Front-line soldiers in Afghanistan are being trained using a simulated war game called Virtual Battlespace 2, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Army chiefs brought in the simulation, adapted from a commercial title, in the hope of holding the attention of new recruits who are often used to playing high-quality shooters on the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles.

The game is useful in complimenting traditional training methods, say the MoD, offering a cost-effective way to give a soldier the feel of a warzone.

The technical team at MoD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Portsdown, Hampshire, have borrowed heavily from High Street hits, such as Battlefield 3 and the Call of Duty series.

Speaking to the Guardian, Andrew Poulter, who leads MoD’s team responsible for adapting the software, said: "Back in the 1980s and 1990s, defence was far out in terms of quality simulation. Military-built simulators were state-of-the-art.

"But now, for £50, you can buy a commercial game that will be far more realistic than the sorts of tools we were using. Certainly, there is a level of computer games experience in recruits. So the plots have to be realistic and the image generation has to be high quality."