The latest video game to raise an arm and say"aye"in favour of the 'games are becoming like movies' debate is Shadow Ops: Red Mercury. A gritty and realistic first-person shooter in which you step into the combat boots of an elite Delta Force operative, the game draws its inspiration from the typical Hollywood action flick and, as a result, benefits from some pretty high production values, which reflect strongly in elements such as visuals, physics, AI and motion-capture.The game's story subsequently follows suit, offering a very Hollywood-esque yarn about terrorists, an extremely dangerous substance that most certainly shouldn't fall into the wrong hands, and the fact that, oops, actually it has fallen into the wrong hands. You take on the role of the aforementioned operative and are duly charged with the task of joining an elite team of Special Forces and travelling the globe in the quest to save the world from annihilation.There are four main single-player campaigns on offer that have you sampling the delights of places such as Syria, the African Congo, Kazakhstan and Chechnya. These are made up of over 20 individual levels, set in a variety of detailed environments including lush tropical jungles, war-torn cities, and alpine fortresses, which offer such challenges as rescuing hostages, demolishing buildings and acting as bodyguard.As for the multiplayer side of things, nothing seems to have been left out, with the inclusion of both local and network play across a wide variety of game modes.As mentioned before, there's some impressive technology on display throughout Shadow Ops, courtesy of some high quality - and obviously quite costly - production. In-game characters have been created by advanced 'cyber scanning' at a Hollywood studio, motion-capture comes courtesy of real US Special Forces and Army Rangers, and the game's environmental textures are the result of a rather intensive globe-trotting photo source shoot on location in Morocco, Russia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hawaii. This all results in a very authentic feel to the proceedings and, ultimately, in an intense and involving FPS experience.