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

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter will be remembered as the game that began showing the Xbox 360's true potential. Here, at last, is what we were lead to expect from the next generation -- visually, at least. On the gameplay side, Advanced Warfighter is a delight in multiplayer, offers a decent single-player campaign, and is only held back by its lack of polish.

But no matter how much we'd like to gripe about Ghost Recon's imperfections, you can't fault its graphical attention to detail. Witness the heat haze over the cities, the realistic over-the-shoulder documentary-style camera, or the pin-sharp small print on the sign outside what might be the Mexican Natural History Museum. Advanced Warfighter easily matches Call of Duty 2 for visual realism, and surpasses every other existing 360 game.

The sound effects hit the spot too. Most developers have modern warfare audio down to a fine art by now, and Advanced Warfighter is no different. You know what to expect: sharp gunfire sounds, booming explosions, distant cries of pain. It could use a few more vocal clips for friendly and enemy units, but there's still little to criticize.

Sadly, there are some annoyances that tarnish the experience. Half-concealed enemy soldiers will repeatedly jerk between crouched and standing poses. There are noticeable translation errors and other glitches, serious and minor. There's no two ways about it -- GRAW's sloppy bugs indicate it needed a few more weeks in testing.

For this outing, Ghost Recon's heads-up display gains a small screen in the top-right corner. Here, you can see the status of your squadmates or support vehicles like Bradley APCs or Apache choppers. You can give them simple orders with a tactical map, but the system is a little too clunky for more complex operations. Besides, your pals are probably too dopey to get them right, anyway. In multiplayer, this screen doubles as a handy way to see whatever your teammates see, which is a nice touch.

Another interface addition -- and this is presumably where the "Advanced Warfighter" bit comes in -- is the way the display marks enemy soldiers with a bright red diamond (as long as you or one of your support units can see them). Some missions and multiplayer games give you an airborne drone for scouting ahead, so you'll often have considerable advance warning of enemy positions. Whether this is a positive point or not depends largely on your preferred style of play.