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America's Army - Special Forces Released
Thanks to the official site for news of the release of PC FPS/recruitment tool, America's Army - Special Forces, with download locations for the Windows client listed by Blue's News, as this "...latest release in the [freely downloadable] America's Army game series focuses on the critical, specialized role of the Army's Special Forces within the U.S. Army as they fight the Global War on Terrorism." GameSpot has a press release revealing the new missions include "...a Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR) of a downed helicopter pilot, the rescue of a wounded Resistance leader from a hospital in an urban area, a nighttime reconnaissance mission to identify enemy aviation." Previous Slashdot articles have revealed the apparent success of the game in recruiting young people to the Army.
Iraq gets $86 Billion dollars, we get a video game. This administration is a riot! i love it
"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the-the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." -G.W. Bush
the rescue of a wounded Resistance leader from a hospital in an urban area,
And 20 years later, the Resistance leader pays you back by bombing the World Trade Center.
The other Resistance Leader becomes the Iraqi President.
And Donald Rumsfeld gets all the power he wants.
Since all the ftp servers are probably overloaded right now, here's the bittorrent link. I'm getting about 30kbps up/down, so it's not too bad.
e ri casarmy/armyops200.exe.html
http://www.3dgamers.com/dlexit/torrent/games/am
that they've posted windows download locations, but what about the other platforms? I seem to recal this being an all-platforms release. You might think that you could find some info here, but then you'd be wrong.
(or maybe all those flash ads I supporessed give some info?)
I would prefer Air Force's simulators. I really want to feel how F16 or F117 fighter feels like... Some people might like Navy's... When will NASA start popularizing themselves with free simulators?
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
It seems to me that building a mission and having thousands of real people have a go at finishing it would be a great simulator for planning a REAL mission. But hey, that's just me.
Unlike reality, at least they're not thinking of randomly forcing people to play the game.
Michael
Linux : Mac
Bit Torrent link for the 1.9 to 2.0 Upgrade. You need to have 1.9 already for this 223 meg upgrade to work. Filerush'll have the full one up in a bit. http://www.filerush.com/torrents/aao_patch_190to20 0.exe.torrent
No where in this game that makes political statements. Its all defend or attack based roles. It doesnt just include sand missions, but snow, mountains and camps. I dont think you played it, or you would know this game has nothing to do with the war on Terror, or the war in Iraq.
BTW, as a combat sims goes, its pretty good. Team based, and honor rating. Uses the latest Unreal200x engine, in fact was the first game out to use the engine. Give it a try, you wont see any the political FUD you think. Sitting through the medial training was boring, but helps out in the game.
If you want FUD, cheesy game out this summer, Cave Fighter or something, where you did fight in Afghanistan. But the game was so horrible visually, and game play, it was in 4.99 bin the 2nd month out.
It was so bad, I can't even remember the name.
NASA should get in on this idea
I'd love to see space simulators
Gosh, the FBI/CIA too -- think Counter-Strike
Great games that help recruit
Extra advertising for them,
Really sweet games for us!
everyone wins!
What an ingenious way to snooker thousands of unsuspecting children into signing their lives away to a life of killing. If the KKK, Michigan Militia, or some other militant fringe-group released recruiting software (I think I remember a Tom Clancy book about that), we'd all be watching day 27 of the standoff live on CNN right now. Yet when it's done by the Army, even better with your money, everyone says it's a wonderful recruiting idea. When Mortal Kombat splattered gallons of cartoonish blood on the screen, the very same politicans who are complicit in the development of this game called for that one's censorship. Yet the government itself releases a game that's infinitely more realistic with the goal of getting its players to actually kill in real life, and what's word from Capitol Hill? Free trade with China. Idiots and hypocrits, they...
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
Like this?
Or this?
Google is your friend.
The opposite of progress is congress
I finally tried to get this to run.
$ apps/armyops/armyops
GL_EXT_bgra not supported - bailing out.
History:
Exiting due to error
Here is my setup.
ATI all in wonder running Debian, XFree86
XFree86 Version 4.2.1.1 (Debian 4.2.1-12.1 20031003005825
This seems to be a supported extension, according to most docs.
Do I really need xfree 4.3? Or is this a config value somewhere?
Open Source Identity Management: FreeIPA.org
Hey why shouldn't it work for the army, I mean according to all the parents out there GTA has been a great recruitment campaign for Crime :)
The folks in Congress are typically complaining about senseless, gratuitous, and illegal (if the portrayed act occured in real world, not that the game itself is illegal) forms of violence. Military actions conducted by the US tend not to fall into those categories. Military training seeks to prevent such violence. There is no inherent hypocracy. Add to this the fact that the goal of some military actions is to break things not kill people. Killing enemy soldiers is somethimes a last resort. Better to deprive him of weapons, ammunition, and other supplies, and coerce him into surrenderng.
