Soldiers wipe out game controllers in Afghanistan

US soldiers in Afghanistan are burning through console controllers, said the Army's official newspaper Stars and Stripes. According to the article, a small store at Forward Operating Base Lagman outside of Qalat stocks both Xboxes and PlayStation 2s, but sells controllers for the two consoles at a much higher rate. At one point in Kandahar, the store was not even stocking Xbox consoles, but still selling controllers. Sgt. Edward Price, who mans the store at Lagman, suspects that the desire to play multiplayer games and the fine dirt-damaging controllers leads to increased sales. "Tempers might start to flare in the field and they get frustrated and take it out on their video game controllers," Price is quoted as saying. "It's a hell of a lot better than taking it out on each other." According to the article, among those games available for stress relief, Halo 2 currently reigns as the game of choice.