The activity is highly social as service personnel place bets on the outcome of sports games and jeer at one another during multiplayer rounds of "Halo."

It also helps alleviate homesickness. A "Morale, Welfare and Recreation" center just off the gym is filled with Playstation 2 consoles. Marines back from the fight stop in for a few hours to unwind.

The military awoke to the power of video games years ago.

It developed "America's Army" as a recruitment tool, giving civilians a taste of the soldier life with scenarios that let players cooperate online in raids on guerrilla camps and bridges, among several other scenarios.

Some branches of the service have incorporated games into their training and then sold off commercial versions -- "Operation Flashpoint" was one, and the Marines for the first time are helping produce their own game, called "Close Combat: First to Fight."

On the base, Marines who have seen combat say they were aided by games they had played beforehand. Those games, they say, taught them how quickly something can go wrong.

For instance, in the hyper-realistic "SOCOM 2: U.S. Navy Seals" for the Playstation 2, players issue commands to their teams in a highly coordinated ballet of violence.

"When we cover houses, you got your guys coming in behind you covering your flank," said Lance Cpl. Patrick Hopper, 23. "When you take over a house and you're playing SOCOM, you kind of get used to it when you get there."

Certainly some games are more popular than others. Few people had purchased the puzzle game "Tetris Worlds" or "The Hobbit," which is aimed at kids. Rows of Nintendo's "Metroid Prime: Echoes" for the GameCube console went untouched, probably because the Xbox and Playstation are far more popular here.

Thirty copies of "Halo 2" disappeared in hours. Some soldiers bought the game even though they didn't even have an Xbox, while others bought an Xbox just so they could play.

But Marines scoff at the idea that games could somehow prepare them for combat in any significant way. In video games, they say, players are generally willing to risk their lives; that wasn't always the case in Fallujah.

"When bullets are zooming by you, there's nothing like it," said Sgt. Jeffery Mickel, 27. "Some guys get scared and take cover, other guys go right ahead and take care of the threat."

Games have also not caught up with reality: civilians blending in with insurgents, and soldiers not being able to distinguish between them.

Nor do games cover the types of scenarios faced in the combat.

"In a game, you can die and press start and go all over again. This is a little bit different," said Sgt. James Atakoglu, 28, who drove a bulldozer during the battle for Fallujah, often smashing down buildings where insurgents were believed to be hiding. "I don't think games are going to have a dozer crashing into a building."

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