ArmA2 1.03 Impressions - ALL Impressions/Videos/Screenies Here

[stagga 10]

You might have a point about the small squad missions being easier to do but why have they taken away the freedom? What happened to the variety and choice we were given in OFP: Resistance for instance? For example the mission where you had to stop an overwhelming enemy armoured advance with just a few old tanks and BMPs and it was up to you who crewed which vehicle and where to position them to make the best use of the terrain. I don't remember the AI being much trouble then, at least they moved where i told them to (and i didn't have to keep checking I wasn't telling the entire crew to Disembark because the menu wasn't so stupidly arranged!) and those kind of missions were brilliant. They gave the player an objective and it really was up to you how you solved it. I've played through the campaign (having to use the cheat to skip when it broke admittedly) and didn't see one enemy base where i could have liberated a helicopter or tank to help me with my main objective. I didn't get to do any flying (i had to rely on a retarded AI pilot who flew into trees and didn't take evasive action under fire), no tank battles, no boat insertions, no need for sneaking and silent kills, no massive co-ordinated battles, where I met enemy armour I was helpless because my team didn't have an AT soldier, no assassination missions, no sniping, none of that 'you're behind enemy lines and you need to get here' or 'ambush this convoy' or ANY of the things that made CWC and Resistance great.

Yes there are improvements, it looks superb, the character has more freedom of movement, aiming is easier, the atmosphere is incredible at times and I played it for hours after I bought it because of those few moments where it gave me an unrivalled experience. But those moments were heavily outweighed by the game breaking bugs and the lack of variety and imagination in the missions and gameplay and the brilliant idea that if one of your AI teammates casually strolls out in front of the shilka it's game over!

How about next time BIS hire the guys who made Finnish Defence Force to design and script the missions?!

[Lurfin 10]

This is the first time i played this game, this game was everything i wanted in a war game. The only problem is the mountain of problems and bugs. The lagg is barely bareable. The FPS is god awful even on decent machines. I hope they release a patch soon to fix this. I love/hate this game. One the fps problem is fixed i will be joyful:D

[eyetumor 10]

After about 20 hours of gameplay I must admit I've never been so frustrated at a game before in my life. I've been gaming now for about 20 years. Started at 10 and I'm 32. I'm honestly not exaggerating at all about my frustration. I've never played a game before that gets me so pumped up and at the same time wanting to break the DVD in 2 and never installing it again.

I would say about 85 percent of the missions are broken and bugged. It's sad really; the game has soo much potential to be great. Was this game beta tested at all? I mean really...I would like to know!

Here are some of the problems I encountered while playing (the one's I remember anyways...there's probably more)

1- The enemy ai can completely spot you dead on from over 300 meters away in complete darkness even while proned covered by grass! At the same time when you zoom in you cannot spot them because they are also prone. But they can magically see you.

2- The enemy ai can see you and shoot/kill you through thick grass.

3- Every single mission I have played so far I cannot complete without having to go back and reload from an earlier saved game because of the amount of bugs the missions have! Literally having to restart some missions all over again. That's just unacceptable! ( you realize that just this alone is a huge game breaker!) It makes me not want to play again.

4- My teammates sometimes don't fire at the enemy at all. I have to tell them to stop as I move on forward to take out the tangos so they don't get killed.

5- In the arrest missions, the individual being arrested does not want to cooperate and does not follow me to the extraction point. I have to restart the mission all over again.

6- The friendly ai cannot drive!!! I've gotten shot inside my humvee many times because they drive straight to the enemy forcing you to drive all the time. Furthermore, when your driving, the guy in the 50 waits until the last minute to shoot the enemy getting you and the rest of the squad killed.

7- The controls for healing your teammates are horrible to say the least. Sometimes I can't even heal them.

8- Some of the support available to you cannot be called in. It’s completely unresponsive. It just decides to work whenever it wants. It makes its own call…lol.

This is just but a few of the problems I can remember of the top of my head. At first I was skeptical at the bad reviews that game got; now I see why. This game is a technical nightmare. Who wrote the code for this game? Why was this game released completely broken? I should have trusted my instincts and stayed away from this game.

[vshadow 0]

This was in another topic originally just like to clarify

Hi and welcome, I’m guessing your new, so I be nice (before everyone else get here) and point out there is a several topics for the listing of bugs all ready.

Though I do feel your pain.

