Do you have Xbox Live, but have grown tired and weary of all the first person shooters available? Have you had enough of ravaging through sci-fi worlds in Halo 2, Timesplitters: Future Perfect, Star Wars Battlefront, Project Snowblind and Serious Sam? Given up on the special forces of Rainbow Six 3, Ghost Recon, Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, Ghost Recon 2, Shadow Ops, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Star Wars: Republic Commando and Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike? Or have you just flat out had it with war games like Call of Duty, Brothers in Arms, Men of Valor, Call of Duty 2, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Vietcong, and Full Spectrum Warrior? Or perhaps it's a game I haven't mentioned - and yes, there's plenty of them left.

If you are, then I have the solution for you. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. You see, I was like you... burnt out by reenacting the same Rainbow Six scenarios over and over, tired of playing King of the Hill and Territories in Halo 2 matchmaking, and because of this I couldn't be bothered to touch another first person shooter for a good while. And then, like a gift from the heavens, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat arrived and saved me - at the same time insuring that I definitely wouldn't pick up another FPS game other than this! Like most should, I bowed down in its presence and asked to be forgiven for even touching the likes of Red Mercury.

What makes Battlefield 2 so great, anyway? Whilst the PC version didn't drastically change the core gameplay from Battlefield 1942, for online console owners this is a brand new experience. Heed my warning when I say for online console owners. Hey, the single player is great, better than a lot of first person shooters even, but it was a bonus thrown into what was planned to be an online exclusive game. DICE, creators of the PC series and the absolutely superb Rallisport Challenge 2, have brought console owners what they've been begging for all along. An online first person shooter where you aren't crammed into a linear hallway with a bunch of other players but instead tossed into a huge, wide open Battlefield and told to go absolutely nuts in whatever way you want.

Up to 24 players can compete on one of EA's many dedicated servers (no hosting your own server here, sorry!). In total there are about a dozen maps, each with different teams, vehicles, weapons and terrain. There are huge maps in the desert pitting the US team against the Middle Eastern Coalition, maps in a verdant swamp where the Chinese take on the US and even some snow-capped mountains, as well as city streets complete with towering buildings to snipe from. What makes each level so special is the ability to observe your surroundings and play how you want, using one of five different player classes... but before I get to that, you'll want to know the basics.

Matches are always between two teams and, depending on the mode, range from 20 minutes to just 10 minutes. In the main mode you start off with a base, as does the other team, and storm the huge maps in an attempt to capture flag checkpoints. Depending on the map there can be up to seven to capture, or maybe just three. As the game progresses each team loses tickets, and the more checkpoints the other team has, the faster your tickets decreases (and the fewer spawn points you have). The mode works just as well as it did on the PC and makes for great fun, especially considering that you have the option to help storm a base, sit back and defend one, escort a raid with sniper cover, airlift team mates into a checkpoint to do a parachute dive onto it, or whatever other approach you can conceive. The levels truly are your playground and the gameplay is limited only by your strategic thinking.

There is a modification of this mode, where one team defends a set amount of checkpoints and the other storms in from one spawn to capture as many as they can, progressing from checkpoint to checkpoint as the other team falls back to defend the next bunker. Aside from this, there's a new Capture the Flag mode that takes place on restricted versions of all the maps. When I say restricted, take that as a good thing - these games are much more intense, personal and in your face than the other mode and make for a great contrast. Just like the PC version, you have a list of classes to select from. This is what makes Battlefield 2 so much fun; you need to rely on each other, but you are not limited to playing as just one class, like in Rainbow Six: Lockdown.

You can be storming an enemy base as an Assault class, using your grenade launcher and frag grenades to make an explosive entry. However, you won't get far without a Support behind you to heal you up. If it gets too crowded, the support can either lay down suppressive fire with their 100-clip machine gun or call in a mortar strike for some instant death from above. Meanwhile a Special Ops class soldier can be outside covering the entrances with his knife, or laying C4 down on the entryways waiting to blow an unlucky enemy away. Snipers lie on rooftops in the distance, reachable only by airlift from a chopper. From here the sniper can give you obvious support and intel, but also take down any enemy vehicle by painting it with a laser sight and waiting for a Stinger to come in and blow it away. Finally, Engineers will be repairing any nearby vehicles that have taken damage, as well as putting down defensive mines to protect the base from any incoming tanks or jeeps.

Of course, that's just one scenario. A more realistic one depicts the Assault class going berserk with the grenade launcher, not fearing the likely possibility of being killed. The Support class probably feels invincible with those 100 bullets and runs around shooting everything non-stop, as well as carelessly calling mortar strikes on a mere one soldier and healing only himself. The Special Ops will have C4 strapped to a vehicle, ready to plow into enemy territory and strategically jump out only to blow up everything in sight, even his own team. Meanwhile, the Sniper will be patrolling the sky for any chopper to target or parachute to snipe, showing complete disregard for what's on the ground. The Engineer probably feels invincible with his big shotgun and he basically is at close range. A smart engineer will be at the enemy's main stronghold, which is uncapturable, putting mines under each and every static vehicle and then hiding inside a nearby tent waiting for the inevitable explosion.

There are hundreds of ways to play and hundreds of things to do - with the maps as big as they are, and five different classes, you'll constantly be finding new strategies and ideas that will easily last you over 20 minutes, ensuring that no round is ever dull because you know at a moment's notice you can completely change whatever you're doing and take a completely different approach. Play as a team or go out in the wild completely alone to do your own thing - it doesn't matter. Battlefield 2 gives you freedom and options - and no other online game has done it this well. No matter how you play, the game is always entertaining and always intense.

