ArmA2 1.03 Impressions - ALL Impressions/Videos/Screenies Here

[hoak 0]

While I'm perfectly happy with ArmA II's design 'as is'; I can certainly appreciate the reaction of Players that are new to BI games that would like a little more hand-holding in the interface, and/or would like to see more accessible games on servers (even I would enjoy that).

Consider fellow ArmA Fans, the action-arcade fantasy shooters with realism paint jobs that get labeled 'Realism' by they Publishers and Developers outnumber BI's titles (or anything that even comes close by intention) by a factor easily over 3,000:1... Then there's all the marketing and advertising, with budgets that exceed development by many orders of magnitude...

It should come as no surprise that the sheer volume of indoctrination of this kind is going to have a strong effect on shaping realism game Consumer expectations with respect to 'how a realism game should be'...

The thing of it is, even vanilla ArmA has the means to support development of mods that go head to head with pop titles like BF2 -- meet them feature for feature, and offer similar game-play and metrics... Obviously that hasn't happened because it's just not perceived as worth it to duplicate another commercial effort...

But, I feature there must be a middle ground, that takes half-a-step in the opposite direction that A.C.E. takes; offering realism Fans new to serious tactical realism and simulation a smoother ride, and at the same time a better less frustrating vantage to appreciate what BI games have to offer...

:o

Edited July 20, 2009 by Hoak

[An Fiach 10]

While I'm perfectly happy with ArmA II's design 'as is'; I can certainly appreciate the reaction of Players that are new to BI games that would like a little more hand-holding in the interface, and/or would like to see more accessible games on servers (even I would enjoy that).

Consider fellow ArmA Fans, the action-arcade fantasy shooters with realism paint jobs that get labeled 'Realism' by they Publishers and Developers outnumber BI's titles (or anything that even comes close by intention) by a factor easily over 3,000:1... Then there's all the marketing and advertising, with budgets that exceed development by many orders of magnitude...

It should come as no surprise that the sheer volume of indoctrination of this kind is going to have a strong effect on shaping realism game Consumer expectations with respect to 'how a realism game should be'...

The thing of it is, even vanilla ArmA has the means to support development of mods that go head to head with pop titles like BF2 -- meet them feature for feature, and offer similar game-play and metrics... Obviously that hasn't happened because it's just not perceived as worth it to duplicate another commercial effort...

But, I feature there must be a middle ground, that takes half-a-step in the opposite direction that A.C.E. takes; offering realism Fans new to serious tactical realism and simulation a smoother ride, and at the same time a better less frustrating vantage to appreciate what BI games have to offer...

:o

The ultra realism of A.C.E. is pointless if the missions do not support it. That is a bigger issue.

[Ruckus 0]

I've been around since OFP came out and purchased Resistance and OFP I as well.

I purchased Arma 2 when it first came out and I've found that I really like the immersion that the game provides. The great looking scenery and local towns and stuff.

I also like the cars, tanks and trucks and APC's. With a well written mission, those things really add to the immersion the game provides.

While the game provides a decent fun factor for me, I find I have a few bitches which I assume will be fixed I hope with future patches.

First bitch is one that has been discussed at length so I won't go into detail. I find my FPS performance in MP pretty poor. I have a Core 2 duo E8500 @3.7ghz, 4gig of PC8500 memory, 19" wide screen with a Gforce 9600GT 512MB. It just doesn't run very well when I play the Warfare type mission(forgot name). I was hoping that I would have gotten better performance with this system even though its not top of the line stuff.

Second is regarding the AI. Even though the AI has been noticably improved, I find that they seem to see through the heavy grass and hose me down with machine gun fire while I cant fire back as I cant see them.

Third is also regarding the AI. Even with suppressing fire, at times they still seem to run at you like mindless muppets. They don't have any fear of getting hit. I know they do alot of manuvers to flank you and stuff, but they'll still just run into direct fire. Sometimes they will make a attempt to conceal themselves. I found them peaking around a corner and firing very clever programming and quite cool.