Also seems stupid for me to ask but have you patched the game at all? There is a patch1.2.5[insert hard to remember numbers here].

This may help or this may not do anything, as it seems it depends on what part of the Luna cycle you are on when you load it, and the direction of the wind can cause differences (that was a joke by the way:j:).

Edited July 6, 2009 by vshadow
Topic was moved and merged

[randir14 10]

The last time I saw AI that cheats this much was in the old Rainbow Six games.

[FlunkyMonkey 10]

At least he doesn't have performance issues!

[avibird 1 154]

Yes there are some bugs but if you never played OFP1/ARMA1 the game has a big learning curve to command units in a firefight.

If it's not a bug in the game then it's just you. Take some time and learn to move with a small fire team at first. Yes you have to watch all the time what your guys are doing but they will do what you want. You just need time to setup them up and give them direction and when you do you can take out a whole platoon in a few seconds.

Welcome and this is not COD gameplay. Go slower have your man move in first give them all targets then you move. You are the key but your man will save your ass for sure.

Edited July 6, 2009 by AVIBIRD 1

[eyetumor 10]

some bugs? Some bugs?!!? your joking right? the game is full of bugs. A complete mess. Not just some bugs dude. and I know how to play. i love it when fanboys always blame the player and not admit that the game is the one to blame. And don't talk crap about COD. I'm not a fan of COD, but at least the damn game is playable!

[Guest]

Here is the conclusion i have personally drawn about Arma 2:

The game is fantastic. It achieves a feeling that no game has ever achieved before. Some moments in the game feel so amazing you are mistaken to think its real. The scale, the realism, the dynamic world...Its all so stunning.

But seriously, develop a new engine already! This is just tedious and unacceptable. I have been playing the series since ofp1 was first released, and when it was released i was amazed.

Then arma was released, and i thought "yeah, this is a good game. Too bad it still has that very flawed game engine though".

Now arma 2 is released. The engine is enormously improved, so much better its amazing. But there is only so much you can improve on something that is awful to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, when the engine was developed long before flashpoint came out, and also upon the release of flashpoint, it was amazing. For the day and age it was simply astounding what it could do.

But now we are 10 years down the line, and suddenly what used to be amazing is now quite the opposite. The game engine is just so flawed and dated. No game i've ever played has been as unstable and complexly tangled and fragmented as this. Its glitch, after bug, after glitch.

The developers have done an amazing job by creating such a great game. Honestly i love it so so much. But its about time you made a brand new engine. We need AI that are actually good, we need proper physics, a descent graphics engine, just new everything.

I'm not saying the game is bad, its amazing. But its dated. And you can feel it in alot of peoples opinions that the game is hugely let down by the engine its built upon.

Arma for me is only brilliant because i want it to be. I know how to take advantage of the editor and build small, fun combat situations. I know how to make missions where the AI and game engine work nicely. But alot of people aren't so fluent at mission editing, or aren't very into it. The sort of people who play the campaign and multiplayer alot. It is those people who are being let down. The people who don't want to spend hours setting up a mission.

Every thing this game achieves is truly amazing. But everything it is bad at is truly awful. At the moment its great, but one day the bad points will out weigh the good ones.

[mlmcasual 10]

Biggest problem is the Fanboys...

As I see it, Bohemia may have bit off more they can chew but it's the first word of mouth I made to purchase Arma2 and unfotruatnly the first wave of coments were Fanboys. Fanboys seems is always a problem with long awaited games but it's out of control in Arma2. Too many fanboys misrepresent, downplay or outright lie about Dealbreaker Bugs and performance issues in Arma2. Can I hear an Amen on that??

I want to scream everytime I see coments like,,

"Well it runs great at 50fps but it still runs smooth even when it's at 20fps. "

"Just wait till they get the patches to fix it and make it playable"

"must be you I don't have any problems".

My question is,, who are these people and where Can I get in touch to sell them some real estate? I wish I had customers like them!

[eyetumor 10]

As I said in my above posts, this game is a complete technical nightmare! One cannot enjoy the game because every single mission given to you has at least one game braking bug. Most of them have several game braking bugs! You litteraly have to restart the entire mission all over again and pray that by some miracle of god it works the way it was intended to.

[HKFlash 9]

Biggest problem is the Fanboys...

