i can only hope americans buy this

[easty 0]

I'm living in the US and will certainly getting a server setup for some co-op fun.

[MiloBloom 10]

Swat there was a followup to JOTR, it was called Escalation. They went belly up shortly there after. Escalation brought a ton of vehicles into the game and killed it in my opinion.

On to map size, so are these maps Bigger than JO? I don't mind big maps but some of those island maps took forever to get near any action. A couple of mins is fine but like you said 10 mins via chopper is too much.

[toloquta 10]

i think the only problem with these types of games, is the maps are wayyyy to big and it can take 10 minutes to travel somewhere only to die and do it all over again.

It doesn't have to take so long. In Joint Operations you could usually respawn near the front line at your sides farthest held position. I was playing CTI yesterday and you can fast travel as well but I found staring at the map for up to 2.5 minutes pretty boring (I usually went AFK and did something useful while I was waiting). Its not all bad some times this type of thing is nice because it encourages people to be more careful and tactical. If I only have 45 minutes to play though I'd be more likely to pick one a bit less epic.

I had a lot of fun in the 32 player Chernogorsk TDM server yesterday. Later in the day I also played a much slower pace coop game. Both are fun sometimes one just fits your mood or your schedule a bit better. Or you may just want to take a break from one to play another for a while.

Anyway I like the idea of having a public game servers for each region for each game type. Among other things I think it makes the game more accessible to know there is at least one server with a good ping running a game mode that you like 24/7.

[easty 0]

Its not all bad some times this type of thing is nice because it encourages people to be more careful and tactical.

I think that's the best thing about it. It add's a lot of value to your life. which is kinda more realistic :)

[MiloBloom 10]

Good info thanks, I've been jonesing for a good tactical FPS for some time. I even checked out DFX2 extreme .... what a waste. I am very excited to try out the demo.

[ebud 18]

i think the only problem with these types of games, is the maps are wayyyy to big and it can take 10 minutes to travel somewhere only to die and do it all over again.

Well my issue with all other FPSs are the small map sizes and the style of gameplay that promotes. Run shoot die spawn run shoot die spawn as fast as you can. Why bother to worry since you spawn less than 200 meters from the map edges anyway.

[Punisher5555 0]

I think the "Evolution" servers and the hackers killed a lot of new American players to ArmA 1.

When ArmA 1 came out it, about all the public servers had the non MHQ Evolution. The new players got turned off by the "drive for a half hour to get shot and start over again at the airbase" gameplay. They were expecting something like BF2 with spawn points with a ongoing see-saw battle. (That did not come until WarFare was released.)

And then we all remember the hackers destroying every server out there in the beginning. So here you are a new player and for about a week you try to play online but everytime you join a server it gets destroyed by hackers. You get frustrated that the company has no "Punkbuster" so you stop playing. I would not blame you.

Let us hope history does not repeat itself.

[Binkowski 26]

Yeah. Most Americans aren't used to Simulator's like ArmA and OFP. They just want run and gun, Call of Duty, Battlefield, style gameplay. Grant it, most. Not all. And punisher I remember those days, when EVERY server was running Evolution MHQ. Except for those private clans who ran Coops. Hopefully we don't see the same thing again.

[Taconic 0]

Yeah. Most Americans aren't used to Simulator's like ArmA and OFP. They just want run and gun, Call of Duty, Battlefield, style gameplay.

I don't think that's true at all.

I'd bet money that the % of the American population that enjoys sims is identical to the % of the European population that enjoys sims.

The American market has just historically been larger, which is why there are greater absolute numbers of people playing garbage like BF.

[TCEd 0]

I agree, the thing with the US market has been that for the most part, the run & gun arcade style games is all that is pushed, hence the reason a lot of US fans on this site, who love Arma, are pulling their hair out because BIS wont seize the moment and publish ARMA2 in the US like it does in EU. It's not because US fans don't like sims, it's that they don't know about ARMA2 cuz there's been very little advertising.

And as for the large map topic & having to travel ingame, again, this is a simulator. You are expected to experience real life situations. Now granted this is still a PC video game & not true reality. In that vain you see loads of custom or modded maps & game modes that eliminate what ppl experienced when Arma1 came out.

You won't be limited this time to only Evo game modes, content will come out much faster. Our tournament plays AAS (Advance And Secure) style maps, which is very similar to BF2/Project Reality style game play, without the Arcade feel. So it's not that you have to choose between one or the other, Arma1 addons & content can be ported over to ARMA2, so no wait time like you had the first time around.

Honestly if you have a problem with traveling in a game because the map is to big? Are you serious? Then simply play a map/game mode that gives spawn points or a MHQ that can be airlifted to the front or fly a chopper, the possibilities are endless.

In my experience, a person who stop playing because they got tired of walking or driving to the action, simply doesn't know how to play the game yet, it's not necessary to do that in most cases.

[hoak 0]

It's a safe bet the pre-order sales performance of ArmA II on Steam is a good indication of how well ArmA II will sell in the U.S. and Cananda.

Still number ten in Steam sales, and it held the number seven position for quite a while! Pretty amazing for a game with zero marketing and advertising in North America, that's not even available yet, with pre-orders that are outselling other games that are available and marketed heavily.

