So should I get it or not?

[Stryder 0]

Alright obviously I'm asking in a Arma forum so the answers are bound to be biased but what the heck.

I was a huge OFP fanatic I played that game for about 4 years straight non-stop and still occasionally load up now and then.

Anyways, I d/led the Arma demo and wasn't impressed at all. The graphics were marginally better, but the ballistics weren't anything better than OFP and the AI sucked. Plus it was ridiculously buggy.

So how are things now? I'm sure they've gotten rid of a lot of the bugs now (this is BIS after all, and they do have good support), but is the AI still crap? This is a big thing for me... If the AI's been significantly improved either through BIS itself or mods I might give it a shot.

How big's the online community? If I logged in right now how many people would be playing on average? I've been having a blast for the last 6 months with Red Orchestra Ostfront so I don't wanna dish out some money for a dying game. If I bought this I'd be getting it for MP exclusively because I've heard from practically everyone that the campaign is worthless.

Also, how's that mission pack? Are the campaigns in it up to Red Hammer/Resistance/CWC standards?

So... should I buy it or just wait to check out Arma 2 and OFP2?

thanks

[guerilla -MCY- 0]

well if you played ofp over 4 years like me, i guess you have to buy it, even just out of respect for BIS and their work.

i stopped playing ArmA due lack of fast paced gamestyles like dm/ctf/tdm etc and unresponsive controls and animation which wasn't the case with ofp 1.96. as for bigger maps like cti/c&h/coops, there is alota fun with arma and cti got overrun by a map called evolution playing a huge coop vs 1000 of ai's over the whole island.

ai's are better than in ofp, but nothink special. i think the graphics are awsome, that's out of question, but eyecandy was never the reason to play ofp over 4 years in the old community and you really need a high end system to enjoy it.

remember, its a gapfiller between ofp and ofp2(ArmA2) and that's just my opinion

[Dag-Sabot 0]

To be 100% truthful,at most I would wait until it hit the bargain bin.

Compared to ofp, the vehicle and weapon variety is anemic in arma. Also the premise and storyline is weak. Personally I went through so much stress just getting it to run right. Even though the 1.09 patch is supposed to fix "everything" the game still runs poorly on the beta (for me). If you're good at tweaking your system and enjoy the experience as much as or more than actually playing the game, by all means buy arma.

I think the mods will close the thread because theres already a feedback thread. Great read.

[celery 8]

The online aspect is nearly worthless, the multiplayer community is small and a huge majority of servers play one or two popular maps with no variety.

[benreeper 0]

If you have to ask the question then don't get it because if you do and the game isn't "Then End all Be All" for you, we would have created another whiner and we do NOT need anymore of those.

--Ben

[liljb15 0]

*The online community is small compared to other games but it's still active and you'll always find a game going on.

*The bugs are almost all fixed by 1.09b

*The orignial AI still sucks but mods like "TrueRange AI" and "Durg's Vegitation fix" easily fix the game.

[max power 21]

It's an incremental improvement over OFP. In some areas, that increment is very large. I don't know where Celery lives, but I have no trouble finding online servers with people playing.

[opteryx 1562]

The online aspect is nearly worthless, the multiplayer community is small and a huge majority of servers play one or two popular maps with no variety.

Yes, it's disgusting.

Such a waste.

[leckig 0]

get it from ebay for $12 shipping included. online is fun, but now, with the beta patch some people play the 1.08 some 1.09 and the 1.09 is almost evolution only, I have not seen berzerk for a long while, too bad!

[Second 0]

Hard to say what you expect from AI but bascally it's just the same as in OFP (no new stuff comes into my mind, but bounding overwatch. Using 'stealth'-behaviour is still better for survival of squad), it has been tweaked and player can tweak AI's general firing accuracy and it's spotting accuracy. Those are biggest improvements in AI: i didn't like OFP's deaf and blind sharpshooters much, so had to tweak configs. Now it is easier. There are some new useful script commands which make it possible to tweak AI behaviour (like disable and enable their will to suicide-engage) if you like to create your own missions.