As I see it, Bohemia may have bit off more they can chew but it's the first word of mouth I made to purchase Arma2 and unfotruatnly the first wave of coments were Fanboys. Fanboys seems is always a problem with long awaited games but it's out of control in Arma2. Too many fanboys misrepresent, downplay or outright lie about Dealbreaker Bugs and performance issues in Arma2. Can I hear an Amen on that??

I want to scream everytime I see coments like,,

"Well it runs great at 50fps but it still runs smooth even when it's at 20fps. "

"Just wait till they get the patches to fix it and make it playable"

"must be you I don't have any problems".

My question is,, who are these people and where Can I get in touch to sell them some real estate? I wish I had customers like them!

The problem is also trolls like you dude. You nitpick about everything! EVERY FU**ING THING THAT IS WRONG IN THE GAME! I also want to scream when I hear comments like:

"Oh this game is s*** because it has 0.1 seconds mouse lag"

"Oh I get sick with the head mouvement" (and then they find out they can disable it) :j:

"Oh I cant run smoothly at 9000x5500 resolution!"

Gimme a break!

---------- Post added at 11:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 PM ----------

As I said in my above posts, this game is a complete technical nightmare! One cannot enjoy the game because every single mission given to you has at least one game braking bug. Most of them have several game braking bugs! You litteraly have to restart the entire mission all over again and pray that by some miracle of god it works the way it was intended to.

"Every single mission given to you has at least on game breaking bug"

"Most of them have several game breaking bugs!"

Hey decide yourself ok?:j:

[eyetumor 10]

Hey hkflash, all you have to do is read the reviews dude. Every single review states the same thing over and over again. The game is riddled with bugs...its unplayable dude! Stop being such a Focking fanboy and admit what almost everybody else is admiting...this game at it's current state is completely broken! I'm not saying it cannot be fixed, but it should have never been realised at its current state. it's unacceptable to dish out 60 dollars for something that is clearly in pre-alpha state!

[Zipper5 74]

Well, I've had my ArmA II copy for almost a month now. To sum up what I think about it, all I need is one word:

Awesome

I'm an OFP/ArmA, and now ArmA II, veteran. I've been playing them since OFP's demo release way back when. And I've got to say, ArmA II's a great edition to the BIS series.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect anything too special from ArmA II. It seemed really close after ArmA that it was coming out, but I suppose that was due to the 5 year waiting gap between OFP and ArmA. But not only did ArmA II meet my expectations, it surpassed them.

I'm not denying the game is buggy, but I knew it would be. All of them have. And once we give BIS time to patch it with the help of the great community here, BIS' games become the best games I've ever played. And I've played through Harvest Red in singleplayer probably 4 times now to get different endings and I'm being completely serious when I say I haven't run into a game-breaking bug. Been perfectly smooth for me.

With the mention of smooth, I'll talk about performance. First, my PC specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

2GB DDR2 RAM 1066MHz

I run at my native resolution (1440x900) on full settings with 2km view distance. I get anywhere between 20 - 80 FPS with vertical sync disabled. I played ArmA for the majority of the time between it's release and ArmA II's release on a crappy laptop. Had to run it on almost lowest settings to barely scratch 25 FPS. So for me, anything over 15 FPS is easily playable. I wasn't expecting performance to be as good as ArmA in ArmA II on my new PC, but it's still pretty damn good.

Now on to the gameplay. Personally, I can't even compare ArmA to ArmA II in this area. ArmA II just blows it out of the water, and it just keeps flying. The AI are a real challenge now, and not as large of a liability as they were in ArmA. I play with skills sliders set to full and Super AI turned on, and it's very impressive. The new animations are much more fluid, and I especially like how the soldiers actually move rather than just stand rigid. Gives them a sense of "life". The flight model is vastly improved, and I do like the new driving model. It's a cross between ArmA's and OFP's. It's quite nice. Another new feature I like is the new crash effects that aircraft have, switching models and leaving behind dirt trails based on their angle and velocity.

In terms of modding/editing, there's a huge new world for us. New scripting commands, modules, and abilities. I really can't put all of it in this post, so I won't try. I'll just say that it's awesome, and I can't wait to take it all in.

To sum it all up, I absolutely love ArmA II, and can't wait to spend 5, or maybe more years playing it. It's definitely the true successor to OFP in every form of the word. DR is no competition at all with ArmA II the way it is. If you're hesitating on whether or not to buy it, I'll offer some words of advice. If you're really impatient, want only a singleplayer experience and do not want to use any other features, do not buy it. If you are the opposite of that, then I 200% recommend you to it. You won't be disappointed.

