twisted1in7

Quick question....Does A2:Combined Operations install both A2 and OA automatically when you run the setup.exe or do you run separate installations for each game and then combine the two games yourself? As an ARMA 2 owner, I'm trying to figure out if there is any benefit in buying CO instead of just getting the OA expansion. Benefit meaning that you end up with a more integrated installation of the 2 games.

Good points on the financial aspects -- I have retracted my previous comments. I'll just hold out for a little while and wait for the next A2:OA / A2:CO sale.

Steam is great. I love the fact that after I build or rebuild a PC I can just install the steam client, check off all the games I own before I go to bed and they will download, install, update with latest patches and be ready to play when I get up in the morning. The only downside in my mind is that the pricing for downloadable games should be much lower than the their disc based counterparts, but it typically is not with Steam. I can usually get the retail packaged game for substantially less on Amazon. Straighten out the pricing thing and Steam will own the gaming world.

Maybe they all have throat mics now with voice activation : )

That looks like a badass mic for gaming. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Dwarden! Thank you for breaking this down and explaining. I just want to say right off the top that you guys have created the best game/military sim EVER and I have been a huge fan since the original Operation Flashpoint. Many thanks to the development team for the amazing job they have done in creating this game and supporting this series for so many years. With respect to the original fragmentation question, I think the easiest way to say it is that a split was formed by creating a separate OA standalone expansion disconnecting these users from the original A2 mutliplayer community. I think an A2:CO only option for new users and a non standalone OA expansion for original A2 users would have held the community together better.

I really like this mic from Zalman (ZM-MIC1). I also like their 5.1 headphone that you can buy as a kit with this mic. I've used both and they work great. I clip the microphone onto my shirt collar and people can hear me very clearly. By the way, I use push to talk. I think you are going to run into trouble if the speakers are blasting away in the background no matter what mic you choose. Noise reduction reduces background noise to a great extent, but gunfire and bombs exploding would likely be louder than your forground noise (i.e. your voice) resulting in very little benefit. Helicopter headsets probably have some of the best noise reduction around, but even then you still hear the engine and rotors in the background (think TV news chopper and how the reporter sounds). http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Microphone-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone/dp/B00029MTMQ

It seems like the way the these standalone versions of ARMA 2 are being released causes the online community to become fragmented in the games and servers they can play on. There should probably be some option for original ARMA2 owners to keep adding on to the original ARMA 2 with lower cost addons, rather than offering only these higher priced standalone expansion versions that could end up costing original ARMA 2 owners over $100 to keep current with. The price for existing customers to upgrade should not be the same as the price for new customers buying fully playable standalone versions. So how should BIS package ARMA 2 and subsequent expansions so that: 1. The entire ARMA 2 community can play together online AND 2. The original owners of ARMA 2 are not bearing the highest cost of all players.

I think the DLC for BAF and PMC adds up to $20 on Steam. I'm not sure what the launch price will be for Reinforcements standalone. I guess I should wait to see.

Thanks everyone for your replies! Special thanks to Flattermann for the thorough response! Time to purchase Combined Ops, which is only $5 more than Arrowhead alone and then get the DLC equal to reinforcements. I'm hoping Combined Ops will go on sale soon as we approach the Reinforcements launch date.

Can someone from Bohemia Interactive please chime in on this thread? The confusion stems from the wording of the pre-release annoucements because "Standalone" implies that is runs without any other Bohemia Interactive software required (i.e. previous versions) and "Expansion" implies that it expands on the functionality of a previously installed version of ARMA 2. Which then leads to the question: how would a standalone version run without the original ARMA2 or Operation Arrowhead game included? Which then leads to the question: if Reinforcements contains an updated engine and does not contain the original ARMA2 or Operation Arrowhead then what exactly is that engine and will previous versions of ARMA2 receive that updated engine as well?

Just that the words "Standalone" and "Expansion" mean 2 different things. "Standalone" implies that is runs without any other Bohemia Interactive software required (i.e. previous versions) and "Expansion" implies that it expands on the functionality of a previously installed version of ARMA 2.

Hi Lonestar! I had assumed that "Standalone" meant that it could be installed and played with no previous Bohemia Interactive software on your system. Which then led to my other questions.

Will ARMA 2: Reinforcements come with the previous ARMA 2 base (like combined ops does) or the Arrowhead Expansion? I have ARMA 2 already and I want to get Arrrowhead, PMC and BAF. Should I just buy combined ops and then PMC and BAF? Don't want to make a huge investment and then find out that everything previous comes with the Reinforcements Standalone Expansion. Also there is mention of improvements to the game engine in Arma 2: Reinforcements. Will these same engine improvements be released for ARMA2 (original game) and also for Combined Operations with a downloadable patch or update? Thank you.