Also, there is something about the 5.56 that people don't know. Its what is called and "over-stabalized" round DUAL purpose round. I forget the ranges but around 0-300 meters its an "armor-piercing" round. It will go through the light skined vehicles such as trucks, barricades, and lots of buildings. After this point however it can start to wobble in flight. This makes it anti-personel. You hear stories of these bullets entering peoples thigh and coming out of there chest. This is because if it hits you while wobbleing, it can glance off of bone and shoot in another direction. This is my understanding since it was explained to me in this way. Being an infantryman I can tell you that in my experience, this is pretty true.
The XM-8 is lighter, more reliable (less parts) and takes approximately 70% less time to clean than the current m16/m4 class weapons. With all of the configurations of the XM8, the individual soldier will be able to change his weapons to fit specific needs. This is truly an amazing weapon and will definately change the way we do battle in the desert. Not to mention we will have superb reliability in the different types of terrain that we will be engaged in.
BTW...games are horribly inaccurate as far as rounds go. Those of you who play hacker...er Counterstrike know that the colt is the choice weapon for accuracy. This is true. The AK is used for damage, and again this is true. However in real life, the AK is not accurate to the ranges that it is in games. I've shot the AK and it is accurate up to about 400 or so meters. I can hit a man at 600 meters on my M16 with just my ironsights (if I can see him and he is standing still). The AK is very reliable and you can buy them for around $50 American in some parts of the world due to how many were made and how cheap they are to produce. Personaly I would go for an HK G3A3 if I wanted a 7.62 round. Or maybe a Galil or 7.62 variant M4
Hope this helps.