Writes the Los Angeles Times:

Military researchers have found that two groups of personnel are particularly good at spotting anomalies: those with hunting backgrounds, who traipsed through the woods as youths looking to bag a deer or turkey; and those who grew up in tough urban neighborhoods, where it is often important to know what gang controls which block.

Personnel who fit neither category, often young men who grew up in the suburbs and developed a liking for video games, do not seem to have the depth perception and peripheral vision of the others, even if their eyesight is 20/20.

Note, this isn't explosive ordnance disposal, they're talking about riding in a humvee and picking up details that someone might have buried explosives in the road. This is important because, of bombs discovered before they went off, like 90 percent of them were found because someone's spidey-sense went off.

The story quotes a sergeant major who finds the research fits with his own observations. "The gamers are very focused on the screen rather than the whole surrounding," he said. Country boys and hood rats have a more finely-tuned radar - that head on a swivel mentality when you're potentially in a dangerous situation.

Some Troops Have a Sixth Sense for Bombs [Los Angeles Times via Game Politics]

America's Army, known for portraying a realistic take on today's wars and United States military operations, is now bringing in new machinery that you'll be able to play with... eventually. While you'll only see the Fire Scout's shadow on some of the game's maps and hovering over grounded planes on others, the America's Army team hopes to make it more interactive in future versions of the game, allowing you to "call upon the Fire Scout for intelligence and support."

Mike Howell, business development manager for Army systems at Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector, is thrilled to see the Fire Scout's inclusion in the game:

"Fire Scout's introduction in one of the most popular computer games in the world is an exciting venture for us. We are happy to support the U.S. Army with this educational tool that provides some insight into what it is like to serve in the U.S. Army."

If this addition of the Fire Scout is any indication, we may be able to look forward to more realistic gadgetry in future versions of the game.

Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout Featured in Popular America's Army 3 Computer Game [CNN Money]

If, on the other hand, you take a certain sociopathic pleasure in tough guys caught unawares, or you have serious Department of Navy/Air Force loyalties and want a laugh, have a gander at this Army guy crooning falsetto about loving dangerously. Best part, the YouTube caption says he was singing Pussycat Dolls before this. What is up with the guy in boxing gloves? Also.

I clock out after about 30 seconds of this. How long can you last? He gets busted at the end, but it's not much of a reaction.

Kryck Singing Toxic by Britney Spears on SingStar for PS3 [YouTube, via vgpop.com, blame reader Chris for this]

The "Future Soldier 2030" being planned at the Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., is the subject of much oohing-and-ahhhing in today's New York Post. The basis of tomorrow's fighter is a "soldier as a system," philosophy that more or less regards soldiers as battlefield assets like tanks or planes.

Some of this "system's" features include a HUD inside the helmet; voice commands that unlock a weapon or set it to less-than-lethal force, a powered exoskeleton to increase a soldier's movement endurance and even "neural prosthetics" and "drugs that aid cognitive ability." The Army allows that those enhancements might be "controversial now, but perhaps ubiquitous in 2030."

I suppose it's only a natural evolution, the Army's designs somewhat trailing the epochal history of combat games; from flight sims to drone aircraft, FPSes to cyborg soldier.

Soldier of the Future [NY Post, and graphic; thanks randlsa]

Elaine Brower breaks down the group's disagreement and explains the march. Its intent was to deliver a "private criminal complaint," to the AEC's commanding officer, and to the mall owners. The complaint charges both with "endangering the welfare of the child," "criminal solicitation of a minor" and "corruption of a minor," because the AEC "entice[s] kids as young as 13 to not only play violent video games," but allows them access to real war materiel, including weapons.

"I decided that everyone who cared about our youth should be outraged and take action," Brower wrote, adding that the $12 million, 14,000 square foot pavilion "allow[s] kids to play the most violent video games available." More creepily, she describes "a back room where they can touch and feel weapons created for killing." Now I want to take a shower.

There's a huge play-by-play of what was chanted and said and done, much of it covered before. Brower insists that the seven arrested were wearing "death masks" and "standing peacefully," but not blocking access to the AEC. She alleges a hostile police officer threatened to charge them with an unspecified misdemeanor - probably for being masked in public, which is against the law in many communities unless you're trick-or-treating. It was probably intended to trigger an arrest anyway, which is civil disobedience 101.

In summary, this is why Brower and the other demonstrators are so fired up about video game recruiting, which has more to do with recruiting than games:

What is happening right under our noses is a transformation of the way in which the military plans on re-wiring the brains of kids at a very young and impressionable age to turn them into silent killers. By allowing anyone from the age of 13 to 18 to handle a machine gun, or use games that promote violence, it creates a generation that is wired to kill and think that killing is something that is easy and sanctioned.

