Round-Up: America's Navy, Rare on DS, JLA Game

Today's round-up includes news on a new recruiting-related game for the U.S. Navy, suggestions that the Microsoft-owned Rare may now be working on Nintendo DS games, and the announcement of a Justice League of America video game from Warner Bros, as well as the latest product news, job postings, and Question Of The Week. - Encouraged by the success of America's Army, which recently celebrated its three-year anniversary, the U.S. Navy is launching its own recruitment tool in the form of a video game. Navy Training: Strike and Retrieve, which will be available for download on July 15, offers a hypothetical scenario in which the player must retrieve important documents from a downed reconnaissance plane, while fending off enemy forces and mastering the challenge of moving around underwater. Unlike America's Army, which is a realistic first-person shooter, the Navy's game appears to be more of a vehicle to educate players about the Navy; trivia clues around the Navy's website will help during the game, and the developers expect the title to be rated E. - Since Rare's purchase by Microsoft in 2002, the company has released only two Xbox titles -- Grabbed by the Ghoulies and the new Conker: Live and Reloaded -- but the company has been more active in producing games for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld, with Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, Sabre Wulf, It's Mr. Pants, and Banjo Pilot all on shelves. Rare now seems to be indicating that it will continue the trend by developing for the Nintendo DS, at least according to a Rare job listing for an artist to work on "key DS titles." No titles or release dates have yet been revealed for any DS titles - previous Rare GBA games were published via THQ. - Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced a Justice League of America video game, based on the DC Comics series, for PS2 and Xbox. Set for release in fall 2006, and with its developer as yet unspecified, the JLA game will be an action role-playing game featuring many of the JLA's heaviest hitters, such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Zatanna. The game will also support two-player cooperative play, along the lines of Raven's X-Men Legends titles. Also updated today: product news including information on Markzware's latest Flightcheck Workflow digital asset manager, and the latest Gamasutra job postings from companies including Activision/Z-Axis, Arc Worldwide, Auran, Pandemic Studios, Rockstar San Diego, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Splash Damage, Stormfront Studios, and Vigil Games. Gamasutra is also still looking for responses to its latest Question Of The Week, discussing whether the first next-generation console released will necessarily gain the greatest market share.