Virtual Iraq: treating posttraumatic stress disorder with video games
Can a realistic war game help treat the stresses of real war in a soldier? That the debate going on in the country right now about a game being used to do just that called Virtual Iraq. Because video games are a comfortable medium for many, using a game like Virtual Iraq to treat war-related posttraumatic stress disorder seems like a perfect fit. On the flip side, many are not comfortable with the idea of undergoing traditional psychological treatment to deal with the very serious issues was can produce in returning soldiers.
The game is part of Virtually Better, which is run by Josh Spitalnick, PhD, The group developed “Virtual Iraq” and several other virtual reality games to treat posttraumatic stress disorder via a two-year open clinical trial of 20 participants funded by the Office of Naval Research. The program is showing positive results but more rigorous testing is needed to fully understand the advantages or disadvantages of using games as a treatment method.
Gaming has a lot of nonclinical benefits because it is widely accepted by younger generations, relatively low cost and easily accessible.
Robbi Saletsky, PhD, clinical associate professor and director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Program for Depression and Anxiety Disorders at Upstate Medical University in Rochester, N.Y., is conducting one of the 15 studies using Virtual Iraq around the country. Saletsky said she has found similar virtual reality programs to be successful because they open up options to a population that might not respond well to traditional exposure-method treatments that rely on the patient’s imagination.
And in a separate study set beginning next year, the U.S. Air Force for will also use virtual reality treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder at its Lackland base in San Antonio.
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The Saboteur shipping Dec. 8
EA’s Pandemic Studios announced that its open-world sandbox action game, The Saboteur, will be available worldwide on December 8, 2009. Inspired by a true story (which we expect and hope has been highly embellished for the sake of action), The Saboteur stars Sean Devlin, a street-tough Irish race car driver trapped behind enemy lines in 1940s Nazi-occupied France. Motivated by personal revenge and a strong sense of survival, Sean must fight, climb, and race through Paris, sneak into the heart of the Nazi operations and sabotage their every move.
With the help of the French Resistance, the British intelligence, an arsenal of weaponry, and an uncanny knack for staying alive, players will exact revenge by committing various acts of sabotage including derailing trains and blowing up zeppelins. Sounds like much more fun than Mercenaries 2.
The Saboteur is being developed for the PS3, Xbox 360, and the PC. Those attending the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International, (July 23 – 26), will be able to check out The Saboteur for the first time at EA’s show booth, stall #5213 in the San Diego Convention Center.
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Battleforge Price Cut, Demo Released
EA and Phenomic ahev lowered the price today announced a new lower price tage on its real-time strategy game BattleForge. Now you can pick the fantasy themed trading card game inspired RTS at the reduced price of $29.99. The new pricing is effective immediately in North America. Additionally, gamers can check out the BattleForge demo on BattleForge.com. There’s no indication why EA decided to cut the price of the game, but it’s never a bad thing when we can get something for less.
In the demo, players start with a random faction deck and have limited access to maps. Players will have access to sparring ground player versus player (PvP) battles as well as player versus environment (PvE) maps. Players will then be able to upgrade to the full product in-game. For more information and the demo, visit www.battleforge.com.
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OLD Batman: Dark Knight Development Footage
Update:The footage is actually not as “new” as I originally reported. In fact it ran earlier this week in this Kotaku story. All apologies for drumming up excitement where there was none. Still if you haven’t seen the footage don’t let my mistake stop you from taking a look at it (again, even).
Original Story: Though Pandemic’s Brisbane, Australia development studio has been shuttered and the Dark Knight game it was working on was canned, early development footage continues to turn up all over the Internet. Two more clips, showing animated test footage have been dug up by Evan Narcisse, who was nice enough to pass them along. You can check out both below:
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Rumor: EA Cuts Pandemic Brisbane Loose
According to some Internet scuttlebutt Pandemic’s Brisbane Australia studio has been cut loose by Electronic Arts. The LA based studio remains intact, so don’t freak out or cheer if that was your measured response to the situation.
The studio behind the Destroy All Humans franchise apparently gets to keep all of its intellectual property and is currently looking for new partners. While there’s no hard evidence to support it beyond a prior relationship, the studio probably can find a friend or two at THQ; the company has published several titles including Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon and Destroy All Humans! 2.
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The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Ships
Is this the very first big game of 2009? Maybe. Electronic Arts has shipped Pandemic’s The Lord of the Rings: Conquest for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Nintendo DS. The game will ship on various platforms January 16, 2009 in Europe. The game takes some of the elements from Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II titles, reworks them and throws them into the wonderful world of Middle-earth.
In this world at war, players can choose to control their favorite heroes and villains including Aragorn, Gandalf, the Witch-king, the Balrog and even the Dark Lord Sauron. The campaigns can be played online or split-screen and four-player split-screen or online for up to 16 players round out the game’s various modes.
I sincerely hope that this will be the game to put Pandemic back on track. Given last year’s train wreck that was Mercenaries 2, I need something to believe in again. A playable demo with a single player tutorial and online support is available on Xbox Live. What little I played was entertaining enough, but hard to gauge. Demos after all, are snapshots; a small sliver of what could be a great game.
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Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon Released
THQ’s Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon is now in stores for the Xbox 360. The latest chapter in the popular action-focused alien invasion game series promises hi-fidelity destruction, new alien weaponry, open-world environments and new online multiplayer modes, putting players in the role of Crypto the alien as he embarks on a journey of destruction and enlightenment in the 1970’s. The game is available for the Xbox 360 at a suggested retail price of $39.99.
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Can a realistic war game help treat the stresses of real war in a soldier? That the debate going on in the country right now about a game being used to do just that called Virtual Iraq. Because video games are a comfortable medium for many, using a game like Virtual Iraq to treat war-related posttraumatic stress disorder seems like a perfect fit. On the flip side, many are not comfortable with the idea of undergoing traditional psychological treatment to deal with the very serious issues was can produce in returning soldiers.
EA’s Pandemic Studios announced that its open-world sandbox action game, 
THQ’s 