This isn't a value judgment at all on the military, the wars it's fighting today, or video games. But it's naive to think only now, in the age of video games, that the military is creating a generation "wired to kill." Visit any boot camp, they've been training young men to kill for more than two centuries. That's sort of the point. And when it comes to indoctrinating an entire generation, the draft has been much more effective than any game.

Criminal Complaint Served and Seven Arrested at the Army Experience Center in Philadelphia Mall [OpEd News via GamePolitics]

GamePolitics tweeted the showdown, which began back in March with ideas of gathering in the mall as ordinary shoppers and then descending on the recruit station, which uses high end gaming PCs and consoles to appeal to potential recruits. Some among those opposed to current U.S. military actions finds that kind of appeal distasteful, misleading about actual military life and obligations, and trivializing of real war.

So, the demonstrators rethought their plan and, with the cooperation of the Philadelphia police, instead chose to march on the mall straight up, and were even let in. But here's the thing about demonstrations - the cops really don't like masks. Local ordinances usually outlaw them in these settings. So seven people wearing them refused police orders to disperse and were arrested, which was likely their intent.

The demonstration was bookended by anti-war speeches and songs, sprinkled with chanting and such throughout. Counterprotesters with a speaker system showed up to grief the antiwar marchers, apparently with some success. In the end, they got to make their point and act on their conscience, but the U.S. Army Experience is still up and running.

GamePolitics' tweet rundown gives an excellent narrative of all that happened. There's also video here.

Covering a Video Game Protest March via Twitter [GamePolitics. Pic also from GP.]

Prototype takes place in an open world recreation of New York City and you take o the role of Alex Mercer who has awakened with super powers and little memory. New York has been infested by zombie like creatures called the Infected and even the surrounding buildings have been sucked into to their evil. Hives of infected dot the city and more an more appear all the time. Using your super human abilities, you must disover the conspiracy involved that made this happen and attempt to save the city. But just because you are attempting to help out doesn't make you a hero. Alex Mercer is a decided anti-hero, out for himself and whatever he can get. And you don't have just the Infected to worry about either, there is the Army as well who is not only out to stop the infected, but for some unknown reason, out to get you too. Also be on the lookout for the mysterious Black Watch who have a hand in this somewhere as well.

The real draw in this game, at least for me, was the super powers and there were a lot of them. All sorts of special moves and knowledge can be gained from devouring the people around you. One of these powers comes to great effect when trying to escape from the Army who is chasing you down. If you can manage to get out of sight and eat someone, you can take on their form and walk around undetected. But, you must be careful. One false move or use of your super powers out in public will cause your cover to be blown and you will be on the run again so stealth is the key in these situations. Devouring other people will also allow you to gain their knowledge and put it to your own use. For instance, devour an Army tank driver and you gain the ability to drive tanks and the same goes for weapon use. The more enemies of one type that you consume, the better your ability in that area becomes. And the nice thing is, once you gain these abilities, you always have them at your disposal. Some of the other special powers include an area attack where thorny tentacles reach out of the ground to attack your enemies and a Hammer Fist which pounds enemies into the ground. A lock on system helps as well for targeting certain enemies amongst the crowds of people who are running about in a panic everywhere you go. If your really feisty, you can even distract attention form yourself by accusing random passers by of being you which will cause all surrounding enemies to open fire on the poor innocent.

Since it is an open world, you can go wherever you please, but there is a main storyline whos plot is revealed as you make your way through the game devouring people left and right. Ingesting main characters throughout the game will give you clues as to what exactly is going on here. You must use your powers to reconstruct your past and eventually discover the giant conspiracy that provides the game's hidden plot. Ultimately, you control the pace of the game by choosing which way you want to handle your enemies. Deceive or Destroy? Which one will you choose?

Prototype really reminded me a lot of Crackdown in it's basic gameplay mechanics. While the game itself looked interesting, I was a little disappointed in the graphics. The character models seemed very simplistic and I saw the same several models over and over again in the various crowd scenes. But, as this was an early build I'm hoping that this is something that will be taken care of when the final coat of paint is applied to the project.

Prototype launches this fall for the 360 and PS3 and is a single player experience although they did hint that co-op and online play were both being looked at as possibilities. And yes, there will be downloadable content although what form that will take remains to be seen.

