Americas Army 3

It was on July 4, 2002, that the US Army released the original version of America's Army, its free, multiplayer first-person shooter designed to be both a recruiting and public relations tool. While you can't fault the Army for wanting to launch the game on the nation's birthday, in retrospect it might not have been the wisest thing to do. With most of the gamers in America having the day off, demand on the Army's servers was crippling, and there were the inevitable teething issues as well. It took days, if not weeks, for the Army to finally sort things out, but America's Army eventually proved to be a major success. It's funny how we're back here again, seven years later. The Army has issued a major new revision called America's Army 3, but this time it launched it on June 17. However, again, strong demand and technical issues managed to overwhelm the servers, and it wasn't until a couple of weeks and some patches later that the game is finally in a reliable, playable state. And while there are still certainly lingering bugs that need to be squashed, this new America's Army is a remarkably compelling and authentic team-based game.