Armed Assault 2 (ARMA2)

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: fatpat268
I haven't seen too many bugs... there's a few I've noticed, but nothing game breaking.

As far as the AI: yea, it gets on my nerves. But, instead of dealing with the AI, I've been playing the campaign with a group of friends, and it's infinitely more enjoyable.

It was the same with the first ARMA. The campaign and computer AI sucked bad, but online co-op made it very enjoyable. I might pick this up a few months later once it drops in price.

 

[43st]

I started with the demo last Friday and was a bit meh about it until I discovered the mission editor. Then it was awesome, just setting up simple conflicts and either joining in or watching from a distance. The ai can either be ingenious or idiotic, but never the same twice. So I ended up purchasing the full version and I'm having a great time hopping between the campaign, single missions, and the mission editor.

The campaign is killing my system though, I'm up to the Razor 2 mission and I'm near 10 fps in the city. Yuck. (GTX285, E8500, 4GB, Vista64)

I really like that it feels like tactical paintball.. most games don't give you that real life kinda feeling.

 

[Coldkilla]

Tactical paintball? Interesting.

Gamespot just reviewed the game, they gave it an 8.0.

The developers are making basic videos now to talk about how Arma2 is played:
ARMA II Developer's Diary - No.1 Basic Controls
ARMA II Developer's Diary - No.2 Editor Basics

The SP is unbeatable, and unwinable - you can complete most of the mission(s) before it bugging out. Sometimes your AI wont move or listen to your orders (in the campaign). But with a certain command you can skip the mission and move on to the next while being able to complete it. The command is:

[Left Shift] + [NUMPAD MINUS KEY]

Then Type

ENDMISSION

Caps Don't Matter.

The bootcamp sometimes starts out in "Advanced" mode, and people cant find the ammo create the guy tells you to find, restarting the mission and putting it into recruit mode allows you to see 'Waypoints', putting it into recruit mode doesn't make the game easier - it just makes it actually playable because you wont know where else to friggen go!

Unlike the others in the forum here though, I enjoyed the campaign, at least the parts that worked properly. I admit, it took a lot of patience and fortitude because some of these missions took 4 hours or more to complete and only for it to bug out was the most pissing off experience of a lifetime. It could have been a perfect game had it not been for the bugs, the immersiveness would have been unmatched.

Gamespot was right in saying it'll give you at least 40 hours of SP gameplay including the additional SP (non-campaign) missions. I agree, the campaign alone (With all my mission restarts) took over 45 hours according to my Steam status. The only reason I stuck to playing with this campaign mainly was due to the fact that I wanted to see what BIS has done since Operation Flashpoint. They tried their best, the campaign could have been great - but even without the bugs - the story is no Cold War Crisis or Resistance. Arma1 was absolutely no contest and I wont even go there.

The core of the game though is online. A website called Armaholic is officially visited and subscribed to by the developers themselves and they release daily user missions, addons (missions, vehicles, jets, planes, boats, ships, cars, trucks, entirely new maps, full blown mods, sound mods, editor updates, tools, scripts, everything!). They support Arma1 as well so make sure to tick Arma2 at the top, for news just pertaining to this game). If you visit the Download tab you can skip the latest news and go directly to the addons. I know I sound like a Billboard, but this website and others like armedassault.info will keep this game fresh and new for years to come. You don't have to play the same game every day, you can download new things to keep it exciting!

As I've said, the core of this game IS online. But at the moment, however - there is a problem in the MP community that is pissing me off. If you've been keeping up with the game, you've noticed their is an editor that can be accessed from the games main menu. Well two individuals have created two gamemodes from this editor called "Evolution" and "Domination". These two maps have been SO popular that they have taken over 98% of ALL MP servers of the hundred+ available! There are only 3+ PvP servers available! We need PvP mission creators to come in and make a just as good or better mission than these guys. This game is created and run by mission makers like yourselves, thats what makes this game so great. Not only do you have new "addons" being created every day, you have new missions coming and going all of the time. If you visit that Armaholic website I was talking about earlier, you will see that SP missions are being created 1000x faster than any MP mission. Most MP missions never see the light of day in most MP servers, and hopefully these missions will break through sooner or later. We need some CTF's, DM's, TDMs, 3-Way TDM's, Two Way Opposing Coops, New CTI's, C&H's, Advance and Secure, Team Opposing Assassination missions... arg!!

The game doesn't have to be all serious ether... Hell I love making 100s of units clash in epic battles over cities For example, a movie I made a week or so ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTw38KXsiyk

 

[ayabe]

My biggest beef with the current state of the game is the really horrible AI piloting. I'm on the 5th or so mission where you're supposed to be searching for the guy who killed your old SL.

I swear the AI will alternate between these "choices"

1. Will get stuck taking off from the Base and never come get you, you will basically just never see him and will wonder what happened. If you take the time to drive back to your base, you'll see him stuck in the air, doing nothing. Only remedy is to reload.

2. AI will crash into a tree when trying to land.

3. Helo will take a BB round from a high powered air rifle, killing you and all inside.

4. AI will zoom right into a tree after picking you up.

5. AI will fly sideways at high speeds with no apparent navigation goal other than trying to be in a Red Bull commercial.

