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

[Antigoon 10]

BIS has provided me with some of the best gaming experiences I've ever had and I have absolutely no doubt that OA will do the same! Am I a fanboy....? You bet ya...!!!

Did I post this in the wrong spot...sry;)

[Lord Byte 0]

Tell me... When has anyone fallen through a map in Arma 2 or OA? When have you seen flying tanks in OA? That was mostly fixed in ArmA... Did you actually play it at all? And since when do people not die when shot to an extent that they should die in OA? :confused:

Rush is nothing new. It's Sabotage from MW2 on huge maps with a linear progression. Oh, and people hardly die when you shoot them in BC2. Not if your ping isn't exactly 100ms, or whatever you manage to hack that value to...

The campaign didn't really work that well, and yes, it was very crappy. There were many, many issues with the campaign in ArmA. I can't believe you can do OFP's and ArmA's campaigns but you cannot do Arma 2's... The game isn't that different. Oh, and ArmA had way more performance issues than Arma 2 has, mainly because people weren't expecting it to be as performance demanding as it was for it's time.

Seriously, if you need proof of ArmA's issues just search this forum for posts circa ~2006. Many bitching threads, many angry community members, tons of disappointment...

I didn't have to look anywhere to get mine working. I had the 505 Games retail version of Arma 2 and I bought OA over Sprocket. Ran the installer fine, waited until the 29th, activated and the game ran completely fine. Didn't have to do any workarounds. The only people who seem to be having issues for the most part are Steam users.

While I do know that Marek did Czech and some English voice acting in the pre-release versions of Arma 2 (the end of the Arma 2 uncut HD trailer comes to mind. Wish they kept those voices...), none of the voices in ArmA, Arma 2 or OA are done by him.

Aaaand we reach the juicy part of your post. I do not think their games are perfect. I do think there are many issues that are still in it that nag at me all the time (trying to get convoys working, anyone?), but that's the thing - I don't dislike BIS' current behavior. They gave us a lot with OA, a lot of stuff from VBS2 as well. When you think of that and you look at the price of OA no one can deny that's one hell of a bargain. Unless the minor background things that can be worked around fairly simply (ungroup the cars and have them move at "LIMITED" speed, or use forceSpeed, you will get a working convoy) annoy you so much then I don't think you should be thinking BIS' current attitude is bad.

I was making a point to discern content from polish basically. I didn't say we had flying tanks in OA, or we fell through the map, just saying that while most games get released with bugs, at lost most try to get the "polish" right. The content looks and works as expected (ie in shooters one arguably expects people to die when shot, that doors open, that the campaign is moderately interesting and doesn't die on most people).

BI has been getting lots and lots of content in, awesome content, and I applaud them for that, but it has been extremely lacking in the polish department.

EXAMPLES (these are specific examples because people have been nitpicking as I haven't given any specific examples).

Pretty much every BI game to date has had flying/jumping tanks on release (from OFP to Arma 2), which gets fixed eventually (tbh I haven't played OA that much but we had one jumping CH46 in a multiplayer mission last night).

It's an issue that's so common in each and every release while it SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE ANYMORE SINCE OFP! Any half-assed attempt at even trying to play their own game should've shown that issue and they should've fixed it immediately (as they eventually do, in a patch...)

While Marek may not have been voice-acting in the release version that still doesn't detract from the GOD-AWFUL voice acting the in the campaign, and it's been steadily getting worse (compare the awesome "Everything red's dead, dying or running home to momma" line from OFP to the Little Bird mission in OA (which is the only single-mission I've played in OA and it has given me enough incentive to not even attempt to play any of the others nor the campaign). It's awful. And voice-actors are NOT that expensive, honest!

Then we get to the campaign itself which is a major selling point for most retail PC titles oddly enough. Most of the retail sales will never even get anywhere near a mod / forum / multiplayer. OFP was great, Resistance was the summum, and it's been going downhill from then on (while arma 2's campaign was an attempt at something else they've been trying with QG, it still falls flat on its face. Allies that get stuck all over the place, scripts that take away control at awful moments, and many many buggy triggers. I haven't played OA's campaign yet, as I've said before, and to be honest I'm nothing looking forward to it.

