For when the real thing isn't enough


By Nick Farrell: Monday 03 January 2005, 08:59

WHEN US troops stop patrolling the mean streets of Fallujah they are apparently relaxing by playing computer games where they are doing something similar.

According to Associated Press, soon after the battle for Fallujah ended in November, US Marines brought out their Xbox consoles, Gameboys and laptops and started fighting games of Halo and Half-Life 2. They wire up a Humvee battery to the machines for when the power goes out.

Apparently military shrinks reckon that the best thing to help you unwind after taking part in combat, are games involving aggressive military content.

Marines also believe that they are aided by games they had played before combat. Those games, they say, taught them how to react quickly when something goes wrong. SOCOM 2: U.S. Navy Seals for the Playstation 2, where you issue commands to your team comes highly recommended for doing just that.

However, they point out that there is a difference between reality and the games. In games they are more happy to risk their lives than they are in real life. They also don't have the problem of civilians blending in with insurgents, and soldiers not being able to distinguish between them as they do in Fallujah.

The full story can be found here.

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