converted!

[Tankbuster 1747]

I had one of the very first versions of this game. I got the German download 1.00, patched it to English and played it on my Athlon 3200+ with a gig of ram and a 7600 GS. It was dreadful. Really bad.

Now, a thousand pounds poorer, but I have the DVD EU version which I've patched with the 1.05 beta, running on a C2D E6600 with 2 gigs of ram and an 8800GTX. I've just been playing a couple of MP missions (the PC mentioned in p1 is now my dedicated server ) with a few mates. In 1440x900 with pretty much everything turned up to hooge, it looks just extraordinary and still turns out 30 FPS.

I am converted. This game is a hit. It will be a massive seller. I was among some of BIS's harshest critics but now I'm elated to eat my humble pie and with a combination of new hardware, a couple of patches and one or two good user MP missions, it's been transformed into an absolute winner.

Perfect it aint, but if the improvements keep coming at the same rate they have done (especially 1.05 and 1.05beta) then I hope to see more people coming around to my way. I expect the US release might come with a new patch, probably 1.06.

BIS, my hat is officially off to you!

PS, I've never used one before, but... here goes...

[kgwanchos 0]

Marvelous £1024.99p for a PC game cant be bad....

[kgwanchos 0]

sorry should read 1024 pounds and 99 pence for a PC game cant be bad

[Tankbuster 1747]

Fair point. I'd be fibbing if I said buying this new PC wasn't primarily because of Armed Assault, but nevertheless, that new machine a couple of patches and good mission or two has transformed it from the unutterable crap I played in November.

[colligpip 0]

just wondering what mp missions converted you I have a friend who i am try to convert.

[Tankbuster 1747]

Operation Crossfire 1.2

I'm going to see if I can get hold of a thread about it as I have a few things to say.

[bravo 6 0]

sorry should read 1024 pounds and 99 pence for a PC game cant be bad

exactly ... but will worth every cents, right? even if its the only game you play

i will do the same next year!

[M9ACE 0]

I have not even voiced but a small fraction of the things I think should be changed in this game.  But at the end of the day, all things considered, ArmA is excellent.  I built a new PC mainly to play ArmA, it was worth it.  It will be the game to play long term just as OFP was.

Future patches will help confirm that ArmA will prove to be a game of substance.  

[Scrub 0]

For the people joking about the $$ spent:  If you play reasonably current PC games, and if you didn't upgrade for this title, which one will make you?  You don't have long before every other game on the shelf starts stressing 2 year old hardware.  

Edit: (Welcome to the other side of the fence TankBusterSPAFF)

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

lol Scrub! You rise a fence?

"Niemand hat die Absicht eine Mauer zu bauen..."

I guess most of the lucky guys never seen a version before 1.05 and having a better rig from the start would have even a better opinion then Tankbuster.

If I would erase the past, and today would be the first day I see ArmA, I would say impressive game, lot of bugs, but playable.

But right, there are the poor Czech, Polish and Germans from the other side of the fence....wall?

So even if not THAT exited, I agree with Tankbuster.

I pull my hat if BI would find a way to deliver a kind of Extra Mission/addon/Campain later this year dedicated as a sorry for us poor Alpha-Testers (while not exclusive to, just a written dedication).

[Infam0us 10]

I upgraded my Motherboard and Graphics Card to play this game so that I could get a high FPS and make it look good (And a new X-Fi which comes today ) And was it worth it ... HELL YEAH!

[Tankbuster 1747]

lol Scrub! You rise a fence?

It's an English coloquialism.

To 'sit on the fence' means to not express a view on a subject that is clear cut and often devisive. When one does express an opinion, you are said to have "come down on one side of the fence". As I said, I was openly on one side of the fence and now scrub notes I'm on the other side.

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

OH, that hurts to be pulled over the fence from one side to the other, currently I sit on top I would say. Hope it is a fence without spikes or broken glass on top.

I hope it will not happen to often.

[Tankbuster 1747]

I didn't hurt as such. I'm glad to be able to retract the horrid things I said about BIS and v1.02.

[Dallas 9]

I was sold from the start with my German version, because I knew this day would come. Where everything would be gravy.

[Tankbuster 1747]

If I'm totally honest - deep down, I was too, but it didn't stop me being vociferous. I had to be - we all did - it's our duty.

I didn't play OFP from the early days, but good friends of mine who did say it was just as bad as ArmA 1.00.

