Militaries using games as training tools is nothing new; but here comes one account of a group of five gamers taking on five soldiers from the Netherlands in ‘Virtual Battlefield System 2,’ and scoring a resounding win (the author points out that the gamers were way ahead the soldiers in terms of familiarity with the software, which helped). It’s entertaining, but also contains some musings on the future of such war games and gamers and the military. If you can forgive the typos, it’s an interesting little piece on current applications and perhaps where this might lead:
Many people have been saying this for a long time, and i think we approach the point that more armies will see that ‘Gaming’ is not only fun to do. you can learn from it. – just like we did today. In the last years, technology has taken an enormous jump. the current weaponry has been benefiting from this fact, and its inevitable that normal troops will be trained with special simulation equipment. this can vary from radar observance to real field duty procedures. Gaming has been around us for many years for our pleasure. But yet since a few years, many countries have learned that gaming could be more than just recreational fun.
While real exercises are very expensive, simulations are quite cheap in comparison. Although today’s artificial intelligence is possibly not sufficient for proper training, todays available simulations tecnologies are hard to neglect.
Field report : Gamers fight real Soldiers in VBS2. [ArmedAssault.eu]
At the yearly EB Games conference, store managers were given this Assassin’s Creed comic book after seeing a 30 minute demo of the game. The comic shows a lot about the plot of the game and it’s basic concepts, so as not to give away any plot points or spoilers I have just posted the cover here for you to see. If you would like to see the comic in it’s entirety and possibly ruin the entire game for yourself, you can peruse it at sircuddlesGHII’s Photobucket gallery of the pages.
Assassins Creed Comic [Photobucket]
Oh, what would good ol’ Eddie Said say? From Sexy Videogameland comes a rather interesting discussion by Rick Luebbers of Midway’s Surreal Software on differences in Japanese and Western game design and gaming preferences. Some (most) of the generalisations are sweeping at best, and many of his examples aren’t exclusively Western problems, they’re industry problems – I don’t care where the game is coming from. Square hasn’t exactly been wowing me with fresh, inventive, and wickedly original narratives. To sum it up – most of this comes down to personal opinion and taste in games. Leigh Alexander brings it back to reality:
Is it safe to say, though, that Japanese games are more fantastic while Western games are more realistic? What would a realistic Japanese game look like? Moreover, is Western fantasy doomed forever to Tolkien derivatives? If you prefer one to the other, what does that indicate about your personal taste?
My game shelf is mostly full of Japanese titles; I’m not sure it says anything deep, other than the fact I generally prefer what’s coming out of Japan to what’s coming out of America. I’m sure if I played more of certain types of games, that ratio of Japanese-to-Western would be reversed. But I don’t delude myself into thinking that I’m drawn to Japanese games because the vast majority are creative and innovative little gems – they’re not.
Stranger In A Strange Land (Part 2): West vs. East [Surreal Game Design via Sexy Videogameland]
It seems like money and apologies aren’t enough to satisfy the great Church of England. BBC News is reporting that the Dean of Manchester Cathedral is calling for arch nemesis Resistance: Fall of Man to be removed from a list of games that have been nominated for a British Academy Video Games Award after an unsuccessful bid to have the game removed from th UK’s store shelves. Says the Dean:
It is a disgrace that Resistance: Fall of Man has been shortlisted… Sony has admitted that they did not have permission to film or use Manchester Cathedral in their computer game… BAFTA should not be seen condoning such behaviour unless they are saying it is acceptable for producers to walk into historic buildings and film interiors – ignoring contracts, rights and liability.
BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) has stated that the award which Resistance is up for, the PC World Gamers’ Award, is public voted. Although they didn’t say it outright, I’m assuming this means they are absolving themselves from any responsibility in the matter and basically telling the Church to take a hike. This final bit from the Dean of Manchester Cathedral, however, is priceless:
(The Dean) then called on Sony to abide by new “sacred digital guidelines” as he feared other buildings would be cloned for “virtual desecration”.
Sacred digital guidelines? Wow… just, wow. Sounds like something a certain Florida lawyer might come up with…
Church criticises gun game award [BBC News]
[Thanks, HellblazerUSA]
Kotakuite Louis S. gave us the heads up for this auction on Dutch eBay, with proceeds benefiting the World Wildlife Fund (as far as I can tell, which is not much, not reading Dutch): a 2.2 meter Big Daddy statue constructed out of fiberglass, weighing in at 44 kilos (around 97 lbs). Bidding ends on 8 am Sunday, CET and as of earlier this morning, bidding was up to a mere 600 Euros. If you can’t live without one of these in your living room, bid here. I’m just glad creepy, life-sized fiberglass Little Sister isn’t included.
It’s the beginning of the month so it must be time for another Arcade Flyer Archive update! As usual TAFA graces us with another hundred flyers in each of their three categories: video games, pinball games and arcade amusement games. This month in video games we get Dead or Alive, Burger Time, House of the Dead 4 Special and Metal Slug X just to name a few. Pinball and Arcade Amusement also get their fair share with some new SMB Pinballs and Ashcraft’s favourite Love and Berry Dress Up Dance. So, head on over to TAFA and see what all the hub-bub is about.
With BioShock and Halo 3 behind us, the next big epic game (not to be confused with Epic Games) is Mass Effect, set to hit shelves on Nov. 20, just in time for Thanksgiving holidayers to have something to play whilst trapped at various relatives homes. (Don’t forget to bring your 360.)
This clip introduces us to some of the denizens of Mass Effect you’ll meet throughout the game and shows off some of the gorgeous character animations that will likely set this game apart from other RPG shooters. If you missed Part One, I have included it for your viewing pleasure after the jump.
With the Cons over and everyone taking days off, it was a short and sweet week here at Kotaku Originals. Bungie split from Microsoft to stand on their own two feet, McWhertor chats with Itagaki and the PS3 drops is price in Europe.
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
SCEE: PS3 60GB Nixed for UK Too
Pandemic Responds to Angry Venezuelans
CliffyB on Halo as Bathtubs of Combat
Sega Trademarks Golden Axe: Beast Rider
The Holiday Season – Now How Much Would You Pay?
40GB PS3 To Hit Australia On October 11 For AUD$699
God of War: Battle of Attica Demo
