It has been seven or eight years now since the first version of "America's Army" flickered onto our monitors. (I mean that literally; there were many faults.) Since then, over nine million players have registered and given it a go. That makes America's virtual army fifteen times the size of its actual military. Hmm… I smell a pinch of irony.

Anyway, recently the developers and the US Army have been praised with the announcement by Guinness that they have smashed through five world records.

The first of which is easily recognizable and definitely belongs in the trophy case of "AA" — it is that of the largest virtual army. Seems fair. After all, if we include real life armies here, this game's force is still bigger than the worlds biggest land force, Russia. Many of these users still log on regularly and as a hardened recruit to "AA," I can safely tell you that there can actually be times when you have to wait around for a spot to open up on a server so you can jump in. Good news for the "AA" developers.

The second award that was thrown their way was Most Hours Playing a Free Online Shooter. Well, with over nine million players the maths seems to add up.

The game also nabbed Largest Travelling Game Simulator. I guess it's thanks to the fact that it's available in over fifty countries worldwide. It was also awarded the record of Most Downloaded War Video Game. Perhaps the use of the word 'War' in the title of this record will send shivers down the publishers spines because, if anyone remembers, when the game was first launched there was uproar with people nearly forming into mobs saying that the army were promoting war, etc. Chilax, people. It's just a game — and it's free!