Originally posted by: Imp
Yes, it is incredibly cool to have massive battles. I played Operation Flashpoint to death; one of the things I loved was making HUGE tank battles on Desert Island. It was absolutely amazing seeing over 30 smoldering wrecks on the field. Even more amazing is doing it at night with night vision off.
However, try the above with infantry and it turns into some retarded drone fight. People getting cut down are stuck in animations for about 3 seconds after putting 10 rounds in their head, squads are turning in robotic synchronicity and firing in unison. No matter how well it does everything else, there are serious flaws in the movement/animation system being used in Armed Assault and OpFlash that really kill the immersion. You can say over and over again how it's a simulator, how realistic it's suppose to be and how "real soldiers" (mostly vocal armchair 'generals' probably) love it, but that still doesn't change the flaws. Ghost Recon and Rainbow 6 were considered pretty 'realistic' and their movement systems were fluid, intuitive and very functional so you can't say it can't be done. Let's not start again on the AI...
Originally posted by: LandRover
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: LandRover
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: Laminator
The people sound like robots because the development team recorded single words, which are then combined as needed to make phrases like "8: engage man, 200!". I always thought the characters sounded either like announcers, auctioneers, or drill instructors.
Graphics-wise, the game looks a lot better than Operation Flashpoint (not like that's saying much). It runs like ass, too. It is definitely more real than practically every other shooter out there (save America's Army and the original Operation Flashpoint), which is why it seems so "slow" to most people who play other shooters, but it's also not as polished as most games (low-quality animations, etc.). If you like realism and making/planning your own missions, then this game will provide for lots of fun. What you're really paying for is the engine, environment, and multiplayer. Maybe some reviews of it will come out soon in U.S. publications. I don't think they'll be as good as the ones that came out for Operation Flashpoint.
which is retarded in this day and age.
i also think its dumb that these "combat sim" games make it slow. I've never been in a real battle, but i'm sure you can walk or run faster than a snail. Other actions are extremely slow as well, like going prone. it takes like 15 seconds for your character to go prone and to stand back up. switching weapons is another thing. why does your character have to carefully and meticulously put away each gun or item? you're in a friggin battle! once your gun is empty your gona drop it or sling it back behind you and pull your sidearm, not stop, grab your backpack, open it, make room, insert the gun, close the pack, and then put it back on your back.
one thing i noticed while playing was that you could not move and reload at the same time. for a gun like an m249 or similar, ok, i can see it, but not for an m16! all you gotta do is replace the friggin clip! its not rocket science.
i'm all for realism but come on, some of this stuff is just taken way too far and it sacrifices good gameplay for needless BS.
Some of your comments are completely invalid...
- You can sprint, which is quite fast. Double tap the forward key to do so.
- It does not take 15 seconds to go prone and stand up. It takes all of 3 seconds.
- In regards to switching weapons, there is a key, default " ; " that allows you to switch between your primary and sidearm on the fly.
If you want to see an example of what makes this game unique, go in the editor and create a head on assault with a couple hundred soldiers, helicopters giving air support, tanks, etc. A scenario like that can be created in about a half hour. The effect is incredible. No other military title can come anywhere close to a battle that size, not to mention that everything takes place on a 400 square kilometer map.
The game has some issues that are still being ironed out, but nothing earth shattering now. It has the same level of potential that Flashpoint had. And the visuals are more than acceptable for a game of this scale, if given a chance.
you must have a different version than i do.
UK retail version, now v1.05.
Originally posted by: LandRover
Do you own the full version? I honestly have not noticed any "retarded drone fighting", nor anyone being stuck in animations, or firing in unison. I made a basic scenario with around 300 soldiers. It plays smoothly on my mid-range system with mid-high end visual settings.
I'm not a fanboy of this game. I'm just stating my first-hand experience with the full version, which I've had for over 2 months. If I had the issues you mentioned, I doubt I'd be enjoying it much either.
Originally posted by: Imp
Finally got it on Wednesday. Jesus, why did I pay full price for this piece of sh*t (hope I get an answer, only ~50m from a real church).
Got it up and running, supports widescreen:thumbsup:, runs ok at medium, but it get sluggish very often. Setting graphics lower seems to help, not much though, and you won't notice the detail anyways. Not that far in yet, think I'm up to the 6th mission.
So, lets get started. Graphics are very average. HDR is used poorly and unnoticable except for staring at the sun. Textures, items and models are fairly low detail and a tad blocky. Animations are terrible, unrealistic and cumbersome. The animation system itself is just like in OpFlash where you can get shot 50 times and still move until the animation ends. I can't count the number of times I got shot while reloading, and wondering if I would come out of it shooting or slumping over. Which brings us to Reloadfest 2007 or more commonly known as gameplay.
