U.S. Marine Corps Enters Videogame Arena

Thanks to GameSpot for its initial impressions of squad-based Xbox/PC FPS Close Combat: First To Fight, as it's explained: "The United States Marine Corps is looking to get into the [game licensing/development] action with Close Combat: First to Fight, a project it is working on with Destineer, a company formed by several ex-Bungie employees [and who also own MacSoft]." Apparently, in this Gathering-published title, a reboot of the Close Combat strategy game series: "You'll command a four-man fireteam of marines engaged in intense urban combat in a yet-to-be-named city in the Middle East", and the article author muses: "It may sound a lot like Full Spectrum Warrior... [but] instead of commanding the fireteam from third person, you'll actually play in first person as the fireteam leader."

Comments

RTFA

[Twirlip of the Mists]

First to Fight will incorporate the Marine Corps system of formations, movement, and tactics for urban combat, otherwise known as Ready-Team-Fire-Assist. This name refers to the role of each marine in a four-man fireteam. The "Ready" man is a rifleman who stands next to the "Team" leader. Across from them is the "Fire" position, manned by a marine armed with the Squad Automatic Weapon. And behind him there's the "Assist" man, who serves as assistant gunner and is also responsible for covering the team's rear. In the game, your squad will use RTFA tactics to ensure that your marines maneuver and fight like real marines.

Just a coincidence, or clever inside joke?

(I'm kidding. It's just a coincidence. But it made me laugh anyway.)

Re:RTFA

[Xentor]

Definitely a coincidence, but that's the first thing I noticed, too. Heheh...

USMC / Marine DOOM

[Geartest.com]

This sounds very much like Marine DOOM which was a WAD (mod) for DOOM II that the US Marine Corps Modeling and Simulation Management Office developed as a tactical training tool for four-man fire teams.

The mod is described as follows: "The game teaches concepts such as mutual fire team support, protection of the automatic rifleman, proper sequencing of an attack, ammunition discipline and succession of command."

I also remember watching an interview with a Marine officer who explained that playing the multiplayer game replicated the confusion and changes in situational awareness that soldiers experience in combat -- known as the fog of war -- as well as friendly fire and other important concepts.

Remember that Full Spectrum Warrior grew out of a combat simulation. Marine DOOM was a modification of a game that also served as a proof-of-concept training tool, which eventually led to the military version of FSW -- and was probably the precursor to it.

Unfortunately the site isn't online any longer, but thanks to Internet Archive, you can see the original Marine DOOM Homepage.

For more background you can also read "Doom Goes to War" by Rob Riddell which was the cover story in the Wired April 1997 issue.

Re:USMC / Marine DOOM

[identity0]

Oh yeah, I remember Marine Doom - I don't think I ever played it, but I was inspired by a article on it to create my own 'realistic' Doom .Wad.

It featured the Nazis from the Wolfenstein levels of Doom 2 in a bunker-type building, with terrace-like hills and such. I found that the Doom AI could not stop the Nazis from killing each other through friendly fire :P Plus, I could not stop myself from including those mutant spider-things with the plasma canons. So, if the War on Terror turns to fighting Nazis and biomechanical spiders with frickin' plasma cannons, I'll be ready :)

Point being, make sure the simulation is close to real life before you make it a training tool.

P.S. I used Ben Morris's DCK(Doom Construction Kit) to create the map. Morris went on to create WorldCraft for Quake and he got a job at Valve, where WorldCraft became the internal level editor for Half-life. They were the coolest level editors I ever used, and I must give props to Mr. Morris. If you ever have to do level-editing give WorldCraft a try : )

Sounds really similar to SOCOM...

[Arkhain]

...only without using the headset to sell. Honestly, the only new 'gimmick' that sets it apart from other squad-based tactical shooters is, well, Marines, I guess. Nobody's done them yet, at least, not ground marines. Sure, Space Marines, been there, done that, gatted that Tyranid/Zerg/Alien/etc, but marine Marines, shooting terrorists?

When is the military going to learn...

[Anonymous Coward]

... that the people playing these games might like killing people, but they're sure as hell not going to pass *any* fitness test.

So much for using it as a recruiting tool.

I can just see the basic training of the future

[Andy Mitchell]

I can just see the basic training of the future using this type of technology:

The Sergeant looked over the new recruits with great disapointment, "You people are the least geeky bunch of recruits I have EVER seen".

The recuits held their heads in shame.

"But that doesn't matter because by the time I have finished with you you will be the geekiest geeks god has ever seen. You will be able to field strip and reassmble an M462 rapid cursor positioning device, under enemy fire in less than 4.7 seconds while maintaining control of the system at all times using the keyboard as an alternate input device", continued the sergeant

One of the braver recuits asked, "Whats an M462 rapid cursor positioning device?"

"Or as you civillians call it, a mouse", replied the sergeant.

This kinda reminds me of..

[rubberbando]

..the Last Starfighter. When a player completely masters the game, a signal will be sent out over the net. Shortly after, a recruiter will show up to take the person away to battle. :-P

So what's going to happen to the true Close Combat

[17028]

It freakin sucks that they are raping the Close Combat franchise for this. CC2 is one of my favorite games. Why didn't they just mod Counter Strike and call it Counter Strike: Marine Corps?

AAAAUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHH

[0x0d0a]

Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why does Close Combat have to be such a fantastic series and *also* inextricably linked to Microsoft, without any chance whatsoever of ever seeing a Linux release? What gods did I *offend*?