Dragon Rising has been released

[Zipper5 74]

One more interesting thing about the Xfire stats that I just remembered. Xfire only fully supports the Steam version of ArmA II, and requires a "hack" to get it to recognize the other versions. So obviously it's going to have a lower number of hours played. Still no way of measuring the game.

[4 IN 1 0]

not to talk about there are much more people who didnt bother to use Xfire

[Richey79 10]

It seems there are a good few people on this forum who did buy DR, even if it was just for teh lulz.

Over on the DR forum there's a thread up asking people who feel deceived about the lack of dedicated servers to complain to the 'Watchdog' TV programme in the UK. Doesn't take long, there's a pro-forma email to send and that's it.

So, if you want to make DR multiplayer work, or just feel that people should know what kind of developer CM is, then visit: http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389183

Cheers for your time.

[SwiftyBoy 0]

@Richey79

That CM forum is a mess at the moment - seems Codies have a lot of very disgruntled customers on their hands just now.

And rightly so, in my opinion - the game bears little relation to the messages they put about in the massive marketing push leading up to its release. They've been playing fast and loose with their claims for the game, and now, sadly, the chickens are coming home to roost...

There's one other thing that's been bothering me - the role the reviewers of the games magazines etc have had in this. Surely they can't ALL have fallen for it? Surely?

[ohara 0]

When there is lot of web mags on internet for free, that depends fully on advertising, typical paper mags starting to have low sales due their free competitors. Today paper mags depend more on advertising than on money from their readers. So sadly they now not doing service to customers but mainly to publishers as part of PR, its simple...

[Hans Ludwig 0]

Watching DR tank is like watching Courtney Love ride the coat tails of Kurt Cobain after he died and she had to get a job. You know how that turned out. lol

[SwiftyBoy 0]

See, the thing is, I loved Flashpoint: Gold. I'd never played a game like it, and when I started messing about with the mission editor and made my first cutscene (A-10 dropping a line of bombs somewhere on Everon, heh), I was as pleased as anything.

I came to ArmA much later, downloaded a shedload of mods for it, made it the best game out there. And now ArmAII, well, again, it's modded to the hilt and it plays fantastic.

But I still have that little Flashpoint thing in the back of my mind - and when I see the hugely inflated claims Codies made for the "sequel", and the renders they released, and the exciting "in-game" footage, and all the rest of it, and then compare it to what they've released... it just makes me angry that they've taken everything that the original had, and just, well, wasted it, frankly.

[bonchie 39]

1. Yeah I agree, it's a major fault of the engine. You can always add up the times starting from different locations if you really want to check.

2. And in Arma2 campaign there were, oh wait, zero. Unless you bought a chopper in Dogs of War. The 3 mile limitation... See above. You can't design a mission that defyes the engine limitations.

3. Other than the copperheads in one of the first missions, in Arma2 campaign I got... One artillery strike...

4. You can access all areas of the map. Just not in the same mission. The island of Skira I find very very good with its small natural/terrain covers being well laid out. These seem to be non existant in Chernarus, from what I can crasp due to a smaller resolution DEM file. Which is best? I find Chernarus more beautiful the way the engine renders it, but Skira seems to better support for closer ranged firefights.

So the points you bring out to put OFDR in a bad light, actually puts Arma2 in a bad light as well :) I much prefer Arma2 though, yet many of the "stupid OFDR" videos could have been made with the first german version of Arma2 which pretty much stunk!

I bet OFDR will address many bugs in future patches, but it seems to be the tethering and hardcoded entity limit will be tough ones to beat.

1. What a stupid suggestion. Besides, the 11 missions don't cover the whole island.

2. You got to use helicopters throughout the entire campaign in ArmA2. You only get a chance to fly them once, but they are a constant part of the gameplay. In OFPDR, not so much. You randomly start each mission with no explanation of how you got there.

3. I've got no problem with a lack of artillery strikes in either game. The part that becomes stupid is when you do get artillery in OFPDR you can only use it once, as if the entire fleet ran out of ammo after one barrage. At least in the mission where Artillery is viable in ArmA2 you can use it multiple times.

4. I have no idea what you are talking about. There's nothing about Skira, including available cover, that is better.

[LoLL 10]

Let's face it. CM have failed with their OFP: DR.

[jw custom 56]

Let's face it. CM have failed with their OFP: DR.

I think thats the general opinion in here :p

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

1. What a stupid suggestion. Besides, the 11 missions don't cover the whole island.

2. You got to use helicopters throughout the entire campaign in ArmA2. You only get a chance to fly them once, but they are a constant part of the gameplay. In OFPDR, not so much. You randomly start each mission with no explanation of how you got there.

3. I've got no problem with a lack of artillery strikes in either game. The part that becomes stupid is when you do get artillery in OFPDR you can only use it once, as if the entire fleet ran out of ammo after one barrage. At least in the mission where Artillery is viable in ArmA2 you can use it multiple times.

