Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 // Xbox 360
Ghosts in the machine

// The skinny: Civil war has broken out in Mexico and you are sent in to make sure the right side wins.

// Review: Surprisingly GRAW 2 came out within a year of its predecessor. For the most part it shows with slightly improved graphics, AI tweaks, and a short single player campaign. It feels more like an expansion or just GRAW 1.2, but thats not entirely a bad thing because GRAW 1 was a great game.

/ For the uninitiate, GRAW plays as a 3rd person shooter. You alternate between running with a squad, going solo, or firing from a Blackhawk gun turret. For most missions you get a flying drone to scout out the enemies advanced positions. At times it feels a little unfair. But then again America has always enjoyed the luxury of superior technology in our wars.

/ Every mission is a series of escalating in threat objectives. The Blackhawk down scenario, holding positions while waves of enemies converge on your location, and escaping while alll of your tech is destroyed were notably fun. GRAW 2 has a similar but not as refined firing from cover mechanic to Rainbow Six Vegas. This aspect might be more "realistic" than Rainbow Six, but I didn't enjoy it as much.

/ To help compensate for the single player experience, the multiplayer is pretty robust (except co-op on the same tv which kind of sucked). In addition to the typical mutliplayer verses matches, there are a half dozen very challenging unique co-op missions that you need about a dozen players who know what they are doing to get through them.

// Wrap up: Doesn't feel like a true sequel to GRAW 1, but at the least it's a lot more content for one of the 360's must have games. The 360 has become home to a cache of shooters and this one fits right in. Fun game but I enjoyed Rainbow Six Vegas more.

Entertainment rating: 3.5