I'm sure some of these things will be addressed with patches, I just hope its not a long time comming.

All in all though I really like the game and hope the improvements sort out some of the issues that I've experienced and have read about.

[jw custom 56]

All issues you mention has been posted about hundreds of times so i'm sure BIS are aware of them and hopfully will do something about them in near future.

[S7_Mega 10]

All issues you mention has been posted about hundreds of times so i'm sure BIS are aware of them and hopfully will do something about them in near future.

Yup, and in ten minutes someone else will post the same thing, in a new thread.

[nkenny 1057]

And people have been posting pretty much the same since Arma1. I think its a rather optimistic attitude to think that BIS should suddenly shift gears. :P

-K

[Thirdup 0]

Yup, and in ten minutes someone else will post the same thing, in a new thread.

And in another 15 minutes a mod will move them to one of the other official "my impressions" threads.

;)

[Dutch soldier 0]

I have been playing OFP since the first day it came out, and i was a little dissapointed with arma, but ArmA2?

OUTSTANDING WORK!!!

Just what I and i think most of us needed :D

Screw EA, Ubisoft and Activision with their commercial arcade games!

This is the best war game ever made!

[HateDread 13]

Here here!

Bought the game yesturday, and what I've played so far; crCTI, and Evo, has been amazing.

First day impressions: "How did I live without it?"

[doakwolf 10]

I'll jump in here and also say thanks.

Even though it has more bugs than one would expect from a new release, it's still a great game. I'm even loving the campaign!!!

Just about to start getting into some custom mission editing as I keep reading all the hype about it :D

Jero

[Flaxpants 10]

As a newbie to the game as well, I would also like to say great job! Finally a game that caters for people who have more than a 3 minute attention span and a brain the size of a walnut. Fair Play to Bohemia for flying in the face of general marketing logic and making something different- keep it coming!

[TheHarvesteR 11]

I couldn't agree more!!

Big cheers to BIS for making this game what it is!!! This is the ONLY serious war game in the market, and it is so even despite the tendencies of the brainless disposable mainstream market... Awesome job indeed!!!!

Keep up the good work!! Looking forward for patch 1.03 (BTW, thanks in advance for the throttle fix)

Cheers

HarvesteR

Edited July 24, 2009 by TheHarvesteR

[shataan 1]

I agree. Altho I do await the patch fixes/optimizing.... what I am seeing/playing is a pretty amazing experience. Big thx!!!!!!!

[Fintroll 10]

Greetings

Before i start, i must say this is best game i have ever played, but currently i'm finding it very annoying. I do recommend Arma 2 to my friends or anyone that likes mil sims or shooters. Thanks for this product Bohemia, its awesom.

I have not bought any games before because most games are not worth paying, i made a exception with Arma 2 since i had been playing the demo and i liked the concept and modding possibilities.

Now, what drives me crazy is the AI. I play 5 hours daily a Warfare map in multiplayer and here are few examples that absolutely drive me mad.

1. I bring in my squad in stealth and with hold fire into a village. I think no one has spotted us and we stay stationary behind a building for 15 minutes. I hear a tank coming from other side of the city (this is in early stages of the game, so no advanced systems still available).

I climb to the roof of the building, in a way that it would be absolutely impossible for the tank to spot me. There is a small wall on the roof, i go behind it in cover so that it would be impossible for the tank to see me yet. I switch to my anti tank weapon, reload it and im ready to shoot. Now i peak with my weapon behind the wall on the roof, and in a split second the tank kills me with ONE SHOT!

Bear in mind, it would have been impossible for the tank to spot me here, and i find this problem to be so bad that in these days i dont run with my men at all, i stay in the base and command them from there, and its very very very annoying. This is not the only case, this happens all the time and now i don't even bother to play warfare that much anymore (this game mode is best but bugged now).

The AI is currently like superhuman with xray vision, this needs to be fixed in the next patch. I belive that ai should NOT be easy, it should be very hard, but NOT SUPER HUMAN! This is milsim so this should reflect in ai too.

