ArmA2: Operation Arrowhead Impressions - ALL OA Impressions/Videos/Screenies Here

[sxp2high 23]

Flintstones Engine! :dance1:

Edited June 29, 2010 by sxp2high

[thyco 0]

[iM]http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/74/arma2oa2010062904215556.th.jpg[/img]

Flintstones Engine! :dance1:

Yabba Daba Doo!

Edited June 29, 2010 by Placebo

[randir14 10]

[imghttp://img143.imageshack.us/img143/74/arma2oa2010062904215556.th.jpg[/img]

Flintstones Engine! :dance1:

Damn talk about a primitive third world nation

Edited June 29, 2010 by Placebo

[Killerwatt 0]

You can switch your shadows to HIGH or VERY HIGH.

Normal and low = CPU

High+ = GPU

Thanks,I didn't know that. Ive now put my shadow detail back to high.

[jpinard 10]

also make use of the -ex-threads= and -cpu-count= startup parameters in case you have 2 and 3 cores or more than 4 ...

the automatic detection for them is explained in wiki and elsewhere in forum

(dual-core 0 and 2, quad-core 7 and 4)

Dwarden - From one of your other posts in the beta threads you mentioned dual-core was auto-detected and set the appropriate cpu values. Is this no longer the case? I re-read the beta logs and if I understand it correctly the game auto-detects and sets thread and core parameters to optimal values for people on dual-core and quad-core systems. If more than 4 cores are detected (in the case of HT being enabled) it limits the game to 4 cores. If a person has a newer hexa-core system they need to set parameters so all 6 ores are utilized.

http://dev-heaven.net/projects/cis/wiki/1_06_BETA

[bonchie 39]

Any impressions of the campaign availabe? Does it deliver and how long is it?

[Zipper5 74]

I have played the campaign. It's 9 missions long, and each mission takes a pretty long time to complete. There's one thing that really nags at me and that's the fact that two of the main characters, the infantryman and the tanker, are both clearly voice by a British person putting on a horribly fake American accent. Really kills it some times.

However there's a lot more positive about the game so far. I'll post a larger post with my full impressions soon.

[bonchie 39]

I have played the campaign. It's 9 missions long, and each mission takes a pretty long time to complete. There's one thing that really nags at me and that's the fact that two of the main characters, the infantryman and the tanker, are both clearly voice by a British person putting on a horribly fake American accent. Really kills it some times.

However there's a lot more positive about the game so far. I'll post a larger post with my full impressions soon.

Last question.

Would you say the missions (I noticed you said they were long) are in the mold of Manhattan from Arma2 (branching, long, complex, open ended) or more straight forward with just a lot of objectives?

[SEALVI 10]

Last question.

Would you say the missions (I noticed you said they were long) are in the mold of Manhattan from Arma2 (branching, long, complex, open ended) or more straight forward with just a lot of objectives?

They are throwbacks to OFP. They aren't the dynamic, sand boxy type from ArmA 2's campaign.

[KrIxXuS 10]

How is it running guy's?.... I read somewhere they have optimised the engine?

Edited June 29, 2010 by KrIxXuS
tired eyes :S

[Fox '09 14]

runs fine for me, others.. not so much

towards if it runs better, I don't know, but it looks nicer and is not using the new engine improvements brought by 107

[KrIxXuS 10]

Ok will keep my fingers crossed :)...cant wait!

[Sniper101-2 10]

Im running it allmost maxed out on my OC 4890 with no issues (3k draw dis)HUGE improvment over base Arma 2 in that regard. Night and day difference for me. Also the graphics seem to be much sharper and look better all around, but that could be because i can run with higher settings now.

The campaign on the other hand is not as exciting/deep/freeroam as the base game, which imo is one of the best i have ever played, even with all the bugs. I have only done two missions so far, and they have been pretty meh, in comparison. So far it seems a rather bland affair (to straight forward/hand holding), hopefully it improves drastically.

Really looking forward to playing hold and coop games in the afghanistan setting.

[ChiefBoatsRet 10]

I am confused. Do we have to manually input to recognize 4 cores in OA? If so, how is ths done? I used my Arma 2 loader to set all that before.

[jpinard 10]

Blue;1662320']How is it running guy's?.... I read somewhere they have optimised the engine?

Like Fox said it will take some tweaking but overall is really good. The new Post Processing is a real killer on even the best hardware so it needs to be set to Normal, or preferably Low.

