quicksand

Hi there, please allow me to add my 2 cents. I played Operation Flashpoint since way back in the day and let's just say that it's been a huge gap since I came back to Arma. But here I am now, living as an adult with a job travelling from place to place. I would say that Arma is the ideal game you'd wanna have in your arsenal for the situations you described. What I like about Arma is that it makes you feel like you are the chief with the editor. It does what you ask it to do and your game does not depend on where you are in the storyline or what group of people you are playing with. There are opportunities to go for a ride on what of the maps or plan an ambush or a one last stand setup. It really depends on how you feel the day you start the editor. But yeah the reason to play Arma is that it is the most flexible game out there.

ComputerGames(Romania) http://computergames.ro/ro/stiri/viewitem/id/10086/name/bohemia-interactive-anunta-arma-3.html

Well it's a good sign to see that the ArmA 3 engine has been updated to support DirectX 10 to begin with. From what I can tell a lot of the core things in the Real Virtual engine have been rewritten from the core. Things like underwater which I haven't seen for 10 years of BIS games, physics seem to point out to a new dawn. I'm going to bu a direct x 11 powerful card for this game. And I sincerly hope that BIS can add support for tesselation, is honestly a stand out feature to be had in a game of this scope and size!!! Example:

Well here I am, 10 years older after Operation Flashpoint was the first game I've played that made my heart skip a bit and made my mind change as I was growing up. I was dissapointd by the entirety of the Arma series up until now but ArmA 3 brings me back. This game has the potential of infinite replayability and could possibly be the most complex engine released on the marked in the near future. It has the most stable and complex streaming terrain features at this level of detail and the physic simulations + underwater + hopefully tesselation could make it the ultimate game engine ever created putting Marek's Spanel's name right there with the legends of the platform. Greatest thing about the game? NO limitation out of developing for the Xbox 360. The console is crippling games like Xbox did in the past and it's frustrating to see how it's holding back everything..ArmA 3 can show us how much graphic cards and CPUs have evolved( 5x more powerful than the xbox) Good luck BIS!

I`m 20 now and was 13 when I started playing Operation Flashpoint.I was huge on gaming since receiving my first 4.86 and grew to play Opflash first on a Pentium 2 if I remember corectly.Back then I was also playing Deus Ex,Legacy of Kain and other games that usually were peculiar for my beautiful age.For that reason they left such a deep mark in my personality as I had extremly high plasticity in my brain as per usual and I now dream of sandbox games and possible future inputs and outputs for more immersive gameplay,ponder on perfect story telling etc. I don't mind at all but unfortunately I'm not feeling games today as I felt them back then nor am I as good at them..Possibly a burn in effect or maybe lack of ground breaking inovation. I`m still here though waiting for the next great thing to enjoy.For now THAT is deffinetely not Arma 2 and I say that with great sorrow.

After using Windows 7 since before 7000,then going through 7100 and now running full force 7600 on 3 systems I must say that without a doubt Microsoft intentionally gimped Vista. It's impossible to not have had the solution to the fact that it was unusable on systems with less then 2 gb RAM.They've gimped so that users would upgrade the increasing heap of inadequate equiped PCs and it blowed in their faces because as netbooks prove most people just want to check their email do some word processing and check MSN... With Windows 7 it's the little things that matter but overall I`m a much more productive user then I ever was with 98/XP/Vista.Until Microsoft or Apple or others think of a radically new way to interact with our systems this is about as good as it gets (un)fortunately.

It's not out everywhere besides US.I`m still waiting for it along with a community of frustrated fans in Romania.It's probably not 505 fault,maybe the stores are slow in taking orders but it should have been here by now and I really want a hard copy for obvious reasons.

QFT,my friend.I was almost put off from buying this game too but after 1 week of playing the demo at 1650x1050 with completely playable FPS and high settings with 2 km viewdistance I think there were gross exagerations being made.Arma 2 needs optimization but as far as I can see for me it runs better then Armed Assault ever did with the specs i have in my sig.

Well I'll say something "constructive" about the review.It's the most useless piece of garbage posted on this forum in some time and that's saying something with the influx of bad intended people joining this forums.Disregarding the idiotic profanity and trolling the guy pure and simply has no business joining this community and I welcome him to play his "hardcore" worthy games that suit his twichy mouse perfectly. In the meantime "poor" BIS will continue it's legacy of making games that sold millions of copies worldwide got GOTY awards and military contracts based on it's inhouse engine that for 10 years it hasn't been surpassed in many of it's core functions and us non-hardcore gamers will continue taking pleasure in playing them. "The absolutley horrific voice acting" is actually one of the great advancements in modern gaming that made possible realtime situational radio communication possible,instead of limited voice scripts that corespond to more or less a dozen situations all other modern games feature.To voice act each and every line possible in Arma 2 would probably take a ~50 gb audio library. "The interface is completely unintuitive." OK?Seriously?I've played the original Operation Flashpoint when I was 12 with some success I would add and the interface was one of the most immersive aspects of the game.I was flabergasted at the available possibilities in the game,finished the game without a problem and become apt at using it in no time.I pity the people around you who actually believe you are a hardcore gamer. The mods are kind for even letting that post stick on the forums,that's not humor it's self congratulatory diatribe from a person who's English vocabulary is so severly lacking that he has to resort to writing "shit" every 3-4 words to cap his attention seeking quota.

