A few weeks ago, Tom Clancy and Ubisoft released the latest addition to their arsenal of military themed games. This particularly game, titled H.A.W.X. (which stands for High Altitude Warfare Experimental Squadron) is based on tactical air combat. Or put another way, its about fighter jets. Awesomesauce.I've only played through the demo of HAWX, so I can't comment too much on the game play itself. Of course that works just fine for this post as I'm not writing to talk about what is going on in the air anyway. Because its what is happening on the ground that makes HAWX so interesting.
In order to make the game as realistic as possible, Ubisoft negotiated a deal with GeoEye - a high resolution satellite imaging company - to provide real world data for use in game. If GeoEye sounds familiar to you, its because they are the same people that provide satellite imagery for Google Earth. The result of the Ubi-Eye partnership is that Rio de Janeiro in HAWX is not an artists rendering, but is the real deal complete with the real landmarks, real topography, real buildings and even real trees down to the meter. It takes EA's old saying "if its in the game, its in the game" to a whole new level. Or should I say altitude. Lets go to the video tape!
Despite the fact that HAWX takes place well above the ground (at least as far as I've seen) the attention to detail is immediately noticeable from the virtual pilots seat and it adds an impressive depth to the game play experience. The fact that its a pretty cool mashup (which seems to have been the topic of choice around here of late) doesnt hurt either.
But taking it a step further, I'm also getting a delicious whiff of educational pie here, and it comes in two flavors. Obviously this sort of realism gives HAWX immediate potential as a geography tool for whatever cities are depicted in the game. But thats pretty vanilla. Lets take it the extra mile.
The majority of Clancy's games take place on the ground, from the perspective of an individual soldier or squad. And given the fact that the Ubisoft-GeoEye partnership is already in place, its not unlikely to assume that the next Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon game will bring the realistic satellite images of Hawx back down to an ground pounder perspective. Now, imagine Ubisoft providing level editor tools to let you create your own maps, based on real world satellite data...
Put away the M-60 machine guns and F-22 raptors and you have just created a framework to allow anyone, anywhere, to explore any city in the world, any time, by foot or by air. And did I mention that these games are all already built for multiplayer experiences? Now just let your mind wander through the educational and collaborative possibilities of that kind of freedom. It could change the way we think about everything from language learning to home buying. Forget about virtual worlds. This IS the world. All from the framework of a game. At this moment we shed a single tear for what Google's Lively could have been.
As excited as I am about the possibilities, the path I've gone down here is probably more than a little overly optimistic. But I like where this is going. And if Ubisoft doesn't run with the ball, you can bet someone else will.
Very cool stuff here.
Image from ign.com
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