You probably have a point there...that playing this type of game online with "live" sidekicks is probably more fun than playing with the computer generated AI. Which would allow for more realistic gameplay. To me, it seems the computer AI "cheats". It can do completely unrealistic things, as I mentioned earlier. But, the graphics are very impressive. And the affects are pretty good too. Of course, given the sad fact, I cannot get broadband, or DSL in my "frontier" part of the country (Mass.), playing online is not really an option for me anymore. Not much fun trying to compete against players with very low ping (20ms) compared to my snail's pace (400-600ms or more). So, the single player experience is more important to me than the online experience. But, I can see where this would be a fun game to play during a LAN party. Although, CS seems to have that area pretty much sewed up.