500th Hour!

[weaponsfree 46]

(Apologies to the forums if this kind of post is frowned upon, but enjoyed writing it nonetheless)

I just hit 500 hours on Arma 3. This is time very much well spent. I can't imagine how many cumulative hours I have since Operation Flashpoint, but it is certainly the franchise I've spent the most time in. Here follows a personal Arma / Flashpoint retrospective.

The first time I played Flashpoint, I hated it. I experienced that first helicopter insertion feeling rather underwhelmed by the game's relatively poor graphics. After following my squad lead to the edge of Morton, the mess of radio banter and invisible enemies made me quit it immediately. Thankfully a few months later I ran out of games to play, and being broke I got back into Flashpoint. I've been in it ever since.

I think the moment that cemented my love of the game was in Flashpoint's Rescue Mission (https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Walkthrough:Cold_War_Crisis#Rescue). We cleared out the bad guys, rescued the civilians, and escorted them out of the village. Upon reaching our unload waypoint and killing some enemies that tried to ambush us, a pursuing enemy truck caught up to us and began offloading troops. I ran to a recently dead enemy RPG soldier, picked up his launcher and fired on the pursuing truck, killing most of the troops around it and making it safe for our extraction. I remember thinking, this wasn't scripted, this wasn't a planned event, that RPG wasn't highlighted with a giant arrow or a soldier yelling "Get that RPG!" (like so many bland mainstream shooters do). The situation was entirely dynamic and could have ended in disaster. It was my quick thinking and situational awareness that got me through. Many players don't seem to mind if these kinds of situations are scripted or dynamic, enjoying the action no matter how it was served to them. But for me, after that moment, I knew other games would have trouble comparing.

I soon tried my hand at editing, and over several weeks, created a large, combined arms, amphibious landing on Malden. This kicked off years of mission creation, with hundreds of missions spanning every iteration of Bohemia's games. Just this past week, I released my latest mission (selfless plug) : Refuel steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=458448985

Over the years, I've tried to get others to enjoy the series. I've had some success, but the game is not for everyone and it's a hard sell. I usually try and entice the more tactical minded FPS fans, those who enjoyed the Ghost Recon and Battlefield series. But my sales pitch would never find traction in a marketing meeting :

"There is no other FPS that forces you to think 5-10 minutes ahead. They're all either twitch fests, or force you to think maybe 1 minute into the future. Arma demands that you formulate a quick plan for almost any maneuver. You can't just rush the target, you can't just open fire on sight and you can't ignore the world outside of your direct line of fire."

"Retreating is part of this game. What other game demands that you pull back from time to time? What other game rewards you for telling your team mates 'This is our fallback position'. This is not because the game is too difficult, it is because an ever changing set of circumstances may force you into actions beyond attack."

"You have to take terrain into consideration. This is not a case of moving your sniper into the perfect cliffside overwatch position the game designer placed there for you. It's using and understanding the terrain around you and using it to your advantage at all times. A hill can be a great overwatch position, or a dangerous obstacle that obscures the movement of a flanking enemy. A treeline can be a haven from pursuing helicopters, or an ideal firing line."

"Squad action. The feeling of having maneuvered your squad into an effective firing line, and having them open up on targets is unmatched. Knowing who to place where, when to fire, when to move and when to run is a skillset that no other game demands of you. I remember playing with friends not yet familiar with Arma, and finding an enemy column moving across our line of fire. I stopped my friends from prematurely firing, saying that if we fired now, the column would turn towards us, and we'd have a perfectly spread out 6 gun firing line to contend with. I explained that we were better off getting into a position to have them in enfilade. We stealthily moved our squad behind the enemy column, got them in enfilade, and decimated them."

"High octane action. An RPG round whistling past my face and blowing up my jeep behind me. An enemy APC rolls over a hill 50 meters in front of me blasting away at my squad. A-10 GAU cannon fire pounding a beach landing zone ahead of me as my boat races in. Tracers track me as I sprint through open ground. Mortar rounds slam into the village we just cleared, forcing us to take cover. Little bird insertion behind enemy lines, while taking fire. 1200 meter kills with a 50 cal sniper rifle. Directing my tank gunner to fire at an enemy tank as its turret turns towards us. Charging up a hill to take a strongly fortified position along with 100 other friendly soldiers."

For all these reasons and more, Arma 3 is my favorite game. Thanks for the fun Bohemia. This 500th hour is for you.

