The young Australian soldier runs for cover under a hail of enemy bullets. He’s the only one left in his squad and it’s now his job to neutralise the insurgent threat ahead. Can he do it? It’s ok if he fails this time, because he’ll respawn straight away. That’s because it’s a training simulation that the Australian Army are using right now. The very same simulator that’s about to get a multi-million dollar upgrade.
First question: can I have a go? No? Ok, back to it.
iTNews reports that the upgrade is set to take place in the next few months and will see the Defence Force upgrade to a 2.0 version of its current software.
Improvements include better artificial intelligence, maps and draw distances. The Defence Force is licensing the upgrade from Bohemia Interactive at a cost of $2.8 million.
It’s great to see the government investing in serious games for our troops, but could public spending cuts mean that the Army will switch in future to Counter Strike 1.6? I kid, I kid. It’ll be Quake. [iTNews]