US army licenses Unreal Engine

You can't beat a bit of aggressive military propaganda thinly disguised as interactive entertainment, so three cheers for the news that a sequel to America's Army is currently being developed using the Unreal Engine 3.

It's not surprising, really, since the first game was made with Unreal Engine 2, but Epic is still pretty pleased with itself.

"Our relationship with the army has proven that Unreal Engine 3's flexibility, versatility and wide array of features can be deployed for greater purposes beyond traditional gaming," said VP Mark Rein.

"It's also really exciting for us to see how our technology can be used to help the army prepare its soldiers for the challenges they confront in real-life situations." Like the challenge of invading a country even when the UN has told you not to, for example.

The original America's Army, which was developed with the co-operation of America's actual army, was released back in 2002. Since then players have completed more than 1.34 billion missions, logging a scary 94 million virtual hours of playing time.

No further details of the sequel have been released as yet, and there's no word on a launch date. But in the meantime, a console version - America's Army: Rise of the Soldier - will be telling Kofi Annan to stick it, kicking down your front door, attaching electrodes to your privates and imprisoning you without trial for an indefinite period of time this summer.