Arma2, Monkeys first impressions Options

[MonkeyFiend]

Blowing a cow up with an anti tank-rocket.... I skipped most of the tutorial content and launched into some scenarios to see how easy it is to pick up. Once I'd got past my initial bovine extermination phase I settled down to the game itself.

Having never played Arma and skipping the tutorials, I figured I'd see how easy the game is to just pick up and play. Considering this is more of a reality sim than an arcade shooter, the answer was that it suprisingly easy to pick up the key points.

Firstly I don't think this will replace BF2 as a game for everyone to play, it is a lot more hardcore and realistic. Further it's a beast on system resources so I suspect even if many clan members wanted to play they couldn't without some rather pricey system upgrades.

That being said it is very very pretty and the execution of general effects and atmosphere is very good. Although this isn't final version of the game due to be released (it has been released like this in Germany, so I'm not expecting many changes for the rest of the world editions) one of my issues with it was that it was buggy - many instances of not being able to pick up kits and the ability to glitch into many places where you're not supposed to be (and this was purely accidental too )

The language pack I used to convert into english was fine - the audio itself was in english for the most part and the subtitles did seem to match up (guess there must be a few language packs out with differing quality)

There's also no jump - instead a pressing V when close to a wall makes you hop over it. At least that's the plan.. I was caught on several occasions by walls approx 1 metre high that for no apparent reason could not be jumped over (identical to the ones that could) - this was an embuggerance when under enemy fire... or at least it would be if the enemy AI wasn't a gibbering tard..

I liked the ability to build defenses and units - it was like briefly switching to command and conquer

The vehicles were slow and unrepsonsive, so Tess should feel right at home dirving them. For a game that seems to like realism, picking up a motorbike and riding it into a tree seems to do no real damage to the rider. I can only assume this is because the game portrays all vehicles capable of what seems like a 10mph maximum speed.

I also didn't like nto being able to skip pre-arranged cut-scenes where you get to listen to some banter from your squadmates before a mission, frankly if wasn't for the fact that friendly fire incidents (or throwing grenades at civilians, who must be packing some serious drugs since they react to nothing.. even being shot) could end a mission then the chumps on my team would probably be the first to have me wheelspinning on their faces with a supply truck.

So Pro's:

Realistic
Nice shooting/aiming
Good selection of weapons
Atmospheric
Very pretty

Con's

Large spaces to traverse, adds realism lacks bf2 style action
Heavy on system resources
Very buggy
Ricockulously stupid AI
Motion blur reminds me of crysis

[MonkeyFiend]

seems to be each server carries vastly different settings on game types, essentially all customisable by the server, there a bit of stuff about it here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74063

I've not seen some of those modes listed (maybe not made yet or perhaps I was just not on the right servers) - I did pop onto servers with no respawn, they sucked quite a bit. Others had variable respawn time. I generally stuck to PvP with respawn uber-action servers (!) being that I was by myself and generally being hated by everyone

As for the gp25 - it's not easy to grab one and kill, many years of using that type of weapon paid off for me (the deep arc means that aside from leading shots a few metres (or 20ish metres in the case of running people) to the left or right, I essentially had to aim about 60 degree upwards (pointing to the sky) to get the right distance), no-one else seemed to be doing likewise... am sure though it will be patched to add a small degree of deviation making very long distance shots impossible

As for the revives am not sure - I was revived on a few occasions (a very long process involving being flipped into the recovery position) - leaving the reviver open to being shot. In fact I do have a vague memory of reviving someone myself - 10 seconds or so of prodding a downed person in the stomach magically fixed them. Am not sure whether this is a one off or whether people can be healed or whether you can heal people repeatably (I have vague recollection of a field dressing in the gear screen, so it may be a single-use re-supplyable item)

Also when injured you're still able to crawl around on the floor and do a bit of shooting (albeit with very bad aim)