What year were you in Basic Training? I recall one morning (in 1995) we had to go out on a field and stab dummies in the gut with bayonets while screaming "What makes the grass grow greener?!!?!? Blood! Blood! Blood makes the grass grow greener!!" right after hearing a motivational speech by a drill sergeant about a squad of GIs in the Korean War who went nuts and cut up a whole platoon of Chinese after they ran out of ammo. I'm pretty sure that fits with what the GP was talking about. On the whole, it wasn't very hyperrealistic, but I think that's splitting hairs - if you don't have a real rocket launcher handy, you can still do some very good training with a piece of pipe and your imagination, or if you don't have grenades you can still train throwing rocks at a "crazy ivan"[1]. (And there's a reason they're called "crazy ivans" if you think about it.)

[1]http://slideplayer.com/slide/1678667/7/images/65/USMC+Qualif...

> What year were you in Basic Training?

I wasn't, though I did do Army ROTC Basic Camp in 1994 before deciding not to contract; around the same time, I spent a lot of time talking to people who went through Army or Marine basic between about 1991 and 1994.

> On the whole, it wasn't very hyperrealistic, but I think that's splitting hairs

It's not splitting hairs if you are trying to use it as a comparator to something that is hyperrealistic is the dimensions basic training is not in order to predict that the psychological effects should be the same.

> if you don't have a real rocket launcher handy, you can still do some very good training with a piece of pipe and your imagination

Sure, but the issue being discussed isn't “can basic training be effective as training without being hyperrealistic” but “does basic training provide a reasonable basis for setting expectations for the psychological effects of hyperrealistic video games”.