Is ARMA 2 better than OFP?

[johncage 30]

ofp runs well on my computer. therefore it has my vote.

[USMCSonic 10]

ARMA 2 is ofp lol haha

the graphics and animations are a coverup

ITS A CONSPIRACI!!!! lol

[SnowSky 12]

Well, I love ArmA 2 now because I got a new computer^^, but I have to say that there are things I really dislike in ArmA II.

I don't like the commandingMenuStyle anymore... we... I don't know - the High command is pretty cool, jeah, but I mean this thing with the intuitive menu - I don't use it, I really hate it because I can't choose accurate the option I want.

I scroll, and press, and sometimes it scrolls one time to much - sometimes not, and I have to concentrate to much on it because of this.

The TeamHandling makes me wushy - that was the Point I liked in ArmA I a lot - You press the Spacebar - and there you have all, TeamColors, VehicleGroups and then every single unit. I loved that, wish it would be possible to get that style back - or get the option to choose between styles. (For those who want to tell me that shift+F# key makes it possible - to choose teams: Try to choose your white team. Try it, tell me, if you have 4 coloured teams, how do you get em fastest? 9-9-5. nKay - three buttons... but... well... I liked the old style...)

Another thing I loved in OFP was that it was possible to order units to target also friendly units.

Oh, now I remember - another thing I don't like in ArmA II - I can't right click enemys to order my units to AIM. Or I tell them to attack (then they leave the formation) or I have to go to the menu and search the target unit out of a list.

And another thing I dislike in ArmA II is the commandingstyle in tanks...

Back to topic... I love ArmA2, but it runs only on my new computer - this is, why I played often Operation Flashpoint with my girlfriend, and now ArmA I :).

[bonchie 39]

Everything about ArmAII is better then then OFP except the campaign, and even then some of the dynamic missions in Red Harvest are the most immersive I've played in any game.

If OA delivers on it's campaign like they are promising then OFP will be an even further distant memory.

For Multiplayer there's no comparison. Not even close. ArmAII kills OFP.

[Nightrain 10]

Technically there is a lot more possible in ArmA 2. But the story, enviroment, single player missons, and epic campaings of CWC and Resistance absolutley kick ArmA 2's butt. That being said OFP also ran smooth always on my computer (but hopefully OA can help fix that problem too).

[Honeycutt 10]

I am still playing OFP Vietnam, The Experience mod. Silky smooth framerate, awesome vegetation, Love the M-79

As that song goes "....still in Saigon"

[pAuthority 10]

ARMA 2 = OFP + eyecandy.

[kireta21 13]

ArmA 2 > OFP > ArmA

ArmA 2 has everything OFP had. And much more.

OFP is technically inferior, but has a lot of great campaigns, and SP missions. I'm still playing it, using GRAA 3.0 modpack modded for my taste.

If ArmA 2 will ever recieve fully working mod allowing to run OFP missions and campaigns there will be no reason for me to keep OFP on hard drive. Only thing OFP is better about is AI actually doing what they are told to. Resistance campaign with often order-ignoring ArmA 2 AI would be Nintendo hard I guess.

Two more points for ArmA 2 are: ACE2 (god tier), and quality fan-made campaigns avaliable already.

A for ArmA, well. When ArmA came out, I played, raged, came back to OFP. SP was shit, MP acceptable (since you didn't have to rely on retarded AI). ACE made it playable, but that's all.

[Chumba 10]

OFP easily beats a2 in gameplay.

* Character control

* Sound system

* Cursor and aiming system

* Chopper FM

* Infantry weapon aim

* Micro terrain

* No HDR issues

* Way less LOD issues

* Shadows at distance

* In comparison better graphics on distance vs close (distance details are way more

important while close visuals are only eye candy)

* Very functional, decent looking and non FPS killer vegetation

And several more.

At the same time a2 has some improvements, yet these do not outweight the

missing/broken features by far:

* clutter working for close distance combat

* lean/roll

* JIP

* More objects

* More detailed objects (in terms of usability)

Well maybe some day by mistake the series will improve again in all these areas.

Sums it up perfectly for me too.

It's really quite unfair to compare the two, but the test I apply is to reverse them - ie. imagine if I were to play OFP NOW for the first time - after playing ARMA2 for a while - how would I feel - and the answer would be that I'd want certain features (such as graphics - BUT NOT THE $#@^%$ hdr!, extra movement options, AI improvements) brought from ARMA2 into OFP to make the perfect game, not the other way round....

