United States Army Game Now Available - Who's Enlisting?

[Anonymous]

I'll give it a shot. Im sure when I paid taxes sometime so long ago I cannot remember, some of that money went into this game. So I figure why not.

I saw it on CNN today, looked pretty smooth. I just hope the Army knows what type of people actually play these games.

"There's no bunny hopping in the army!"

"Bullets are over-powered!"

"lag"

"$hu+ Up N00b!"

[Anonymous]

Haha it won't even start. I have an ATI card. The game starts with something like:

"NVIDIA: How Games Should be Played"

Then it proceeds to shut down my monitor.

[Sean Tudor]

I'll give it a shot. Im sure when I paid taxes sometime so long ago I cannot remember, some of that money went into this game. So I figure why not.

I saw it on CNN today, looked pretty smooth. I just hope the Army knows what type of people actually play these games.

"There's no bunny hopping in the army!"

"Bullets are over-powered!"

"lag"

"$hu+ Up N00b!"

I find this whole Americas Army business slightly hilarious.

Does the US Army honestly think they are going to attract young soldiers by releasing a FPS ? Am I the only one that thinks this is crazy ?

Extra : I am downloading this now. 200 Megs !!!

[Anonymous]

I wonder if some fool will post an ISO for this on a warez site...


Haha it won't even start. I have an ATI card. The game starts with something like:

"NVIDIA: How Games Should be Played"

Then it proceeds to shut down my monitor

I hope they fix this kind of stuff before UT '03 comes out

[Gladguy]

... it's not bad!

I downloaded it, but it's only got the rifle training mission unlocked at this point.

I think this is a brilliant PR-slash-recruiting move by the Army. They've already got more mileage out of this one than a year's worth of "Be All That You Can Be" commercials.

And even though there's a million jaded bastards who don't think it'll work, I'll bet my next paycheck that Army enlistment shows a spike in the next six months.

[Jason McCullough]

I love the slight of hand where each side in multiplayer sees the other side as "terrorist" models. Great stuff.

[Anonymous]

Just finished rifle training, took me two tries before I figured out how to use the sight properly, and to control my breathing. Hell, and I've fired M16s on the range before too.

It's harder than you think it'd be, which is smart... Being a marksman is not easy, and this game won't let you just float by.

Frankly, I think this is a brilliant use of $6 million. Hell, honestly, it's this or more of those incredibly inane "Army of One" commercials, or a couple of toilet seats for the Air Force.

This way, at least we taxpayers can get a feeling of what the military is doing with our money; and the 18 year olds the Army is recruiting today is the total video game generation... they grew up with Nintendo and PC's and the Internet.

Can't wait until we get to "sign up" for more.

[mtkafka]

BAH!

OFP Resistance comes out soon in the US. Who needs stinking Counterstrike Army?!?

oops its free....I guess I'll try it. :lol:

etc

[Anonymous]

OFP Flashpoint seems to need more memory than the original - the hard drive's chugging like a stuttering dog on my 256MB 1GHz Athlon (with GeForce 4 Ti...). I'm too cheap right now to upgrade, but be warned.

[Anonymous]

this is amazingly accurate, even the terms are right on the training range. I just wish I oculd figure out what to do after the first mout training.

[Matthew Gallant]

I shot 36 out of 40 and only got Sharpshooter. Whoops, QA.

[wumpus]

I found I couldn't join any games, because the MOUT training didn't work (?). Here is the fix. I was able to join a server after doing this.



unlock all training exercises
How to unlock all the game levelswithout logging into the servers:

1 Open the C:\Program Files\Army Operations\System\tours.ini file in notepad

2 Find the following lines:

Dependency(0)=-1
Dependency(1)=0
Dependency(2)=1
Dependency(3)=1
Dependency(4)=1
Dependency(5)=1
Dependency(6)=5
Dependency(7)=1
Dependency(8)=7

3 Remove those lines, and replace them with the following:

Dependency(0)=-1
Dependency(1)=-1
Dependency(2)=-1
Dependency(3)=-1
Dependency(4)=-1
Dependency(5)=-1
Dependency(6)=-1
Dependency(7)=-1
Dependency(8)=-1

4 Now find these lines:

TourSeq(0)=1
TourSeq(1)=0
TourSeq(2)=0
TourSeq(3)=0
TourSeq(4)=1
TourSeq(5)=1
TourSeq(6)=0
TourSeq(7)=1
TourSeq(8)=0

5 Remove those, and replace them with the following:

TourSeq(0)=0
TourSeq(1)=0
TourSeq(2)=0
TourSeq(3)=0
TourSeq(4)=0
TourSeq(5)=0
TourSeq(6)=0
TourSeq(7)=0
TourSeq(8)=0

6 Save the file, and start Army Operations

[Kool Moe Dee]

I still haven't been able to register (I never get the e-mail back) but I was able to join some servers and play on the Alaskan pipeline map. It's a very pretty game. Gameplay is a mix between CS and R6, more R6 than CS though, which is nice IMO. You don't have people running around at 100 mph, and setting up proper ambushes/moving as a team seem vital to success.