Over 30 different types of vehicles are included, over land, air and sea. Though the jets from the PC version have unfortunately not made the leap to consoles, there are Humvees, helicopters, boats, dune buggies and tanks to use, each with different physics, strengths, speeds, weaknesses and weapons. The actual physics for all the vehicles are incredibly well done and although they're not entirely realistic, they react well and are a joy to watch bouncing around, especially in first person view. Unfortunately there are some collision detection issues with a few of the vehicles, particularly with tanks and how they react to barrels and crates. Nonetheless, the vehicles simply rock and a real blast to use.

Though some graphical details may leave things to be desired, such as the shrubs you can crawl through, they're actually very good overall, particularly when there's so much going on. The natural outdoor lighting is absolutely superb and differs on almost every map, which results in each map having a totally different atmosphere and vibe. Explosions are mammoth in size, especially when a player calls in an artillery strike that lands on top of a base full of vehicles. The effects truly are spectacular and feature some of the best explosions captured in a game. At first glance they may not seem like much, but when you take into account the giant scope of some of the battlefields and everything that's going on, you'll realise how much the Xbox is being pushed - especially since it almost always runs smoothly.

The visual effects are also helped out a great deal by the sound effects, which are equally as impressive in every department. Not just the explosions, but the sound of your soldier walking, the gunfire, the screams of the soldiers as they are shot or drop a great height, the radio chatter in single player - it's all done exceptionally well, with the only downside perhaps being NPC players repeating their lines a few times.

The music is also definitely worth getting a pen and paper out to write home about: each type of map has a different style of music, utilising a well assembled orchestra that creates music fitting to that particular country. When you're out by yourself the music is slow, almost calming; however, as soon as you get in a vehicle it picks up dramatically and makes driving sequences even more exciting. It even changes during battles, sometimes giving you a hint that someone is nearby and making you a little uneasy, as the dramatic drums start to get louder and louder... and then, when you dispose of the enemy after a massive battle, the music smoothly makes the transition back to a calm, quite style. Even if you don't care for the music here (which is unlikely) it's hard not to appreciate the extra effort put into the role it plays.

Surprisingly, I haven't touched on the single player at all yet. Why? Well, it's not because it's bad - it just isn't the main attraction. However, even if you're offline only with the Xbox, Battlefield 2 is well worth picking up, because you won't find a single player campaign like this anywhere. You play two sides in a fictional war but the story really isn't worth trying to follow, because it just doesn't matter outside of your main objectives for a particular level.

The gameplay is very similar to the online mode (though a bit slower), however with some major differences. It isn't teamwork based for starters, so don't expect it to be - don't expect it to be realistic either. This is an all-out arcade war game that almost takes it to a sport. You and your absolutely huge team charge into an area and battle the enemy in a huge game of shoot anything that moves. Your team runs around everywhere on foot, in tanks, jeeps, helicopters... hell, most of the time you'll see back up parachuting in constantly (a sneaky way to allow your team, and the enemies, to respawn on the spot). It's fast-paced, unrealistic, insane, ridiculous - and I loved every second of it! You may be thinking that it's easy to die in this sort of environment - and you're right. Which is where hotswapping comes in. At any time you can look at another soldier and become him; it's that easy. Just push Y and after a quick camera effect you're in that body, as that soldier, with his weapons, doing exactly whatever he was doing before you took him over. When you die you switch bodies as well, and though it costs points and makes the game easier, it's just so much fun!

Yes, the campaign is quite easy, however this is where the 'sport' element comes in. You can gain a lot of medals. And I mean a lot! To get them you'll need to do things like taking out five soldiers with one clip (or explosive), hotswap a certain distance or amount of times, pull out your parachute at the last second, freefall a certain height, jump a great distance with a jeep; there's a huge amount of medals to collect and I highly recommend not looking at the requirements, as it's much more fun to get an unexpected medal in the middle of a battle.

Aside from the campaign, there are loads of challenges to unlock and try to set high scores in - in fact this game reminds me a lot of the classic Goldeneye; you'll definitely find yourself going back to old missions and finding speedier routes to complete the mission in a set amount of time (which gives you yet another reward), using a certain amount of hotswaps (another reward), dying as little as you can (yep, another), and exceeding the accuracy standard (you guessed it!) If you enjoy the campaign - and if you are a fan of the FPS shooter genre - then I don't see how you could appreciate the genuine replay value; there's just so much to unlock and achieve, including a high rank similar to the one that you can achieve online.

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is simply a phenomenal experience, online and off, that should be played by any FPS fan, or just action game fans in general. If you're bored of the genre then this is the game you've been waiting for, as it breathes new life into FPS games and bodes very well for the future on Xbox 360. If you don't have Xbox Live then this game easily justifies getting connected. This is the only online title that comes close to matching the addictiveness of Halo 2's matchmaking in terms of the gameplay itself and the achievements to strive for online; which includes more than a rank- you get medals, ribbons and complete statistics with leaderboards that list everything down to how many helicopters you've blown up. That is saying something. Welcome to your new online addiction, console gamers! It's time to see what those PC players have been raving about all these years - now go collect your gear, pile into the helicopter, hope you have a good pilot and head out onto the battlefield!

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).