Granted these statistics also account for the U.K. where the game is being marketed, but U.K. sales alone can't account for sales performance like that, not even by half...

:)

[thepiespy 2]

Yeah. Most Americans aren't used to Simulator's like ArmA and OFP. They just want run and gun, Call of Duty, Battlefield, style gameplay. Grant it, most. Not all. And punisher I remember those days, when EVERY server was running Evolution MHQ. Except for those private clans who ran Coops. Hopefully we don't see the same thing again.

heh it still is, except now its all warfare and domination. Either way people still just go for the first thing that flys or has a telescopic sight on it. I still laugh at all these "Ultra-realism Clans" that play nothing but domination all day every day with 3rd person and crosshairs enabled. Back when the 72nd was around people were completely lost on our server without 3rd person to fly helis and not seeing their position on the map.

I've found found a good amount of US players on the Tactical Gamer server (if you're not a fan of ACE though i guess you're out of luck) And i get a surprisingly good ping (30-60ms) for having sometimes 35-40 players on it. Im sure they'll have a server up for ArmA II that US players should get good pings on.

[Punisher5555 0]

Maybe BIS/community should promote those AAS (Advance and Secure ) gameplay modes instead of EVO? This would surely steal a lot of the BF2/Proj. Real players. I think there are tons of these players that like the BF2/Proj Real game play but are just looking for that little extra. ArmA2 can provide that.

[Nicholas 5]

I am sick of all the Evo maps made for ArmA 1, they arent bad, but when pretty much every server is playing them it gets old, i rather like Coop maps, or CTI.

[Swatman 0]

I am sick of all the Evo maps made for ArmA 1, they arent bad, but when pretty much every server is playing them it gets old, i rather like Coop maps, or CTI.

whats evo?

what game modes will be in this in multi?

[simio7331 10]

I use steam a lot, but I will never buy a non-valve game from them. For the same price I can go to best buy and get a cd-rom, manual and best of all you can resell it to someone else.

[Ferox 0]

I'm from the US and I bought the German version cause I couldn't wait for June 30th for release on steam LOL. The game just isn't as popular here in the US some reason. Although joining a server isn't an issue for me, I usually have higher pings than the rest of the people.

my squad is all US but one guy, for ARMA 1 we bought the CZECH version when it came out, that was like 6 months before the American one came out.

Digitial downloads will make a difference I think quite honestly, but this game is a niche one and as such will never appeal to the mass market morons like op flash 2 will..

[Nutlink 10]

I loved the way Evolution worked for the most part. Granted on our private server we only had about 7 or 8 of us at the most, we would leave the server up for a week or so until we finished the map. When there's 6 of us, all having 5 AI to take orders, it made it a lot more fun than playing on a server with 50 people we didn't know. The only thing that kept me personally from playing outside our server was half the servers required certain addons to be used or that I use Teamspeak (which we don't use, instead we use Ventrillo). After being kicked from several servers for not using TS I said screw it and stuck to just random SP missions here and there.

A lot of us still plan on getting ArmA 2 when it's released in the States (and we even have a server ready to go as soon as we can start playing). Unfortunately it seems that most players here are interested in trash talking and bunny hopping ala CoD4 and such. Not that they're bad games, just not the type of game I can enjoy for hours on end.

[vshadow 0]

Kind of strange considering it seems to be aimed at the American market what with all the marines and all that.

But I just in general hope it’s a success everywhere BIS deserve it from what I have seen.

[Incognito84 10]

I'm worried. Will there be any Japanese, Korean or Chinese servers? Was there any with Arma?

[simio7331 10]

I'm worried. Will there be any Japanese, Korean or Chinese servers? Was there any with Arma?

I've seen a few Russian servers, with luck you may find an Australian one, ArmA isn't the most ping demanding game as long as its around low ~200ms.

[Scrub 0]

Count me in for a US squad. Funny what someone posted back a few pages about most people WoWing it. My brother and best friend do that most waking hours (when their wives aren't keeping them off the PC). They never seem to get satisfaction from doing it. They are always looking for the next challenge, something else 'greater' that will make them happy, but it won't.. I think it comes from the no-skill-required button mashing type gameplay. I've had many an Arma night where one hard fought mission, that took skill, awareness, thought, and maybe a bit o' deception, was satisfying enough in itself. Looking for many more and better with Arma II.

[koroush47 10]

I'm from the US and I'm getting it.

[cashxx 10]

I am in the US and I am a huge fan of Operation Flashpoint and Arma. I just got done building a new PC just because of these games coming out Arma 2 and OFP2. But I will not buy another game from Steam. I bought Call Of Duty: World at War a few weeks ago when it was on sale for $25 and all the game does is crash.

I'd rather have a dvd version in my hand, but who knows when Arma 2 is going to be released in media. I wish they would announce a release date for the media version if there is going to be one. Atari I think did Arma, think they would have announced something by now, especially with it being E3 week.

I'm still excited about the US release, but not about the release going through steam.

I may order from these guys that someone else posted:

http://www.cdwow.com.au/games/Windows/ARMA-II-Armed-Assault/product/view/9017405

Looks legit they ship to the US according to who posted the link!

[Arrowhead 0]

I'm from Canada(close enough) and I already preordered it on Steam. I think most North Americans will opt for the Steam version at this point. Steam is pretty popular too so it's no secret.