...

Yes, but the major reviewers, the ones that people listen to, such as PC Gamer are able to look past that. Look at the scores it's been getting. PC Gamer gave it 83%, for example. That's higher than what they gave OFP: CWC (80%). Though not as high as OFP: GOTY (90%). It's not unplayable at all. I think some people have no clue how to set up a PC or configure their game properly. Or they're expecting it to run flawlessly on a 3 year old PC...

Edited July 6, 2009 by Zipper5

[jakerod 254]

Hey hkflash, all you have to do is read the reviews dude. Every single review states the same thing over and over again. The game is riddled with bugs...its unplayable dude! Stop being such a Focking fanboy and admit what almost everybody else is admiting...this game at it's current state is completely broken! I'm not saying it cannot be fixed, but it should have never been realised at its current state. it's unacceptable to dish out 60 dollars for something that is clearly in pre-alpha state!

Unplayable? I've been having a lot of fun with the demo.

[ReZiN8R 0]

nomatter what anyone else says i love this game with a passion and it will only continue to get better. to be honest the bugs don't really bother me. hasn't really been anything what i'd call a major bug for me. much better game than arma 1 so overall i'm happy. for £25 i think it's a bargain. i'm not just trying to be a fanboy i genuinly do enjoy this game more than any other game i've played. i lost intrest in most other games. it is exactly what i wanted just an updated version of ofp n arma so i'm satisfied. all the people who do nothing but complain don't belong in this type of game/community. the good points out weigh the bad so stop moaning!! get a refund or part exchange n go back to playing bf2 then everyone happy :)

[stagga 10]

The problem is also trolls like you dude. You nitpick about everything! EVERY FU**ING THING THAT IS WRONG IN THE GAME! I also want to scream when I hear comments like:

"Oh this game is s*** because it has 0.1 seconds mouse lag"

"Oh I get sick with the head mouvement" (and then they find out they can disable it) :j:

"Oh I cant run smoothly at 9000x5500 resolution!"

Gimme a break!

---------- Post added at 11:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 PM ----------

"Every single mission given to you has at least on game breaking bug"

"Most of them have several game breaking bugs!"

Hey decide yourself ok?:j:

HKFlash the fanboy comments were clearly directed at you. Wake up to reality will you? And learn to read properly otherwise you'll find your attempts at sarcasm make you look rather stupid. I've been playing the OFP series as long as anyone on this board (barring devs!) but I'm not going to deny that I'm disappointed with this unfinished release.

[Zipper5 74]

HKFlash the fanboy comments were clearly directed at you. Wake up to reality will you? And learn to read properly otherwise you'll find your attempts at sarcasm make you look rather stupid. I've been playing the OFP series as long as anyone on this board (barring devs!) but I'm not going to deny that I'm disappointed with this unfinished release.

If you've been playing the OFP series this long then what made you expect it not to be unfinished? :rolleyes:

[shataan 1]

I agree with Zipper5s comments.

[gazmen 0]

I just played at arma 2, and I love it, so nice graphics, I have played a lot (3 years every day) with flashpoint downloading all addon made by BWM, RHS, BAS, VIT, Footmunch, DKM, OFRP, LZR, BKM, CBT, ICP (ORCS)... Then ARMA was released, but I don't why, i didn't like it, something strange that I can explain, not enough unit, in comparaison with flahspoint & addons. And the incompatibility between arma & flashpoint addons... Wainting for the conversion is just a bit annoying.

I'm happy to have buyed ARMA 2, a lot of improvement are made, but still I m sad that you didnt add some suggestion that I had send on forum with nickname Gazmen, about digital scope with information for gun like FN2000, thermal google for tank, unit, plane & electromagnetic google, heart beat detector, shooting detector helmet (telling the position of the shooter), and others gadget for plane like chaff & flare, threat warning, working hud of plane & chopper, laser (shtora) ir & radar jammer, Anti-AT (Arena), ied scrambler, targetting interface for tank chopper plane, sat cam computer & stuff like gun bipod automaticaly activeted when croushed like raven shield game.

I'm happy to see advancement in engine, like the fire rate of gunner in jeep & tank, now the IA can attack many fighter in few second. Lot of bug of flashpoint are corrected, I hope you will evolve the engine.

