Bellevue's Valve was enlisted by the U.S. Army to distribute the military's new video game, "America's Army 3."

The free, downloadable action game debuted today on Valve's Steam distribution network. Uncle Sam, the world's best financed game developer, used the Unreal 3 engine to build "AA3," which is getting a new scoring system; authentic ballistics modeling and combat movements such as rolls, slides and dives.

Also added is a "player damage model," including the ability to revive fellow soldiers, as in "Gears of War" on the Xbox 360. From the release:

"The player damage system has a high level of detail that tracks a number of the player's health metrics and divides the player's body into distinct areas that can each be damaged separately. The type and location of a player's injury will affect the player's abilities. For example, injuries in the lower body, such as the legs, will slow the player down, while injuries in the upper body, such as the torso and arms, will hinder accuracy but not movement speed. When players are affected by injuries they can be revived in some cases by their teammates. All players will have Combat Life Saving (CLS) training as part of Basic Combat Training so they can assist and stabilize an injured or incapacitated teammate. However, players must make the right decisions about medical treatment in order to heal, and not hurt, the injured player."

Sounds like the recruiting tool will work both ways: Attracting potential soldiers to the Army, and drawing gamers to Steam.