often reach the final checkpoint of a mission with your health well into the red and you're chances looking pretty slim. What actually makes GRAW such a great game is that even if you're in this state, it's not impossible to complete the mission; careful, correct play will see you through, and these situations are often the most rewarding, giving you a real sense of accomplishment, alongside the obligatory achievement for your Gamer card. Yes, you should be able to command a team-mate to heal your wounds, but its absence isn't as big a problem as you'd think.

... there are four special [co-op] campaign missions which feature set objectives in a similar fashion to the single-player game.

Brilliantly, once the single-player game is done and dusted (although you may want to replay it) there's an enormous online mode to get stuck into, plus single-system play for up to four players if you can't get online. There are ten hugely varied maps to play in, using a number of solo and team-based game modes. The expected elimination, territory and objective game modes are playable as teams or as everyone for themselves, but online really comes into its own in the co-op game types.

As well as being able to play the above mentioned modes with a team of humans against AI bots, there are four special campaign missions which feature set objectives in a similar fashion to the single-player game. With up to an incredible sixteen players battling against the AI it's a truly great gaming experience, providing you can get into a game that's lag free. At the moment getting into a full sixteen-player game is a bit hit and miss, but it's most definitely worth the effort. You could waste away hours each day playing this game online.

The multiplayer maps are quite diverse

The one drawback to the online game is that it actually plays a little differently to the single-player game. It's not a major change, but if you've been playing the single-player campaign a lot, the changes will be rather off-putting at first. These changes mainly revolve around taking cover, with the instant cover when walking into a wall not present in the multiplayer portion of the game. The often useful dives are also missing, making taking cover much harder. You can still lean left and right, but not with the same safety as in the single-player campaign.

Visually, too, the game is different, made on an entirely different engine to the single-player game. It lacks a lot of the sheen seen in the main campaign, and seems to suffer from far more screen-tearing. That's not to say that it doesn't look good; sharp textures, huge draw distances and a generally smooth frame rate make sure this isn't just a high-resolution Xbox game.

Even with a few problems in the single-player campaign, it's impossible not to be impressed by what Ubisoft has created in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360. The main campaign is a true next-gen experience that's punishing, but not impossible, and the online mode is the most complete yet seen on the console. With people still unsure over what they think the next-generation consoles should bring, GRAW is perhaps the best example to date, delivering on all fronts.

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