I wonder what comparative level of OFP we think ArmA has reached now? Clearly, it isn't at 1.96 (the only version I played) but it's WAY way ahead of 1.00

[Jack-UK 0]

OFP 1.0 was WORSE than 1.00 ArmA lol.

And yeah i had to upgrade my graphics card for this game, i get decent frame rates, i guess i cant expect much more.

I still get that dam handle leak from the ATI drivers though which slow down the game and grind it to a halt... I also get a lot of crash to desktops.. usually in multiplayer maps though... so maybe because they are custom there are some issues with them...

Also the dam server bug is pissing me off, we're paying for a SWAF server and it wont appear in the list because of a bug. Its been assigned to Suma but i dont know how close it is to a fix

But otherwise, ArmA ROCKS! I've already converted one friend to it, hes buying a whole new PC just to play it hehehe. How many other communities would have people pay thousands to play their game? ^^ Ur lucky guys BIS hehehe

[dirtylarrygb 0]

I was sold from the start with my German version, because I knew this day would come. Where everything would be gravy.

Graz your new machine will also run other new titles like Stalker/Crysis/Alan Wake/CNC3 the way they were mean't to be played.

ARMa was the first big title non RTS to force people to look at their kit and wonder if its really that good.

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Quote[/b] ]OFP 1.0 was WORSE than 1.00 ArmA lol.

Even if I do not agree here, I expect much less problems in the 2nd generation of an engine.

Especially since I do not see here such an improvement to talk about a brand new engine since we inherit almost all problems from the old OFP engine.

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

Whilst I do agree that it is stranger to see the same mistakes being made again instead of new mistakes being done, it is the price we pay for the addon-making community to have any degree of "back-compatibility" to convert OFP's addons to ArmA, I guess...

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Quote[/b] ]

it is the price we pay for the addon-making community to have any degree of "back-compatibility" to convert OFP's addons to ArmA, I guess...

Not true, from OFP to ArmA it is not 100% compatible, and once you have to touch it, what are a few weeks more or less if the result would be much better if the engine underneath is supporting features much better?

It is the other way around:

With that "back-compatibility" the modders must spend much more time in creating workarounds and the result is sometimes even not to their satisfaction.

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

Quote[/b] ]

it is the price we pay for the addon-making community to have any degree of "back-compatibility" to convert OFP's addons to ArmA, I guess...

Not true, from OFP to ArmA it is not 100% compatible, and once you have to touch it, what are a few weeks more or less if the result would be much better if the engine underneath is supporting features much better?

It is the other way around:

With that "back-compatibility" the modders must spend much more time in creating workarounds and the result is sometimes even not to their satisfaction.

I know that the back-compatibility is not instant nor currently easy, but BIS has yet to release the development tools for the community so that the back-compatibility can be fully evaluated and judged with regards to its quality. Speaking of quality, there are many addons in OFP which may not be of "über-quality" but are still extremely useful and fun to have, whose addon-makers may or may not be around anymore or if they are, may not be able to convert them to ArmA, and I for one think it's a bad idea to have to reinvent the wheel...

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

I guess we must split into functionality of an addon and textures.

If you have to make a complete new config for ArmA, I guess every addonmaker would happily do that if he could add more function to his addon.

I agree that reskin is much more work, but if there is much better visual quality supported in ArmA, there is anyway not much to reuse.

[Dallas 9]

I think it's a question of attitude. OFP or ArmA, some are willing to put up with a rough diamond, others demand perfecting from day one or the developers' heads on a platter. It's difficult to change one attitude, this thread show it's possible for some and impossible for others.

I always thought OFP 1.0 was worth every penny off the shelves, it wasn't perfect, but it was something totally diffrent and totally amazing. I feel the same way with ArmA 1.0. The only difference is with ArmA 1.0 I knew BiS had supported OFP beyond duty and knew I could expect something similar with ArmA.

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Well, I said it 1000 times:

It is not the problem that ArmA 1.0 was an raw diamond, the thing is that they sold us ArmA as brilliant cut.

And the bugs of 1.0 - 1.04 made it for different reasons difficult to play at all for many customers.

Let`s see how BI performs through this year.

ATM Evolution, RTS-4 and MFCTI missions are working so far means

from "Entertainment" point of view we are back to OFP level here.

For a CTI league I do not see that we reached that level.

Hence better use OFP for this.