The US Army licenses Epic Games' Unreal Engine for its upcoming game, America's Army.

Epic Games has announced that the United States Army has licensed the Unreal Engine for use in its upcoming PC game, America's Army. More information about the game will be revealed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles later this week.
"Our selection of the next-generation Unreal Engine was the most important decision we made when charting our development path for 'America's Army,'" said LTC Casey Wardynski, originator of the America's Army concept and manager of the development program. "The Unreal engine has allowed us to push our graphics and realism beyond the state-of-the-art."

[url]http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/products/screenindex/0,11104,561551,00.html[/url]

[img]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2002/e32002/pc/americasarmy/aa_screen008.jpg[/img]
[img]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2002/e32002/pc/americasarmy/aa_screen016.jpg[/img]
[img]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2002/e32002/pc/americasarmy/aa_screen015.jpg[/img]

can you actually fire the barrett that way?

Me thinks that fella is going to be on his ass.



I wonder if this game will be more realistic than the others (stamina, strength loss, muscle tremors due to fatigue, refusal to move if over worked, etc)?

that game looks really sweet, not usually a fan of the Unreal engine, but hey who can argue those screen shots?

Looks VERY sweet... Any links to the development?  I'm curious as to what weapons and scenarios there will be in the game.  

Maybe this one could get me off of playing MoH:AA!  ... not likely... but it just might... lol

I think it is possible.  With good muzzle brakes, most .50's don't kick much more than a 12ga.  I don't know from experience though.

You can shoot a Barrett offhand but I lean into the shot a little more.  I'd be more worried about his buddy's muzzle covering his right knee with the M16.

I've seen it done with a .50 (Maadi)
[b].50's don't kick much more than a 12ga.  I don't know from experience though[/b]

And it gets better.
How much would you pay for a game like this?
$40.00?
$50.00?
Well thanks to our good friends at the DOD, we'll be able to get this game for the low low price of $0.00.  That's right, it's free!  How sweet is that?  Even if it sucks eggs, who cares!  It's free!



Here is the link the the game page.  Good luck loading it though, it's really slow.
[url]http://www.americasarmy.com/[/url]

The catch is their probably using it as a marketing thing too to enlist you, therefore causing me to get a phone call every bloody day again.  Other than that looks like a great deal.
America's Army is scheduled for release in August. The game will be distributed for free in response to requests at the game's official Web site and will be available for download from the Internet. We'll post more information about the game as it becomes available.

This is an outrage!  It should be on one of those "fleecing of America" news segments.  Here is our government, on one hand crying about budget deficits and not being able to "afford a tax cut" and on the other hand, spending who knows how much money on bullshit,  advertisements for the army so some dot-com can stay in business.  

Plus, does the game depict the hardships that real soldiers face?  No!  Where is the crappy food, crappy pay, long, boring hours spent doing every conceivable kind of nonsensical laborious task (cleaning garbage cans, digging holes and then filling them back in, sitting around fucking waiting for a truck or bus, waiting weeks or months for some time off to go blow what little money you have in the shithole town that sits next to every military base in the country--you know, the one with the pawnshops, tittie bars, and fast food joints)? How exciting!  How courageous!

Plus, I heard that the game will be rated "T" for teen, so they will reduce the amount of gore in the game.  Yeah, I guess the reality of having to drag your buddy's disfigured, bloody, dying body back to a foxhole and administering an overdose of morphine to put him out of his misery would make a kid question their dedication to signing on.  Nothing like having one of your limbs blown off or being gutshot and laying dying in a muddy ditch in some third world hellhole to make you reconsider.  They should make a real fucking war game like that and be honest about the kind of sacrifice they are being asked to make.  It ain't all running around with a SAW shooting everything in sight with no consequences.  It's more like--you go on deployment to Bosnia for six months and when you get back, your girlfriend left you, sold all of your belongings to pay the bills (and threw the rest right in the trash) and you are down to stealing MREs and web gear and selling them on eBay so you can afford a blowjob from a 40-something streetwalker in the parking lot of the Bojangles and a bottle of JD.  

There is nothing left of this republic that is at all honest anymore.  Even computer games are propaganda for the state.  It's all healthy young men without gulf-war syndrome fighting for the good of the empire.  No mention of who really benefits from this sacrifice.

