The idea of a video game emulating paintball may seem pretty inane; considering video games and paintball are both similar as they both allow you to role play and shoot people without getting hurt. Sure, a paintball will leave a bruise, and the amount of physical exertion made during a match can cause some discomfort, but all in all it's a pretty harmless way to shoot a gun at another person. However, whereas most people play paintball as a distraction from the office or home life and to act out military fantasies, there are some out there who take the game very seriously, much like people take Halo or other games very seriously, and compete in tournaments for prize money.

This is where Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball (from now on GHTP) enters the picture. Rather than being a game where a group of people run around shooting each another with paint, it's actually a simulation of the semi-professional paintball circuit. No, I didn't know there was one before the game came along, but I bet you didn't know there was a professional Rock Paper Scissors league either. Like most professional endeavours, there's a greater degree of skill and tactics involved than one first may think, and this is what makes GHTP so interesting. Rather than turning out to be a generic first person shooter as I first suspected, I found GHTP to be one of the most involving shooters I've recently played.

The main reason for this is that GHTP is a one shot, one kill game. No armour, no shields, no med kits, no respawning, none of the usual contrivances to make the game last longer. If you get hit, you are out. This, of course, makes it really important that you don't get hit! The usual bravado of even the most seasoned shooter player will go out the window as they find time and time again full frontal assaults simply don't work. Luckily the game is quite supportive in your endeavour not to get hit.

At first the controls may seem awkward to those use to playing standard xbox shooters. Sure, the trigger fires and the controller sticks move and position you around, but there is a whole heap of other things most shooters don't have that you need to be aware of. The first is the fact quarter of your vision is taken up with your weapons' paintball magazine. This will annoy most, as you can no longer rely on your peripheral vision, and it forces you to actually use the controller to look around. Clicking on the left joystick swings the large paint magazine to your left or right, and this also determines another function ' the Snap.

The Snap is where you squeeze the left trigger and lean around a corner or pop your head up over the top of an obstacle. Depending on where your magazine is positioned, you will only be able to snap in one direction. You can also crouch and go prone by using the D-Pad, sprint using the Y button and dive using the A button. Thus you can sprint to a position, slide behind a barricade, and then remain crouched behind it for protection, snapping up to take pot shots at nearby opponents. If it sounds complicated compared to other shooters, don't be put off, it takes longer to explain than learn.

Another interesting aspect of GHTP is the physics of the paintball. As paintballs aren't fired at very high speeds compared to real weapons, they tend to arc in a downward direction. This means although your opponent may be crouched against an obstacle, by firing just over it you may hit them if you're lucky. It also means you can slide under the arc of fire into a new position, but sadly you can't fire back as you do this.

If you do manage to get hit, it's not game over straight away. In an insightful game design decision, you can cheat! Unless you get hit in the face, a meter pops up and if your timing is right and you stop in the green, the ref calls out 'Play On' and you can go about your business as if nothing has happened. Be warned though ' mistime the button press, and you could find yourself or another team mate disqualified. On each successive hit, the meter swings more wildly, and after about 3 separate hits it's just a matter of luck rather then timing. Also, the game is still continuing, so you can be shot again and are instantly out if stuck more than once. However, even then the game is not entirely over either, as if you have team mates still playing you'll be teleported into their shoes. This is a little disorientating and you can lose track of where the guy who shot you was, and at other times you can be hit immediately by an opposing player as soon as you inhabit the new player, which may seem unfair.

There are 3 game modes ' team on team deathmatch, Capture the Flag, where there's one flag in the middle of the field, and the traditional 2 flag CTF deal, and these are the same during single and multiplayer. These can be played as a 3, 5 or 7 person team. As you progress through the single player tournament, you can upgrade your own skills, upgrade your weapon and other equipment, buy funky new threads, and even different coloured paintballs. All the equipment is licensed from real life companies, but considering most of these companies are unknown to all by the most hardcore paintball players, it's accurate but ultimately redundant to anyone outside the sport. More importantly, eliminating opponents and capturing the flag more often means you can hire team mates with better skills, right up to the 'Pro' levels of Greg Hasting himself.

Speaking of team mates, the AI of both team mates and enemy is pretty good. They will take cover and hold position, and don't charge stupidly down the course to be eliminated. However, the game suffers from not being able to order your team mates around the course. There are times you'll find yourself cursing their reluctance to move out of their positions ' especially when it's 3 against 1, and you have to flush the final player out. In many games I should have been able to win the match simply if my team mates actually moved down the field, effectively cornering our lone opponent. Instead there were times I was needlessly eliminated because of the lack of any back up.

Graphic wise the game is above average and to be honest, better than anticipated. The small arenas are generally rather drab in colour, but this makes the paint hits seem more vibrant. The splash effect on the goggles when hit in the face is pretty cool, and you do lurch back in your seat as the paint splashes unexpectedly across your visor. The character models all look quite good and are animated well. The sound of the game is great for helping you determine where shots are coming from, and you can hear the shouts and firing of friend and foe alike. The 'pat pat pat' of paintballs splattering on objects is positional and it's great for determining where a player may be hiding. The environmental sounds are pretty cool too, and really add to the feeling of playing the game out in the woods. However, the music in between the matches is rather mediocre indie rock and average white boy sounding rap, but there is the option to use your own playlists.

Again, like so many other Xbox Live enabled games which don't have the big budgets or hype of Halo 2 (XBW: 98), whenever I logged on to play there was no one playing, so I have no idea how well it plays online. With live team mates and opponents I suspect the game could be really fun and involving, with people calling out other player positions and working together, much like real life paintball, but without the bruises. Unfortunately though, unless a group of your mates all go out and buy it when you do, there won't be much online action happening which does kill the replay value once every goal in single player has been achieved.