The Military + Video Games = ???

Apparently the folks at Epic Games, makers of Unreal Tournament, are developing their popular shoot-and-blast-and-kill-em into a tool for U.S. troops in Iraq. And get this: it's not to make them fiercer in combat, but to "sharpen language and cultural skills that could help them avoid a potentially deadly confrontation."

Here's the full article.

Interestingly enough, they seem to be having difficultly eliminating all of the violence. One of the directors recalls that "in one of the earlier versions we got rid of the weapons, but one of the testers discovered that if he stomped on other characters, they would explode in blood and guts."

Hm. This whole thing reminds me a little of that movie from a while back. Wonder what LL Cool J thinks about it.

Via Drudge.