I have no doubt when it can handle 2+ Gig of RAM and the x64 code is offered it will run like a dream.

[icebreakr 3159]

Some of guys tested good ol' islands from A2 and framerates are actually higher :) great!

[EightSeven 10]

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Bohemia Interactive, you folks have done a spectacular job on this product!

IceBreakr: I'll be looking forward to new maps from you that feature some of the new stuff OA! :)

Benny & Company (if you watch these forums): Warfare OA is needed!!

[fabrizio_t 58]

Well my problem is that i was really really waiting for this extension... And now i have this strange thing which run's and look's like a game from 2003?

I wasn't that unhappy after Queens Gambit came out for ArmA 1 becouse i knew it would be shit even bevore i played it the first time, but ArmA 2 OA really had looked very nice and i was thinking that this would be better or even as same as good as ArmA 2 but it simply isn't.

So i'm disappointed...

Anyway let's get this thing away from my H.D.D.

I had a similar impression just judging from screenshots /videos.

However already bought it, let's install it and see.

Call me cynical, but it sounds like that with OA BIS solved ArmA2 problems the hard way:

Problems with AI taking cover? Just remove most cover from map.

Problems with low FPS? Just trash most maps objects (eg. trees)

Problems with pathfinding? As above.

Looks like ArmA2 is coming back to Sahrani-like gameplay.

I hardly enjoyed it.

[turin turambar 0]

I have played the campaign. It's 9 missions long, and each mission takes a pretty long time to complete. There's one thing that really nags at me and that's the fact that two of the main characters, the infantryman and the tanker, are both clearly voice by a British person putting on a horribly fake American accent. Really kills it some times.

However there's a lot more positive about the game so far. I'll post a larger post with my full impressions soon.

9 missions, if you count the intro and epilogue, it's really 7 missions longs. And the last mission is optional, depending on how you do it in the sixth mission you may finish the campaign there, with 6 missions. And the duration i would call it as "medium length", not too long like some of the dynamic, branching arma 2 missions (manhattan), but also not too short. If you are a veteran Ofp/Arma player, it can be finished in one long evening.

Pity, becaue they amped up the action and the variety in comparison with the Arma 2 campaign. Well, i still have to try it in coop.

[Richey79 10]

Call me cynical, but it sounds like that with OA BIS solved ArmA2 problems the hard way:

Problems with AI taking cover? Just remove most cover from map.

Problems with low FPS? Just trash most maps objects (eg. trees)

Problems with pathfinding? As above.

To me it really seems like they have put work into the AI's states of awareness in OA.

If this was A2, even in the depths of night and at distances of 1000 metres the whole enemy army would zero in on you immediately you fired a shot.

A stealthy approach seems much more possible now, especially at night, and only pockets of the enemy seem to become aware of your general position when you begin to act. Other enemy groups will have their awareness raised, but only a very general idea of which direction the threat is coming from.

I do agree that they have gone a bit overboard to 'solve' the tree LOD problem. The trees barely even look like they were generated using LINDA anymore, on Takistan at least (still seem fine on Cherno).

[fabrizio_t 58]

To me it really seems like they have put work into the AI's states of awareness in OA.

If this was A2, even in the depths of night and at distances of 1000 metres the whole enemy army would zero in on you immediately you fired a shot.

A stealthy approach seems much more possible now, especially at night, and only pockets of the enemy seem to become aware of your general position when you begin to act. Other enemy groups will have their awareness raised, but only a very general idea of which direction the threat is coming from.

I do agree that they have gone a bit overboard to 'solve' the tree LOD problem. The trees barely even look like they were generated using LINDA anymore, on Takistan at least (still seem fine on Cherno).

To my knowledge (judging from BIS answers, see below) AI was not tweaked specifically in OA.

I may stand corrected, though (and it would be nice).

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Ask_Bohemia_about_A2OA_-_Answers

Q: BI has mentioned the challenges faced with improving the realism of AI vision when players are obscured by vegetation. While improvements have been made (including the grass-layer features), does BI have any plans to continue refining/improving this aspect of AI?

A: This was not really an issue on Takistan so we did not put any more effort to this. We also believe it is fairly mature approximation on more dense map like Chernarus.

Q:Have there been any significant changes to the AI with OA?

A:Such changes were already included in patches or beta patches for Arma 2.

BTW: waiting for some in-depth player reviews here ...

Edited June 29, 2010 by fabrizioT

[Zipper5 74]

Well, I've had some more time with the game, and here are my first impressions.

Let me start by saying that OA is abso-f*cking-lutely epic, and that it was worth ever penny and then some. I absolutely love it. Here are only some of the reasons why, I'm sure I'll find many more:

• Arma 2 integrates with it perfectly, changing to Combined Operations in the process.
  
• The campaign is quite varied and appropriately challenging, with a good story and some great cinematics/cutscenes. There's also no Warfare.
  
• The SP missions are also very good and a hell of a lot of fun. I'm also very impressed with how they did the training scenarios.
  
• The radio protocol is heavily improved, much more fluid, and units talk in whisper when set to Stealth mode.
  
• The faces and head models are very good, and although they've gone back to the way lip sync was in ArmA and OFP, it's a lot better than what it was like in Arma 2.
  
• FLIR. 'Nuff said really. It's awesome.
  
• UAVs. Again, 'nuff said.
  
• Flashlights are very cool at night, and I could see them making for some very atmospheric missions. Laser pointers also kick ass.
  
• Performance is great for me, and the game looks fantastic. SSAO adds a lot to the visual experience and hasn't had such a large FPS impact as I thought it would.
  
• The three maps are great, Zargabad is very impressive, and Desert is like the Desert Island of OA. Perfect for testing and using the Town Generator.
  
• The Town Generator Module is f*cking awesome.
  
• The new units all look great, but my favorites are still some of the US units. Some of them just look bad ass. The vehicles are also awesome, I love having my Bradley back. Also - SCUD Launchers. :D
  
• Incremental zoom and zeroing works exactly how it should, and is great.
  
• The new effects are very cool, such as, at times when the player becomes tired, the image starts to get wavy, as if from a heat wave. Very cool effect.
  
• The HALO function is much improved.
  
• I don't know if I'm just seeing things, but the medics seem a lot more responsive than they were in Arma 2. They've gotten to me a lot quicker than they used to, and are much more reliable.
  
• The sound track kicks ass.
  
• The conversation system is also much improved, and is much more fluid.
  
• The new radar system is great, and the counter measures have saved my ass many times.
  
• Again, I don't know if I'm just seeing things, but the AI seem to act a lot better in convoys and use the roads better.
  
• The mod management works great, though I do look forward to some improvements with it, namely being possibly able to download the mods without having to go searching for them.
  

However, there are some, but only a few issues which nag at me:

• A couple of the voices are the same guy in different pitches, and they're that damned British voice actor doing the fake American accent.
  
• What happened to the Czech voices? I can understand the Germans not having German voices, but the UN CDF and the Czechs speak with American voices. Why couldn't the Czech voices from Arma 2 be used? Or why weren't more recorded for use in OA?
  
• Some of the units are missing blood textures on their bodies, but not their heads, arms or legs. Kinda disappointing again to see this affecting the UN CDF despite the CDF in Arma 2 having blood textures.
  
• The AI do still f*ck up occasionally, just like in Arma 2.
  
• The fluidity of the voices means that emotion was removed from them, so the calls for medics and stuff do sound a bit too calm given the apparent gravity of the situation.
  
• Though the HALO script is improved, it's still quite clunky.
  
• Fraps still does not work for me with OA, therefore I can't do any videos with it. FPS still drops down to 0 and stays at it.
  

Those are my main issues, but they hardly detract much from the game, they're just a bit annoying.

Overall I absolutely love OA. Did I say that already? :p I don't think anyone will be disappointed with so many improvements made just in a standalone expansion. It's almost enough to make it an entirely new game. I feel very refreshed with these games now, and I can see myself playing it for years. Expect some user-made content coming from me soon! :D

Edited June 29, 2010 by Zipper5

[abel 0]

http://www.flashpoint.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=54839

nKMGuLyea38

b2-OJGRABeU

L_dkxEijYYA

(Please embed youtube videos so that people aren't forced to leave the forums to view them - Placebo)

Very simple:

[.YOUTUBE]nKMGuLyea38[/YOUTUBE] (minus the . of course) ;)

Edited June 29, 2010 by Placebo

[jblack9 10]

Arma 2 integrates with it perfectly, changing to Combined Operations in the process.

i got Combined Ops, i hope this isn't a problem when I install both of them.

[Fox '09 14]

zipper, the tired effect was in original ArmA 2.. stop playing ace :p