Gameplay is somewhat fun due to the 'realism' and variety of weapons. Oh screw it, the game basically involves reloading 50 times until you don't die. There is no immersion. I usually feel enough for my AI teamates to reload if they get killed in tactical games. Ghost Recon, Swat, Rainbow 6 had teammates that felt real. GR was probably the WORST of the bunch because aside from names, they had no background. However, they still made snide and retarded comments that made it feel real. Here, I actually want them dead. I made the effort in ArmA to get my AT soldiers killed cause they wouldn't attack the BRDMs that were killing us (mainly me); all they'd say was 'negative'. Well, turns out they only had 1 round left each, but it couldn't be picked up or fired. Squad mates are useless aside from their 'elite' sniping skills. The command system is exactly as it was in OpFlash, yet I just can't get into it anymore. Way back when, I could stage pretty good defenses and assaults with AI. Maybe after 6 years, I've seen too much of what is possible in terms of usability and simplicity. Vehicles also handle pretty poorly. Driving and flying feel the same: extremely difficult and sluggish as in OpFlash.
On to controls. This alone could kill the game. I'm not quite sure what they're tryong to simulate here, but it isn't the human body. Apparently, people are incapable of walking/running straight. Cream of the crop soldiers have the spines of 80 year olds, and can barely rotate precisely. Aiming is a nightmare as it's unresponsive and sluggish with delays when moving with the mouse. I had to turn the sensitivity down to about 1/16 so it wouldn't overshoot too much everytime. The guns themselves are terrible too. Using singleshot is pointless because the "recoil" will throw you off enough that it will take another 5 seconds to readjust the sight. By that time, the laser skills of the AI would have capped you already.
Oh, and if you've read this much of bit*hing so far, I'll summarize the rest. Sandbags/entrenchments are useless. You go prone, can't shoot. Crouch, too exposed. Maybe they should teach soldiers to stack them higher... Vehicles on fire look like ass. I'm sorry, but games from 3 years back can do better fire. Missions are also average so far: defend, defend, attack a base head on while outnumbered, etc...
ArmA is essentially Operation Flashpoint with a mild graphics update. I spent hundreds of hours in OpFlash, mastered most controls and commands and loved it. Maybe I'm just tired and need to spend more time at it (I will, going to make it earn the $50 I payed). However, I just wonder what the hell they did for 6 years (bla bla, of course they didn't start right away). It's essentialy the same game with little to no improvement yet worse, most likely due to advances made by everyone else in the industry. You can play the 'realism' card all you want, but the fact is, this isn't much more realistic than anything else out there from what I've seen...
Originally posted by: Imp
I'm cursed worse than usual lately (or I just suck), but I think 'someone' was giving me the finger when they had 1 available copy at EB. Not even Futureshop or Bestbuy or Amazon.ca are stocking it. It was the first time I've seen it for sale over 3 weeks after release.
Oh, and I just finished singleplayer. Turns out I was pretty close to finishing afterall. What a joke. Shadow puppets to tell a story.It was short and the missions were short or just boring. The last one took about 4 hours of reloading cause they pitted you and your 'squad' of retards against no less than 5 tanks, 2 AT guns and lots of sniper, oh I mean AK, infantry and like 5 bases to clear. Not a single mission was interesting. The only one that I remember was the second or third one when I got to use the M240 for the first time. And it is not 'realistic'. Aside from having vehicles with arcade damage models, horrible aircraft and weightless tanks (getting sniped by a tank turret that can do a 180 in 0.05 seconds is fun...), one hit kills: it's just a lesson in frustration. If I didn't have to reload 50 times per mission, think the SP lasted a whole 8 hours if you skip some of the optional missions.
And finally, the aiming control is so bad, I was prepared to snap the disc and throw it down the toilet after I used it. The stupid delay gets you killed so often when trying to hit some guy 100m away who can pop you on the first shot the second they look at you. It's not even the recoil or 'shakiness' of the scope, it's the stupid delay they add in to **simulate** momentum of the gun.
Thought it'd be better than the 50 pages of complaintsa on the official forums; guess I was an idiot again for not listening to the masses. Stay away, don't even wait for the bargain bin.
Originally posted by: Redox
By the way, the aiming control can be adjusted by way of the "floating zone" slider - if you move it all the way to the left, there is no float and the aiming control is fine.
Also if anyone is interested I managed to get SLI to work by using the same profile as Operation Flashpoint - smoothed things out quite a bit.