Share your first Arma3 Beta Impressions (all first impression type posts here pls)

[Pyronick 21]

Well good for you but dont rage when for example Valve starts to charge a monthly fee to use steam and if you disagree or cannot afford it you will loose all of your 50 games. Just read their EULA and you may will understand what Steam is basically doing to your bought games here.

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/english/

They can put what they want in their EULA. But according to European Law, any service provider cannot change an agreement without consent of the customer. Furthermore, licences without end date with content delivered through service must ALWAYS be accessible and usable by the end user.

Otherwise Valve will have their asses fined by the EU like Microsoft and Intel.

[PMP_ViOLeNcE 1]

First and foremost, I want to say I'm beyond thrilled to be playing the next ARMA. For an alpha build my hat is off to Bohemia Interactive as most alpha's are so rough and ugly to play they become unbearable in minutes. This has the solid building blocks of a great game. I want to to also start on a good note, call it a bit of a compliment sandwich. The lighting looks great and the shadows are sharp. I will say the colors are a bit bright for my liking, as with a shooters I tend to look for a more gritty feel (ex. Battlefield vs COD or Socom, any before 4 vs Socom 4) but, this does not ruin the experience. Distance textures are not looking so great but, I'm certain that will be fixed. My biggest frustration is the character movement. It seems really accelerated except in prone. The slow walk feature is far to fast, walking while in scope or iron sights really doesn't have much of a bob to it, and most laughable, have any of you tried to step over objects. The character lifts his leg about 6 inches off the ground and does it so fast it looks ridiculous. Not functional at all. Two finish the final bun of the compliment sandwich, the underwater scuba mission was fun. Its really going to add that additional spice to liven up the game and the water looks great. Keep up the good work and I'm looking forward to posting glitchs, errors, suggestions more as I get further into the game. For now, off to the 9 to 5. xPMPxViOLeNcE

[jonneymendoza 10]

Well good for you but dont rage when for example Valve starts to charge a monthly fee to use steam and if you disagree or cannot afford it you will loose all of your 50 games. Just read their EULA and you may will understand what Steam is basically doing to your bought games here.

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/english/

BTW. there is also an non DRM alternative out there. Its called Gog.com where you can buy, download and play games without any Steamworks protection and it works great.

Dude with powerhungry I didnt mean the resources Steam needs itself but the behaviour of Steam to become basically a monopoly which will always ends in tyranny for those who are being forced to use it.

U lost the plot man. if u hate steam dont buy arma 3

[MasterofNothing 10]

I think BI will fix the terrain textures (see this post). One of the things I've noticed is that the thermal imaging in one of the vehicles (the M-ATV if I remember correctly) is pretty much useless. If you're in the vehicle, and are in first person mode, it's very hard to actually see what you're aiming at. Also, you should be able to turn thermal off (now I sometimes see two M-ATVs in front of each other shooting, but missing, because they can't see the enemy vehicle).

[twisted 128]

Well I can't say that the alpha is everything I wished for (and I wasn't expecting it to be) but I will say I am really happy with the weapon handling, recoil and sway. Animations are great though sometimes confusing, and tactical pace is well done. It will take sometime to get natural at controlling all these things but I can see the game reaching whole new levels once I do. Well done BIS keep up the great work.

Well said. The weapon handling and movement feels good. Prone supported fire mode would be one of few things id like to see added. Real good job Bis devs. And it looks so good in sunlight. Runs smoothly as well.

[GhostOfSparta 1]

I am new to the Arma franchise so I don't know how valuable my input is, but this game feels great and it looks great! I have never played an alpha before but damn, if this is alpha, I can't wait to see what the full game looks like! Haven't ran into any major glitch except for one, which I am trying to post a thread on with a video.

[MissionCreep 12]

The Alpha just blows me away. Far, far beyond my expectations. And I'm truly amazed at the user content and mods springing up magically like mushrooms after the rain.

[GRS 10]

The AI is kinda here and there. Sometimes they are geniuses, other times they are awful. This (awful) especially holds true in urban combat. While it is largely a great improvement, the path finding and reaction times can be atrocious at times. I told an AI squad mate to go to a building corner across the road. he ran about 10m in the opposite direction, 20m back, up onto a hill where he sat getting shot at. Somehow he did not get hit, I gave the same order again and he continued his wide flank and eventually got there. Why he did not just sprint right across and get there within seconds, I'll never know.

Another time i order my squad down to the buildings just below the rocks i was on, instead of going down the little path between rocks, they went all the way around a building into town, down main street, and around. three out of four of them died when they decided to hang out beside the building rather than safely behind it while getting shot at from 20m away, without returning fire.

Other times I was very impressed. The willingness of the AI to search buildings was nice to see. Hey, it's Alpha, we still have plenty of time, and other than some things like that, I for one am still VERY impressed overall.

