America's Army Operations, a game that's more interesting than common run-and-gun games, is available for Linux. Not any old first-person shooter, America's Army is squad-based. This game is free as in beer.

This cross-platform offering allows players to pick from various squad positions, each with its own weapon. Weapons available are the M-16 rifle, M-203 grenade launcher, Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) and two different sniper rifles. At around 588MB, the game takes a while to download, but believe me, it's worth the time spent. Go to www.americasarmy.com to get your copy, and while you're at it, create a free-of-charge account.

Figure 1. You never know who's around the corner.

Now that you've installed the game and signed in through the Personnel menu, your training begins. Score a 36 or higher on the Marksmanship Training, and you can take Advanced Marksmanship Training. Complete that and you have the option of being a sniper. You also can go the Airborne School, Medic Training and Special Forces Training. The Airborne and Special Forces trainings are needed to be able to play specific maps in the game. Medic training offers you another way to gain points besides killing the enemy and completing the objectives of the map.

Completing the objectives is one of two ways for your team to win a round. The other is to kill everyone on the other team. You choose. But, what if you don't want to be a team player? It's up to you really. If you insist on being a lone ranger and killing everyone, you soon will find yourself kicked off the server by your teammates and your honor (level) will be decreased. So go ahead, get the game and join me on-line. Look for -=;DarkRain;=-; I'll be waiting.