There are quite many full and semi-full publicservers... most of them are all running same missions over-and-over-again, there are basically only 3 different mission which are played, i don't think i've seen this happen in OFP. This has been going on for months. I quess private servers are much better with variety.

There are no severe bugs which would ruin my gaming pleasure.

I can't say that you shouldn't buy it, i had pure fun with it for about month or so. But i'm not so impressed than with OFP (i gone back to OFP because of high-grade mods and stuff).

[Maddmatt 1]

The online aspect is nearly worthless, the multiplayer community is small and a huge majority of servers play one or two popular maps with no variety.

Yes, it's disgusting.

Such a waste.

Only the public multiplayer is crap. If you join a group/clan or whatever you can have a great time. Some groups have very large organised games with over 60 players in them.

Look around, there are different groups you can join such as Shacktack, GOL, IC ArmA, ArmA TOW and so on. Do a little research, see what style you like best and join.

If you're just going to play on your own then you wont enjoy it that much.

There are also many released and upcoming mods and addons.

The expansion, Queens Gambit has 2 good but fairly short campaigns. If you want some decent singleplayer action then it is worth the budget price.

Some addons require it too, because of some of the content.

Probably not quite as good as CWC and Resistance from OFP. But those campaigns are being ported to ArmA by the CWR team.

If you loved OFP, then I'm sure you will enjoy ArmA. It is probably being sold at budget price in places.

The SP missions that come with ArmA are mostly crap though, including the campaign. The only really enjoyable ones are Blood Sweat and Tears, Devils Cross (you will have to find a download for it if you don't get the US version of ArmA), and Gunship/Convoy Attack (was re-done with the 1.08 patch).

Some others are ok, but nothing special.

[SeppSchrot 0]

Anyways, I d/led the Arma demo and wasn't impressed at all. The graphics were marginally better, but the ballistics weren't anything better than OFP and the AI sucked. Plus it was ridiculously buggy.

The currently available demo which is version 1.06 should give you a pretty accurate impression of the game. I suggest you check the changelogs for 1.08 for which bugs have been squished out since then.

However do not expect any miracles, because in ArmA there has never been such a thing like an Resistance upgrade which brought substantial improvements.

[Fred DM 0]

considering that you can surely get the game at a budget price, i'd say get it.

now, if it where still full priced, i'd say no. it's the only game out of like 400 games that i own that i wish i hadn't bought right when it came out.

but at mid-to-low price i'd say it's a fair deal.

[Wolfrug 0]

In short:

If you loved OFP, feel free to buy ArmA. There is nothing OFP does better than ArmA, including graphics, scripting, AI, island size, multiplayer capabilities etc. The one thing OFP/Res did have was a more enjoyable campaign - but we've got CWC coming up for that, and besides, making your own missions is always fun ^^

Note however that, much like OFP back in the day, you'll need a good computer to run ArmA well. But as long as you're not dreaming of everything-on-high full-antialiasing, you'll be fine.

On the other hand, if MP is your game, I don't know what to say. Public MP in OFP didn't exist, so at least in that sense ArmA is an improvement; however the mission offering on the public servers is a bit low, and there's still a risk of hacking. As others have suggested, just join some league or clan or somesuch to get your game on. I can personally suggest IC-ArmA: there's something you won't find in any other game to date

Enjoy!

Regards,

Wolfrug

[Heatseeker 0]

Why not? The experience i got out of Arma so far makes it a priceless and unique piece of software.

Performance... well i say Arma runs better on my system than OPF:R does and with lots more going on, and im talking vanilla OPF (use a few mods and OPF crawls). Arma extends the possibilities with JIP, persistent servers, etc.

Vehicle/unit variety.. Arma is ok in that department, has wheeled APC's, car class with ATGM, dual mounted minigun blackhawks, littlebirds, harriers with STOVL.. OPF only had more MBT's and helicopters i think.

I dont understand how someone even asks such a question.. its not like Arma is even expensive anymore, its a very generous offer for its price.

Im not an agressive individual but if someone tried to take my Arma away... well things would get nasty .