2. AI driving and flying is very bad, please make it better.

3. Air units are pure garbage at the time, where are the missile locking sounds, flares and countermasures? Air systems are epic fail, i hope someone mods these in asap, or hope that patch comes. How can you put these aircraft in a mili sim at this stage? Please fix.

3. I have a very very expensive computer (2400€) and i get 20 fps, game is still playable, but could you please optimize it little more.

4. Radio sounds of my squad members are too loud and i cannot hear other human people speaking while these ai speak. Is there a work around this?

5. Constant crashes, black screens and receiving screens.

6. Annoyingly addictive game.

I got some other problems too, but these are the main ones.

Thank you for reading

Fintroll

[GEARSofWAR 10]

well....for your first problem you can just play the game in a lower difficulty.

Ex. Cod 4 or 5 for instance. If you play on regular, they are just like normal beings/enemy's

but if you play on veteran...shit....they have bloody auto lock systems, better weapons etc etc.

So just play on a different (lower) difficulty and you might find the game more...pleasurable

2. Im afraid thats how it is, but you can upgrade their AI by downloading a mod

3.cant help you with that

4.you may just decrease the volume system in the options menu

5.You need to get a better computer i,e: better video card (atleast GPU NVIDIA Ge force 8800 or better), better processor etc

Try decreasing the video quality for less problems.

6. Play it on the hardest difficulty....that will drive you mad.

[An Fiach 10]

Could also leave the house once in a while

[shataan 1]

Not sure if this has been posted or not, but I absolutely LOVE what I see of ARMA 2 in this vid.

[jakerod 254]

I just noticed that if you take away more than 50%ish of the fuel from a T72 it takes off the two fuel tanks in the back. I never noticed that before. A nice little touch there BIS.

[Barely-injured 0]

I just noticed that if you take away more than 50%ish of the fuel from a T72 it takes off the two fuel tanks in the back. I never noticed that before. A nice little touch there BIS.

That is nice to know :)

yeah each day i discover a new little detail like that. Yesterday I noticed that the rear exhaust covers on the T-90 open up to different degrees during movement to simulate fumes existing the vehicle.

truly splendid work BIS :inlove:

[BeerHunter 0]

Is ArmA2 the end of the line for BIS MilSim?

Other than cleaning up some bugs, a few things to improve performance and hopefully some more tweaks to the AI code don’t see what else they can give us.

Sure it has its problems. Sure them are some bugs but what major piece of software these days doesn’t? The key is can they be fixed, are they willing to fix them and how quickly?

So far BIS seems to be doing a very credible job in that area. The game has only been out a few months and already they are working on the 1.03 patch.

ArmA2 has the potential to become an everlasting game (ala NWN1) with the so easy to use editor and all the contributions by the gaming community.

The AI is, IMO, by far the best I’ve ever come across in a game and it can only get better as tweaks and improvements are introduced through the various patches.

Don’t think you can improve much on the graphics as they are already bringing some of the latest high-end systems to their knees though some optimization here might help.

Years from now players will be still be churning out custom content and modules. I still play NWN1 (didn’t like what they did to NWN2 game play) and though NWN1 is so graphically dated now, there’s still custom modules coming out for it. I don’t see ArmA2 being much different in that respect.

If there is an ArmA3 on the horizon or drawing board, and if BIS carries on down the same road with it being a MilSim and a step up from ArmA2 , lord only knows what we’ll get then.

All in all , considering the game cost about as much as it does to fill up an SUV , the amount of time and effort it took to bring it to market and the potential it holds all I can say is..

DAMN GOOD JOB BIS!!!

[manzilla 1]

---------- Post added at 08:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:41 AM ----------

Is ArmA2 the end of the line for BIS MilSim?

Other than cleaning up some bugs, a few things to improve performance and hopefully some more tweaks to the AI code don’t see what else they can give us.

