GC 2008 Press Coverage

[Undeceived 392]

and @ 17mins 30sec he says

----->   <span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>RELEASE is 4th Quarter 2008</span>   <----

FedX presents to B.I.S.

c/o the community.

Yes, but he also said that the Warfare modus was introduced with Queens Gambit... (??)

And Maruk confirmed the delay to the next year (and this is good, in my opinion).

[jakerod 254]

and @ 17mins 30sec he says

----->   <span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>RELEASE is 4th Quarter 2008</span>   <----

FedX presents to B.I.S.

c/o the community.

Unfortunately for us though Maruk says:

Quote[/b] ]ArmA II development is going well and it is in many aspects a similar experience to that of developing Flashpoint - and that's also the reason why we need a bit more time so ArmA II definitely will not be released this year in any territory.

He stated this in the first post of the UH-1 Venom thread and I would think it would override what the guy at GC said.

I hope they work on the AI some more. I could live with the way they are now but I would really like it if they didn't look so confused all the time its kind of an immersion killer. Not saying that real soldiers don't get confused but they don't walk or spin around in circles ever. That might have already been fixed though who knows.

[Raptor 10]

and @ 17mins 30sec he says

----->   RELEASE is 4th Quarter 2008   <----

FedX presents to B.I.S.

c/o the community.

Yes maybe it's linked with germany territory, but as Jakerod said, maruk said something different so we must wait for an official announcement.

Germany -> Morphicon

eu, rest -> 505

(cz -> other local publishers.)

so we must see...

@deadeye, thanks will update the first page

[Spoock 3]

release date will be different for another publishers, but I think, release date will be next year

[Barely-injured 0]

well it is a low quality video but it seems for me that the grass streaming has been improved, i didnt notice any obvious transitions but then again maybe it is because of low quality video.

Looking good BIS  

Edit: ok there is no grass when he shoots the boar but otherwise good

[Crystal 0]

Yeah nice ingame video! Thx! but I hope it's not finally engine:

- still Bad AI

- bad effect's: tank explosion's (normal tank->black tank->crew jump out->explosion..), how trees falling down and the tank don't get slower ->I think it's the same "physic engine"

- the same animationsystem..

+ nice grass, but only in the near to player (the tank scene show's again flat low textures of the ground)

+ nice biking scene (closer look)

+ nice GUI + editor

It's of corse a first look, but I hope the change more things.

[Raptor 10]

+ nice GUI + editor

thought their will build in a 3D Editor with less functions.  

And the GUi is very dowdy, same like ArmA.

[wolfsblut_ 0]

My heartfelt sympathy with the BIS-guy who had the not so easy task to present a game in the presence of this bad games-tv-moderation ...

[opteryx 1562]

Quote[/b] ]maruk said something different so we must wait for an official announcement.

How more official could it possibly get when the head of Bohemia Interactive confirms it??

[Raptor 10]

Quote[/b] ]maruk said something different so we must wait for an official announcement.

How more official could it possibly get when the head of Bohemia Interactive confirms it??  

Yes but I'm also confused. Don't know which one we can believe so I hope he maybe will finally clear it up. ( after he saw the vid )

[froggyluv 2136]

Hmm.. Couple things have me worried. I've never driven a tank thru trees and i'm sure the tank would win but I've cut plenty with a chainsaw and can say that trees are very dense objects and plowing thru them should at least create some serious noise. This has me concerned that aircraft crashing will suffer the same 'soft', noiseless non-event of Arma.

The tank explosion also looked pretty generic with the same texture-swapping and standard flames. Why not use effects similar to OFP's WGL mod? Also too quiet.

Lastly the Ai looked less impressive than in previous videos. Why lay down in the middle of the street when there's a perfectly good corner of a house to use as cover?

[Spoock 3]

I think will be impresive change falling animation for trees (more realistic), but it is not so important for me, only one from more ideas in my mind

[The_Captain 0]

RE: the video.

Things I liked:

-Animals, vehicles, etc.

-Terrain detail and large viewdistance

-LOTS of vehicles and factions in the editor, including LAV which I was hoping they'd add. Variety looks incredible.

-First person fighting and movement in the village. Looks pretty smooth.

-Smaller, more realistically laid out villages.

Things I didn't like:

-'heart' symbol showing health in the helicopter, unless it was an armored shield instead. Seems a bit unprofessional for some reason.

-No 3d option for the editor yet, it seems. Hopefully this will be included as this is WIP.

-Looks like you still can't move while holding binoculars.

-Vehicle destruction: -> turn black, then explode, without a good 'hit' effect. Why can't the 'turning black'/texture swapping be after the explosion? It looks odd.

-No demonstration of actual missions or MP, would be nice to see some snippets from these.

-AI movement and pathing which required them to go around small fences. This makes their behavior seem less intelligent.

I think if the villages have so many tiny fences, AI and players need to be able to climb over them... otherwise AI is just going to end up super confused in urban areas (And players are going to be annoyed).

Of course, I'm nitpicking. Overall it looks incredible and already quite polished. Great job BIS, I'm looking forward to playing the final version next year!

[Spoock 3]

2 The_Captain: fully agree with your suggestions

EDIT: I hope in demo befor release game

[Lepardi 0]

The part when he drives the tank in a forest... the trees still fall similar to OFP and ArmA. Just a random direction and a bad animation.