Edited March 6, 2013 by GRS

[xx_fr0st-w0lf_xx 10]

The game looks and feels amazing and fluid. Surprisingly I encounter a pretty small amount of bugs considering its an alpha. Editor is nice and has the same feel like arma 2 but there are some essential codes that changed and i can't seem to figure out how the new code.

I don't see much of an improvement from the AI, and considering i played most of my arma 2 with AI mods it feels like a downgrade. BIS really has to go and take some ideas from the modding community and implement it in their game.

multiplayer is much better and i have seen a tdm match role out like it was cod which is fairly impressive.

overall good game looking forward for the future of it

[Marlit 1]

I can run the game on high/very high very smooth. The only thing I dont like, that the far distance visibility is quite poor. I think it was much better in Arma 2..

Or is it just me? I have distance setings on 1200..

[ocelot07 1]

I am really enjoying it. No real problems as of yet. Single player is fine getting around 50-60 FPS on Ultra on 1080p. But then it comes to MP I am just about getting 30FPS. I am getting constant crashes and disconnections. But I know this is only a alpha and things like this are expected. Really enjoying the wasteland servers when I can get on them.

[Darthwaveous 10]

Overall I happy what I seen so far keeping in mind that this is an Alpha and that there is a strong community who will definitely be involved with getting feedback. I didnt have any issues purchasing since I got my copy straight from Stream. The Graphics are amazing even though they are kicking my 3 monitor surround setup. AI is definitely looking better compared to A2. I'm really looking forward to the weekend when I have some time to dive deeply into all the features and try some multiplayer.

[heruon 1]

Really impressed by this, its really what i was hoping for with arma3. Considering this is only alpha its in a really good shape. It runs smooth at ultra and movement feels very fluid, especially compared to arma 2. I really like the fact that bullets are now fired instantly instead of the couple of ms it took in arma 2.

The first playthrough of the infantry showcase was awsome! Im sure this will keep me occupied for quite some time :)

[ricogs400 1]

Loving the alpha. Was afraid from the early vids that my system would struggle and it would need a current day high end system. Mine is pretty new and the graphics card is good for last year and the game runs great. Love the animations and movement seems smoother. Great sound also.

Slight cons and may be improved in beta/full release - Would like smoother control from a xbox360 controller, instead of one predefined scheme OR custom, allow movement/look mapped to left/right stick and then customizable buttons. For custom it has to be every single movement mapped to a direction and it works pretty good, but I would like the movement to be more 360 degree instead of just 8 ways, like how the WASD keys are, N, NE, E, SE, S, etc.

[MisticK93RUS 1]

Hello guys. So here's my impressions: game is really awesome. I'm very excited. Combat stances, physics, improved animations-all are great. So Arma has finally became something like Hardcore and realistical version of the battlefield. I wanted to buy SE but shop didnt worked so I'v purchuased DDE and looking for an upgrade :3. And now some benchmarks ( Core i7 3770k@4600 12 gb 1660 ram and GTX 680@1280@6908 mhz).

So:

1a) Standard Ultra settings, testing in the editor preview (somewhere on the island) : 42(in the forest)-58(at the base)

1b) Ultra setting with maxed draw distance (12 km) : 29-45

2a)Default ultra settings, infantry showcase: 37-48 fps (43 avg)

2b)Ultra with 12 km DD: 30-35 fps (32 avg)

3a) Vehicle showcase 2nd checkpoint (where u'v successfully hijacked enemy's car and roaming to destroy enemy's vehicles with mounted GL) -I especially picked that checkpoit due to huge draw area including buildings, trees, etc : avg 30 fps

3b) Maxed DD and ultra settings 19-27 fps (20 avg (OMG!)

4a) Helicopter showcase (in flight ): Brace urselves.... def. Ultra-18-27 (avg 23)

4b)Ultra with maxed Draw distance ...... 15 avg. fps.

According to GPU Tweak game were using 2000 (!!!) Mb of video mem. Main framerate cutters are: Overall draw distance, Objects distance, Objects quality and terrain quaility. So I think that this game is heavelly depends on ur videocard, not CPU. I'm planning to buy 2nd GTX 680, but now I dont know, will it run at least at 50 fps on def. ultra settings in such heavy situations like heli flight..

So this is it =)) thanks for reading

---------- Post added at 21:18 ---------- Previous post was at 21:11 ----------

Hello guys. So here's my impressions: game is really awesome. I'm very excited. Combat stances, physics, improved animations-all are great. So Arma has finally became something like Hardcore and realistical version of the battlefield. I wanted to buy SE but shop didnt worked so I'v purchuased DDE and looking for an upgrade :3. And now some benchmarks ( Core i7 3770k@4600 12 gb 1660 ram and GTX 680@1280@6908 mhz).

