Doolan

After reading most of the posts in this thread, I seriously believe we must be talking about two different demos I downloaded it yesterday myself. My first shock was seeing how it ran very very smooth on my comp (AMD64 2Ghz, 1 Gb of RAM and an old AGP Radeon 9600 Pro) at low detail (not "very low") and at 1024x768x32. I haven't experienced any crashes, load times are incredibly short, vehicles handle better than in OFP, and apart from the AI being olympic shots I haven't had a problem with it. In fact, I love it with a passion and I will buy it as soon as it comes out. Not only that, I'm getting an Intel Core 2 Duo and a GeForce 7600 GS (PCI Express) to get more detail out of it without FPS issues. I like the aiming system, the movement system and basically everything in the game. My only concerns with the demo are more difficulty / balance related than performance or coding related: <ul>[*]The PK machine gun lacks recoil almost completely. It's *much* more effective at close quarters than any AR because it has faster ROF, higher accuracy, less recoil and more ammo per clip. This is, to say the least, odd. I find it strange to be able to shoot a machinegun in full auto from the hip and mow down AI guys with AK74s who simply don't have time to reply or aim. [*]The way aiming is now, with the reticle disabled, it takes ages to line up a shot. I find this realistic, but the AI doesn't face the same challenge and can hit your forehead before you can even bring up the gun to your eyes. [*]The M2HB on the Hummer is used by the AI as a .50 cal sniper rifle. I mounted one of my guys there for support in the coop mission and he was firing *literally* one shot per kill. [*]The AI clearly sees through grass, leaves and all light obstructions. [*]Grenades are impractical. Impossible to aim, and take too long to toss. You can't throw a grenade out of a window or a door, because you have to step outside, stand in front of the enemy for 6 seconds while they pepper you and end up lobbing it into the next village. [*]Binoculars render you completely immobile not only during use, but also during the looong time it takes to produce them or put them away. It makes you a sitting duck, just like grenades. Those are my only concerns. I'm sure it could be modded, but I think it's reasonably major stuff and would deserve at least consideration by BIS. In short, most actions (changing gear, using binoculars, aiming, throwing a grenade) take way too long and render you completely immobile while you perform them, which means death in most cases, specially because of the marksmen the AI sports

I see one of the main requests (at least one of MY main requests) has been addressed: buildings are not cut-out cardboard anymore. In the original Flashpoint, hiding inside a building didn't feel safe at all, with those pixel-thick walls and the AI's uncanny ability to lob grenades inside through windows, even though you fragged yourself most of the time when you tried to do it in the other direction. I can't help wondering whether there will be wall penetration physics involved at least to some degree. Facing a .30 cal MG, I would feel a lot safer outside a wooden building than inside it to be honest.

Following the line of the latest first-person shooters we could go for something like: In the Glorious Company of Bands of Heroic Men, who are Also Brothers, which would also give us a purdy nice tag contracting it into "ItGCoBoHMwaAB" or "IGCBHMAB" for short. Still, and now that you mention it, Armed Assault does sound like a Hollywood first-person shooter, quite particularly Medal of Honor, given the fact that Allied Assault, Pacific Assault and European Assault are already a reality. Then again, this "problem" might not be a problem at all. Those of us who know OFP well will buy (probably preorder) ArmA no matter what. On the other hand, your average CS player or CoD fan will see "Armed Assault" on the shelves and will run to check it out, as he probably wouldn't do with a cool title like "Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer". And yes, in Spain "ArmA" means weapon, but as far as I've seen we don't call games by their acronyms here (Madrid). For Counter-Strike people say "Counter", for "Medal of Honor" people say "Medal", for Star Wars Galaxies they say "Galaxies", etc. So "Armed Assault" would be "Armed". "Tío, żte has bajado ya la demo del Armed?" "No, no hay" "Mierda" Which translates to: "Man, have you downloaded the Armed Assault demo yet?" "No, there isn't one" "Oh bugger, how amazingly inconvenient"