Posted on 09/14/2002 4:07:11 PM PDT by FreedomPoster
US Army Introduces "America's Army" PC Game (05.22.02) [Bacchus]
The U.S. Army today unveiled America's Army, an innovative, realistic computer game providing civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today’s premiere land force, the U.S. Army. America’s Army players will experience soldiering in a state-of-the-art new manner.
The America’s Army game blends two vivid simulations: Soldiers, a role-playing portion in which players navigate life’s challenges to achieve goals, and a first-person action game, called Operations.
Developed by the U.S. Army and a world-class team of Department of Defense experts in simulations and virtual environments, America's Army will be available in August. The Army will distribute America’s Army for *free* in response to requests at America's Army and GoArmy.com, through distribution partners that include leading computer game magazines, at Army events, at recruiting stations, and through internet download. The game is rated “T” for Teen by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.
Anticipating large-scale distribution this summer, the Army unveiled the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the computer and video games industry’s major convention in Los Angeles.
This is a first-person-shooter PC game that the U.S. Army developed. It's pretty realistic, and teaches sight picture, breath control, tactical movement. Obviously not a substitute for basic training, but might a) create some better prepared recruits, b) substitute for some barracks reading in basic (lots of good text in the "how-to's" in the game), and c) get some teens interested in the Army.
My son downloaded it (130M!), and it appears that there's a CD available for the bandwidth-challenged.
No towel head adversaries that I've seen, yet, but I've barely looked at this thing. What I have seen, looks good. Recommended! Especially at the price (free).
I've been playing for about a week. It's a very good game.
I don't really have an opinion. I'm not a "gamer," so I haven't even seen it. But I'll read about it now.
There's nothing exciting about standing watch at 0300 and feeling your hasty fighting position filling with freezing rain or spending a Saturday afternoon cleaning unassigned weapons.
I'd rather have privates who joined out of a sense of purpose, independent of any recruiting salesmanship - I still remember the look on SSG De La Cueva's face when I told him I wanted to go infantry, though I didn't understand it at the time.
In short, leave the games for the kids, and let the soldiers, cognizant of a sense of duty, join of their own accord.
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