So:

1a) Standard Ultra settings, testing in the editor preview (somewhere on the island) : 42(in the forest)-58(at the base)

1b) Ultra setting with maxed draw distance (12 km) : 29-45

2a)Default ultra settings, infantry showcase: 37-48 fps (43 avg)

2b)Ultra with 12 km DD: 30-35 fps (32 avg)

3a) Vehicle showcase 2nd checkpoint (where u'v successfully hijacked enemy's car and roaming to destroy enemy's vehicles with mounted GL) -I especially picked that checkpoit due to huge draw area including buildings, trees, etc : avg 30 fps

3b) Maxed DD and ultra settings 19-27 fps (20 avg (OMG!)

4a) Helicopter showcase (in flight ): Brace urselves.... def. Ultra-18-27 (avg 23)

4b)Ultra with maxed Draw distance ...... 15 avg. fps.

According to GPU Tweak game were using 2000 (!!!) Mb of video mem. Main framerate cutters are: Overall draw distance, Objects distance, Objects quality and terrain quaility. So I think that this game is heavelly depends on ur videocard, not CPU. I'm planning to buy 2nd GTX 680, but now I dont know, will it run at least at 50 fps on def. ultra settings in such heavy situations like heli flight..

So this is it =)) thanks for reading

[MisticK93RUS 1]

Hello guys. So here's my impressions: game is really awesome. I'm very excited. Combat stances, physics, improved animations-all are great. So Arma has finally became something like Hardcore and realistical version of the battlefield. I wanted to buy SE but shop didnt worked so I'v purchuased DDE and looking for an upgrade :3. And now some benchmarks ( Core i7 3770k@4600 12 gb 1660 ram and GTX 680@1280@6908 mhz).

So:

1a) Standard Ultra settings, testing in the editor preview (somewhere on the island) : 42(in the forest)-58(at the base)

1b) Ultra setting with maxed draw distance (12 km) : 29-45

2a)Default ultra settings, infantry showcase: 37-48 fps (43 avg)

2b)Ultra with 12 km DD: 30-35 fps (32 avg)

3a) Vehicle showcase 2nd checkpoint (where u'v successfully hijacked enemy's car and roaming to destroy enemy's vehicles with mounted GL) -I especially picked that checkpoit due to huge draw area including buildings, trees, etc : avg 30 fps

3b) Maxed DD and ultra settings 19-27 fps (20 avg (OMG!)

4a) Helicopter showcase (in flight ): Brace urselves.... def. Ultra-18-27 (avg 23)

4b)Ultra with maxed Draw distance ...... 15 avg. fps. -on MINIMAL settings I have 30 fps as well

According to GPU Tweak game were using 2000 (!!!) Mb of video mem. Main framerate cutters are: Overall draw distance, Objects distance, Objects quality and terrain quaility. So I think that this game is heavelly depends on ur videocard, not CPU. I'm planning to buy 2nd GTX 680, but now I dont know, will it run at least at 50 fps on def. ultra settings in such heavy situations like heli flight..

So this is it =)) thanks for reading

Edited March 6, 2013 by MisticK93RUS
added some info

[rehtus777 10]

I can run the game on high/very high very smooth. The only thing I dont like, that the far distance visibility is quite poor. I think it was much better in Arma 2..

Or is it just me? I have distance setings on 1200..

1200? You're playing in the fog. You've got to have the view distance at least up to 4000 to get a good view of your suroundings. My weak machine can run it on 6000 and it looks great. 12000 is the goal. New PC upgrade coming this Summer after I see how much it takes to run the Beta.

[Dogtags 0]

Has anyone else noticed that the vehicle physics are slightly too high, i was driving the featured vehicle in the showcase (cant remember the name of it). when i was eratically steering left to right i managed to almost flip the vehicle. in my personal opinion it should be turned down... thoughts ?

Yes I drove a 4wd down the beach and ran into some beach chairs and the 4wd bounced about 2 meters into the air and the chair only slightly moved so Physics is quite a bit off, too bouncy which I noticed in the early showcases as well, no change.

I found the performance amazing for me considering I have a GTX460 GPU although I did upgrade recently to 16GB RAM, SSD and 3770K all up a very worthwhile upgrade. Running Ultra/high on everything except AA is at 4x, view distance 4000 and flying, driving or running I get very smooth gameplay, impressive. So far AI seems tougher although I did notice some predictable patterns like the firing patter of AI when I am running away, every 2 seconds he would shoot so I knew exactly when to change direction and never got hit once in a 20 second run and I got away, that predictability needs to be randomised somewhat I think.

Overall I am impressed but hate seeing some of the original bugs still in the game for over a decade, not sure they will ever get fixed. Personally I hope they don't rush this to market and fix sounds, AI and Physics and it wouldn't hurt to plan on fixing the vehicle death models to make it more natural either. I hate seeing the shell of a crashed chopper just black and rolling around like it is made of paper, also look at smoke at some point.

