ArmA II

[Arachon]

ArmA II Is being released in 4 days over here, I heard it's already out in Germany, has anyone played it, and care to leave an opinion on it. I've considered getting it, but I recently looked up some youtube videos of it, and was turned off by the shoddy animation work, sub-par sound, and at certain places, crappy physics. So now I'm in doubt, should I get ArmA II, or spend my poor money on something else?

 

[Headspace]

ArmA 2 is the next game that came after ArmA, which came after Operation Flashpoint (all made by the same studio). Naturally, aspects of the first two games are in ArmA 2. If you liked OFP or ArmA, A2 is worth checking out.

When it comes down to issues with animation and physics, could you be more specific? I've found that the phyiscs modeling is pretty good in subject areas that are important to the game's focus, all things considered--every projectile is modeled ballistically, which is rare for a shooter.

Obviously I'm biased, being a huge fan of the OFP/ArmA series. It comes down to whether or not you like open-world, sandbox style tactical games. If you do, ArmA 2 is worth a look, and the demo is planned for next week [http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1309355#post1309355], according to the developers.

 

[bue519]

I would wait for operation flashpoint 2. It looks cooler.

 

[Arachon]

ArmA 2 is the next game that came after ArmA, which came after Operation Flashpoint (all made by the same studio). Naturally, aspects of the first two games are in ArmA 2. If you liked OFP or ArmA, A2 is worth checking out.

When it comes down to issues with animation and physics, could you be more specific? I've found that the phyiscs modeling is pretty good in subject areas that are important to the game's focus, all things considered--every projectile is modeled ballistically, which is rare for a shooter.

Obviously I'm biased, being a huge fan of the OFP/ArmA series. It comes down to whether or not you like open-world, sandbox style tactical games. If you do, ArmA 2 is worth a look, and the demo is planned for next week [http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1309355#post1309355], according to the developers.

What bothered me the most was that the aircraft seemed to move very unrealistic, they where extremely slow (for being aircraft), and didn't seem to be affected by aerodynamics. Some other ground vehicles also seemed to have unrealistic movement, with tanks accelerating very quickly etc.

 

[Danny Ocean]

What bothered me the most was that the aircraft seemed to move very unrealistic, they where extremely slow (for being aircraft), and didn't seem to be affected by aerodynamics. Some other ground vehicles also seemed to have unrealistic movement, with tanks accelerating very quickly etc.

Tanks *are* pretty fast, from what I've seen in the countryside around my town.

 

[Bobzer77]

ArmA 2 is the next game that came after ArmA, which came after Operation Flashpoint (all made by the same studio). Naturally, aspects of the first two games are in ArmA 2. If you liked OFP or ArmA, A2 is worth checking out.

When it comes down to issues with animation and physics, could you be more specific? I've found that the phyiscs modeling is pretty good in subject areas that are important to the game's focus, all things considered--every projectile is modeled ballistically, which is rare for a shooter.

Obviously I'm biased, being a huge fan of the OFP/ArmA series. It comes down to whether or not you like open-world, sandbox style tactical games. If you do, ArmA 2 is worth a look, and the demo is planned for next week [http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1309355#post1309355], according to the developers.

What bothered me the most was that the aircraft seemed to move very unrealistic, they where extremely slow (for being aircraft), and didn't seem to be affected by aerodynamics. Some other ground vehicles also seemed to have unrealistic movement, with tanks accelerating very quickly etc.

But is this your opinion from actually piloting authentic military aircraft and driving tanks? From what I've seen they look realistic to me and some tanks are capable of accelerating very quickly it may just be that war games set in a more shooter style have distorted our view of how these vehicles should really move, also in my opinion the vehicles in ofp and arma 1 moved very realistically.

 

[Arachon]

But is this your opinion from actually piloting authentic military aircraft and driving tanks? From what I've seen they look realistic to me and some tanks are capable of accelerating very quickly it may just be that war games set in a more shooter style have distorted our view of how these vehicles should really move, also in my opinion the vehicles in ofp and arma 1 moved very realistically.

Whilst I've never actually piloted an aircraft, I've seen several of them fly by at different times (at airshows, or just walking about), and when comparing those experiences to videos of ARMA II (soldier on the ground, watching plane fly by above), it seemed as if the aircraft was pretty slow.

Also, I've played a bunch of different flight simulators, which I like to believe is a fair share more realistic than say, Ace Combat, and comparing those sims to the way the aircraft seemed to handle in ArmA II, I noticed a substantial difference, for example, the Aircraft in ArmA II seemed to have little to no problems with stalling or getting into a spin. And whilst I realise that ArmA II is no flight sim, It'd be nice to see atleast SOME of these effects.

Then again, since I've never played ArmA II, and just basing my opinions on videos, I might be way off.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

I don't know what this game is actually called or what it is about!

 

[Steelfists]

But is this your opinion from actually piloting authentic military aircraft and driving tanks? From what I've seen they look realistic to me and some tanks are capable of accelerating very quickly it may just be that war games set in a more shooter style have distorted our view of how these vehicles should really move, also in my opinion the vehicles in ofp and arma 1 moved very realistically.

Whilst I've never actually piloted an aircraft, I've seen several of them fly by at different times (at airshows, or just walking about), and when comparing those experiences to videos of ARMA II (soldier on the ground, watching plane fly by above), it seemed as if the aircraft was pretty slow.

Also, I've played a bunch of different flight simulators, which I like to believe is a fair share more realistic than say, Ace Combat, and comparing those sims to the way the aircraft seemed to handle in ArmA II, I noticed a substantial difference, for example, the Aircraft in ArmA II seemed to have little to no problems with stalling or getting into a spin. And whilst I realise that ArmA II is no flight sim, It'd be nice to see atleast SOME of these effects.

Then again, since I've never played ArmA II, and just basing my opinions on videos, I might be way off.

I think if the planes were passing in to attack people on the ground, or just trying to observe, they would be going pretty slow. Also tanks do accelerate quickly. I think the Abrams can do like 45 mph.

 

[cprs_]

I've had F16s and AH-64s do flyovers at anywhere from 30 to 100 metres over my head and while you know that they're hooking along at a fair pace, it still appears like you think it would be quicker. Mind you, they don't fly over at full speed and this is just one man's opinion.

 

[Arachon]

Yeah, I've thought about mods too, I know that both the original OFP and ArmA had some serious gameplay-enhancing mods, but what I'm afraid of is that ArmA II will be mediocre without[i/] mods, and I'd have to wait forever to get the most out of my game.

Looking forward to your review as well, I like your past ones.

And as for now, I'll probably just wait until the demo shows up, try it out and see what I think.

 

[curlycrouton]

As a massive fan of both Operation Flashpoint and Armed Assault, I can safely say that I cannot wait to play this game.

 

[WrongSprite]

I would wait for operation flashpoint 2. It looks cooler.

>=[ Thats not a good thing. OF2 has shiny graphics, but they've swapped out the realistic gameplay for the graphics. It now more closely resembles CoD4.

Arma 2 however is still with the spirit of the genre and is an actual MilSim. If an unrealistic shooter is what you want, stay with Flashpoint.

 

[bue519]

I would wait for operation flashpoint 2. It looks cooler.

>=[ Thats not a good thing. OF2 has shiny graphics, but they've swapped out the realistic gameplay for the graphics. It now more closely resembles CoD4.

Arma 2 however is still with the spirit of the genre and is an actual MilSim. If an unrealistic shooter is what you want, stay with Flashpoint.

Yeah its not like the ARMA games were actually based on OFP. Oh wait.... Just because a game looks good doesn't mean that it won't be realistic. In fact I'm looking forward to it because I would like to a see a realistic terrain deformation in a military sim for once.

 

[WrongSprite]

I would wait for operation flashpoint 2. It looks cooler.

>=[ Thats not a good thing. OF2 has shiny graphics, but they've swapped out the realistic gameplay for the graphics. It now more closely resembles CoD4.