That map, at least, seems to be pretty well-designed. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the training and other maps.

[Sean Tudor]

That map, at least, seems to be pretty well-designed. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the training and other maps.

I have found the whole game to be a very high class production. The terminology and procedures are 100% correct.

[Alternate#789]

My download always croaks when using NVidia's sight around 3% complete. When using download managers, they just stop receiving data. Game over, motherfucker, says the military. And I was really looking forward to complaining about that game, too.

What I really want to know is if anyone's played Marine DooM, and if there is a place to download it from. The one place I found doesn't seem to have the correct version, named CYBERWAR.WAD instead of MARINE1.WAD.

Also, does the Quake-powered follow-up to Marine DooM called Battlesight Zero even exist?

[Gladguy]

Ok... how do I unlock the training missions beyond the first Rifle training?

The manual is less than helpful, the forum is totally bogged down with traffic and the chat window in GameSpy is, well... the chat window in GameSpy. Too many l33t d00dz.

Did somebody not anticipate the traffic this game would get? Sheesh...

[Anonymous]

It's a really cool, really well done game once you get it going. Considering this is a first effort from a totally brand new developer (the U.S. Army), this would practically be a home run, if not for the server problems.

There are hacks you can make to your save game file that can give you access to the rest of the levels; don't bother trying to qualify in MOUT training, it's not working properly yet. I went 7/7 and racked up a 73 score, and I still didn't get a badge. So I ended up editing my save file to give me access to everything else.

Considering it's free, I find it hard for people to bitch. It's not as if the Army charged us $50 for the experience, like every other company does. It's buggy, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt because 1. It's the first day, there is always a massive rush and servers get slammed. 2. It's a holiday (though maybe releasing it the evening of July 3 wasn't such a smart idea). 3. It's free. 4. It's a damn great game once it works.

Kinda curious what the reaction will be from the devs and publishers... cause this thing could seriously suck players away from their games, such as CS. Part of them could probably bitch about the Federal Government fully subsidizing a competitor, but then the patriotic instincts kick in. This is, after all, for the Army, and we are, after all, at war.

[Anonymous]

Also wanted to add that this is probably a huge bargain to boot. It's got what, a $6 million budget over 3 or 4 years? That's peanuts, literally, to military spending. Over 3 or 4 years, we blow about a trillion dollars on the military, so this represents something like 0.0006 percent of the military budget in that time frame.

And it's so realistic and immersive, they could probably use it for training purposes of regular troops, which just a little modification (cause, like, you don't need to sell the Army to a bunch of guys who already signed the dotted line years ago). This could replace MarineDoom and all those other games. Totally serious. And they'd be getting it for cheap, cause if they didn't have this, they'd have to go to some civilian contractor and pay them an insane amount to get half the product.

[Martinez]

I think this is a brilliant PR-slash-recruiting move by the Army. They've already got more mileage out of this one than a year's worth of "Be All That You Can Be" commercials.
They can still use it. I can see the commercials now, "B3 All That j00 Can B3". Well have the frag-babies in the US army yet!

[Jason Becker]

"It's a really cool, really well done game once you get it going. Considering this is a first effort from a totally brand new developer (the U.S. Army),"

The Army paid for it but they contracted out to private civillian devs to make the games. I don't know who specifically but a preview said they were game dev verterens that have worked on previous commerical titles. Maybe someone else has specifics.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the developers of AA:O are civilians--I asked them at E3. A lot of them are apparently former EA guys, and their past projects at least include Agent Under Fire, that recent James Bond shooter. The development team is called "America's Army Development Team" according to their business cards.

I haven't played the game online yet, but I've gone through all the training. Those are some great weapon models. I love how when you switch to iron sights, you actually see a transition as you bring the gun up... very nice touch. I loved the iron sights in Operation Flashpoint and the effect is even better here. I also really like the way the game handles sprinting--you double-tap the forward run key. Reminds me of how you execute dashes in many fighting games. You can also roll side to side from the prone position, another neat feature that hasn't been done before in a shooter.

