Quick Look: America's Army: Proving Grounds

yeahhh

Interesting and valuable contribution

Divide and conquer.

Is this really only 20 minutes long?

@havelava: Just as valuable as yours.

But he's right, so whatever. At least he didn't go "asdbkejubhvnwritv"

Can it be? A double dose of Drew today? Niiice!

Looks like Drew isn't the only one jumping.

As far as I am concerned, there is a UTE for games.

The Army doesn't lean any more. They updated the tactics manual. No more bayonets either.

One more thing, I can't tell if they really hate Kessler or not.

Never forget?

Yeah. So, that guy totally, uh, "secured" you.

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” - Winston Churchill

Vintage giantbomb right here!

Guess this video being released on 9/11 makes some kind of sense.

The ending of this video is on par with I LOVE MY JOB... I LOVE SATAN.

Probably just going to stick with the old battlefield 3. But it's cool that this is a thing.

What I missed about the original AA is that you were always the US, and the other team was always "OpFor," which meant they looked different, but more importantly, they had different guns. When you heard an AK-47 used VS an M-16, you knew whether it was a friendly or enemy shooting just by the sound alone.

@havelava: Save those quotes for your myspace page, please.

Kinda bothers me that the crew wasn't willing to call this propaganda, which it is, but a "marketing tool". Those propaganda-ing bastards!

You know it's an FPS because there's a clan called {BoNG}

@rappelsiini: Join the army!

@johnbakosh: Negativity gets us nowhere

I need a mission editor like in AA1. Then it is a really cool product.

Regardless of how "good" a game may be, I find it absolutely ridiculous that a video game was made by the United States Army. I mean, rather than trying to demonstrate the brutality of war, there is this governmental body making a game that glorifies war. It separates war from what it is (i.e. a terrible reality where people fight for the country but die in the process) to what this is (i.e. a fun time playing around with your friends where dying doesn't really matter).

I am strong believer that most humans have the ability to separate fantasy from reality. In saying that, I think this game attempts, either consciously or not, to blur those lines. I understand that the US army has to market itself somehow, but this is not the appropriate medium. Let's leave the branded video games to Burger King because this game series has and always will be crazy.

@patman99: US Army games and simulations have been around for a long time. At this point, it's practically keeping with tradition to make them.

They made a generic F2P FPS that's worse than any of their previous versions and lower quality than most other F2P FPS you can play. A shame they've homogenized so much, the older games were very much unique and their own style.

What I would give for a new AA that at least had a VIP mode...

Even propaganda has been casualized

@oginam: I know they have been around for a while. It still doesn't change my opinion that they are morally corrupt. At least in the previous versions they made you "learn" about being a field medic and whatnot. This removes any sort of "education" and has morphed it into a virtual paintball game. Which is something that is very different if you were to actually work for the US Army.

In the screen bumper, the soldier on the left whose crouching behind the desk...it looks like he's a bionic soldier with his legs being the metal hinges behind the computer screen.

As far as propaganda, it is what it is. I'd say getting "cool' commercials about how much closer to sci-fi action films we're getting in the modern army is as equatable as this. Or how I remember getting mail from the army to give them my personal details so I could get a skull cap/t-shirt/sunglasses/bottle opener as a trade off was kinda weird too.

I dunno, getting people to see them in a positive light to up recruitment seems like something that's been going on since forever. It just is what it is, considering that enlisting isn't mandatory.

Seems okay but I was hoping it'd be more like Arma or DCS in terms of training but the games direction makes sense. Just not sure it's in my ball park of what I'm looking to play in a shooter.

I really wish I had to self-control to only say "Aw jeez!" every time I get killed in a multiplayer game.

I think every person interested in the military is already playing ArmA.

If we wanna get REALLY granular about it, all marketing is propaganda. I don't think there is anything particularly egregious about this game considering its never in-your-face about joining the Army or anything like that. Hell, Call of Duty has a lot more of a chest-beating patriotism to it than this game does.

8:31 - Jeff: "Don't teamkill."

9:46 - Drew teamkills...and nobody notices.

This is all the proof we need to figure out that Drew is a spy, working for those who oppose freedom. I mean, he goes and "visits" North Korea, and now this teamkill in America's Army.

WAKE UP PEOPLE.

@drewbert The medium range rifle is a Designated Marksman Rifle.

Brad and Jeff commenting on Drew spectating the game as if he were actually playing it was hilarious.

--America Kickstarter--

Backer rewards:
-Freedom
-Army game
-The world's best quick service dining

Stretch goal rewards:
-Bald eagles
-Fiscal solvency

So informal poll: creepier or less creepy than the Chinese version?

I thought there was going to be a video of when the Army guys came in to talk about the game. Did that never happen?

Freedom cost a buck o' five

GLORIOUS MISSION

They should probably outsource the creation of AA games, or just stop making them, this looks bland, boring, and it brings nothing to the market that isn't there already.

Seems like a waste of resources to me. Paid for by you!

Why do they still have that Kessler wallpaper on that PC?

GLORY TO ARSTOTZKA!

Risks And Challenges

- Security measures implemented to attain freedom may be perceived as or lead to actual oppression

- Concept of army game in itself may be considered as ill conceived, given the current global situation and outcome of previous freedom-bringing measures. PR might have an interesting couple of days in front of them coming up ahead on this one, especially in conjunction with previous challenge

- fiscal solvency might be harder to reach than initially thought of, might require staggered/squared stretch-goals to achieve

- Given current ecological development, supply of Bald eagles might not be as solid as initially hoped - but we'll do our very best to at least provide replacement duck-and-fancy-paint-kit, so as not to destroy the illusion of success with this most critical of all stretch-goals