Seany's First impressions of Arma3 Alpha

[-=seany=- 5]

Bearing in mind this is an Alpha, this is my initial impression. I understand that there is a high possibility the "criticisms" are simply down to not being worked on yet. Eg place holders. Some things may also just take a bit of getting used to from Arma2 ( Eg. anim speeds etc)

Pros:

It runs better than expected so far. P-in-P doesn't seem to cost too much performance.

There is much better possibility for customizing graphics settings. This is highly appreciated.

Lighting, environment and weather (+advanced weather settings) are really great.

The setting of the game and island are beautiful. I'm really looking forward to Altis!

The interface seems to be on a nice path. Great also to see the ability to change the color of HUD items/crosshair etc.

Vehicle and unit detail are excellent.

Nice key control additions with "Adjust" stance and separate grenade attack etc

Nice particle effects from explosions, rounds leaving muzzle, vehicle crashes.

Animations movement are better, but need more work (a bit wooden and glitchy occasionally).

Cons:

Vehicle Physics:

The vehicle physics feel like they have a lot of potential, but at the moment the are pretty bad. The wheeled vehicles don't feel natural at all. Once you get up to above average speed it's not so bad, but anything less than that feels unresponsive and disconnected. Weight transfer, traction, body roll, power, acceleration, under-steer / over-steer all needs a lot of work. (I use keyboard to drive)

Vehicle Sound:

The sound for the weapons and environment are good, but vehicle sounds arnt great. At the moment the engine sounds are noisey (Distorted and boomy) and have no character. The transmission changes are not synced well and rpm sound is all over the place.

Aiming Dead Zone:

I, since OFP, have always liked the "Aiming Dead zone". I use a small amount. By default it was off in Arma3. I turned it on and it just doesn't work or feel right. It's especially hard to use when doing Dead zone aiming, then trying to pan left or right out of the dead zone, its like the mouse is hitting a wall or stuck in molasses. It also feels possibly like the Aiming dead zone moves with too much sensitivity compared to moving out of the dead zone. Either way, I prefer how it was done in Arma2.

Explosion/fire effects:

Some times they look like a bit cartoony, maybe some are just place holders?

Problems:

TrackIr 4 wont work (version 4 software)

Aiming dead zone is odd

Flickering "Picture in picture" displays (caused by SLI?)

Missing things:

TrackIR 6DoF Vehicles?

Shooting out of vehicles?

Loadout editor?

Edited March 7, 2013 by -=seany=-

[Guest]

Good review, I agree with most of what you say. Especially the aiming dead zone and vehicle handling.

As you correctly said, at the moment vehicles have no weight transfer, body roll, or general "feel". There needs to be some work here but I don't know if the engine supports a car physics model. We will need at the very least a basic tyre model in order to simulate traction, oversteer and understeer.

Time will tell!

[nodunit 397]

I think the flickering is SLI, I have a HD 5750 and no flickering on my PIP.

Another thing that needs improving is how physX behaves against surfaces, if you drive a vehicle up to a wall and turn the tire against the wall, the vheicle will suddenly bounce up.

[tremanarch 6]

i noticed that with aiming deadzone too. maybe a3 is now meant to be played with zero (to be more shooter like)