I hope that you will make a tool that convert the addon of flahspoint & arma to arma 2 automaticaly... That would be great, thanks for your works, ARMA 2 is master piece, a beautifull game & wonderfull graphics made with care & love, thanks so much BIS...

PS : you should have add more unit from flashpoint & arma, like m2A2, AH-6, T80U, M113 A2, New HUMVEE Protected gunner & prototype like T95, and RPG-29 Vampire... In fact all weapons from real life should be in the game...

Edited July 7, 2009 by Gazmen

[echo1 0]

Stop being such a Focking fanboy and admit what almost everybody else is admiting...this game at it's current state is completely broken!

You're little better than a fanboy if you're going to continously claim that the game is completely broken when that's not the case. There are definitely problems. There are definitely people out there who can't enjoy the game as a consequence, but there are people who can. People like you who whine and complain about it add just as little to the intelligent discussion as the fanboys.

[stagga 10]

If you've been playing the OFP series this long then what made you expect it not to be unfinished? :rolleyes:

:) That's a good point. But really the old ones were never this bad! I'm pretty sure I could play right through CWC, RH and Resistance with hardly any problems. But maybe I'm just viewing the past with rose tinted glasses! But these problems have plagued the series since Arma and I can't help thinking that things were better in the old days because Codemasters wouldn't have published anything this broken.

[walker 0]

ignore

Kind Regards walker

Edited July 7, 2009 by walker
American date system caused me to miss speak

[mlmcasual 10]

The problem is also trolls like you dude. You nitpick about everything! EVERY FU**ING THING THAT IS WRONG IN THE GAME! I also want to scream when I hear comments like:

"Oh this game is s*** because it has 0.1 seconds mouse lag"

"Oh I get sick with the head mouvement" (and then they find out they can disable it) :j:

"Oh I cant run smoothly at 9000x5500 resolution!"

Gimme a break!

---------- Post added at 11:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 PM ----------

"Every single mission given to you has at least on game breaking bug"

"Most of them have several game breaking bugs!"

Hey decide yourself ok?:j:

Give me a break... you make my point for me.

I was playing OFP1, ARMA1, from the start and sunk my 50$ on Arma2.. and have been viewing BI forums forever..

The Troll comment only makes you sound like the poster child fanboyism I am frustrated by and make my point for me (thank you):j:. I have nothing to gain from Dissing Arma2.. I am already out the 50$ and want(ed) very much for this to be a success and have right to comment.

There are many bugs and performance issues not just a few. The performance issues of getting spots with 20FPS on a high end computer is what worries me. The low framerates at the graphic level presented is not acceptable IMO.. This is not exactly Crysis material here. But to be honest, the real problem looks like BI's own opening plug

"Building on 10 years of constant engine development" Well that may be the problem right there. A game is IMO limited or exceeds by it's engine. A 10 year old engine that has been tweaked,bloated bolted upon (like hdr) illustrates the point. This is still a FPS game not a MoveBased game so when fanboys claim low 20's FPS, absurd control interface isn't a problem they are either completely ignorant, or lying to themselves and us. The way I see it.. But make no mistake.. call me a troll but thre IS a huge following of fanboys here that are misrepresenting facts. Anywhere outside this level of fanboyism a game wouldn't last two seconds.. I think it IS a credit to BI's ambitions and my hat is off and hope is with them..

Edited July 7, 2009 by mlmcasual

[th3flyboy 0]

I think Austin Meyer of X-Plane said it best in an interview when he said that when things are just bolted on and not refactored every chance possible to something better or even deleted, you just get a mess. The best bet is to make a whole new engine for ArmA 3. Throw out the old, in with the new. Just completely change the game. The code to me sounds like it is probably over 50000 lines of bolted on stuff. The problem with that is that if you don't cut and replace code, you just get limited by old restrictions. FSX was a horrible preforming mess because of this, and it appears ArmA 2 is having the same issues FSX is. You might want to take the idea of just doing a total overhaul or better yet, a completely new engine, rather than just building off the old engine. That would most likely end a lot of issues. If you just bolt things on, you just get a bloated mess. Sometimes you need to trash the old for a whole new approach. In this case, I think that the engine is not doing good because it is still trying to support ArmA 1 addons. Because of ArmA 1 trying to support OFP, that could easily be causing excessive bloating by killing performance while trying to keep old content.

If you ask me, ArmA 3 needs a completely new engine, or a total overhaul of the current one. The current one seems like it's just the OFP CWC engine with stuff bolted on.