VIDEO GAMES: You and What Army?

For the most part, video-game developers have avoided Iraq too, largely out of concerns that the medium might be seen as too frivolous to tackle such a serious topic. But combat games are more popular than ever it's just that the enemies are one-dimensional versions of real-life foes (as in "Call of Duty 4") or another species entirely ("Halo," "Gears of War").

It's probably too much to ask the video-game industry to tackle the tough issues surrounding Iraq. War games won't go away they'll just take place in the past or the future against enemies, like Nazis or giant insects, that everyone can agree on.

_"Army of Two" (Electronic Arts, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99): "Army of Two" takes some swings at recent U.S. military history, beginning in 1993 Somalia and popping in on 2001 Afghanistan and 2003 Iraq before veering off in an entirely different direction. The protagonists are Salem and Rios, two commandos for a Blackwater-ish military contractor called the Security and Strategy, and they're motivated more by money than by patriotism.

The game's distinguishing feature is right there in the title: It's designed to be played cooperatively by two people. Typically, one player needs to raise hell and attract attention while the other sneaks behind enemy lines and takes out their defenses. If your partner gets injured, you can drag him to safety. If the twosome gets surrounded, they can line up back-to-back and shoot in 360 degrees. Sometimes one player will need to drive a vehicle while the other operates a turret.

The single-player game isn't as much fun, mainly because the artificial intelligence controlling your partner makes some weird choices. (Of course, an incompetent human partner can be just as frustrating.) But the co-op does bring some fresh ideas to the genre, and it would be great to see more two-player adventures out there. Three stars out of four.

_"Frontlines: Fuel of War" (THQ, for the Xbox 360, $59.99): This first-person shooter takes off from a politically charged premise, as narrated by a journalist for the "Affiliated Press." In 2024, the world's supply of oil has just about vanished, and the Western Coalition (the United States and the European Union) and the Red Star Alliance (Russia and China) are battling over what's left.

Unfortunately, developer Kaos Studios doesn't run very far with the concept. What would our war machines look like if they ran on steam or solar power? "Frontlines" doesn't bother answering the question, settling instead for scattering a few vaguely futuristic items among its mostly familiar weapons.

The individual levels are wide-open, generally taking place in huge areas with a variety of objectives that you can tackle in any order. The single-player campaign is only about six hours long, though, so you'll need to round up some online buddies to get your money's worth in multiplayer. Alas, "Frontlines" feels too generic to draw enthusiasts away from "Call of Duty" or even "Gears of War." Two stars.

_"Turning Point: Fall of Liberty" (Codemasters, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99): It's the most hackneyed of alternate-history storylines: What if the Nazis won World War II? In "Turning Point," they follow up by invading New York City, laying waste to the Statue of Liberty and the Chrysler Building with their attack zeppelins.