Wednesday, March 10, 2010

VBS2 Lite-US Army?

VBS2 is Bohemia Interactive's infantry combat simulation now used by the ADF, the British Army, the US Army and the USMC. A short while ago, the UK MoD released VBS2 JCOVE-Lite, a limited version of the real-deal VBS2 the British forces use for training.

In this board message at Strategypage, there is announcement that a VBS2-Lite (US Army version) will soon be made available to soldiers and DoD civilians.

The final paragraph of this gentleman's message has me hoping that eventually VBS2-Lite US Army will be available for anybody (bold is mine):

BTW the U.S. Army will soon be releasing VBS2 Lite, as the British Army has already for their own version called JCOVES, and this software will be available free for download to anyone who wants a copy. If the current schedule holds this will be in March 2010.

Cheers,

UPDATE: If you scroll down in the board message at Strategypage (links provided above), you will see that definitively this is going to be available to civilians. Quoted from that message:
The U.S. Army will be releasing VBS2 Lite very soon. Anyone, including civilians will be able to have a copy of it. At present there is no provision for this to be available on civilian accessible online sites but I am working on that. Perhaps at StrategyPage.com? Just keepm in mind its a 3-1/2GB downloadable file...


5 comments:

ssgduke56 said...

That's good news because if you could buy the complete VBS2 software
it would cost over $2,000.00!!! Arm Assault II is the closes gaming software to VBS2 for now and cost around $30.00 to $50.00.

JC said...

Hi SSG!

I really hope they will release it to the public, but I'm still wondering what would be the implications of that. The people behind America's Army are not very fond of Bohemia Interactive. :)

Cheers,

Brant said...

What's astounding is the amount of money being sunk into VBS2 by the Army, when they'd already paid for the development of America's Army for the past 5 years, and with DARPA's $60million RealWorld project on the way, too.

VBS2 might be in use by a lot of people already, but it's not so distinguishable from the others that there's no reason not to re-capitalize on AA investment or help DARPA get RealWorld over the finish line...

JC said...

Hi Brant,

Thanks for your comment.

The Army's deep pockets ...
From the little I read about what's so great about VBS2 from the US Army point of view is that it can connect with other simulations.

In comparison, it looks like VBS2 Lite JCOVE (UK) was released purely as a recruiting tool. VBS2 Lite US Army seems to be released so the troops can use it at their homes (?). I don't understand why distributing it to civilians, though. But I will not complain. :)

Cheers,

Mark said...

Here are the downloads:


for VBS2 US Army Lite

http://www.wuala.com/VBS2%20US%20Army%20Lite


for VBS_JCOVE_Lite

http://www.wuala.com/VBS_JCOVE_Lite