Although once you get used to it the game is fairly easy to understand, at first glance it seems incredibly complex. The manual is not "How to Play the Game;" it's "How to Command a Tank Platoon and Operate an M1A2 Abrams Tank." The developers pulled no p unches in making you feel that you really are taking charge of a platoon. Some features along these lines that have been added since the original include being able to name the people in your tanks, and showing their faces next to their dossiers. This add s an incredible degree of personal commitment to the men in your platoon. After a successful battle, you choose who to promote and who to award with medals. In the heat of battle, you want these people to survive. When one of your tanks gets hit and the d river is killed, there is a blank place when you return to the platoon screen.

The game's campaign mode is very detailed and believable, going so far as to use video from a fictional newscast to introduce the region you are fighting in. When your platoon is killed, the reporter tells how American forces were overrun.

You also have the option of replaying historical battles from the Gulf War, which makes for a great gaming experience. You watched it on CNN, now live it.

Cons (There had to be something)

There are only two real disappointments I see to the game. First, one of my favorite positions in the original game was the driver. Unfortunately, they didn't include it in the sequel. Before, I used to love jumping in the drivers seat and plowing my way through swampland and driving over hills to surprise enemy tanks, ramming into one while the gunner fired the main gun. No such fun in this version. You can still tell the tank where to go, but you can't get behind the wheel.

Along those same lines, the game's mutliplayer options didn't fulfill one of my hopes. Although I haven't played multiplayer yet, since I haven't yet convinced my friends to buy the game, it looks like you can play head to head, but can also play a cooper ative game, where everyone's one the same side and gets their own tank in a platoon. I had real hopes that the multiplayer would let each player play a position in a single tank. The pressure everyone would be under would be a real rush, and would require teamwork that is rarely seen in even Quake Teamfortress, in which everyone pretty much plays for themselves.

Another problem that has been widely complained about is that the game is full of bugs, which is true. Many times the manual will explain that you can do something that isn't actually an option in the game. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but I've seen in several reviews that the game seriously has a lot of bugs. If a patch is issued that addresses them, there's not much that can stand in the way of this being a classic.

Overall, I could go on forever about how great this game is, and how thoroughly addictive. Start this game up, select your battle, and BAM! you're in the middle of a Tom Clancy novel, with Iraqi troops on the move, Apache helicopters you called in flying overhead, artillery shells exploding nearby, and your knuckles turning white around the joystick as you wait for the loader to get the next round in before that Iraqi turret 50 feet away swings around to blow you away. Now THIS is a wargame.

P.S. If anyone has this game and is up for a match, contact me