They're getting 100K hits per hour on their web servers, so it's a bit slow right now.

One of the objectives of the game is to remove a little of the mystery from basic training. In the old days you could talk to guys around the neighborhood about what goes on. That's more rare these days since the end of the draft. The thinking is that by showing them the process of basic in a game setting it will make the recruiter's job of closing the sale easier by removing some of the fear of the unknown.

The training sessions are very high fidelity. Many of the training areas are exact models of the real training areas--the rifle range in the game looks exactly like the rifle range they will go to in real life, down to the placement of the towers and the signs and texture maps. (So the former and current active duty guys can run around on a virtual Fort Bragg and recognize the landmarks.) The weapons sounds were recorded on site. Weapons clearance drills are as in real life.

They're in beta now. Release this summer. They're talking about getting some current images from Afghanistan into the game so they can have a bin Laden level. Not sure if they'll get it in.

Game engines have some real potential for military training. You can imagine CQB teams doing a rehersal of a raid beforehand so they're familiar with the layout of the buildings. It turns out that game engines have outstripped the capabilities of most of the in-house military trainers; they have much better graphics and they have far better level builder tools. Of course, they're still optimized to be fun rather than enhance training, but that can be worked around.

I don't know from the squating position, but doing it from the freehand position... it's definitely doable. [.50]

Here is a club member rapid firing a Barrett with a full mag.

[img]http://www.webshooters.org/photogallery/WebShooters%20June%2002%2001/P6020073.jpg[/img]

I hope you aren't basing that on personal experience. [puke]

I think this is an awesome idea.

It's sad to say this, but this is one way the Government can reach out to the youngsters and show them wasabi.

I'm one of those sad kids, I play games all the time, but I don't need any game to push me over the edge, I've already decided to join the army few months ago.

I just have to work out details, like talking to my boss about it, and working out money while I'm gone.
I doubt my wage in the army will pay the bills.

Now that is a good looking game.

But if its free, I doubt that it will have a whole lot of levels. Especally if its small enough to download over the internet...

Will you be able to put divisional patches on your "character's" uniform??

btw u dont need to give your phone number to get the game

i figure i already get junk mail from em so why not get a free game!

I think its a good way to reach people. face it people play games these days this is one more recruting tool. And a good way to get your address of coarse they have it anyway because theyve been sending me stuff for months.
too bad I cant get in or I would have already signed up.:< oh well Ive thought about the CG but I belive they have simler quals as well. any other sugestions>?

I [b]REALLY[/b] like that 2nd picture - the one with the open sights tuned into somebody's head.  Now THIS is what targeting should be, not just running around with 100% vision of everything in front of you AND being able to hit accurately because of a green reticle on your screen.  No, no, military-style games need two things to be "realistic":

1.) Sights like this.  No reticles, no scopes on any rifle you want, just open sights and a front post.  If you want to hit somebody, then damnit - you have to AIM at them like real soldiers do.
2.) Wobble, damnit, Wobble!  I doubt I could hit anybody at 600 yards repeatedly with my full-size AR15 open-sights in reality, but I'll be damned if I can't pop heads with an M4 standing in Counter-Strike...amazing aim! More like unachievable control by any man.

I love the idea of the sights, now if they just made it wobble - you've got yourself a realistic war game...or at least a good start into what a soldier experiences in the field.

Damn you! [;)]

I wanted to post this since I was at e3 ( Electronic Entertainment Expo ) and got to play the game. The Army was all over the place and was advertising by walking around with their m4's and m240b's. Didn't get a picture of that though [V]

The game is really really fun but hard

Some pics..

[img]http://www.havenofrags.de/skammy/e3-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.havenofrags.de/skammy/e3-2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.havenofrags.de/skammy/e3-3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.havenofrags.de/skammy/e3-4.jpg[/img]

That last one is just a booth babe..
Sorry about the quality of pics I was in a hurry
[+]:D]

The real giveaway is they specify you must be between 13 and 34 years-old to get the free CD mailed to you. What does that tell you?

Obviously, they don't care how much you've paid in taxes, 'cuz if that were the case, they would let old farts like myself get the game for free too! [pissed]

I'm writing my Congressman tomorrow to file an age discrimination gripe.