Edited June 23, 2015 by WeaponsFree

[Brisse 78]

I'm at 1181 hours in Arma3 so far, and I want to thank BI for every second of it. I'm sure the expansion will add at least another 100 hours to that number, and probably much more. :)

Edit: My second most played game in my steam library is Europa Universalis IV at 225 hours, so there's quite a large gap between nr1 and nr2 (about 100 games total). Both games are well worth the money.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Brisse

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

2200+ hours and I don't see that slowing down any time soon.

Ever since the demo for Arma 2 came out I've not really played any other FPS. I've accumulated similar hours in Arma 2 + OA.

[I give up 152]

Arma 3 worth every cent.

Only for the campaign worth to buy it.

And after that we have countless hours of gameplay with / against AI with some nice missions built by the community. As a bonus we can play around with editor, which gives a quite good challenge.

And of course it have several options as MP.

No other game offers so much.

I have 1073 hours on it, is mine most played game.

My second most played game is America's Army 3 with 931 and the third is CS GO with 918, the fourth is CSS with 558. I have around 200 hours with some other games like Civilization V, Assetto Corsa, Insurgency or Arma 2 OA.

If are considering to buy Arma 3, dont think twice. Get it. It is a great game for all the reasons above and much more.

[LJFox 56]

And with one of the best gaming communities out there, what's no to like. :)

[mistyronin 1181]

According to Steam:

NOTE: Is not 100% real as there's some bug that makes Steam show the game running all day, unless I stop the PC.

If I can ask, when did you first try OFP?

[weaponsfree 46]

Woa, some serious players out there. I still got some work to do ;)

If I can ask, when did you first try OFP?

Probably late 2001. I doubt a game like this would have gotten big publisher funding today. Glad Flashpoint got a chance back then.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

According to Steam:

http://i.imgur.com/EjrId3v.jpg

NOTE: Is not 100% real as there's some bug that makes Steam show the game running all day, unless I stop the PC.

If I can ask, when did you first try OFP?

And I'm guessing only 150 hrs of playing, the rest modding :) That is how it goes with some of us.

[ajsarge 10]

I had 667 hours logged by Steam on Arma 2 before switching to a boxed edition of Combined Arms when OA released, and getting oodles of game time beyond that isn't recorded. Arma 3 is currently at 481 hours of campaign, scenarios, and mucking around in the editor. Not a whole lot of multiplayer for me At this point, many people have spent around $85 for five hundred hours of gameplay. Compared to spending $15 for a 90-minute movie...that's about 6 hours per dollar on Arma versus 6 minutes per dollar at a movie. And the ratio only gets better the longer you play.

Best money spent ever...Not counting the thousands dropped into multiple computer systems over time to run everything at awesome details yet maintain performance. But that's another story...

[clawhammer 10]

Iam close to the 11000 hours... :D

I think the number says enough about the game.

[Armitxes 36]

xD I spend that time just in the A3 Editor, damn we are all addicted.

[Gunter Severloh 4056]

Another how many hours I played Arma3 thread :j:

I do get the point of what the OP was describing about what happened in his mission, and after, yes same here, i was actually afraid to play lol when I first

tried the demo for OFP, i thought the game was to hard as i never played a game so open, dynamic, and chaotic like this, i was used to call of duty,

Wolfenstein, and the sort, you can only imagine how your skills were back thing, compared to now in terms of tactical approach to a situation,

Arma is unforgiving as it forces a reality on you that most games dont have unless of course its pvp.

btw i have 741hrs so i guess im special too.

Dirty Haz whos on my steam friends list is always in Arma3 but hes mostly coding and working on stuff, but he has 7,385hrs!

Edited June 24, 2015 by Günter Severloh

[froggyluv 2136]

Iam close to the 11000 hours... :D

I think the number says enough about the game.

Jeezus. Man I felt bad about my 3400 hours, like I was neglecting my life....so thank you good sir.

[roguetrooper 2]

Sweet little numbers of gameplay hours compared to my first two years (2005-2006) in EverQuest II....

[DancZer 65]

8 hour to 666 :icon_twisted:

[ratszo 17]

Jeezus. Man I felt bad about my 3400 hours, like I was neglecting my life....so thank you good sir.

I hear ya froggy, winter's over & summertime is here. Alittle less arma and alot more time outside.

Next winter, arma will still be here, but this summer will be long gone.

Life's a beach if you got one. Enjoy!

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Iam close to the 11000 hours... :D

I think the number says enough about the game.

Woah, we got an Arma 3 Specialist over here! I couldn't stay that many sleepless nights though.

[AIF_Infantrymen 264]

I got 1101 Hours