Will get into Multiplayer tonight I hope.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Dogtags

[arnarvidars 1]

I have been playing for about 6 hours now and this is what I liked, disliked and want to see in the full game.

My specs

Graphics card: MSI GeForce N560GTX-Ti TWIN FROZR II OC overclocked to 970MHz

Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD65 B3

CPU: Intel i7 2600K overclocked to 4.2GHz

RAM: 8 Gb

First impressions

What I liked

1) Better and smother movement: I felt like I was part of the solder and in control of his movements. In arma 2 I never felt like I was in touch with the character.

2) Stance transitions: I f**king love it, nuff said.

3) Flying was easy and I didn't encounter any bugs

4) Better physics then Arma 2

5) Ran great for me: I was getting about 60-70 FPS on very high settings

6) Unusually smart animals, snakes and rabbits opening doors and fish swimming on land, I know it's a bug but it was funny.

What I don't like

1) I couldn't eject from the heli: I want to be able to eject at any time.

2) When I put my rifle from semi to auto/burst then equipped my pistol and back to the rifle the rifle was back to semi. I want the game to remember that I had my rifle on auto/burst.

3) When I was equipped with my pistol I couldn't use stance transition from low crouch to hi prone (sit), but I could wit the rifle equipped.

4) The AI wasn't all that smart but good shoots.

5) Some sounds sounded like they were taken from Arma 2

What I like to see in the full game

1) I would like to be able to shot from a heli as a passenger, for example from a MH-9 heli.

2) Stance indicator on the HUD

I still haven't thought up much to add to the full game but I sure I will think up more soon.

[Bee8190 10]

2) When I put my rifle from semi to auto/burst then equipped my pistol and back to the rifle the rifle was back to semi. I want the game to remember that I had my rifle on auto/burst.

Agreed. This ''has been brought from arma2'' and applies for vehicles just as well, ie you select full auto but the gun resets to semi after leaving the vehicle either as gunner or basically any position.

Care to create feedback ticket or shell I?

[arnarvidars 1]

Agreed. This ''has been brought from arma2'' and applies for vehicles just as well, ie you select full auto but the gun resets to semi after leaving the vehicle either as gunner or basically any position.

Care to create feedback ticket or shell I?

I reported this bug earlier today

[Gorbachev 1]

I don't know how this is possible. It's better in every way. I hope you guys at Bohemia keep this fluid animation and streamlined mentality all the way to release. I'm loving it. Personally, this is what I thought the jump from OFP to ArmA was going to be, but it was worth the wait.

The removal of COMPLETE AND UTTER desaturation at night looks so good. I loaded up Chernarus and it's beautiful at night. Colors!

Currently running into a lot of haters on the steam forums due to this being a top seller right now. Battlefield kids hopped on thinking it was the next big thing (it is) but it doesn't tickle their fancy one bit, so they kill at spawn.

The apparent into to implement native 360 controller support is actually a good sign for once. I mosied about as an infantry man, flew helecopters and other such things for a good hour. I hope to see this on consoles just because it means more money in your pockets - you deserve it. And as a bonus, I get to play the game on my TV with mods on my pc.

All praise so far from me, amazing for an alpha and I approve of the Minecraft approach - sell alpha for cheap, give early adopters the full product upon release.

[Placebo 29]

Merged a few first impression threads together :)

[Groova 1]

I liked the game a lot, runs almost like arma 2 with same resolution and "high" settings while graphics, physics and animations are noticeably better, even if i prefer old mud, iron sights and stinky smoky veichles instead of walking around shooting Power Rangers, but there will be mods for that. Generally i found everything enough new and still enough loyal to Arma style and controls, everything but one, major thing, that troubles me a lot for arma 3 future (and MP future): CHOPPERS ARE SO DAMN EASY TO FLY AND LAND, i could actually do plane-like acrobatics at ridicolous altitudes (full roll around 50m and no crash) and i could TURN UPSIDE DOWN a flying chopper and FLYING FORWARD without even losing altitude. I really hope the game physics and flight models are the last thing developers are smoothing because it can't go on like this in my opinion, one of the major pro's of arma is that you have to be very skilled if you wanna act "red baron" online, now flying is even easier than in Battlefield, i mean... ...please, that game is famous and full of rambo noobs, please leave them there instead of try to share the cake with TOTAL DIFFERENT (thank god) RFPS.

This said, i still think my money was well spent, it's an overall nice job for good'ol Bohemia buddies

[Flash Thunder 10]

Pretty much my impressions.

Except running on high/medium getting around 25 fps with little to no action going on.

Terrain textures look awful and shadows are still blocky and ugly

Need to play more though myself only got 1 hour logged in.