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]

The Games and Extras page of the official U.S. Air Force website is chock full of interesting little activities to help demonstrate how much fun it is to be in the Air Force. While a majority of the selections amount to nothing more than slightly interactive demos, the ECHO ZULU section has several scenarios to play through, from using flares to scare insurgents, to using remote-controlled planes to scare insurgents. I'm sensing a theme.

Sure, it might not be as entertaining as America's Army 3, but it probably cost us U.S. taxpayers a whole lot less.

Games and Extras [U.S. Air Force]

It's only a concept and screenshots at this stage, but Six Days in Fallujah already has promulgated opinions that the game caters to a cavalier pro-war attitude, or can be used as antiwar propaganda. The subject matter concerns Operation Phantom Fury of November 2004, an operation described as the heaviest urban combat U.S. troops had faced since Vietnam. More than 100 U.S. and allied Iraqi fighters were killed, another 500 were wounded.

G4TV went to three members of the U.S. military on active duty, at least one having done three tours in Iraq. They were all described as interested gamers. Here are some of the reactions they gave to G4TV.

Sgt. Kevin Smith, U.S. Army: "Let it be made, and hopefully it will bolster support for military veterans by giving civilians insight into what this war was actually like for them. ... You can't just lob a frag down the street or launch a RPG at a couple of guys if you have to reload. There are restrictions on what types of weapons you can use and when. Depending on what the Rules of Engagement were for the Marines in Fallujah, and if Atomic Games has consequences for violating them, I think some gamers might find it a little frustrating."

Gunnery Sgt. John Mundy, U.S. Marine Corps: "You will have your group of idiots that try to be the terrorists and kill Americans and shout obscenities through the TV, damning American military personnel. But hey, those individuals can make fools of themselves all because of the protection that we military people give them each day. ... If someone doesn't agree with the game, they can spend their money elsewhere."

Sgt. Casey J. McGeorge, U.S. Army: "As a combat veteran and as a gamer, I have no problem whatsoever with the game...As long as it's made as realistically as possibly, I believe that this could be a good thing for both combat veterans and for the war in general."

Mundy's comments are particularly striking. As he and all of us are no doubt aware, online gaming can be a carnival of unlimited, deliberate tastelessness. Six Days in Fallujah would provide those worms with some ripe fruit, indeed.

It's not to say the game shouldn't be made, but I still come back to a feeling I haven't been able to shake about World War II sims - I know people who were in the real thing, and it wasn't entertainment for them.

Soldiers Respond to 'Six Days in Fallujah' Controversy [G4TV]

Prof Stone said: "If our research proves that it works come 2009 we will start trying it out on real soldiers.

"It could be rolled out across all the services. It would be Brit soldiers who would benefit."

He explained: "In very basic layman's terms it is a computer game with smell.

"The smell system we are currently conducting research into is very new.

"We are looking into whether it is worth doing, to introduce smell into our games training. We need to make sure it is going to help troops and is not just a gimmick.

The scientists are also looking into defence mental health, with Prof Stone adding: "Smell is so closely linked to emotion and memory, it's something that we need to take seriously.

"We have got a number of virtual environments already in place and are now adding smells to it to see what effect it has on training."

Prof Stone also thinks the device could be up for sale for the general public in a number of years.

As Kieron Gillen of Rock, Paper, Shotgun noted, we can hope this technology makes its way to a wider audience, "if only as it’ll allow us to claim that a game stinks in a more literal sense."

British soldiers could be trained on a computer game with smell [The Telegraph via Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Matthew Broderick plays a hacker who spots a game in a computer magazine, and goes wardialing (the practice takes its name from the movie) to find the company's servers and grab the game. He ends up by mistake in a government network and is intrigued by a game by the title of Global Thermonuclear War. And that sets in motion a story that really hit home for Cold War Americans. Today, the Soviet Union is no more, and we get our games illegally from torrent sites. And they have better titles.

Wired talked to the movie's writers and consultants to turn up some interesting tidbits about the film's development. It was originally conceived as a much darker movie. The character of Falken is based on Steven Hawking and the creators had talked to John Lennon's people about starring in the role. (Work on the screenplay began in 1979). Matthew Broderick couldn't type. President Reagan saw it and started talking about it in a meeting with Congressional leaders, who asked the Gipper not to give away the ending. And there's a sidebar interview with a creeped-out Ally Sheedy. It's a great weekend read.

WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Phreaks and Geeks Into Stars [Wired]

If only we had had access to this sort of technology back in 1983. The movie WarGames would have been so much better. "Would you like to play a game? How about Resistance: Fall of Man?"

IBM unveils fast new computer for US Energy Dept. [Newsday.com]

"I believe they have been degraded, we continue to PacMan, like the video game, away at their efforts, at their different levels," Major General Hammond said.

4th Infantry Update from Baghdad [KXRM Fox 21]

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]

You might remember those military and civilian units from Civilization 3. Alex Dragulescu has taken them and created an experimental graphic novel called What I Did Last Summer. Using software that harvested text from web blogs, the comic recounts cached versions of actual American army blogs. The result is a profound mash-up of images and words.

Watch it here via WMMNA

Over at 1UP.com has a story about Kuma Reality Games and their free, slightly strange Saddam Hussein game. The game places players in the middle of Iraqi history in positions with the ability to stop the horrors of Hussein (in some cases) before they start. It's part video game, part history lesson - but at least it's free.

Saddam Hussein: The Video Game [1UP]