Slashdot Mirror
E3: Epic, US Army Develop Games as Recruitment Tool
securitas writes "Reuters and AP tell us that Epic Games and the US Army have announced the America's Army series of games, jointly developed by the Department of Defense and Epic. The first two-part game in the five-year project includes an RPG called Soldier and a first-person shooter called Operations. The game will be free of charge and available for download in July or August, with 1.2 million CDs simultaneously released, attached to gaming magazines. Does this remind anyone else of the war-room scene from Toys or Ender's Game?" Future installments will include Sim Mess Duty, Sim Standing Guard in the Rain, Sim Blister, and Sim Invading Iraq to Keep Approval Ratings High.
It is based on the Unreal engine, and it is awesome. nothing like your regular FPS.. it has the reality dial turned way up... if you get hit once you are dead, or bleeding to death no mega heath, no railgun's, no ammo everywhere, just your handy GI issued weapons. From the demo I watched and played, FPS fans will hate it. and several of the "kids" though it sucked, it requires thinking, skill, and for the player to be clever... very unlike FPS games where most of the players just run around hopping firing at everything that moves... camping is a requirement and only the stupid players do anything other than camping (stupid players=dead players)
so basically, if you're the type of FPS player that gets' wildly mad at campers, you will hate it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
1) Saddam Husain has used weapons of mass destruction( WMDs) such as nerve gas against Iraqi kurdish civilians.
2) He ejected U.N. inspectors who were making sure he complied with the peace terms stating he wouldn't continue to develop WMDs including the Iraqi nuclear program.
3) He has launched strikes on civilian populations in Israel during the Gulf War even though Israel was not part of the military coalition. He did this in the hopes invoking an Israeli response which would gain him the support of other Arab nations.
Now because you obviously didn't know this or understand the implications I will state it slowly:
If allowed to develope a nuke, he's likely to use it against a civilian target. Possibly in a pre-emptive strike.
Where is it going to happen? Who knows. Will it be trucked in or on top of a missle? Not sure. A strike against him is necessary to make sure that this doesn't happen.
Sidenote: Informative opposing opinions != Troll, a point often lost on the moderators of this "news source".
The America's Army videogame suite, Operations and Soldiers, were built completely by the MOVES Institute, not by Epic Games. We licensed the Epic Games engine for Operations. For more information on the games and imagery from E3, see http://movesinstitute.org
Michael Zyda
Dumbass. It's called the First Amendment.
That new Unreal engine is just amazing, I can't wait to see all the modded games people make with it.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Several of the people involved in bringing you Slashdot, including the author who posted this story, have previously been in the U.S. armed forces.
And -- Hey... I may be sullen, and I may be directionless, but... uh what was that other thing you said?
AmericasArmy and GoArmy.com will have links to the download. BUT NOT CURRENTLY! The game is still in beta so don't even bother. We've been testing it for months as I work for the web group who does goarmy.com The game is truly awesome.
Heil Sig! -Rob
I'd imagine this recruitment thing is similar to getting Airborne and Ranger school in your contract when you enlist.
What happens is that you go to Basic and AIT, then you go to Airborne holdover until they have an open slot for you. After you graduate Airborne school (if you do), you go on to RIP (the Ranger Indoctrination Program) after which, assuming you pass, you go on to a Ranger Battalion and piddle your thumbs until you get promoted to Specialist (E-4).
Then, once you've got the rank and if you're still in the necessary physical shape, they send you through a Pre-Ranger prep course and then onto Ranger School, to return to your unit Ranger qualified, instead of some 5-jump chump sitting around at bat.
Essentially, I'm assuming you'll get SF in your contract, go to BCT and AIT, Airborne holdover, Airborne, some sort of pre-SF training, and then piddle around in an SF unit until you make SGT (E-5), when you can finally go through the SF Qualification Course, which you still have to pass before you become an SF soldier.
This is, of course, all assuming that you're enlisting. If you're commissioning, you don't get to choose your MOS, and you have to apply for SF once you're on the CPT (O-3) list just like everyone else.
Brian Voils
"A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students."