[Bernie_Dy]

I think you could roll while prone in one shooter, maybe the first SpecOps game. The first SpecOps game had some nice features for its time, but the second one was a real letdown.

[Jason McCullough]

William Tecumseh Sherman:


You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation.



Eyewitness, Dr. Charles O. Brown, said that , 'the reason the reporters missed the famous statement, and later denied that it had been made, was that the reporters rushed away as soon as Sherman started reading his long, technical speech. But before he sat down, the General suddenly said, ‘Cadets of the graduating class’ – the students arose and saluted – and then changed it to ‘Boys,’ making this statement: ‘I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.

‘Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell!’ The reporters had missed the biggest story of the day. Brown, seated alongside Sherman, wrote down the speech verbatim." The Enquirer and News (Battle Creek) 18 November, 1933.


Online gamers:



KEKEKEKEKEKKKEKEKE! WALLHACK j00!

[Woolen Horde]

America's Army 1.9 was just released today. Supposed to have a huge number of revisions and additions, so big that they skipped naming it 1.8 and went straight to 1.9 (1.7 is the current version).

Unfortunately, the 1.9 client was released by some of the Army's third party partners, while the official Army servers are still yet to be upgraded. So you can download 1.9, but you can't play it yet.

This game is awesome. I've been playing 1.7 pretty relentlessly for the past month. There are two Ranger Regiment missions that are just awesome: Weapons Cache SE and Bridge SE. Both are Special Editions of earlier maps, the main difference being that they're much larger than the originals. So while Bridge was just a brutal assault across a narrow bridge, Bridge SE let's the Assault Team go around or under the bridge as well, which antes up the pressure on the Defense. Weapons Cache SE is kind of the same thing... lots more entrance points for the Defense to worry about, so they just can't camp the front door anymore.

[GuildBoss]

AA is fantastic. I've been playing it for a year with the same bunch of guys and it just gets better with every update and there's still lots more goodies coming down the pike.

BTW, you *can* roll while prone by using your Lean keys. And don't forget the "running dive" by hitting the Prone key while running. "Hit the deck!"

[Xemu]

FYI, to address some points earlier in this thread... one of the big project honchos for AA talked at DICE last year.

Apparently it is outrageously, phenomenally successful. As in, the most successful recruiting tool they've EVER made by several orders of magnitude. Also their bar was pretty low; apparently if it just kept like 100 from dropping out of the Army later it paid for itself (because those costs are so high).

It's so successful they are looking at expanding the program a lot, I hear.

Which personally scares me a bit, because it's frustrating to have to compete with government games that are funded with my tax money.

[XPav]

Which personally scares me a bit, because it's frustrating to have to compete with government games that are funded with my tax money.

Well, when Forest Ranger: The Game comes out, then I'll be really worried.

Quite frankly, the US Military will pimp out their tech for movies they like, spending large amounts of tax payer dollars to put them in a good light, so I don't see a problem with them making video games.

[Supertanker]

Do they still make you go through all the training stuff? The training is pretty boring. I used to have a nice hacked profile that got me past all of that & let me pick any weapon. I'm reluctant to load up the new version just because I don't want to have to do anything but install. Yes, I'm lazy.

[Woolen Horde]

Which personally scares me a bit, because it's frustrating to have to compete with government games that are funded with my tax money.

Hey buddy, Freedom Isn't Free!!!!! Hoo-Ah!!!!

[Peter Frazier]

I'm eager to see games done by government agencies. Postal just wasn't realistic enough for me.

[DaveC]

AA is a great team game that's been out for a while. With the ROE system and now Punkbuster it really is one of the most idiot free FPS games out there. It's like CS without the 733t kiddies.

[Woolen Horde]

1.9 will be released tomorrow (if you didn't already it already from the accidental release a few days ago).

Here's a few of what's new!!!

That's right -- effective tomorrow at noon, you can grab the much-anticipated update to America's Army: v1.9. Here's what you'll find in v1.9: the introduction of a new MOS: the Combat Medic (and, of course, the requisite medical training consisting of 4 separate courses); new higher-resolution character models; a brand-spanking-new interface (and theme song); new high-detailed textures; character shadows; lip syncing; new team selection pages; new scoreboard; PunkBuster anti-cheating software..and much more!

Bring it on!