It won't work.  Senior citizens get all kinds of benefits from not only private companies, but also the government.  These benefits kick in at varying ages, but since I am 25, I have no chance!

I don't think they'll conmplain too much if you pick up a pirated copy for personal use.

Remember, the objective is recruiting, not feeding the need for twitch first person shooters in the general public.

BTW, here's a review of AA: Operations

[url]http://www.lanparty.com/2002e3/day2/americasarmy-phin.shtml[/url]

The game is technically astounding. Based off of the Unreal Tournament 2003 code line, the game is one of the public’s first opportunities to sample the next generation of computer gaming technology. Visually astounding and boasting astronomical poly counts compared to those of its competition, it’s like Counter-Strike on crack. Surfaces are smooth, the shadows and dynamic lighting are brilliant, and the little moths flying around light sources are a stroke of genius that are a huge boon for the atmosphere. But enough praise, let’s take a closer look at why this game is so great.

What one immediately notices when playing AA:O is the attention to detail given to every element of the game. As the video on the E3 show floor said, nobody knows the Army like the Army, and it’s readily apparent that they’re right (I mean, would you disagree with a bunch of troops continually doing air insertions from the top of the convention centre?). There was an incredible amount of effort given to accurately model each of the weapons used in painstaking detail. Actual military weaponry was used to create the models, actual shot to get the sounds, and the animations for reloading and clearing a jam are exactly what you’d expect to see if you were attending West Point instead of living at home with j00r m4m4. The weapons in the game even jam with their actual rates in the field, something that can turn you in to a pile of hamburger quite fast if you aren’t careful. And as if that weren’t enough, some guns feature bipod supports, and all give you the ability to use the iron sights for increased accuracy. Another often-overlooked extra feature that you might find interesting is the night vision system, which for the first time actually works like night vision. Not content to just bump the gamma and turn everything a green tint, AA:O had to take it to the next level. By making night vision that works off of objects properties such as luminosity, AA:O achieves a near-perfect NVG system. The effect is rather dramatic on a mission where the objective is to infiltrate an airfield at night. In the surrounding forests, night vision is essential to avoid playing human pinball with the trees, but when you crest the hill overlooking the lit airfield, the goggles become saturated and useless. VERY cool!

You don't need to be a senior to experience age discrimination.

Jewbroni

Counter Strike doesnt have a recoil/wobble setting?

Delta Force Land Warrior has it. Works just fine on the rifles, especally as all the rifles used in the game have optics...

Unfortunaly DFLW has nothing similar for the machine guns, and no sights for the grenade launchers and that REALLY pisses me off.

Have you tried going into the Setup menu on Counter Strike and checking that they dont have a place to activate wobble and other realistic effects?

Does anyone knew the System Requirements of this game? I have been all over [url]http://www.americasarmy.com/ops/news/[/url] and can't find them.

Heck daughter turned 18 , used her name . I know I'm terrible .[stick]

At the cost of getting flamed, i agree with what trickshot said. Im not anal, i think as a game it would be really cool, but this game will not show the horrors of war.

Its more like fantasizing war instead of recruiting young Americans for loftier goals such as service of country, furthering education, and the like.

There are already games like this on the market, why waste tax-payer money to make a game to educate-"entertain" young Americans, to entice them with "violence" into joining in the military.

Yes in the Military you do violent things, this is not my contention. Just its implementation as a recruitment tool. the first 45min. of saving private ryan should be shown to them instead of a game where there is no blood/gore, screams of your comrades dying from grevious wounds. It will not teach them bravery or self-sacrifice, only that killing in real life is like killing computer bad guys in the video games they've been playing all along.

As a game will this be cool? hell ya, i want a copy too, just dont think its wise to use for recruitment.

any feedback?

lib

lobby the marines to make one too.

I'll say it once, and I'll say it again, I think its a great idea.

You don't have to be a rocket science to figure out that when your partner or you gets shot, its not going to be a pretty thing.
War is not pretty, you could put all the blood and guts on a video game, and your still not going to get the idea.  

As a matter of fact I can in my head( bear with me now people), a picture of a bullet passing through a human head, but until it actually happens to me in real life, my brain is going to react accordingly.

