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U.S. Marine Corps Enters Videogame Arena

Posted by simoniker on from the cue-star-trek-duel-music dept.

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."

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  1. USMC / Marine DOOM by Geartest.com · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.