Are War Games Realistic?

I enjoy the occasional FPS.  I will admit to not being a big FPS player especially when you think of the genre-defining games of today--Call of Duty or Battlefield.  I've played a few of the CoD games, but never the newer ones.  So I don't know that I could call myself a real fan of FPS war games.  An episode of PBS's "GameShow" questioned if war games, like CoD, are an accurate depiction of warfare.  Here is the episode if you're interested in watching it.

After viewing this episode I realized that I agree with many of the points that Jamin is making.  One of the reasons I, and probably most other people, like playing these games is because you do get the feeling of being a "one man/woman army."  It's very rewarding to run around wreaking havoc and putting your enemies in their place.  Part of the fun of video games is that you get to be a hero--you can easily take down scores of bad guys and withstand huge amounts of damage.  Yeah, it's not realistic, but it's fun.  But maybe that's part of the problem...are games glorifying war a little too much?  I've never been in combat and hope I never have to be in a situation that remotely resembles actual combat.  Is making it seem fun a bad thing?  I have to say yes.  In real-life there is no life-meter, you can't withstand getting shot numerous times and you most likely aren't by yourself running across a battlefield filled with enemy soldiers.

Jamin also points out that there are different types of war games--there are the FPS's which put you on the field in the position of a simple soldier and then there are the more command-oriented games which put you in the shoes of a general with a more top-down view.  I've played both and can't really say if either are a more realistic depiction of war.  Maybe the command type of games are more realistic?

I like many of the ideas that Jamin put forward to make war games more realistic.  The idea of having a fixed amount of ammo would really force players to think about the shots that they are taking.  As a fan of cooperative games I also like the idea of promoting teamwork to accomplish something rather than a simple "lone wolf" type of scenario.

I'm not really sure what the answer is to making war games more realistic.  How can developers keep it real and not sacrifice the entertainment factor?  This seems to be a difficult balancing act that no one can master.