Shortly before the start of CES 2012, CTA Digital announced it partnered with the United States Army to release a number of Army-branded gaming peripherals. CTA Digital’s booth at CES contained all the previously announced peripherals such as throat mics, headsets and assault rifles for the PS3. I managed to get some hands-on time with more »

Could the United States’ next General Patton be a 13-year-old currently playing Halo 3:ODST?

That is not as far fetched as it may seem, according to Washington Examiner columnist Peter W. Singer.

Singer notes United States Army officials’ testimony in Congress that video games including America’s Army are more effective than “any other method of contact” at recruiting potential soldiers. A 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Study found that 30 percent of Americans aged 16-24 had a more positive impression of the Army because of that particular game.

The U.S. Army is known for releasing free PC games that are designed to recreate the army experience and also help entice players into joining the actual army. Back in 2002, America’s Army was first released. Now, the Army has announced that we can expect to virtually experience military missions in 2009 with America’s Army 3.

America’s Army 3 isn’t available yet, but when it is, you’ll be able to download it from the official America’s Army 3 site, Army recruiting centers, events where the Army is visiting or has a booth up and ROTC Detachments. The game will be free and continually updated with new content, just like the previous America’s Army games. It also will carry a Teen rating.

Aside from mentioning that America’s Army 3 will include beloved America’s Army 2 features and use the Unreal Engine 3, there isn’t a great deal of additional information about the game…

You’ve heard me talking about my military gamer friends (two are in the photo on the right) in past articles but recently I found a copy of Stripes Gamer and was amazed and happy to see the military now has its own gaming news outlet.

When my friends are deployed they have no clue what is going on in the gaming industry here in the United States. I know when they e-mail me they feel so left behind when I tell them about the latest games that are out. Games they won’t be able to play until their one-year mission is complete. It’s even bad enough that they are not always included in the statistics published about gamer demographics, our troops are often the forgotten demographic.

According to the managing editor of Stripes Gamer, Tony Haugan, those serving in the military are also part of a “video game generation that has grown up and they’re taking their games with them when they deploy,” he explained. “A lot of times they live in extreme boredom or extreme terror…

The US Army has set up a new project office for videogaming, indicating it is very serious about using gaming technology for training purposes. Don’t think, however, that soldiers will be partaking in countless hours of causal gaming. Col. Miller, director of the newly established Training and Doctrine Command’s Project Office for Gaming, made it more »