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

[Magik5]

still not had time to sort out my textures, though with the fucked textures and everything on max, the fps was horribly low - and thats a quad with 8gb and a 4870, hopefully its just a driver update to fix, or a simple config... /scans interwebs now whilst thinking about it

[=R6= Raile]

hmmm well Fealty and I are already getting it for sure. he's got it preordered and I'm going to buy it tomorrow. only 25 quid at game and hmv.. worth trying it out i think.. if even only for the co-op.

the one nice thing i do know for certain about arma1, is that there is a big community of modders for it. in fact it was the modders who basically made the first one even playable since it had so many bugs. this new one is supposed to be a lot less buggy, and i'm thinking those modders will surely clean up the bugs it does have. will have to see

[MonkeyFiend]

After a whole lot of faffing around I managed to get a copy of the game onto online play.

To be honest arma2 has grown on me a lot, the sound effects are still irritating ("enemy...ahead...near...by"). I found tinkering with the fill optimisation setting drastically adjusts framerate - so if you're having laggy problems try turning this to 80%

but then... I had a breakthrough... rumaging around in an enemy supply box I found most glorious object... my precious gp25 noobtube >:D

In the space of 1 evening my account was banned from 2 servers for aimbotting. The noobtube has 8 tasty rounds (I'm now favouring HE ammo) and aside from the slight inconvenience of detonations in trees and no close-ish range shots the arc is a fair bit deeper than bf2, unlike bf2 it's also rather effective against vehicles. (and even damages apcs like the btr90)

Essentially I found with a little practice I could dance around out of range of even snipers spraying down noobtubey goodness on their heads. One server (called something like de-spielespaff or something) after tolerating this for a while started sending specific helicopter and tank units to kill me

When not irritating a random cross-section of german players, I found the online play good fun (very 4 man squad based) - it'd be nicer to have spawn points that a squad leader can create like in PR. When your squad gets wiped out it's a long trek back to the fight; transports while faster don't half draw enemy fire

[=R6= Raile]

dude could you maybe be more specific on how the multiplayer works then? i mean thats one of the major bits i cant find anywhere written. how does the flow work. can anyone revive anyone? (you said its a long trek after your entire squad gets wiped out)

while i'm excited (for you) about the noobtube.. it doesn't really paint much of a picture of how multiplayer works... cuz right now the picture i have is that this game is only good enough for fucking around, and that outside of banning you off the server, the other team couldn't seem to stop someone from what i would call "ruining it for everyone else"? i mean, if its so easy to grab a noob tube and just start killing everyone, for guys who want to actually have a good game, it sounds too easy for a griefer to get in there and just mess it all up?

[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)

[=R6= Raile]

hmm ok that makes it sound a bit better cheers for the info

[HYPOBOXER]

Got it today and i have just done the training..well some of it...Looks nice but still very hardcore. This is one that needs practise and patience.

[=R6= Raile]

im playing it now too hypo, when you are playing come on steam to see if i am too i'll be on sunday playing it i think quite a bit all day