The folks in Congress are typically complaining about senseless, gratuitous, and illegal ... Military actions conducted by the US tend not to fall into those categories
Stated as fact, but very much a matter of opinion. And Congress doesn't compain because of gratuitous violence in and of itself, but rather because it believes they predispose players to violent, antisocial behavior at a subconscious level. To then turn around and harness that very effect to fill up some recruiting roster is at once cynical, totally lacking inner logic and, yes, hypocritical.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
I played the first version. How much has this game changed? Is it worth checking it out?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
"Killing is justifiable" is a pretty strong political statement. It may be a commonly held one (what part of "thou shall not kill" don't radical christians understand?), but that does not diminish the fact that it is a polarizing, non-universal, politcal view.
I've had this sig for three days.
Again, I ask you, if "right and wrong, good and evil, in the bigger picture do not exist", then why do you care what our country does? You obviously do believe in right and wrong, even if you won't admit it.
Your "personal view is that no one should make another suffer"--ok, that's nice, but why? Honestly, think about why you believe this. And moreover, why should anyone else have to follow your ideas? After all, in your world if I believe that it is our duty to make other people suffer, then you can't really tell me that my view is wrong, because you don't believe in right and wrong (remember?)
You've really dug yourself into a corner. If you want to argue about whether you think the U.S. position is right or not, that's an argument worth having. But if you don't want to even admit that you believe in right vs. wrong, then I'm sorry, I can't be bothered to waste any more time on a pathetic excuse for an argument like that.
Later.
Dont look at it as "Killing is justifiable" but as defending and protecting. While the US might be selective at both, this game is not about politics, its about tactics and teamwork. Like most military training, they train you to do a task, follow orders, not give you the poltical ramifications on peoples religion and the orbit of the moon.
Sometimes a sim is a sim, a game a game. GTA3 wasnt a training aid to kill police, Americas Army isnt a brain washing tool with a political agenda. We have CNN/Fox news for that.
...seriously, it's practially unplayable on my system (which is no slouch and easily exceeds the minimum recommended requirments stated on their website, Athlon 1800XP+, GeForce4 64mb gfx card, 1024 Mb ram). I've been running the 1.90 client for a little while and that was silky smoothe. Now, I hear bullets and can't turn round in time to take the person out, the whole system becomes jerky and unresponsive. Granted this is a first release, but seriously, playability of it sucks. The new maps, however, are very cool...but I'm waiting until 2.01 irons out all of the bugs and performance problems.
I am NaN
No, members of Congress complain because it will get them votes. The do not want to fix the issue. If they did they would past stupid laws that say if someone looks under the age of 18, the picture is childporn, even if they person is over the age of 18.
You are making the mistake that Congress is about getting things done, it isn't. It is about insuring that those currently in Congress, stay in congress.
"and Congress doesn't compain because of gratuitous violence in and of itself, but rather because it believes they predispose players to violent, antisocial behavior at a subconscious level"
... they predispose players to violent, antisocial behavior at a subconscious level. To then turn around and harness that very effect to fill up some recruiting roster is at once cynical, totally lacking inner logic and, yes, hypocritical
"Violence". Gratuitous and unnecessary violence is something military training seeks to prevent. The violence is a means to a specific goal, it tends to be highly controlled and limited in scope. Keep in mind the goal is not necessarily to kill enemy troops. The preferred solution is to destroy their weapons and deprive them of communications, ammunition, and other necessities in order to coerce them into surrender. I realize that it goes contrary to an endless stream of action movies that feed most people's perception of the military but the last thing the typical US soldier wants to do is pull the trigger. What gets him to pull the trigger is not some form of blood lust or brain washing but the genuine fear the he and his fellow soldiers are in immediate danger.
"Antisocial Behavior". By definition military action is social behavior. Both in the group sense and social norms sense. People with criminal, violent, and antisocial tendencies are refused enlistment. People with an inability to conform to regulations or follow orders tend to be discharged or see the stockade, not combat. An antisocial violent soldier is a danger to his own unit.
Tell the poor me to some one else, we know your just as guilty as 'the enemey'....
GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
So what do you suppose it IS for if its not for propoganda purposes? Why would they spend money just to make a game? It may be just for recruiting but thats propogranda to really.
"It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein