ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead Steam DEMO

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Still downloading it. :S

Went through the manually briefly - this game seems really intense.

Apparently its a very detailed simulation, much more advanced compared to the Battlefield series or anything else for that matter. The Flight sim portion, though "simplified", seems interesting.

Problem is, the community is not very big and the learning curve for the game is fairly steep (from what I read). Lone wolf type gameplay is apparently suicidal in Arma. You wont get -anywhere- if you play solo.

I am really looking forward to this. Should be able to test it today. Just hope there are servers nearby with decent ping....
 
No online play got it via *ahem route* .Its a decent game but the dialogues are bit robotic and irritating at times.
 
Rickyk said:
Still downloading it. :S

Went through the manually briefly - this game seems really intense.

Apparently its a very detailed simulation, much more advanced compared to the Battlefield series or anything else for that matter. The Flight sim portion, though "simplified", seems interesting.

Problem is, the community is not very big and the learning curve for the game is fairly steep (from what I read). Lone wolf type gameplay is apparently suicidal in Arma. You wont get -anywhere- if you play solo.

I am really looking forward to this. Should be able to test it today. Just hope there are servers nearby with decent ping....
Click to expand...

it's a milsim, not your average shooter. successor to operation flashpoint. the gameplay aims to achieve realism, not arcade stuff like every other shooter out there.

the learning curve is supposed to be steep, but the community is huge and supposed to be very friendly and tolerant of newbies as long as you leave your battlefield/counter strike mindset at the door. it's a niche game, yes, but it has one of the largest active pc modding communities around.

what i'd like to know from you is how the performance is and how bad are the bugs. the game is notorious for being buggy and unpolished, but people swear by the game despite that because it's gameplay is so unique. would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
 
Ok heres my immediate feedback - I haven't liked it so far.

Running causes you to huff and puff and affects your aim. No, I don't mean running and firing. I mean running period. If u run and then stop, your targetting reticule takes time to settle down because you are breathing hard (because you were running). Realistic - yes. Fun - no.

It also follows that you also cant run indefinitely. This is a given considering its supposed to be "realistic" but I didnt like this either considering how huge the maps are.

You cant fire while running. Period. Running causes your weapon to "drop down" from the aiming position so theres no option to fire at all! In real life, one can fire while running though your aim will be severely affected. I can understand losing accuracy while running and firing but not being able to fire at all is strange. Realistic - No. Fun - no.

Enemy AI spots and shoots at you from ultra long rage with great accuracy. This is really annoying. My AI squad mates go down so fast its not even funny leaving me alone against the enemy AI. Realistic - No. Fun - no.

If you get shot, it can seriously affect your aim. Realistic - yes. Fun - no.

Usually, all it takes is a bullet or two and you are dead. No question of half a clip here. Realistic - yes. Fun - no.

Now I have read that the game maps are huge and support upto 50 players but huge doesn't even begin to describe this game. The chopper training map is about 5 times (if not more) the size of the entire Atacama map from BC2! I dont know if the MP maps are that big because I didn't get that far.

That brings me to online MP. Searched for servers. Found 8! The max no. of players in any server was 6! Yes you read that right - 6 players.

I heard the community for this game is small but that's ridiculous. If the maps are huge and support upto 50 players, how much fun will this be with 6 players? The pings to the servers were bad as well. One server showed a 188 ping, the rest were all over 300.

Graphics - I liked the engine. No "Crysis killer" here but it doesn't claim to be anyway. Terrain was nicely rendered as were other objects.

Coming to Vehicles. Great looking models for APC's, Choppers etc. Better than BC2 imo.

Vehicles have limited fuel. You have to keep an eye on your gauge. Refueling is possible. In the case of the APC, you have to find a fuel truck and get within (say) 5 meters of it and refueling begins automatically. Ditto for repairing though you need to find a repair truck apparently. I don't know how practical this is in an actual game where there may not be a fuel/repair truck around. Realistic - yes. Fun - no.

You can go "prone" which brings all associated advantages/disadvantages of doing so. I liked this and miss it in BC2. Realistic - yes. Fun - yes.

Performance. No issues at all running at 1920x1080. Smooth as silk on a Q6600 at 3 Ghz, 4 GB, GTX 260+. No framerate issues noticed (so far).

In game bugs - haven't noticed any so far but I have only played it about 40 minutes so hard to say.

One "bug" I did notice. No matter what I did, I could not bind my "mouse 2" to "move forward"!

It accepts the binding but refuses to use it for some unknown reason. The keyboard customization screen is also very annoying. Usually in a game, if one binds a key that is already assigned to another function, the game will warn you and asks you whether you still want to bind it or leave it. No such luck here. It will bind it for the new key while LEAVING the other conflicting key assignment intact! This is really stupid IMO because you need to manually look for all the "clashing" key configs and remove them yourself.
IMO, this is one of those games that goes too far trying to be "realistic" and at the expense of making the game less "fun". Dont get me wrong I thoroughly enjoy realistic simulations - but only for games featuring Aircraft, Subs, Tanks etc. - not a FPS.

I don't see myself playing it to be honest. BC2's "realism" is fun. I didnt enjoy Armas "realism" at all. Having said that, I can see how Arma might appeal to Squad based military simulation purists.

Try out the demo if you're one of them. It may just be your cuppa...
 
This is one of those games where you need to know everyone you play with as well as the maps & plans beforehand. Go to SimHQ.com and check out some of their match videos; very promising, very rewarding :D. Provided one is willing to invest the time & effort ofcourse.
 
I dunno if you guys have played Operation Flashpoint Cold War Crisis (not the one made by Codemasters ). It won several GOTY, but was brutally difficult. It was released in 2004. Arma 2 is a spiritual successor to the original OF. This is intended to be a super realistic military simulation. Many armies in fact used to train their soldiers, so it will not be everyone's cup of tea. Never finished the original Operation Flashpoint, never finished Arma II. It's too bloody realistic....
 
Its a sim game man, they're meant only for the hardcore. Like the silent hunter series, dcs or even falcon 4.0. They're only rewarding once you understand the nitty gritty stuff. I still love practicing how to land in falcon 4.0. Awesome fun.

But these aren't games where you can hop in, pound shit and zone out after half an hour, they require lots of dedication and a certain mentality towards weapon systems. Another thing those who love these games look out for is attention to detail, for ex wether an S-300 site in-game resembles one in real life or the advantages of a m1a2 over a T-90. Those are the things that make or break games like these.
 
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