Hi all, I`m an owner of a system that doesn't fulfill the recommanded specs. 1,96 ghz CPU that should cripple my frame rate and slow ass 4x512 DDR400 RAM that should leave no hope.Yet the investment I've made in a 90$ ATI card a month ago has rocked my world after testing Arma 2 demo continuosly since release. I only get minor stuttering in the benchmark and extreme situations. I find the game extremly playable with the framerate oscilating between 21(worst case realistic scenario-no 1000 AI just real heavy firefights etc) and 32 FPS(less activity on the island-walking,scanning environment etc) My settings: http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5953/arma2fps.jpg Arma 2 benchmark result with above mention settings: 26 FPS Going lower does not affect gameplay in any discernable way,thus it's safe to conclude ATI 4770 card is an Arma 2 champ I whole heartedly recommend that handles everything Arma 2 has to offer in the eye candy department except for anti-aliasing which dips the fremerate a bit(2-3 FPS) and very high shadows(2 FPS). I have no idea why some people get such piss poor performance in Arma 2 with rigs that trump mine into pieces.For me Arma 2 exceeded my expectations by tenfold in the optimization department, I can finally buy the game without hesitations. I`m also excited to imagine what I could be getting in a month or so with a performance optimized Arma 2 patch,OC-ing my CPU some safe 300 mhz to 2,1 ghz and new ATI drivers.

Well my CPU is clocked at 1,98 Ghz and it's the server variant of the same generation of AMD cpus.Windows 7 RC affects your framerate without a doubt but that still doesn't explain why it's unplayable. Try the benchmark mission.With your system you should be getting less then my 25 FPS average with the settings I've posted in that screenshot-you have double the ram at higher speed,a faster GPU and faster CPU.If you do it's either Windows 7 or some other problem with your system configuration

I will try to post on this thread as often as possible to DISMISS the notion that you need to have a great system to play Arma2.My rig is worth right now about 500$(if that) and I've played all night with Arma 2 demo,joined multiplayer sessions,fiddled in the editor and I've got awesome results on my ageing bottlenecked by a paltry 1,98 ghz CPU system. The 4770 ati card that's worth 90$ handles almost anything I throw at it in Arma 2,the CPU is the only bottleneck and very possibly RAM. But enough words,here is a screenshot with settings and FPS to prove my point: http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5953/arma2fps.jpg Arma 2 benchmark mission average FPS:25 FPS last time,will test again now that I've found the settings sweet spot.

And view distance?I hope is not absurdly high.Windows XP?You are not noticing other unusual slow downs in any other games?Lowering graphical options is not helpful?What framerates are you getting from the official demo missions? Lowering terrain and object detail to normal and disabling anti aliasing helped me nudge the gameplay from slightly laggy to very playable.

What's your view distance and exact settings? What are the AI doing? Spawning AIs in the editor doesn't do much to hurt my framerate,it goes down if they are engaged in firefights. Look at this screenshot to see what I mean.I`m looking directly at ~40 units with 130 AI spawned in the editor and my framerate dropped 8 FPS from the 28-35 I`m usually getting.And look at my system specs to see how it's worse in every single way then yours.I don't get 5 FPS even if I edit huge firefights. http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/5259/arma2h.jpg

ARMA 2 DEMO BENCHMARK SHOCKER I`m left without words.Seriously.Arma 2 just gave the most shocking surprise I've had in my entire life.I`m in awe,this was not supposed to happen for me with my aging system. SETTINGS View Distance: 2004m All settings: HIGH 1440x900 resolution 3D resolution:100% AVERAGE FPS:25 Lowest(from Fraps):20 Processor:Opteron 165 overclocked to just 1.98 Ghz(First generation of AMD dual core equivalent to 4400 x 2 I think 1 mb l2 cache) Ram:4x512 DDR400 RAM(very old and very slow RAM) HDD:640 gb Western Digital Blue caviar(good 7200 RPM harddrive) OS:Windows XP Serivce Pack 2 GPU:ATI 4770.Beautiful graphic card.Absolutley stunning performance for 90$-9.6 Catalyst drivers. Can anyone explain this results people? Arma 2 loves budget ATI cards? Arma 2 loves 2006 era CPUs?Slow as hell DDR400 Ram? Why is everyone else getting such poor results with system that should own mine?

