$57 million can sure buy some shiny pixels.
Molding Kansas farmboys into superhuman killing machines is a difficult task, and no one knows this better than the US Army. Thus, the top brass are constantly looking for new and better ways to simulate the stress and chaos of the battlefield without actually having to shoot at their latest batch of recruits.
Enter German developer Crytek. Or more specifically, enter Crytek’s CryEngine 3, the technology behind Crysis 2.
The Army, in what I’m hoping is not an underhanded attempt to prove that first-person shooters turn gamers into killers, spent $57 million developing a cutting edge training program based on the technology dubbed the “Dismounted Soldier Training System” — which is fancy talk for “game that teaches recruits how to best survive as infantry when jerks with machine guns are trying to kill you.”
The results, as you can see from the trailer above, or the other trailer below, look pretty impressive.
Granted, the two clips are essentially just tech demos for the simulator, and the odds that any of us will ever get a chance to play this thing without signing on for a tour of duty are essentially zero, but it at least offers a glimpse of how our tax dollars are being used in the war against America’s foes.
When I originally started writing this piece I was going to make a big hoopla about that $57 million price point, but after thinking about it a bit, that amount of money is actually not all that impressive. Grand Theft Auto IV cost nearly twice that much, and given how well that game prepared our nation’s youth for a life of jacking cars and beating hookers to death, I think the Army might be low-balling this whole effort.
And besides, does this simulation really prepare our troops for the wars of the future? If we wanted to ensure the safety of America in the new millennium, we should have handed that cash to John Carmack. I just fear that we’re going to be woefully unprepared when the Cyberdemons start firing rockets into our churches and synagogues.
Source: PC Gamer
Published: Dec 23, 2011 07:21 pm