As his wife called 911, Galvanek pulled two injured passengers from the truck, assessed their wounds, and properly prioritized/administered treatment (direct pressure and elevation) to one of the accident's more brutal injuries, a mutilated hand. In short, he did things just as he should have in a circumstance that could have ended even worse. And yes, Galvanek thanks his training in a video game for his performance under pressure:

I have received no prior medical training and can honestly say that because of the training and presentations within America's Army, I was able to help and possibly save the injured men. As I look back on the events of that day, the training that I received in the America's Army video game keeps coming to mind."

I remember vividly in section four of the game's medic training, during the field medic scenarios, I had to evaluate the situation and place priority on the more critically wounded. In the case of this accident, I evaluated the situation and placed priority on the driver of the car who had missing fingers. I then recalled that in section two of the medic training, I learned about controlled bleeding. I noticed that the wounded man had severe bleeding that he could not control. I used a towel as a dressing and asked the man to hold the towel on his wound and to raise his hand above his head to lessen the blood flow which allowed me to evaluate his other injuries which included a cut on his head.

Now I'm certainly not saying the Army had no right to be there, they paid their money for a booth just like everyone else, but I do find it a bit disturbing seeing such things at a gaming convention. Especially with all the talk about violence in video games and how it influences young people. As gamers we strive to quash that myth and yet here is the Army showing up promoting a game that is basically just a tool to try and get people to sign up for the military. Our government wants to bash violent games and then turn around and use them to lure kids into an actual war? Seems more than a bit hypocritical on their part.

What are your feelings on this? Personally, it scares the crap out of me.

The official Web site for the Army Gaming Championship also encourages Gears of War players to perform a move known as the "curb stomp," which involves characters in the game crushing an opponent's skull with their boot.

Now I don't normally get in the way of political intrigue, but I can certainly see where The Raw Story is coming from on this one. Army officials were said to have looked very closely at the games in the competition, which include America's Army, Resistance, and Command & Conquer 3, and Gears got a nod because none of the competitors in the tourney were below the recruiting age of seventeen.

Army tournament features chainsaw massacre video game [The Raw Story via Game Politics]

While the Army is somewhat notorious for some eye-rollingly bad recruitment advertisements, they hit on a campaign that works with their America's Army online game. Now they're sallying forth and have entered into a sponsorship with the Global Gaming League - and catching flak from anti-recruitment and anti-war groups.

"It is part of this campaign for the last 20 years to invade youth culture with militarism," Project on Youth and Non-military Opportunities co-founder Rick Jahnkow told AFP.

"It affects the way young people think. It affects their world view. That is a very dangerous thing."

While I see what people are saying regarding glorifying war and making it seem like a much more fun process than it is in actuality, this sort of thinking is rather endemic to pop culture (and not just American) as a whole. One prominent Japanese historian in America felt the need to teach an class with the specific intention of overturning the romantic ideas about samurai, and war games in general are quite popular - be they of the console or reenactment variety. With recruiters in a hard spot these days and tons of news stories talking about suspect methods, is it any wonder the US Army has turned to a popular form of entertainment to make their pitch? Maggie Greene

US Army's computer game recruiting plan takes fire [Yahoo News]

Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.

So the last bit there wasn't 100% true (or at all), but it sure sounds like it, doesn't it? Either that or there's some Ender's Game crap going down (read the book).

So are they taking the idea of military gaming and having the Army leverage an existing environment to find potential candidates for recruits?

"We're taking the idea of military gaming and having the Army leverage an existing environment to find potential candidates for recruits," said Reuben Hendell, CEO of MRM Worldwide, the agency that will create the specialized games section.

Well no worries. It's not like the army is all about combat. Gary Bishop, overseer of Army marketing and advertising, sets the people straight.

Being in the Army is about driving trucks, welding, nurses and computers.

Recruiters scour online gaming market [Army Times]

US Troops Taught Iraqi Gestures [BBC]

As Clickable Culture points out, that maybe Jack Thompson isn't so far off when he calls video games "Murder Simulators." The debate comes from a Washington Post article titled "Virtual Reality Prepares Soldiers for Real War." A guardsman, Alfred Trevino said something pretty harrowing: "The feel of the actual weapon was more of an adrenaline rush than the feel of the controller," he continues. "But you're practically doing the same thing: trying to kill the other person. The goal is the same. That's the similarity. The goal is to survive."

The Post piece doesn't neglect the other side of the coin, however. One soldier's affinity for violent games was non-existent after he returned from Iraq in 2004. The piece, coupled with Tony Walsh over at Clickable Culture, certainly got this writer thinking.

Murder Simulators Get High Military Marks [Clickable Culture]
Virtual Reality Prepares Soldiers for Real War [Washington Post]