I didn't know Steam is a nightmare to patch.BUT,there are other places where you can get the English release as a download right now,there's a french site and they accept US credit card. And if you are this angry you would have spent your time better e-mailing North America publisher,it's entirely out of BIS hands now when it gets released there. This is not DNF,Arma 2 will never be abandonware like countless games that loose dev support so get the demo and enjoy it until you get the full game.

Hahaha.Computergames.ro,thank you BIS for sending the demo there I've downloaded it with 20 mb/s.They have the best servers in Romania. And I've needed this since I`m not sure my PC can run it and I currently don't have the money to upgrade so the demo for me will be decisive.

I agree with anyone that says that achieving ragdoll physics in multiplayer would be nothing short of impossible in a game on the scale of Arma 2,for now. But what about single player?Here we are in 2009 with graphic cards that support dedicated physics chip,quad core CPUs;and 100+ games that have ragdoll physics since 2003 with more then a few that are of sandbox type( I think GTA 4 even has ragdoll in multiplayer) Arma 2 is a game with dynamic AI and an endlessy entertaining editor.I've spent more then 50% of my entire gaming since Operation Flashpoint in single player and I'm not the only one in this situation.Better physics would add endless variation to the gameplay and could be the gateway for multiplayer implementation in the future.Better to start now and take care of the probably colossal job of reprograming Arma's AI to handle realtime physics,dynamic distruction etc.A physics slider like in Crysis would be the best possible feature with lowest in multiplayer and highest in SP based on what players have under their hood.

Yes,take all the time in the world BIS,release it after 505 date just make it bug free so I can point my friends to it and win them over...

Hmm very interesting reviews.I was looking at the italian ones since as a Romanian I have the innate ability to understand everything without ever studying the language and I thought they have a different version of Arma 2 because it's localized in Italian which is in 505 area but in the video it's still 1.01.57751 The italian gives high praise to Arma 2 story lauding it's dynamic gameplay,story,RPG elements and cinematography. They like the unique gameplay but acknowledge it's progressively more frustrating and it's hard not to feel overwhelmed when at the end you are able to command platoon sized infantry,but the realism and tension makes up for that. And finally they also like the graphics-lightening system,textures,details,overall atmoshphere virtually everything except animations. Audio too gets high marks,so does AI for their aggressive tactics and they end up giving a warm recomandation for the game. Such contrasting reviews.Never has a game been so polarizing like Arma 2.The 505 release should be the final word on how the game will be regarded(excellent)

I've seen a video and it looks like South Park when characters talk,I thought it was a joke,surely this must be WIP as I thought Arma 2 has better models and animations then ever.

Look at the first screenshot from the gallery.Guess that's what you get,when you have an editor,prostitues and a church in a game :D This is also the first reviewer who seems to get the point of Arma 2

I`m so sorry for BIS :( It's obvious now,the game is simply not finished.I am sure even if BIS makes games 20 years from now they are going to release games that require patching,that's because of the complexity of the engine. Arma 2 required just one very important thing above injury system,physics,perfect AI,missing features or misc bugs...a polished campaign.The campaign is the perfect showcase of the technology,posibilities and excitement that can be offered by BIS games at it's finest,it shouldn't require prior experience,fiddling or anything else. Just large scale combat with a cohesive storyline that's polished from begining to end-you see the island corner to corner,you fight the war,try the weapons,use the vehicles and at the end you get it. If that's broken,reviewers will murder this game.Even Operation Flashpoint was far from perfect but it did cover this aspect very well... Alas,let's see what happens next..

If "running" is what your after yes Arma 2 will run with a single core PC but with unplayable framerates since it's optimized for dual core.Make yourself a favour,if you want to enjoy Arma 2. -Scrap the 6600GT,that's what I've had and it's toast.An adequate ATI 4770 is 90$ -Add another 1 GB of RAM -buy a dual core AMD on socket 939 that your motherboard supports.You could probably get away with spending as little as 70$ for a good card if your willing to buy sh.

Just bought myself a brand spanking new ATI 4770 on 40 nm to quench my hunger for new gfx.I am contemplating on buying the german version of Arma 2 and I can't wait to see what can I pull out of my low end system: AMD Opteron 165 2.0ghzX2 2 gb ram DDR400 ATI 4770 640 gb Western Digital blue caviar Windows XP Professional 1280x960 Medium settings,4 km viewdistance would make me a VERY happy gamer.