"Battlefield 2" lets players shoot tanks with rocket launchers, snipe bad guys with a scope rifle and parachute out of helicopters. "Battlefield 2" is fun even with its high mortality rate, but it's better online.

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat" is so good that when I first popped it into my Xbox 360, it stole an entire spring Sunday from me. Birds were landing on my terrace with their potential bird flu. Ducks were coughing at me from the green park outside my window. And I sat on my couch playing "Battlefield 2" for 18 hours straight. Seemed safer.

That's right, 18 hours. I didn't take 20-minute meal breaks. I didn't answer the phone. I missed parties. And I didn't care. I was signed up in the video game's army, shooting tanks with rocket launchers, sniping bad guys with a scope rifle and parachuting out of helicopters.

To tell the whole truth, "Battlefield 2" isn't a great game if you play it by yourself. I tried that and it was "eh." Then I played it online through Xbox Live, a $50-a-year service that allows you to play against other gamers around the world.

So there my character was, engaging other players in realistic war zones -- desert towns, an oil rig and lushly Asian islands. Usually, about 23 other soldiers were sniping at me, blowing me up with grenades and drilling about a thousand holes in me. When I died, I would "respawn" and keep fighting in the same battle until one team won.

The game is fun even with its high mortality rate. You die fast when you get shot just once or twice. Many games allow you to live forever, bullet-ridden, as if you're an action-movie hero. But "Battlefield 2's" fast deaths work online, because it makes you work smarter at staying alive.

The interaction with other gamers is funny. Some gamers go into revenge mode against each other. I did this once against a gamer named "Electropants23" or something like that.

She (I hope it was a she) found this ideal spot on top of a water tower and kept picking me off with her sniper bullets. Naturally, I found a one-tree hill to hide myself under, and I sniped her back. Then she respawned and sniped me back.

It's easy to fall into vengeance mode, but it's better to resist the urge unless it's absolutely necessary, because your team misses your gun, and your personal ranking withers from not compiling a high body count.

Xbox Live also lets you speak to these gamers through a microphone-and-headphone gadget. That could be interesting since gamers' names suggest they're from ports around the world. But I just couldn't take "Battlefield 2" to that level. The voice of Electropants23 would have been disappointing, I'm sure.

("Battlefield 2: Modern Combat" for Xbox 360, Xbox and PS 2 -- Incredibly fun as a multiplayer game, OK as a standalone game, best on Xbox 360 and Xbox. Looks great. Very challenging. Rated "T" for language, violence. Four stars out of four.)