clear!

for those tactical gaming freaks out there, SWAT 4 is about to be released and if you were a fan of any of the previous games, i'm reading that you're going to love the new one. i spent countless months playing SWAT 3 and not because it stands out any different from the rainbow games, but because it had an aspect that gave it reality: non-lethality. advancing up through the ranks to become an officer in the game required you to complete missions without killing a certain number of hostiles. the more you kept alive, the more points you made and the faster up the ranks you crept. apparently, this hasn't changed at all, but the interface and graphics are better in the new game. reading a review of it at Warcry confirmed this and kept me giggling about it as well.

There’s a lot of entertainment factor involved in using only non-lethal subdue tactics. I mean, seriously, is there anything better than firing a bean-bag out of a shotgun into a guy’s crotch? After careful study and lab work, the results all came back the same: there is not . . . Ever fired a bean-bag into a hysterical old woman? I have, and it was delicious.

read the preview here. and to top it off, it has a co-op version for those late nights when you and your buddy feel like getting into a beanbag fight. and the game was built by Irrational Games, the guys who released Tribes: Vengeance, late last year, so you know it's gonna be good.