The US Army, in an unprecedented alliance with Hollywood and a major university, is providing funding and technical advice for video games that aim to hone the skills of the next-generation of military field commanders.
The Institute for Creative Technologies, which is jointly operated by the US Army and the University of Southern California said on Thursday it would develop two combat video games, with financial and tactical backing from the Army.
The Los Angeles-based institute said it will partner with FCS -- itself a joint venture of studio Sony Pictures ImageWorks and video game developer Pandemic Studios -- and Quicksilver Software to develop two games to be released over the next two years.
"C-Force" will be released for next-generation consoles, while ICT and Quicksilver will partner on "CS-12" for PCs. Both games will have as executive producer Rob Sears, who produced the combat titles "Mech Commander" and "Mech Warrior 3."
The army will provide funding, but its Training & Doctrine Command bureau will also be involved in game development, ICT said.
"They will both be available in a consumer shrink-wrapped version and also another version that will be delivered to the US Army," said Jim Korris, the creative director of ICT.
The games will allow players to control entire groups of soldiers, ICT said, with CS-12 allowing the player to take the role of a company commander and C-Force putting the player in the role of squad leader.
"While offering unique training aids for potential squad leaders or captains, these products will also teach game players everywhere about how to leverage human resources and information -- skills that will benefit them enormously in their professional lives," said Richard Lindheim, ICT's executive director.
The institute was formed in 1999 with a US$45 million grant from the army as a partnership among academics, video game makers and creative talent in Hollywood to design advanced "virtual reality" and simulation training systems for the military.
The Army reviewed and approved the game before its release, a Simon & Schuster spokesman said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS