Zenith

I went for the Alpha version in the end, because for me personally it was the best balance between features provided and cost.

It probably won't be a masterpiece, but I suspect it's going to be more than just the controls, as the latter would be in a manual rather than a guide. Some official clarification - before we spend our cash - would be nice though.

The frustratingly clunky UI from previous ArmA games, especially the inventory. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick of it.

What gives you that impression? Why would they completely abandon an increasingly popular MilSim, and one into which they have poured a lot of time, effort, and resources, for niche zombie game? I just can't see the logic behind it.

Stupid sport. They really need to sort their safety out, because those really bad crashes are all too common it seems.

All of this technology may be developed and available, but militaries are never keen to spend the sums of money needed to field it. Just look at the U.S for a good example of this; a few years ago they had the promising XM8 in development, a modular weapon intended to replace the aging and flawed M16 and its derivatives. What happened? Well, despite showing far superior performance, and being much better suited to 21st century warfare, the program was binned in 2005 for what amounts to financial reasons. This is but one example of a list that goes on and on, with decades of technological advance essentially thrown away by the penny pinching higher-ups. To be honest, I suspect the next 30-40 years will be no different in this regard. You will see minor changes and updates here and there, but we will probably be plodding along with the same old equipment until change is forced on us, i.e. World War II.

I can only really see it being a problem if A) you have a very bad internet connection, or B) Valve goes out of business. The former is going to hurt you whether it uses Steam or not, and the latter is extremely unlikely. I used to hate Steam way back in the day, but over the years I have come to appreciate its numerous benefits. It just seems silly to avoid a fantastic game simply because of the distribution and anti-piracy platform the devs have decided to use, especially one as tried and tested as Steam. Any form of boycott will not change their minds, because you will only be a small minority compared to the thousands upon thousands who will happily use Steam without complaint. Just my opinion of course.

I will probably be buying it on the 5th of March, when I get up for work at 5am. Not at all worried about the Steam requirement, as I have a really good internet connection, and many of my games already use it. Anyway, I have no more space for physical boxes (probably have several hundred as it is)!

I'm leaning heavily towards the SE, as it seems to be a fantastic deal when you look what is included. I just hope I have a good chance of being one of the 500! ;)