Richey79

I don't particularly like what I've seen of Arma 3 so far. I'm pretty sure it's the fluidity of the movement that I find breaks the immersion for me, makes it feel less realistic and creates the kind of fire-fights I don't find satisfying. I know I've not been very specific here, so my complaint lacks validity, but it's hard to address specific points when I'm just going on a general feeling that A3 doesn't feel anywhere near as satisfying and doesn't excite me like A2 did. Good luck to Bis and I hope they're successful, but I'm pretty sure A2 is the game for me. I even love its failings.

Their community guy said the recommended settings are for high (although most of the BF3 forums don't believe him, LOL). Those who have seen the console version at trade shows say it looks pretty close to the PC version; especially the PS3 one. I'm certainly not going anywhere near this 'PC is the lead platform, honest' game at release.

Server admins can set how many assault class slots to have. Sure, this limits PPSh and MP40 also, but setting this number around 3 seems to make for nice gameplay, imo.

It should be good when they get the online semi-persistent campaign mode up and running: there are already Steam achievments relating to this. http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/558666021215378393/FFB739F9ABABA93655473AF4F871BABF9EFC11ED/

It's been reported that when you 'level up' your weapon you can get rid of sway entirely. I wouldn't know, what with my weapons stats refusing to save, but this sounds like a bad game mechanic to me.

And ... it's live.

Wait for the community-made maps. There's a reason why many of the guns have adjustable sights up to 1,500 metres.

The health system is pretty simplified, in all honesty. You still see where your character has been hit, a la RO:OF, but there's no movement or aiming penalty. You can bandage up light injuries very quickly. If you don't, you'll bleed out eventually. Some injuries will kill you and can't be bandaged, but you take about 10 seconds to die, and the screen blacks out, allowing you to fire back. Hopefully, someone will mod this system in the future and make it a bit more complex. I'm not a huge tanker, but various threads on TWI's forums have raised concerns about some elements of the damage system. It's nice to have proper damage that destroys individual systems and kills crew members, but it's a bit unpredictable what effect hits to particular areas of the tank will have at the moment. I mean, unpredictable to the point where it takes some of the fun out. People have reported hitting either nation's tank from the side five or six times and causing no damage. The tanks also seem rather unbalanced at the moment, particularly on the tank-only map, Gumrak. With the other maps, there's not much room to maneuver the tanks, honestly. Their support role reminded me of BF:BC2 more than RO:OF. The focus seems to be on infantry at the moment, but I believe it was the same with the original mod and when RO:OF first launched. If this version of the Unreal Engine will do big maps, then I'm sure we'll have combined op maps with a bigger role for tanks in the near future.

The maps scale really well in territory mode when you only have a few players. Even a three versus three match is great. I usually avoid servers above 35ish players, as it has a tendency to turn into a meat grinder. RE: the eternal realism/gameplay debate... Something I really hated in A2 was that you could sustain a leg injury that meant you had to crawl for the rest of an hour long mission. Then, either the AI would bug out and refuse to heal you (Medic: 'Ur not in my squad, soldier!'), or you'd be on a 'tard server and no one would come and help you. I prefer having magic bandages. It rather breaks the fourth-wall for me when I have to suicide in order to respawn, just so that my avatar can walk again. Bandaging is currently extremely fast (barely seems to play an animation in first person view), but modders and server admins will deal with that in time. There'll be an 'Ostfront-mechanics' mod soon enough.

Thanks for posting. Really powerful work.

Come back when you've killed him with a real man's weapon. :p

Za Stalina!!!1!

Ah! Further research reveals that this happen when you set shadows to 'low' and bloom on, making all player models glow, even in dark rooms. Pretty much like a texture hack :j: Hope they fix this at some point, although it's likely to be a 'feature' of Unreal Engine.

Turn bloom off. It's almost as silly as A2's radioactive cows. Apparently, the updated beta files with the new maps have been sent to Steam, it's just a question of whether they have more than a skeleton staff on a Sunday and Holiday Monday :(

First impressions are very, very good. Rock solid stability for me, other than the server browser. Weapons are great and seem very well balanced: SMGs are actually fun to use now, but there are still plenty of reasons to pick up a bolt. Some fun new game modes, too. Hope BIS pay attention to how TWI implemented their cover system for A3.