Developer: U.S. Army didn't want vulnerabilities in game

I might check it out to see all the new tech the U.S. army loves to boast about. I don't see the point of playing the GAME past checking it out if its just one sided fighting. The spirit of a game lies in competition. No competition = no game. I think they could have done this more tactfully but then again tact is a word unfamiliar under the current administration.

I wonder if there are missions where Rumsfeld prevents shipment of kevlar to the troops and you gotta fight outta there unprotected!

When did it become the US armys job to tell the US people what to do and thing, isn't it the job of an army to obey the voice of the people....

The Best thing the US could do would not be to improve the image of the army, but to scrap the army and improve the image of the US.

They've pulled the same attitude in actual training simulations and tactical wargames. These are things that actually affect Army strategy in real wars.

And they wonder why they fucked up so bad in Iraq . . .

I was wondering why they made the terrorists so competent in AA. You look at real firefights, the Americans just about always dominate statistically. I mean look at the famous "Black Hawk Down" battle in Somalia; over 1000 Somali dead, 17 green berets dead despite being way outnumbered and with bad position.

Difference is Halo is about a distant future, America's Army is more present day, and we can compare it to what is happening in reality, namely how the vaunted US military is losing in Iraq

Yes, we should expect an even viewpoint, because this is a recruitment tool, not just a game. So accuracy should be a desired quality for such a "game". After I came out of high school, I took the army ASVAB test and I aced it. The recruiter said I was a perfect candidate and basically told me that I should join because the army was a "fun place to be" or something like that.
I know it wasn't, so I changed my mind and didn't join. Had he told that army life was hard but rewarding, I probably would've joined. And IMO, that's what games that are used as recruitment tool should reflect, not some fantasy land where your enemies are dummies that just stand there to be killed.

I find it deceptive, because, unless this specifically marketed as "designed and approved by the U.S. Army," this a is recruiting and propaganda tool disguised as entertainment.

I can't say I blame the Army. They've realized that video games that show how much fun it is to shoot stuff and how badass the U.S. military is can help lure more people - particularly teens with limited academic options - into a military career.

I just find it disingenous that a piece of propaganda is being passed off as just another war game, if that is indeed the case. The military has been lying to recruits about what they do for years - hyping high-tech toys and not so much the fact that you could, you know, get killed - but making people pay for it seems pretty crummy.

And AMERICA'S ARMY sucked balls.

To be honest most military shooters beef up the enemy far beyond their capability or dumb down Western equipment. Usually it is the latter, where the western vehicles or guns are not nearly as powerful or sophisticated as they are in real life. They also restrict or remove the arsenal that western armies have.

Instead of complaining about a game that you’ve read a seven sentences about, how about actually playing the game? Then you can post your opinion of it.

Um... Is the game going to be fun if one side is outrageously overpowered compared to the other? Or do they want you to play the bad guys? In which case... is this a recruitment tool for our enemies? EVIL!!!

I have to disagree with Werbal, America's Army was a great game. I played for 2 years and had a great time while playing. If you got a squad together, it was a great online game where you had to use strategy and work as a team to win a match. It was just had much more realism than the Counterstrike type FPS, and to me that made it a better game.

Sure it was supposed to be a recruitment tool, but to me it was just a great game. Plus the dev's were constantly updating it, adding new maps, weapons, and just constantly making the game better. To me playing a match with my squad will always be one of my best gaming memories. Unfortunately cheating eventually took over and made the game unplayable. Hopefully it's gotten better, and maybe I'll get back to it if I can ever tear myself away from my 360 or Wii.

Maybe we should use the tax payers money to actually give our soldiers kevlar rather than fund multimillion dollar games to trick children into making a poor decision. Yes, America's Army was fairly terrible compared to other shooters. Anyone looking for an interesting and rewarding FPS in a modern war setting check out armed assault. http://www.armedassault.com/

SPECULATION IS HEREBY BANNED! SO SAYETH PETER!

#9 - The real problem is that there is a large population over there that want a theocracy and we're intent on setting up a democracy. There are three options for resolving that problem, give in and setup a theocracy, create another country or setup a dictatorship similar to Saddam's. Each option leads to other, significant problems.

This is bad because:
1. It is not just a recruitment tool, but one for the military. Once you bring the very real prospect of one recruited losing his life into it, you should be held to a much higher standard.
2. If it's realistic that's one thing (although let's face it, no game is going to present a truly realistic and accurate portrayal of combat, the fact of its presentation alone is a glorification), but this doesn't even present the roughly-equal chance of death that comes from being in a multiplayer game.
3. Oh come on now, it's selling the Army to the U.S. youth! If you don't have a problem with that, then it would seem, to me, that you would have to think that absolutely any use of advertising is fair game, at all. If you give that usage pass, what could you honestly reject?
4. There's also our tax dollars paying for it. You know, if you still care about things like that.