Tl;dr again: While we get a lot of value, polish is lacking, polish drives sales... (while some see this as an advantage keeping BI's game for the "31337" and keeping the "noobs of our servers" it's a bad move for a company and a worse move for our game. Soon it's only the editor with 7 billion features, including manually attaching AT6 missiles from pylons and rolling them to base and back, of which 6 billion don't work unless you use this or that add-on / fix / patch, and no more game. And then BI disappears because the 10 fans it had left that made the "afghani" campaign in which every nut, bolt and condom was placed correctly and realistically didn't really pay the bills...

As to Rush: Shooting people in the face is nothing new, Wolfenstein 3D did it too![/sarcasm] Apart from *gasp* Arma X there aren't ANY games out in which gameplay (read map) gets modified depending on how well are doing. What it does right in comparison to MW's sabotage (and sevenhundred other games with a similar objective based gameplay) is that it naturally shifts the line of battle and the map's hotspots around depending on the objective (other games / gamemodes like the typical conquest and such just place the objective randomly on the map or in a singular location making that the hotspot for 360 degrees), this gives that gamemode a fresh and natural (even *gasp* realistic flow. You want to comment on this I suggest you look up an article on the flow of cs_dust. It does a good job at explaining how flow works and how it's important in a shooter. By providing moving flow in that map instead of random it completely changes the way we play it compared to any other shooter (that's not Arma X).

Edited July 6, 2010 by Lord Byte

[Flash Thunder 10]

I have only bought two games from BIS

Arma 2 was the first game I bought from them

and OA was the second one I've bought from them

I got to say with a 100% that Operation Arrowhead is by far a way more polished and complete game combined with the latest patches

we have audio sample option, VON finally, microphone settings, mouse smoothing all the options that were left out of A2 basically except for the audio sampling since thats apart of the newely built sound engine.

with 9 hours or so playtime in Operation Arrowhead while playing scenarios or the campaign I have ran into zero issues with missions failing like I did with A2 whether it be from faulty triggers and scripts or AI being retarded.

Everything has been a plus in my books from the gameplay, to the flow of the game, AI (AI pilots are really good), General graphics are better (except for the trees), the HUD is lovely now and not so ugly.

My issues with OA so far is LOD handling and Performance

I refuse to go anything below Medium/High with my native 1680x1050 res (for both) I cant hold a 30fps in campaign, so Its partially my fault because I dont like the bad graphics.

Only disappointed at the fact that they compromised tree quality to gain performance (argueable) its the desert I dont know why BIS made them look worse.

LOD issues a Mammoth issue within Real Virtuality dont see this being addressed anytime soon which is a same because while in cities/towns you can see low LOD buildings at point blank and when you turn around again something else is low LOD (I guess theres some kind of restriction to the amount of high lod buildings and objects within the players radius)

General performance issues, the stuttering and such.

OA was only 39 dollars as well thats a damn steal with all the new gameplay features and content we got. BIS also went out of their way and created some crazy cool Easter eggs like the one about Planck.

BIS is just too cool.

Give it sometime and well have a patch that gives us 120% performance increase. Cant wait for that day. :eek:

Edited July 6, 2010 by Flash Thunder
wrong wording

[Grizzle 0]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion Lord Byte, and you are no exception. Though I think it a bit simplistic to think that if we all stopped buying BIS games they would step it up and add more polish to their products. More than likely they'd all lose their jobs and we'd never see a BIS game again.

This game is a niche and as such they aren't likely to get much in the way of funding so they must rely on the community to make their living. I don't think that's necessarily the best business model, but that's the reality of bringing a product such as this to market.

As open and honest as this forum is and as involved as the developers, CEO and support staff are I'm sure they are completely aware of the public's negative impressions of their product. Just as I'm sure they are aware of how many of us appreciate what they do.

No large gaming shop is going to do this sort of game for the very reasons and potential issues you cite. So those of us that want and enjoy this sort of game are left to decide if we're willing to put up with a few ragged edges to get what we want.

I don't think of myself as supporting bad policies by spending my money on BIS games, I think of myself supporting the kind of game I like to play and the people that make it. And for that I'm more than willing to put up with some of the quirks because without BIS, there wouldn't be a large scale mil-sim at all.

