"Conflict Desert Storm", published by Take Two Interactive, is a squad-based action game that puts you in the boots of a British SAS or U.S. Delta Force squad.

The game received generally poor reviews, but still sold pretty well, moving roughly 300,000 copies for the PlayStation 2 and another 150,000-200,000 for the Xbox. Still, under normal circumstances, "Conflict Desert Storm" likely would have seen a price cut by this point. A sweep of software stores in the New York area, however, showed the game was still carrying a price of about $50. Several locations were sold out.

While "Conflict Desert Storm" is seeing a slight surge, that's nothing compared to the interest in "Desert Combat," a free "mod" for Electronic Arts' hit "Battlefield 1942". "Mods" (short for modifications) are user-made add-ons to a game, created using tools released by the developer.

A new version of "Desert Combat" will be released next week and will include new weapons for both sides (including scud missiles and A-10 attack planes) and a mission to find and destroy (or, if you're the Iraqis, defend) a chemical weapons plant.

"Desert Combat", which was overwhelmingly voted last year's most popular mod, is a free download for now, though that might change with future versions.

"We've been approached by multiple publishers to try and sell it," said DeLise, "so it's probably not going to be a mod for long. It'll be more of an expansion pack.