Arma 2 however is still with the spirit of the genre and is an actual MilSim. If an unrealistic shooter is what you want, stay with Flashpoint.

Yeah its not like the ARMA games were actually based on OFP. Oh wait.... Just because a game looks good doesn't mean that it won't be realistic. In fact I'm looking forward to it because I would like to a see a realistic terrain deformation in a military sim for once.

Do you know the background at all? The people who developed ARMA developed the original OFP. I love the original OFP, but if you've followed the development and gameplay of OFP2 as closely as I have, you'll see that realism has been abandoned.

 

[KissofKetchup]

I'm still debating whether or not to get this game. I am a huge fan of tactical shooters like Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six, and I love sandbox games like GTA IV, so this game would seem perfect for me, but I'm kind of turned off by the difficulty of it all. I'm not crappy when it comes to FPS's, but I'm still not incredibly awesome either. Plus I don't really know if I'm going to have the patience for it either. My computer isn't really up to date, and to do that I'll need to upgrade everything except the hard drive if I want to play it at full settings...

I'm probably going to wait for the demo before I decide go out and buy it. Scratch that, I'm just buying it off steam if I do.

 

[Asehujiko]

I tried to play the previous game but after i was killed in the tutorial while trying to read the tiny text dumped all across my screen i though "fuck this" and uninstalled the demo. All i heard about it was praise for it's realism and by accurately demonstrating that dumping somebody in a warzone with no idea of wtf is going on will get them killed very quickly they succeeded at that and there apparently wasn't much else to the game.

 

[Headspace]

Whilst I've never actually piloted an aircraft, I've seen several of them fly by at different times (at airshows, or just walking about), and when comparing those experiences to videos of ARMA II (soldier on the ground, watching plane fly by above), it seemed as if the aircraft was pretty slow.

I've piloted a real aircraft, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

The behavior of aircraft and other AI units in ArmA (and ArmA II) is largely up to how the mission designer wants it to be. You can have aircraft that move along at a realistic clip, or a realistically slow (for their type) speed, depending on what you want the mission to be like. It's entirely open-ended. Keep in mind also that being an infantry simulation, there's enough in there to make the aircraft authentic in terms of how they'd be used to support the larger war--ArmA II is not a flight simulator in the vein of Black Shark and was never intended to be.

What's more, ArmA II has even greater potential, thanks to a massive and active modding community, incorporating huge amounts of experience into some of the most impressive mods, including the ACE (Advanced Combat Environment) mod, which I believe Headspace had a part in developing.

In any case, I intend to review this game for The Escapist, so that may help you to make up your mind. From what I know about Bohemia Interactive's simulators, this could be a game you could play for years.

I appreciate the ACE props. There are a great many talented members of the community who worked on or contributed to ACE. It's a great mod and I'd highly encourage anyone interested to check it out on the community wiki. [http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ACE]

I've been playing ArmA 1 for nearly 3 years now on a fairly regular basis and still derive tremendous enjoyment out of it. There's very little doubt in my mind that I'll be doing the same with ArmA 2.

ArmA: Armed Assault was programmed by the same people who made OFP, and is built around a derivative of the same engine that powered Operation Flashpoint (which is incidentally used for proper military simulation).

Indeed, the Real Virtuality [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Virtuality#Real_Virtuality_3] engine is used just for the ArmA games but for VBS2, which is a training tool that both the USMC and now the US Army [http://virtualbattlespace.vbs2.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=62] utilize. That's pretty impressive if you think about it.

You're right in stating that a game that looks good doesn't have to be unrealistic, but looking at the gameplay demonstrations of OFP: DR, we don't seem to be talking about a committed military simulator. We're looking at a larger-scale Battlefield-type game.

It's been announced that OFPR will not have leaning, nor will it have freelook or TrackIR support. Leaning and freelook are integral features of ArmA. On a purely personal level, that piece of info alone is going to affect my decision to purchase the game. I will probably check it out eventually, but I am disappointed that those features will be gone. Being able to look around (and use TrackIR) adds a tremendous amount of situational awareness to the game.