Hail to the Chief

Thinking man's shooter "Delta Force : Land Warrior" might only just have been released on this side of the pond, but the Americans have had a few months' head start on us and have been taking full advantage of this to hone their online skills. Nick "~EM~DADEATH'' Huynh, a 30 year old man from Indiana, has already notched up 400 hours of playing time on the NovaWorld 2 service, and publisher Novalogic last night declared him the game's "Commander-in-Chief" - the first player to reach 5-Star General status on the game's multiplayer ranking system.

According to the press release "he has already received countless medals and awards for his well-executed playing skills, including six bronze stars, three Army Commendation Awards and five CQB Badges for Superior Lethality in Close-Quarters Combat". Land Warrior's unfortunately named product manager Steve Sandwisch adds that "the new performance-tracking system offered by NovaWorld 2 adds an entirely new level of gameplay with persistent character statistics - it can be quite addictive as players compete to become top dog".

Nick Huynh certainly agrees - apparently he spends at least four to five hours a day playing the game, and says that "the STATS situation is what motivates me; that's what everybody goes for". Novalogic claim that over 43,000 people regularly play Land Warrior online using their NovaWorld 2 service, while the Delta Force series has so far shifted one million units worldwide. That's a lot of face paint.