Friday, December 11, 2009

The Showdown Between "Virtual Battlespace 2" vs "America's Army 3" Featured at Training and Simulation Journal

Well folks, the last issue of Training and Simulation Journal (TSJ) came packed (as usually happens when I/ITSEC is near), so bear with me.

Today I want to give a heads up on Michael Peck's article "Battle of the Video Games" (page 32 of the print version, December2009/January2010 issue) ...
Apparently, America's Army 3 (AA3) has lost its competition with Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2) to be the official soldier training tool of the US Army . Reasons for VBS2's win are many and the article cites:
  • Ability to mod the simulation
  • Interoperability with other simulations
  • Simulation of battle command systems
  • Large maps
The crux of the issue appears to be VBS2's enormous flexibility available right out of the box, even for non-expert end users. This is something AA3 can't deliver in its current state.
These passages of the article cracked me up:

The Army itself seems curiously ambivalent on what games its soldiers should use. In the old days, instructors would head down to Best Buy and get whatever game they thought would work.
 "We lost because it didn't [AA3] have enough water towers or cars with orange bumpers" -Col. Casey Wardynski, the guy who conceived America's Army in the late 1990s
 Cheers,

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can get the watered down version of VBS 2 called ArmA II. This game is around $30.00 to $50.00 compare to VBS 2 price of $2,000.00!

JC said...

Hi ssdduke!

Thanks for your comment and for dropping by this blog.

You are absolutely right! :)

Cheers,

Anonymous said...

Hi ssgduke,

the price of VBS2 for private customers is at USD 500,00. You can compare VBS2 with ArmA (which is even cheaper than ArmA2).

Jens

JC said...

Hi Jens,

Thanks for your comment.

It's been a long time since I don't browse the VBS2 pages about pricing. I fear I may feel tempted :)

The $500.00 VBS2 is the vanilla version? You then have to buy add-ons?

Cheers,

Anonymous said...

No, you get basicly the same VBS2 as military customers do. As a plus you get the DevSuite for VBS2, which includes gems like Visitor4 and Visual Landbuilder. The main difference to serious customers is the EULA. You're not allowed to sell your creations.

Jens

JC said...

Hi Jens,

Thanks for your response.

Sorely tempted here. :)
The AAR capability of VBS2 must be a blast!


Cheers,