[Zipper5 74]

Arma 2 and OA both do not have flying tanks unless you script them to. From my experiences of playing both Arma 2 and OA since release, I've never seen any aircraft bounce in them. They only ever used to do that mostly when destroyed, and now they don't because of the new destruction model for them.

I agree to an extent that some parts lack polish. It is quite annoying how many of the new units don't have blood textures, for example. Even the UN CDF ones, which are simply UN units from Arma 2 with powder-blue UN helmets don't have blood textures. That does get on my nerves a bit, but it's hardly a deal breaker.

Granted the voice acting isn't great. In fact, I am annoyed at the fact that there are still British accented Czechs (according to the credits :eek: ) doing fake American voices for the campaign. However, I don't know how expensive professional voice acting is (and I doubt you do either, unless you can prove you do) but I'd much rather see the money spent elsewhere in the game. Oh, and despite the nostalgia we all have from OFP, the voice acting wasn't that great. It was good, served it's purpose just like these do for the most part, but wasn't great. BIS also had the financial backing of Codemasters back then, and we all got a taste at how the big name, mainstream gaming corporations like to f*ck over their developers (and then f*ck themselves over ;) ).

Both Arma 2 and OA's campaigns work. Fact. They don't fall flat on their face. I completed Harvest Red 3 times, Eagle Wing probably 10 times, and I've so far completed Operation Arrowhead twice. In fact, OA is probably second in terms of bugfree... ness, after EW of course. All without any issues at all for the most part. Plus, I find them fun (apart from Harvest Red's Warfare missions). You guys must be doing something serious either by accident or on purpose (I honestly wouldn't put it past you. Finding something to complain about is easier than finding something to praise) to royally screw them up. I once considered doing video playthroughs of the missions people claimed couldn't be completed in Harvest Red (Manhattan, Dogs of War), but I lost interest quickly. You can complete them, people just don't seem to want to... Or something.

Having been here for 9 years I'd have thought you'd realize that BIS' games have a pretty hardcore and dedicated fanbase that has been steadily growing since the release of Arma 2. I don't see BIS "disappearing" any time soon. In fact, Marek said in a recent Czech interview that each of their games make millions of Euros after they're released. Add that to how much money BIA make. :rolleyes:

As much as you might want to think it for whatever reason, Bad Company 2 is only different from other shooters on the market in terms of it's map size and vehicles. Otherwise it is exactly the same formula. I like it, it's fun to play casually, but I hardly find it to be a breath of fresh air like you do. Rush is nothing new, and I think you're simply viewing that mode through rose-tinted spectacles. And given how badly DICE are supporting it I have no desire for BIS to strive for the quote-unquote "quality" of Bad Company 2. The SP aspect of that game was also pretty damn boring, yet it sold incredibly well, better than DICE anticipated, so what's your point about SP being a major seller?

Edited July 6, 2010 by Zipper5

[sethos 2]

Hey BIS, what about inverted Y-axis for people who use Gamepad ( Like 360 controller? ) been asking since ArmA II was released ... Can't be that hard to implement.

[Killerwatt 0]

Lord Byte, The answer is simple. Dont pay for a Ford or Chevvy and expect to get a Rolls Royce. You Bought the Arma series. Not satified? then go buy VBS2. For the majority of users the ArmA series seems to do what it was meant to do. I certainly don't have any major complaints and at my age I am past being any kind of "Fan Boy". I consider my purchase good value for money.

[Flash Thunder 10]

Having been here for 9 years I'd have thought you'd realize that BIS' games have a pretty hardcore and dedicated fanbase that has been steadily growing since the release of Arma 2. I don't see BIS "disappearing" any time soon. In fact, Marek said in a recent Czech interview that each of their games make millions of Euros after they're released. Add that to how much money BIA make.

This is good to hear.

BIS deserves it they're hard working developers they work all day and all night to ship their product, they support PC gaming 100%!

And they dont spend 80% of their budget on stupid marketing schemes (looks over at Codemasters)

Compare OA's campaign to BFBC2, and compare OA's campaign to Dragon Rising.

and this is 20 dollars less than those other games plus all the other support and content, unless you have bad taste than you would agree.

