Fallujah Video Game Sparks Vet Family Fury

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 11, 2009 3:59 AM CDT

A realistic video game featuring a historic Fallujah battle involving US forces in Iraq has incensed vets and their families, reports ABC News. Six Days in Fallujah is due out next year, and involves Marine consultants to ensure accuracy of the action. "It's upsetting," said a mom who lost a son in Iraq. "I have this image of guys sitting around laughing because they got killed or didn't, and starting over. My son didn't have that choice."

Game makers—who insist the game is part play, part documentary—say it helps people understand "a little bit" of what it's like to be a Marine in a modern war. Military consultants point out that unethical "fighting"—such as shooting a civilian—is punished. The game is so controversial that its initial publisher dropped out, but Atomic Games is pressing on. More than four dozen US troops and 1000 insurgents were killed in the actual Fallujah battle in 2004. (More Fallujah stories.)

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