Degtyarov

I doubt it, seeing as the shopping page says a full version of Combined Operations (which would include OA) is needed for it to work and it seems to use some of OA's content. I'm not 100% sure, though.

The main issue is that having more teammembers increases the chance of you being spotted prematurely (because the formations tend to be bigger), or one of the AI soldiers wandering off due to shoddy pathfinding and ending up getting killed. Especially in missions where losing a teammember fails the mission (like Harvest Red), this can be a pain.

I think Arma 2 is a must-have if you are into this type of game at all. There is just so much content and a huge, vivid community, making for tons of great mods. Besides, it'll still take some time before Arma 3 is released, so you might as well kill some time with Arma 2. And trust me, you can spend a lot of hours on this game.

Yeah, I think the 4-man squad works pretty well as far as gameplay is concerned. I've never liked micromanaging my squad much in single player missions, so I think having many more AI teammates would just make things more tedious. Also, am I doing something wrong or do the ambient modules (ambient vehicles, civilians, etc.) not work on the ACR maps?

Looks like I got this game at the right time. I got Take On for my birthday, bought Hinds myself and installed all the patches/free DLC. The only problem now is that there is such an ungodly amount of content that I don't know where to start after I finish the training. :D

I got it today, and played for a good few hours. I must say I'm a bit disappointed by the maps. I expected a bit more than just cut-outs from maps we already knew by heart. I must say, though, that the map based on southern Chernarus (forgot the name) does feel a lot like a new map due to the summer theme. There's a whole different vibe going on, and I like it. Things I do love are the new weapons, the character models (dem SF Recon guys), the vehicles, and the shooting range 'minigame'. I've also played the first mission of the new campaign, and although it had its moments of Arma weirdness, it made for some good, infantry-based fun. All in all, I'd say so far it's worth the 10 euros I spent on it.

Terms such as 'fun' and 'boring' are completely subjective, anyway. Different people will look for different things in games in order to enjoy themselves. A game can have objective qualities, but in the end, whether or not it is enjoyable largely depends on the individual. Saying 'this game is good because it is fun' or 'this game is bad because it's boring' is a form of circular reasoning and akin to the argumentation techniques of elementary school children. I think the most obvious reason of Arma's relative lack of popularity is that it's inaccessible. You really have to dedicate yourself to the game and learn it, and some people are just not willing to do that.

Might as well post this here. The WW2 monuments in Chernarus gave me the idea to combine footage from this game with Iron Front. Fraps made some of the clips a bit choppy, but oh well. Hope you like it.

The game is still really rough around the edges, with particularly the CTDs being a nuisance. That being said, I'm really enjoying it so far. The maps are some of the greatest I've seen on the engine, the models are great, and Blitzkrieg mode really is something. I hope (and trust) the developers will resolve the biggest issues and make this one of the best WW2 titles in a long while.