Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 [X360]

In a follow-up to one of the biggest 360 hits of 2006, tactical shooter Advanced Warfighter 2's plot sees our heroes -- an elite US military unit known as the Ghosts -- on a lengthy and tortuous hunt for some missing weapons of mass destruction. Let it never be said that the plotlines of military shooters bear no resemblance to real life. Your Tom Clancy-inspired search will take you to both sides of the US-Mexico border as the latter county dissolves into out-and-out civil war.

Although this story picks up right where the previous game stopped, the Ghosts have had time to apply some serious equipment upgrades. Maybe it's not so lifelike after all -- there's no way a government agency could move that fast. Chief among these additions is a revamped "cross-com" command interface, which gains the ability to view through the eyes of whatever unit you happen to have selected. Thanks to the clearer and more convenient strategic map, this ability isn't as useful as it sounds, but hey, we'll take it.

Sensibly, the game usually gives you some intel about the forces and terrain you'll be facing before it makes you choose your weapons and team composition. Medics are the most important addition here, and come with a limited number of medkits that can heal any team member (including yourself). They're not so good in combat, but are often worth choosing over sharpshooters, anti-tank soldiers, or grenadiers. Some purists may dislike the more forgiving atmosphere this engenders, but you can still easily get shot to pieces if you're careless.

Unlike its patchier predecessor, GRAW2 happily stands with Gears of War for single-player polish (and, less happily, for its slightly stingy length at about eight hours). You'll segue smoothly from solo anti-sniper sections to commanding a full team of Ghosts, an M4 tank and a helicopter, then searching an enemy-held hacienda for a captured friend as day shifts smoothly into night. Transportation sequences like chopper flights or jeep rides keep you constantly fed with new intel and slick video news updates on the progress of the wider war. If GRAW2's sprawling single-player acts were books, we'd call them unputdownable.

The original Advanced Warfighter still looks outstanding, but GRAW2 goes even further, adding more detail and interaction to its environments - and smoke, lots of smoke. Yes, this is just the kind of thing software companies love to put in their sequels to make them sound New and Improved: "This time we have smoke!" But here it's used to provide a genuine effect on the gameplay , thanks to the return of the airborne scouting drone that can spot enemies from a comparatively safe altitude. Lay down some smoke, roll in the drone, and it'll designate the bad guys for you to pick off -- you don't even need to see your targets to hit them.

Together with the somewhat more forgiving difficulty level, GRAW2's single-player campaigns encourage complacency. It's easy to see why. When your gun comes equipped with its own camera so you can shoot from cover without exposing yourself, it's easy to feel invulnerable. And then, click, something small and round bounces next to you. Habitual players of military shooters won't need the big red warning icon on their HUD to know what that means. GRAW2's enemies will happily resort to creative tactics like this to flush you out of cover, and they're a good shot with a grenade. Thankfully, friendly troops are smarter and a lot less likely to get themselves killed this time, too.