Sure it has its problems. Sure them are some bugs but what major piece of software these days doesn’t? The key is can they be fixed, are they willing to fix them and how quickly?

So far BIS seems to be doing a very credible job in that area. The game has only been out a few months and already they are working on the 1.03 patch.

ArmA2 has the potential to become an everlasting game (ala NWN1) with the so easy to use editor and all the contributions by the gaming community.

The AI is, IMO, by far the best I’ve ever come across in a game and it can only get better as tweaks and improvements are introduced through the various patches.

Don’t think you can improve much on the graphics as they are already bringing some of the latest high-end systems to their knees though some optimization here might help.

Years from now players will be still be churning out custom content and modules. I still play NWN1 (didn’t like what they did to NWN2 game play) and though NWN1 is so graphically dated now, there’s still custom modules coming out for it. I don’t see ArmA2 being much different in that respect.

If there is an ArmA3 on the horizon or drawing board, and if BIS carries on down the same road with it being a MilSim and a step up from ArmA2 , lord only knows what we’ll get then.

All in all , considering the game cost about as much as it does to fill up an SUV , the amount of time and effort it took to bring it to market and the potential it holds all I can say is..

DAMN GOOD JOB BIS!!!

+1. I hope it's not the end of the line. This company has huge potential. As a private equity manager this is the type of product/market/business we look to invest in. Saturating more markets and regions, especially the NA market, would no doubt help this company's bottomline, assuming they continue on making milsims. From the game markets, to military/private sector these guys have a damn good niche and one helluva a team to create the product. Better marketing in other market, NA especially, has huge revenue potential.

Seriously BIS, next time you guys release a game I'd be more then happy to raise some money for the NA distributions. Just get the old lawyers and execs together and we could figure something out. Your games definitely could be cash cows, if they aren't already.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

I'd actually like to see more diversity from BIS. The OFP/ArmA (I think the devs call it Real Virtuality) engine has a lot of potential for other applications. It'd be very refreshing too, especially for the devs I'd imagine. I bet a lot of them are growing a bit tired of the "modern milsim" gerne (btw I don't like using that classification for OFP/ArmA).

[EricM 0]

I'd actually like to see more diversity from BIS. The OFP/ArmA (I think the devs call it Real Virtuality) engine has a lot of potential for other applications. It'd be very refreshing too, especially for the devs I'd imagine. I bet a lot of them are growing a bit tired of the "modern milsim" gerne (btw I don't like using that classification for OFP/ArmA).

As much as I love Arma, I understand why they would go for something like Carrier Command. You can keep the engine for large outdoors and lush virtual battelfield, but without the need to be painstakingly accurate about the military hardware and with all the creative freedom to tweak the gameplay for fun.

I think it's probably twice as easy to make, because no one can bitch about the missng bolt on the rear hatch of the HQ variant of the russian tracked thingie, or about the balance of the game etc...

They could do a FPS/RTS multi-island crysis and it would probably appeal to a larger audience.

But I don't think they will drop the Arma series.

[snake eyes 0]

That is nice to know :)

yeah each day i discover a new little detail like that. Yesterday I noticed that the rear exhaust covers on the T-90 open up to different degrees during movement to simulate fumes existing the vehicle.

truly splendid work BIS :inlove:

+1 Awesome

I also noticed little things:

1.Street Lights can be shot out again like in OFP Resistance

2.You can change stance while moving instead of stopping

3.You can move with binoculars

4.You can fire the AT4 from Crouch or Standing

5.You can reload the AT4 on the move

6.The G36's Magazine shows when the ammo is gone[cause of being clear]

7.The Gun Bolts are animated

8.You Can Flatten the grass around you for fireing[Thanks To BIS for showing that]

9.You can Pop Vehical Tires Again

10.Vehical Windows Can Be Shot Out

Anyway that's all i found so far. Great Job BIS:)

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

anyone observed AI swivel head? its weird :confused:

youuE32Wq1Y

Edited July 30, 2009 by Placebo