History Channel to use Video Game Content

The History Channel is turning to video games to re-create key battle scenes for a new World War II documentary.

Brothers in Arms: The Untold Stories of the 502nd, a pair of one-hour documentaries debuting Dec. 18 (in the USA), will feature video-game graphics from Gearbox Software's Brothers in Arms video-game franchise.

"A lot of the stock footage from D-Day has been seen over and over again, and there's very little footage, if any, from the paratroopers of the 502nd who went in during the early hours of the D-Day invasion," said Gregg Backer, executive producer of Foglight Entertainment, which created the documentaries.

The documentaries for the first time will also attempt to portray real World War II veterans as they appeared in the war.

Gearbox took photos of some of the World War II vets interviewed for the show, and re-created them in the game as they looked when they fought in Normandy as young men of 18 and 20 years of age.

The software company said it spent more than a year studying Army maps, photos and journals to create the virtual documentary.

"The emotional attachment to these soldiers is different when you see the places they're talking about in full 3-D and in living color," Backer said. "You feel like you're there in 1944 with them as they recount their heroics."

Actor Ron Livingston, who starred in Steven Spielberg's Band of Brothers miniseries on HBO, will serve as the host of the shows.

Retired Col. John Antal, Gearbox's historical director, said the Brothers in Arms games depict true historic battles on authentically re-created battlefields -- and it was the games' authenticity that was the major selling point for The History Channel.

He added that Brothers in Arms is also used by the U.S. Army to train soldiers at West Point Academy. Instructors use the games to train cadets in tactics, leadership and military history.

Antal said the recently released Earned in Blood game, which shipped in October, has a Skirmish mode that cadets are using to practice realistic head-to-head tactical combat.

It's not the first time the History Channel has turned to video games to dramatize documentaries. Decisive Battles, an original series focusing on key battles in ancient history, used graphics from The Creative Assembly's real-time strategy game, Rome: Total War.