---------- Post added at 10:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 AM ----------

Character control, no doubt about that. OFP hands down

sound system... well... WGL began to reveal the limits, if I remember well

cursor and aiming system : see Celery's comment. The Grid was awefull at times. I don't know which one I prefer now that A2 has customization for this

chopper FM : you're joking, right? gliding UFO, with autopilot-alt permanently engaged, and ultra easy FM. That was OFP. Nothing resembling the real thing. At least today, choppers have some weight

infantry weapon aim ??? need explanations :)

Micro terrain. Nice and never user because of FPS impact

no HDR issues. Very true. Imho one of the biggest bad decision by BI to have put HDR as the core of their engine

way less LOD issues. Talk for yourself ;) I've LOD-switching trees since the beginning. Don't ask me why. Especially visible on WGL :(

shadows at distance. Needs clarification

graphics : I quite like the close details, but seeing the performance issue, yes, we really could go without them

vegetation : true in CWC. No more in Res. Resistance was known for me because of its "killer bushes" and "killer trees" (typical : the forest NW of Nogova)

What else did ArmA bring that everyone always forget? better recoil (vertical only, back to zero recoils were a joke). Penetration, ricochet. More player per servers. Higher unit count (we lost some of it in A2 compared to A2 btw), see "Battlefields" recommendations at the time. Reload on the move. Way more powerfull scripting engine, you gotta admit that (teamswitch, movable gui, fsm, you name it)

Ummm - chopper FM in OFP only does the hold altitude thing if you're playing with keyboard controls for height increase / decrease - if you have a controller that's mapped to thrust increase / decrease OFP choppers behave properly. To go have a pee when flying OFP chopper with a controller mapped as I've described, you tap the KEYBOARD "height inc." key to engage the terrain following crap so the machine won't fly into a mountainside while you're gone - then when you get back from peeing you "jiggle" the throttle slider and bingo she's back in proper collective control mode. People who haven't flown OFP choppers with a joystick that has a throttle slider etc. have no business commenting on the flight model - and certainly have no right to criticise it.

And for what it's worth, I haven't been able to vote either - because there is no "Both" option...

Edited May 12, 2010 by Chumba

[celery 8]

People who haven't flown OFP choppers with a joystick that has a throttle slider etc. have no business commenting on the flight model - and certainly have no right to criticise it.

Well, I have and it's even worse than with mouse and keyboard. I'd take A1/A2 flight model any day of the week.

And for what it's worth, I haven't been able to vote either - because there is no "Both" option...

In forum polls simple is beautiful and on the other hand undecided votes bear no meaning when the poll's purpose is to find out which game is better.

[Flash Thunder 10]

A2 is nice.... deffinetly a huge improvement from what ive shortly played in OFP elite

Only real issues are the performance issues plaguing the game and the lackluster AI for the most part.

I would like OFP movement back, A2's is really screwy trying to recreate the sluggish movement of real soldiers with gear on, hense that annoying ass delay on everything, delay on moving forward, strafing etc. I think getting rid of it would do alot of good in terms of moving around in the environment.

I cannot stress how hard it is (for me) to do a small sneak n peak around a wall without accidentally revealing more of my body.

With modern day graphics and models you have to have all these damn LOD's, since there needs to be a few inorder for it to looks somewhat consistant the designers/artists have a hard time trying to get it to work, where you dont see a instant transition like the A2 trees, 2d blob to a 3D high resolution/poly LOD with the shadows and all.

but anyways A2 is a good improvement overall, graphically and feature wise, still wish BIS would've did more to the actual base of the engine like supporting DX10. Im sure BIS is prototyping the new tech thats present but for now this engine is very awesome. Alot of people think this engine is outdated (maybe so if you're talking about what is base consists of) but feature wise and its render is pretty unprecedented. 100's of High LOD objects if you compare A2 to Dragon Crap you will instantly be able to tell the difference in its visual quality and rendering capabilities. DR doesnt support Parallax mapping, it cant support more than 64 entities at once (that alone is a crime!) the list goes on and on.

RV engine is a the top of the list of most modifiable engines on the market currently along with Crytek.

That other game is all pre scripted and hardcoded, and all the assets are cooked into the golden master so kiss modding goodbye, just another Nice..... feature of the Eggo engine. *busts up laughing*

[*LK1* 10]

arma 2..which is an ofp with better graphic and a lot of new features.

and im not a nostalgic temperament so i cant say ofp is better :D.