Overall, I feel I've wasted $50, I've spent way too much time trying to beat this mission and don't really have any desire to waste more. Perhaps MP is more fun, however with the current control scheme I find it impossible to drive/fly anything other than a simple ground vehicle. The helo controls just flat out don't make sense to me and I crash immediately on take off.

A BF2 style system would be a welcome addition, or a straight up flightstick required sim system. To me it appears that this is a hybrid, which makes this part of the game unplayable for me.

 

[43st]

Yeah, that's my mission as well ayabe.. it's a mess. I went to the town and grabbed the UAZ, but frame rates are abysmal in that area, about 10-ish. So I hit the Bohemia forums looking for tips on getting better performance. In all honesty I think they should patch the campaign some.

 

[TallBill]

Downloading this game today (steam). I'll probably play a little campaign and wait to hit it harder till they fix the bugs.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Downloading this game today (steam). I'll probably play a little campaign and wait to hit it harder till they fix the bugs.

Play with the map editor. There are basic tutorials on youtube.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy

Originally posted by: TallBill
Downloading this game today (steam). I'll probably play a little campaign and wait to hit it harder till they fix the bugs.

Play with the map editor. There are basic tutorials on youtube.

Will do, still downloading.. slooooow. Will play with tomorrow

 

[keird]

Just got it in the mail and I'm currently playing the with the scenarios. It's like Operation Flashpoint with much better graphics.

I was on the armaholics site and noticed that someone has just scripted FLIR (thermal imaging). I see the potential of this improved sand box.

 

[keird]

OP add the 1.03 patch link.

 

[Imp]

Bought this and the new expansion over the weekend on Steam.

Holy shit. Who in the hell thought that a "search and destroy" / "patrol" mission would be fun?

Mission I'm on now is buggy. I don't care for driving 10 minutes between towns. If this is UN-dumbed down, then give me dumbed down please. Give me a target, let me blow it up. Operation Flashpoint was way more to the point... I'm looking for "insurgent camps" in the hills, geez...

 

[ZzZGuy]

Bought this and the new expansion over the weekend on Steam.

Holy shit. Who in the hell thought that a "search and destroy" / "patrol" mission would be fun?

Mission I'm on now is buggy. I don't care for driving 10 minutes between towns. If this is UN-dumbed down, then give me dumbed down please. Give me a target, let me blow it up. Operation Flashpoint was way more to the point... I'm looking for "insurgent camps" in the hills, geez...

You do realize that you are not the soul target audience of the gaming industry?

As for bugs, they piss me off too.

 

[SandInMyShoes]

Bought this and the new expansion over the weekend on Steam.

Holy shit. Who in the hell thought that a "search and destroy" / "patrol" mission would be fun?

Mission I'm on now is buggy. I don't care for driving 10 minutes between towns. If this is UN-dumbed down, then give me dumbed down please. Give me a target, let me blow it up. Operation Flashpoint was way more to the point... I'm looking for "insurgent camps" in the hills, geez...

What about that OFP mission where you had to hoof it through the woods for like 15 minutes? Or the one where you had to belly crawl through the weeds in the middle of an OpFor camp? To the point, uh huh... I felt that ArmA was comparable to, if not easier than OFP.

 

[Imp]

What about that OFP mission where you had to hoof it through the woods for like 15 minutes? Or the one where you had to belly crawl through the weeds in the middle of an OpFor camp? To the point, uh huh... I felt that ArmA was comparable to, if not easier than OFP.

ArmA 1 was a disaster Singleplayer wise. The campaign was super easy, uninspired and short. Only redeeming quality was the Evolution mod.


I don't remember which OFP mission required a 15 minute hump through the woods, but there was probably a defined destination. Don't get me wrong, I spent 3-5 hours on the final mission of OpFor to sneak around the enemy encampment, satchel their AAA, and steal a T-80. I also remember the prisonbreak one where you had to run a mile through the woods (I chose to steal the helicopter). There was also a "night patrol" mission where you stood around for a while until 2 guys came in the night to try to blow shit up. And the Spec Ops ones where you had to walk miles to objectives. They usually had a clearly defined objective and destination though.

ArmA 2 had an ok first and second level. Third level I drove between 5 towns, 5-10 minutes each to look for "clues"... Fourth level I'm on now, I'm driving through the forest and country side looking to get shot at by 4/5 people at a time, then I go try to find weapon caches, then going to "arrest" some people... I'm suppose to catch them on their routine (bugl-ess script-pending). They're going for the "counter-insurgency" rather than all out war approach this time around, and I'm not really excited so far.

Biggest difference I see so far is that it's less linear, and the area of operations is much much bigger per mission. OFP usually kept you on a linear path, waypoint to waypoint, ArmA was turd, but they let you choose between 1 or 2 missions on what to attack. Also, missions are much longer, more sub-missions, almost too long. I will admit that my attention span has waned since 2001 when OFP came out.

 

[Imp]

Ok, now we're talking. Skipped the patrol, "counter-insurgency" mission after crashing the UAV, and the next mission is awesome. Spent an hour sneaking up to a small squad nearby a BMP-3. Took them all out to steal an RPG (took a lot of reloads), nailed the BMP and scared a helicopter of Spetz-Natz away; tried to kill them too, but only had one RPG round. Think I'm going to have to replay that...