The latest version of hit X-Box war simulation, Halo, has been given the ultimate accreditation, the British army are to use it to train new soldiers.
In the wake of massive budget cuts, the normal training procedures for raw recruits is to be scrapped and replaced with Halo 3.
"We have discovered that Halo 3 simulates the life and death decisions of war perfectly," said General "Al" Aharm. "With a mere ten X-Boxes each with a copy of the game, we can replace the previous training regime without loss of efficacy. Plus, at a mere one hundred and fifty quid for a box and game, this drastically cuts the costs of training, which have gone from three hundred thousand pounds per solider to under a fiver."
With plans to keep abreast of the latest versions of the game, interest in joining the army among young people is growing.
"Well, yeah, I really like the game," said thirteen year old Kyle Orbekilled or Dunfermline. "I'm thinking of signing up, cos they've got Halo 4 on pre-order and it's not even written yet."
There is another advantage that Aharm has discovered.
"We are finding that many soldiers are coming to us already full trained," he said. "This has cut the training time for new soldiers from two years to about a week."
The Americans have looked at the new training regime and decided that it is not for them.
"We prefer Call of Duty," said one Pentagon insider.