[call_911 10]

Wow, I had no idea what i was gettin myself into when i purchased OFP an was totally blown away at how far superior it was to anything i'd played(DF BHD,MOHAA,BF142+,JO) Iwatched like the rest of the world an waited for ArmA an new somewhat what to expect, it stil met my expectations though some issues. ArmA2 I think is just the culmination of the 3 so i have to say ArmA2. 1st time playin Montiac mission had feelin like the whole russian army was chasin after me so story wise goes to OFP hands down. Now what would've been awsome with OFP campaign was if it was a coop campaign would've been really awsome.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Call_911

[Chumba 10]

Well, I have and it's even worse than with mouse and keyboard. I'd take A1/A2 flight model any day of the week.

In forum polls simple is beautiful and on the other hand undecided votes bear no meaning when the poll's purpose is to find out which game is better.

I had been pondering pretty much in the same line of thought about the purpose of the poll - and in that context I've put my vote to ARMA2 - tho it's a bit like comparing 2010 Jessica Beale to 70 year old Jane Fonda.

On the subject of chopper FM's - it's strange that you say "it's even worse than with mouse and keyboard" .... because with joystick (+throttle slider and twist for rudder / tailrotor) OFP choppers and ARMA2 choppers basically fly the same!! So maybe in OFP you're still doing something wrong with the control configs (need to map throttle slider axis + and - to thrust inc. / dec.).

- my complaints about ARMA2 are to do with the lack of effectiveness of the collective and the strange behaviour of tailrotor in forward flight (ie. the machine doesn't change direction of flight when you "rudder" it around in forward flight - it will keep going in the original course unless you "bank" it into the turn - it SHOULD change direction of flight albeit slower than if banked as well). I have issues as well with the control input generally being very sluggish but I can live with that - it just means you have to slam the stick about totally unrealistically, but the controls still essentially do the right things.

ARMA2 definitely has achieved a very good parity between using joystick and using mouse keyboard - which is a good thing because in OFP the two result in completely different types of flight.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Chumba

[Zipper5 74]

OFP helicopters don't fly anything like they do now in Arma 2. :rolleyes:

In OFP you couldn't have fast landings as they'd blow you up, you had to be very close to 0 speed. The flight model also seemed to do it's best to keep you going horizontal, and it also seemed to make the helicopters out to be heavier than they are, especially when you've been accelerating and you try to pull out of it.

[Binkowski 26]

I don't know. OFP was pretty awesome. :rolleyes:

[bravo 6 0]

IMO OFP is still better. I have more fun with OFP then ARMA2.

edit: Also OFP runs better on my computer, therefore it has my vote too.

[Michael Withstand 10]

The thing is OFP: DR IS NOT a bad game.

It's open ended and has a vast terrain and relatively light on resources.

If one never played ArmA 2 and invest much time on it then OFP: DR IS FUN and VERY FUN INDEED.

However ArmA 2 gives the more hardcore player those who seek more realism) so much more degree of freedom. ArmA 2 is the definitive choice for hardcore military fan. And the Multiplayer is MORE FUN than in OFP: DR to people who prefer realism.

The shortcoming of OFP: DR is probably the halfhearted attempt to approach realism as evident in the UBER body armor that able to withstand mutliple hits without any ill effect to the player. That's probably my biggest gripe about OFP: DR.

I think both should be supported by PC players. Not often we get these kind of games coming.

As for the original OFP well ArmA 2 is tons better for sure.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Michael Withstand

[celery 8]

No DR discussion here please.

[nettrucker 142]

Yes, in my opinion it is. The only thing which was better in OFP were the single player campaigns. I dislike that they implemented the warfare missions in the Arma II campaign, but that's just my opinion and my personal taste.

kind regards

[Infam0us 10]

OFP helicopters don't fly anything like they do now in Arma 2. :rolleyes:

In OFP you couldn't have fast landings as they'd blow you up, you had to be very close to 0 speed. The flight model also seemed to do it's best to keep you going horizontal, and it also seemed to make the helicopters out to be heavier than they are, especially when you've been accelerating and you try to pull out of it.

Flying heavily in both games I can agree with this. In OFP you had next to no chance of bringing in a chopper if had been shot down on the ground safely. In ArmA2 you can bring them down with total engine failure and survive if you have enough space infront of you. Its a much better flying system in ArmA 2 than in previous games :)