4. I have no idea what you are talking about. There's nothing about Skira, including available cover, that is better.

All the Trees in Skira are the same size. One foot around. Invincible. They are all one or two models based on the same model.

Rocks are the same only at different depths.

Water looks like a layer of something. But it doesn't look like water. You can't even see through it.

Furthermore the campaign in A2 is just that a Campaign really to be played once or not at all. That just opens the vastness of the Multiplayer where anything is possible.

In DR, the campaign is nothing more than an extended horrible demo, that opens up to a non-existent multiplayer void.

It costs $8.00 an hour to play this game. I WALKED through it in 5 hours. No replay value, no multiplayer. It's nearly criminal.

---------- Post added at 10:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:27 AM ----------

1. Yeah I agree, it's a major fault of the engine. You can always add up the times starting from different locations if you really want to check.

2. And in Arma2 campaign there were, oh wait, zero. Unless you bought a chopper in Dogs of War. The 3 mile limitation... See above. You can't design a mission that defyes the engine limitations.

3. Other than the copperheads in one of the first missions, in Arma2 campaign I got... One artillery strike...

4. You can access all areas of the map. Just not in the same mission. The island of Skira I find very very good with its small natural/terrain covers being well laid out. These seem to be non existant in Chernarus, from what I can crasp due to a smaller resolution DEM file. Which is best? I find Chernarus more beautiful the way the engine renders it, but Skira seems to better support for closer ranged firefights.

So the points you bring out to put OFDR in a bad light, actually puts Arma2 in a bad light as well :) I much prefer Arma2 though, yet many of the "stupid OFDR" videos could have been made with the first german version of Arma2 which pretty much stunk!

I bet OFDR will address many bugs in future patches, but it seems to be the tethering and hardcoded entity limit will be tough ones to beat.

NO CONSOLES! Don't even think of dumbing down the game for a console.

Nothing really against consoles, but somethings are better on PC's than consoles. And visa-versa. If I wanna play StreetFighter then it's on the console, if I want WAR? It's PC. No questions asked.

---------- Post added at 10:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 AM ----------

That is exactly what I was saying... jeez...

As for buying weapons, I have never been able to buy my squad weapons in campaign, which is all I play cause I hate 99% of MP games.

ah ok, I mis-read. My apologies.

I was really tired and jacked up on Nyquil and Jack-Daniels.

sorry again. My "flame-on" button must be stuck in the on position the last couple days.

---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 AM ----------

What GRS is talking about is that the expansion was announced before fully fixing Arma 2. That's what he means by "paying for fixes" (lost in translation)

GRS, BIS mentioned when they announced the expansion that they will continue patching and working on Arma 2, and that the expansion is being worked on by another sector (game development sector).

yeah, ok. I admit in the early stage of the bug hunt, and they announced an expansion I was a little taken back. Again, my "flame-on" button is jammed.

Sorry guys.

[GRS 10]

Ha, its cool. Can't say thats never happened to me. ;)

[icebreakr 3157]

Let's face it. CM have failed with their OFP: DR.

You know whats sad? People still keep asking me if they should buy it as it was a real BIS sequel... I get so pissed off. A guy from my squad sms-ed in from Austria few days ago and asked if its a okay price of 50 EUR(!) in a local MediaMarkt shop for OFP: DR.... luckly, that box remained on the shelf.

[Stryker_1 10]

if the exploration is restricted in DR campaign is not game bug, is a campaign design decission.you can make your own missions and explore all territory you want.Btw in my opinion DR campaign is by far better than Arma 1 campaign, no color.

No way to substantiate this claim, I believe this to be a technical limitation due to stripping down to the lowest common denominator, the console. Dragon Rising keeps you in a container more so than ARMA II. I've played them both and I don't believe DR's limitation is a design decision. Every great PC game created for the console is stripped down to a nice little package and works in the console limitation, so I guess you can argue the DR is a design decision due console's technical limitation :)

[froggyluv 2136]

Looks like the CM lads are taking their case to the Media:

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389183

I feel for them but that would make one funny a$$ breaking news story

Reporter: "UberNinjaJizzPants, how has the misleading advertising practices of CM damaged your life and ability to properly function?"

UberNinjaJizzPants: "They lied man. There's no Dedicated servers and the tether feature sucks!"

Reporter: "Thats terrible. Back to you Ted"

Btw in my opinion DR campaign is by far better than Arma 1 campaign, no color

Well thats not saying much. Can't say really, I can't get past the 1st mission of DR's campaign due to more interesting things happening around me like paint drying or watching bugs play outside...

[jw custom 56]

Luhgnut;1463904']

I was really tired and jacked up on Nyquil...

Hey please share dude :D

[SwiftyBoy 0]

@froggyluv:

Lol, nothing like a good old-fashoned bit of nerd rage to get me laughing at the end of a dull day.