And why does the tank turn black before explosion?

[eJay 1]

Driving AI in tank is still pain in the.... Driving ahead is real challenge. I hope BiS will fix it.

Anyone noticed X360 interace and HUD?

[Crystal 0]

Quote[/b] ]Anyone noticed X360 interace and HUD?

Yap -.- but it's the smallest problem...

I hope it was a really old version

After the awesome Kit & Screens..

To much typical OFP/ArmA problems.

[Strucknine 0]

Color me impressed. Obviously a lot to still do, and the simple "characters" do nothing for me (but that's not why I play OFP/ArmA!, but heck if this doesn't get me excited. Bring it on... I still want to see more evidence of the NPC interaction and how real or involved it will be.

[stakex 0]

Quote[/b] ]Anyone noticed X360 interace and HUD?

Yap -.- but it's the smallest problem...

I hope it was a really old version

After the awesome Kit & Screens..

To much typical OFP/ArmA problems.

I agree... the screenshots and press kit looked great. This video presentation however, was not so spectacular, and many of the old OFP problems do in fact appear to still be quite visable.

Also, the one thing missing from the presentation I would have liked to see was the new building destruction system... it would be kinda nice to see how thats shapeing up.

[Praelium 0]

Hmm, it looks like the explosions were slightly updated, (peices flying off) but they still need work. If were up to me I'd probably take the explosions out all together and just let the fire rise out of the top.

The AI seems pretty much the same, and I even saw them walk through the fence a few times. I wasn't really looking, but did anyone see if they were using hand signals?

The field of view looks too close, especially in the helicopter. Hopefully it's pulled back a bit in vehicles. Something strange I noticed in Arma is that the iron sites actually zoomed the view OUT a bit, rather than in. I didn't get to check if it's in Arma II, but I think it's worth a fix.

According to Raptor, the civilian population will have to be manually placed again. That's disappointing because I was really hoping to have a slider in the editor that would control the civilian density, both on foot and in vehicles.

In terms of details the city looked the same as the first Arma. I didn't see any sidewalks along the roads or leading to the houses. Not even trails.

Some of the smaller issues like the trees not stopping the tank will probably be fixed. Wasn't that in Arma before a patch?

[Undeceived 392]

That's disappointing because I was really hoping to have a slider in the editor that would control the civilian density, both on foot and in vehicles.

Cool idea, Praelium.

I also would like to see an option in the editor to let the animals (especially the wild ones) appear randomly in the forests.

The guy from the presentation had to set them manually into the editor, which btw. is also very good!

I read at armabase.de that the guys that were at the GC have recorded more than 3 hours of video material. So I'm anxious to see what they've got.

[mr.g-c 6]

Hmmm.... mixed feelings about that video..

Im german too, so i could understand what he was talking about.

1. Is Markus Kurzweil really from BIS? Feels like only a Publisher Guy to me....Or someone who was quickly hired to present it...??

2. He doesn't seems to have much knowledge about Arma-Engine and/or Military in General.

Not offensive meant, but i bet that anyone of us longer playing Arma/OFP Veterans could have made that better.

3. Not a single word about Arma1? They said Arma2 ist the direct successor of OFP.... strange....Maybe they didn't want to mention all the bugs of Arma1, or that the people bring Arma2 in context with it?

Conclusion for me:

So far from the point of the Graphics improvements, means textures, models and environment its really 9/10 points (for me at least).

But the rest needs seriously tweaking.... I see the same Arma1/OFP Stiffness/Clumsiness, i see the same lame turnaround bug of AI-Controlled Tanks and many things more...I wouldn't wonder if they still collide and fly high in the air then or flip around...

Same thing goes for the hit effects like mentioned already....

I hope they use the remaining 5+X Months and do this, otherwise it could be just "average" from the technolgical point of view again - which would be really sad.

Best Regards, Christian

[Barely-injured 0]

I read at armabase.de that the guys that were at the GC have recorded more than 3 hours of video material. So I'm anxious to see what they've got.

Then they should oblige their civic duty and share it with us ASAP  

but seriously thanks to raptor and others for the effort of bringing all this information to us  

[BigRed 2]

Sure graphics look great but watching the videos it's still the same crappy animations. To me eye candy is nice but it's all about gameplay for MP and with out better animations MP community will remain 90% COOP Players. I also agree with the guy that posted earlier how hard is it to make it possible to move with the Binoculars.

[stakex 0]

3. Not a single word about Arma1? They said Arma2 ist the direct successor of OFP.... strange....Maybe they didn't want to mention all the bugs of Arma1, or that the people bring Arma2 in context with it?

I hope they use the remaining 5+X Months and do this, otherwise it could be just "average" from the technolgical point of view again - which would be really sad.

Best Regards, Christian

To be fair to that first point there, ArmA1 was never ment to be a successor to OFP, but mearly an in-between game, or OFP 1.5 as many have said. "Game 2" and now ArmA2 was always intended to be the true sequal to OFP...

On the second point... ArmA2 is going to be bellow average on the tech standpoint, no matter what they do in the next few months. Perhaps not graphicly, but when it comes to the rest of the engine... it really hasn't advanced very far from OFP if you think about it, and thats really a bad thing with as quick as technology advances now adays.

Thats not to say you can't have a great game with an outdated engine... but thats just what it is, outdated.