I do have to say, however, that I am a little curious as to how they handle multiplayer. Word is that the current America's Army multiplayer works by always making the friendly side into U.S. soldiers on your screen, and the opposing side look like enemy combatants. That implies a certain equality of capability to make the illusion stick, else one side would be the "strong Americans" and the other the "weak Americans." If there is no distinction between the capabilities of opposing teams, does this mean one side actually does get to play the Evil Forces What Hate Americans in this game?

Yeah, it's so unfair how the US Army glosses over how you can be killed or the disadvantages and only focuses on the cool things. Why can't they do things more like the Chinese or Palastinian Army, or maybe the Korean Army?
Obviously all their military enlistments came from people who were explained in great detail how they could be killed in the line of duty and only be given minimal support and defense and armoring and subpar medical treatment and no benefits if they were crippled for life. I'm sure all those people were all just so dedicated to the prestige of their country that none of these facts, that they were most certainly explained to in full detail, mattered to them in the slightest, and they just couldn't wait to get out of their 10 figure salary that they made working from their quiet little cubicle.

Hmm... yeah, obviously the US military is totally unreasonable and underhanded and should feel ashamed for using such underhanded tactics. I mean, this is surely just as bad as reinstituting the draft.

Grey Acumen better get a fuckin' star!

Haha, I'd like to sign up and ask "okay, now when do I get my gameshark? What do I do to get infinite ammo?"

What I don't get is where is the Senator/House outcry over a violent video game made by our own Army?

-p-

like the TV add, that say: "Paid for by the US Army", well, these games should say the same, no? so we can know it's one-sided... I don't like propagandist videogames.

Eskil Steenberg and Avinash_Tyagi,

Yeah, its a shame the US army stood in the way and hitler, the japanese and later the communists didnt slaughter your families. The world would be better off with far less people like you

minus_273

Why do always people WWII as a success story? 50 million dead is not really what i call effective conflict resolution. War is to worst state humanity can be in, so what state is war protecting us from?

Anyone who think that war is a solution to any problem is naive and doesn't really know what war is. So army's have to make sure the population is naive and thinks war is just a game.

Yeah Minus_273 cause Saddam and Hitler are the same. I guess we can leave out the fact that the USA did not get involved in WW2 until they got attacked. They just got involved cause their nice... Ignorance.

Anyway, talking about theocracy, USA is a nation ruled by born again christians. Even the president himself has said he gets orders from God.

America is just as evil and dangerous as Iran. The only difference is that the USA does not opress their own citizens they just opress other nations. Kidnap people from all over the world and put them in jail without trail. Then they torture them for years.

If the USA had any sort of decency they would bring their leaders to justice. Put them on trail in Haag for crimes against humanety. Their lies and crimes has cost more than 600.000 people their lives.

"21. Yeah Minus_273 cause Saddam and Hitler are the same. I guess we can leave out the fact that the USA did not get involved in WW2 until they got attacked. They just got involved cause their nice... Ignorance.

Anyway, talking about theocracy, USA is a nation ruled by born again christians. Even the president himself has said he gets orders from God."

Saddam and hitler.
Lets see, invade neighbors, check. Ethnic cleansing, check. Socialism, check. Nationalism, check. Gas minorities, check. Dictator, check. Dude you are really on thin ice there.

It also seems someone does not know about the arsenal of democracy. Go read a book kid you make yourself look like an idiot.

"Anyway, talking about theocracy, USA is a nation ruled by born again christians"

Funny last i checked the entire legislature was now controlled by the mostly atheist/socialist leaning democrats.

"Anyone who think that war is a solution to any problem is naive and doesn't really know what war is. "

Ah, because you do. Neville is that you? Go shoot yourself buddy. People like you allowed millions to die.

"Lets see, invade neighbors, check. Ethnic cleansing, check. Socialism, check. Nationalism, check. Gas minorities, check. Dictator, check. Dude you are really on thin ice there."

Im on thin ice? The very idea of comapring Saddam to Hitler is ridiculous. Its like saying a pin pong ball and the moon are the same cause they are both round.

My big question is, How the hell do you get it to run? I downloaded the file, and when I went to unzip it, it says its corrupted. Does that mean I need to re download it, and if so, what can I do this time to prevent it from being uncorrupted?
Drage

I'm thinking along the same lines as Hannibal -- look at Iraq, and during the actual war (which lasted 6 weeks, as opposed to the 5 years we've spent nation-building) and we lost, what, double-digits, compared to several thousand of Saddam's forces? The US military actually *is* at least an order of magnitude more capable than any force it has engaged in the last 50 years. If we hadn't been hamstringed by in-country Communist sympathizers (like the one that almost won the 2004 presidential race) we could have been in and out of Vietnam in a month or two. Long story short, we still excel at war -- we just suck at picking up the pieces once we've blown everything up.