[weegee_101 0]

No way to substantiate this claim, I believe this to be a technical limitation due to stripping down to the lowest common denominator, the console. Dragon Rising keeps you in a container more so than ARMA II. I've played them both and I don't believe DR's limitation is a design decision. Every great PC game created for the console is stripped down to a nice little package and works in the console limitation, so I guess you can argue the DR is a design decision due console's technical limitation :)

Modern consoles would have no issues with a game world as big as ArmA. In fact there are many console games that DO have game worlds as big as ArmA and ArmA2. I would like to point at Fallout 3 as an example, which I've played on both PS3 and PC and they're identical. Neither are gimped, and Fallout 3 has a world that rivals ArmA's in size.

There is an old adage in the software world that rings true in every project. There is money, quality, and time. Pick two. They picked money and time here, so they came out with a subpar product. Frankly, as a owner of this game on console, its just as shitty as it sounds on PC. They took out the editor, they have some horrible network code, and it has the crappiest graphics out of any of my games in my PS3 collection, which hints they didn't take the time to actually do some decent optimizations to the game world for the consoles.

The game, PC exclusive or not, would have sucked this bad period.

[ohara 0]

Modern consoles would have no issues with a game world as big as ArmA. In fact there are many console games that DO have game worlds as big as ArmA and ArmA2. I would like to point at Fallout 3 as an example, which I've played on both PS3 and PC and they're identical. Neither are gimped, and Fallout 3 has a world that rivals ArmA's in size.

.

I dont know size of Fallout world, but for example Oblivion that is based on same technology had 2.5*2.5 Km of real size terrain = mean 6.25Km^2, Arma2 have 225km^2, that is 36 times bigger!

[NeMeSiS 11]

I dont know size of Fallout world, but for example Oblivion that is based on same technology had 2.5*2.5 Km of real size terrain = mean 6.25Km^2, Arma2 have 225km^2, that is 36 times bigger!

And Fallout3 was slightly smaller then Oblivion. (Though i am not sure if they counted the countless Dunguons in Oblivion with that, cause noone explored all of them anyway :p )

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

The map is not small. It probably takes 30 minutes to run across it if you don't stop.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/fallout3/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-46320579&pid=939933

How can anyone compare that to either DR or ArmAII

[weegee_101 0]

I dont know size of Fallout world, but for example Oblivion that is based on same technology had 2.5*2.5 Km of real size terrain = mean 6.25Km^2, Arma2 have 225km^2, that is 36 times bigger!

Good point.

Still, I hold by my claim that the modern consoles could handle it. A PC has a lot of other background processes going on, while a console can devote all resources to the game. Hell, the PS3 is powered by the IBM Cell Processor. If it wasn't for the fact that programming for the Cell is reminiscent of programming for the Motorolla 68xxx series (horrible, horrible memories), I'm sure it would be a more popular platform for high graphics and high physics games.

[W0lle 1050]

As for: 9 hours to walk across Skira, or 25 minutes to fly, or 2 hours to drive: My a$$, I crossed Skira in an AH-6 in around 10 minutes (and I was pretty slow because of the horrible, totally f*cked up controls). Then the same in an LAV in around 40 minutes, with a bunch of detours to look around. Just another blatant lie/exaggeration from CMs marketing, obviously the only department doing a decent job.

Driving that LAV was sometimes fun and sometimes just scary. I'm playing games since around two decades and I swear I never seen such a horrible steering and vehicle behaviour. It's really as you're driving on ice, if you steer left or right you slide off the road, if you hit a small rock there is a good chance your vehicle takes off or rolls over (without taking damage of course) - on a sidenote, the LAV-25 weigths around 14 tons. The worst things were the rock solid trees which are a real treat for your vehicle. Even back in 2001 trees were falling when hit (except the ones in the woods).

Oh on a sidenote: Has anyone noticed that there are no support vehicles in DR and wondered why? The answer is easy: They are not needed: Even rifleman average Joe can repair a tank or helicopter at any time when needed, no repair trucks needed. Fuel trucks not needed either as the vehicles don't need any. Why there is a war because oil then no one must understand...

And what does CM? They prefer to party and celebrate the release instead explaining their paying customers how such a totally screwed up game could have been released. But of course they have a reason to party. What they wanted they achieved - our money. :mad:

[Blackhawk 0]

Ha, some guy is getting people to complain to the BBC Watchdog program.

It's all going to hell over there. Makes me be thankful for the community we have here.

[vasmkd 12]

As for: 9 hours to walk across Skira, or 25 minutes to fly, or 2 hours to drive: My a$$, I crossed Skira in an AH-6 in around 10 minutes (and I was pretty slow because of the horrible, totally f*cked up controls). Then the same in an LAV in around 40 minutes, with a bunch of detours to look around. Just another blatant lie/exaggeration from CMs marketing, obviously the only department doing a decent job.

Hehe

I always wondered why they said it took that long. I got around chernarus much quicker and the islands are similar in size so i thought geez DR must be snail speed