Lets take this for what it is, a recruiting tool that for ages 13 to 35, no need to add extra blood and guts to get the "feel" of real war. I mean I don't give a shit, personally if there's not at least some blood I'm going to be pissed, but there's lots of mom's that would be pissed, realistically.

You will see soon perfecting these games and using them as scenarios simulation tools, they will be small supplement for actual training, but effective. You'll see.

The Marines did this FIRST, they have been using "hacked" versions of first Doom II and then Quake for years now. They get technical support from ID. The game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, while packaged as a historical game (all the weapons and such are from WWII) is based in part on work done modifying Quake into a combat simulator for the Marines. The Army just sort of jumped over by getting the idea of using it as a recruiting tool as well as a training tool.

It would not suprise me to see the Marines (and possibly the Navy too- from the SEAL community) getting togeather with ID and relasing their own version.

The only thing that might delay this is that ID just relased at the E3 show this week the first glimpses of Doom III- which introduces a new generation graphics engine and AI, more adavanced than the Quake III engine used to create MOH. Doom III is not even close to being released, "sometime in 03- maybe" is all the people at the show would commit too. They arent even up to beta testing yet. The short movie that ID showed did generate a lot of positive buzz, and the Marines may find it worth their while to wait for this new system. See [url]http://money.cnn.com/2002/05/24/commentary/e3_onestowatch/index.htm[/url] bottom of page.

Yeah, but you know, it's like reading Playboy when you're 13. Ain't nothing like the real thing.

The divorcing-wife scenario might not be so far-fetched. This is describing a companion, Sims-like game:

----
In "Soldiers," the role-playing game, the player becomes a recruit who learns both Army and life skills by going through simulated boot camp. Players learn about different career options offered in today's Army in a way that no recruiting brochure can match. The simulation is so real that drill sergeants scream in their faces, and soldiers who really mess up are sent to Leavenworth (accompanied by the sound of a blues harmonica). The realism extends to the personal life of the recruits. Players shop at the PX, learn to manage their personal finances, and even get married and divorced. It's that detailed.
----

I was in a book store at the airport the other day buying a copy of tom clancy's book shadow warriors and hack's new book "steel my soldier hearts" ( both great books from what I have read so far) but anyway let me get to my point.
I was looking up and saw a game magazine with a game on the cover that was suppose to be licensed by ussocom. I beleive it was somthing about navy seals.

might be kinda interesting but I'm not really a game person.

In Soldiers, do they allow you to maintain hidden cameras in the house to catch your wife cheating while you're on deployment? [:D]

I'll sure as hell download it.  I love realistic First Person Shooters and it sounds like it has alot of good details.  How it all plays out will determine whether or not game is a steaming pile of shit though.  When I initially heard they were making one that is what I expected (the aforementioned Marine DoomII mods where pretty shitty even when they were new).  From looking at it in more detail it has some potential to actually be pretty good.  

There are precious few FPS games that feature iron sight aiming, that is a major plus for me no matter what.  I hate the on screen crosshair only thing most games go with...  

BTW, Infiltration (www.sentry-studios.com) a free mod for Unreal Tourney has iron sight aiming, as well as Operation Flashpoint.  Anyone know of any others?  Oh yeah, Day of Defeat for Halflife does I believe but I don't like that one a whole lot...

Here's some impressions from GameSpot.  I'm wondering if for multiplayer you can only work together with other live players playing against AI controlled enemies.  Kinda makes it sound like you can't team deathmatch against other people, that would suck if so...
[url]http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,2867995,00.html[/url]

Maybe I just need to switch to the name brand tinfoil for my hat, but is anyone else a bit leery in this age of both increasingly good spyware and an increasing push for computer surveillance about installing a "free" program from .gov on their PC?

Rocko

there is a relly cool part of the game where you sit in a foxhole for 4 days and nights freezing (or boiling) yer ass off and eating shitty food, and wiping the brick of a turd that come out yer ass with a handi wipe size piece of TP...oh wait a minute that wasnt a game...

The game was codenamed "Starfighter", after the movie "the Last Starfighter". So those with high score better watch out--Uncle Sam is keeping a list and you'll be the first drafted :-)