BIS at launch of Arma 2 could've just said "F*ck It were gonna drop support for this game" Did they?

[mr.g-c 6]

I don't see BIS "disappearing" any time soon. In fact, Marek said in a recent Czech interview that each of their games make millions of Euros after they're released. Add that to how much money BIA make. :rolleyes:

This at least sounds even worse....

Why not then use some of those "millions of euros" and hire 2,3,4,5 new Engine-Only Programmers, aka "Sumas":D which could implement features and fix all those damn annoying oddities (including AI!) finally in the engine?

Its not that the average salaries are that high (yet) in the czech republic.... ;)

[Uladh 10]

multiplayer gameplay footage on arrowhead enjoy

K9a-voNaARs

Edited July 7, 2010 by Placebo

[funkee 0]

There are still tons of issues with it and the community supporting it are very pissed off that DICE seem to have dropped support and moved on to Medal of Honor. Oh, and MW2 isn't polished. Not. At. All.

MW2 not polished? LoL :eek: I've been playing this game for a year and couldnt find 1 single bug!

Re Bad Company 2 - they just released client patch R8 and R12 server which is amazing. I wish ArmA2 to have so little "issues" as BC2 have, dont even mention the performance.

In fact, Marek said in a recent Czech interview that each of their games make millions of Euros after they're released. Add that to how much money BIA make. :rolleyes:

LOL :D

You are obviously a BI troll. Do they pay you for writing such a bullshit?

Edited July 7, 2010 by funkee

[whisper 0]

MW2 not polished? LoL :eek: I've been playing this game for a year and couldnt find 1 single bug!

Re Bad Company 2 - they just released client patch R8 and R12 server which is amazing. I wish ArmA2 to have so little "issues" as BC2 have, dont even mention the performance.

I wish I could make missions in BC2

make maps

mod the game

have a realistic FLIR

have something else than stamped size maps

have my dedicated server

...

Errr... aww, wait....

Yes, I can list also tens of bad point of BC2. Does that make it a bad game?

[Devil Dogs SF 13]

I finally got it this morning, it is really amazing. Great textures and environment with much better FPS (The chopper landing part at Good Morning T-Stan would have made may PC shit the bed in Chernarus...Hence why I never finished Harvest Red....) and the campaign so far is going great. I like the new voices which don't sound as robotic, actually, the dialogue all around is better now.

10/10

[WimpoD 10]

Here's my impression of ArmA2:OA:

"Hi. I'm ArmA2:OA. Turns out, I'm the best game ever made."

Thanks. Bye.

[EricM 0]

Hey BIS, what about inverted Y-axis for people who use Gamepad ( Like 360 controller? ) been asking since ArmA II was released ... Can't be that hard to implement.

Hmm.. why not try custom controls in the menu ? Up = Y- Down =Y+ or vice versa... That works for a Joystick, it should work for a gamepad... no need for special coding.

Shouldn't be too hard to try either...

[Placebo 29]

Here's my impression of ArmA2:OA:

"Hi. I'm ArmA2:OA. Turns out, I'm the best game ever made."

Thanks. Bye.

I approve this message! :)

[Richey79 10]

MW2 not polished? LoL :eek: I've been playing this game for a year and couldnt find 1 single bug!

Re Bad Company 2 - they just released client patch R8 and R12 server which is amazing. I wish ArmA2 to have so little "issues" as BC2 have, dont even mention the performance.

LOL :D

You are obviously a BI troll. Do they pay you for writing such a bullshit?

So... you will be happy on the day when Bis disable the map editor, 3D objects editor, scenario and campaign editor and back catalogue of thousands of missions for their game.

Perhaps you would complain less if they had called OA a new game and charged $60 for it. Maybe it saddens you that they release new patches that improve the game on a weekly basis and don't make you wait 70 days because they are determined to crap their PDLC reskins onto your PC.

It must really upset you that Bis had the foresight and good business sense to avoid committing themselves to a single large publisher and to ensure they were able to support their own projects financially so that they are in full control of the direction those projects take.

As someone who games on PC, I agree with you: it's just not on when companies have the arrogance not to develop software for your computer exactly as if it were a $200 games console.

:mad: It makes me so angry that the developers and project manager for this game dare to come on these forums and answer questions from members of the community. I think they should employ a random person who happens to have played a few multiplayer matches of their game in the postition of Junior Sales Promoter Community Manager just like EA DICE do. :mad:

[jpinard 10]

I have a counter-response to Funkee and Lord Byte.

It's nice you two have some magic real-time combat simulator that lets you play battles with the complexity and land-mass ArmA2:OA does. I just ask that you please... PLEASE let me know what that game is - OK? It has to look better than Falcon4, has to allow me to make a battle with over a thousand units of air/land/sea/ combined forces, it has to model each unit individually and not en masse like the Total War series, it has to be real time, it has to allow you to enter every building, it has to let you destroy practically every one of the tens of thousands of objects in the game, it has to actually HAVE tens of thousands of objects on the map, it has to have huge rolling forests, it has to have no cheese gameplay, it has to have more than 100 driveable vehicles, it has to have more than 20 flyable aircraft it has to have massive mod support... and it has to cost less than $50 - I'm on a budget.

I'm sure you'll try and call me a fanboy but the fact is - I'm not. I just found out about ArmA2 7 months ago. I like BIS and support them because they do great work that provides me with an unlimited amount of gameplay. I don't consider playing the same 5 maps in multiplayer "unlimited gameplay" since you're just doing the same thing over, and over, and over... I'm one of those people who takes the time to make reasonable comparisons. BIS has probably 1/100 the manpower and budget of those two studios. We're talking David vs. Goliath yet ArmA2:OA is a much more immersive for gameplay... unless you like a campaign that forces you down an alley so their 100% scripted & stupid AI can function. Or the fact they neglect AI entirely and rely on humans to make up for it. Some of us appreciate unscripted variability. Not knowing exactly what's going to happen when I re-load. So my suggestion is go back to your cheese factory, don't stop for the Brie de Melun - cozy right back up the can of Cheese Whiz instead. :p

After all, why eat the good stuff made by a few passionate people, when you can have fake crap churned out at a factory... and will give you heart disease to boot? :cheese:

[Zipper5 74]

MW2 not polished? LoL :eek: I've been playing this game for a year and couldnt find 1 single bug!

You can go stick your head in the sand for all I care after that message. ;)

MW2 is widely regarded as the worst game in the Call of Duty franchise. Much more so than Call of Duty 3, which is quite scary when you think about it.

You are obviously a BI troll. Do they pay you for writing such a bullshit?

I wish they did. :D It's not bullshit. Here, have the interview yourself. I had a Czech translator (Cole :p ) handy when watching it, too.

GVin2uyHT9M

Watch from 20:05 onwards, if you understand Czech.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. ;)

Edited July 7, 2010 by Zipper5

[Placebo 29]

Looks interesting, I hope Deadfast can be persuaded to translate it for us :)

[Zipper5 74]

And talking about sales, check out which games OA is beating in the current Steam top sellers list. ;)

It's currently the 5th top seller, after MW2 Resurgence Pack (>_>), Monkey Island, Bad Company 2 and Sniper: Ghost Warrior.

I must say it's pretty cool to see OA selling more than both MW2 itself and the MW2 Stimulus Package. :D

Edited July 7, 2010 by Zipper5
Was looking at New Releases instead of Top Sellers when writing the last part for some reason.

[Deadfast 43]

Looks interesting, I hope Deadfast can be persuaded to translate it for us :)

I sure can :)

[Placebo 29]

Great thanks :)

[sniper pilot 36]

And talking about sales, check out which games OA is beating in the current Steam top sellers list. ;)

http://zipper5.armaholic.eu/pictures/OA_steam_sales.jpg

It's currently the 5th top seller, after MW2 Resurgence Pack (>_>), Monkey Island, Bad Company 2 and Sniper: Ghost Warrior.

I must say it's pretty cool to see OA selling more than both MW2 itself and the MW2 Stimulus Package. :D

That is the best screenshot ever! Im gonna hang that on my wall.

[unknow_mario 10]

And talking about sales, check out which games OA is beating in the current Steam top sellers list. ;)

http://zipper5.armaholic.eu/pictures/OA_steam_sales.jpg

but... sniper ghost warrior, city interactive :crazy_o: