America's Army 3?

[Schadenfreude]

What do you think of the game? My internet connection is a bit limited at this time so I thought I'd ask about the AT gaming community's opinions of this game; I realize it's been out for quite some time (and yes, I did search for it) - has it been updated on a pretty consistent basis? How populated are the servers? What's the gameplay like?

EDIT: btw, I AM aware that AA3 is a multiplayer game, but I'm still curious if it is worth a download sometime in the future!

 

[zerocool84]

My god what a buggy game. I got it the day it came out. Was practically unplayable. I waited until a patch came out and it fixed a lot but still was horrible. I haven't played it recently and don't know how much they fixed it. It's free so it's not like you need to spend any money on it.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

i just saw that it was free on steam so i downloaded it. haven't played it yet. i guess i'll get around to it but i can't stop playing css and tf2.

 

[cplpro]

There is one thing the Army fails in: Making Games!

AA3 is cool indeed, but the buggiest game I ever played.

 

[Craig234]

I don't like war porn recruiting people to let the government tell them to kill people for iffy reasons. The game's budget for free distribution is based on its recruiting new soldiers.

 

[cplpro]

Sure. The best players are contacted by Selection Officers. So it's just propaganda.
Don't know if it's successfull.

 

[fatpat268]

I loved AA1, skipped AA2, and I had high expectations for AA3. Needless to say, it's just not the same any more and I don't play it at all.

 

[cplpro]

Yes, if the game would be better ... but it seems they really focused on recruiting with AA3.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I interned for Army R&D at the base currently responsible for the development of that title. Do not quote me on the following, as I was not in their directorate. AFAIK, they are not the original team and they basically had it dropped in their laps (at some stage of development) from another base, so that explains the subpar quality. (waring: pure speculation ahead) It would not surprise me if this was the last one before it goes to the community for development and they merely become a sponsor of the project.

I don't like war porn recruiting people to let the government tell them to kill people for iffy reasons. The game's budget for free distribution is based on its recruiting new soldiers.

Was this thread originally in P&N?

Anyway, ole TRAITOR AND LIES is no longer commander and chief of the armed forces, so it is all good now, right? If you want recruitment propaganda, spend your summer working for them. They treat their summer student workers (and regular Army civilian employees, at least in R&D) very well. The experience was so nice that I hope I can get a job with a defense contractor near that base once I finish grad school.

IMO, plenty of action movies and action video games out there already that help youths become interested in the armed forces. Call of Duty probably has recruited more than Americas Army and they do not even need to fund it. But, they do use games for training purposes, ie teaching soldiers how to interact with the foreign civilian population, handle various scenarios, etc.

 

[destrekor]

I don't like war porn recruiting people to let the government tell them to kill people for iffy reasons. The game's budget for free distribution is based on its recruiting new soldiers.

There is nothing new in that statement.

It's been that way since Americas Army 1.0.

The actual battles aren't mean to serve as recruitment, it's the rest of the software. The interaction, the virtual bootcamp, the structure. The Army realizes those features alone would get no play time, even with it being free, so they threw in competitive multiplayer. For one, they are hoping it encourages teamwork, and two, it gets people to constantly log in, maybe even spread word of the game, and eventually get some people who are curious to find out the information they wanted to.

AA3 might be the last iteration of the project, with maybe a few patches for but nothing massive. The the US Army is finding out the cost of development isn't exactly being offset by anything.

I loved AA and AA2, but sweet jesus AA3 was just terrible last time I gave it a go. Maybe it's better at the moment, I'd certainly hope so, but it was so damn buggy in late summer that I basically gave up.
AA used to be my favorite online competitive FPS, played the most between versions AA 1.6 - AA 2.4. After AA 2.0, too maybe people with counter-strike style of play starting getting in on the action, and I was getting bored with the bunny hopping and grenade launchers.

Though I'm finding I'm just getting used to it in CODMW2. lol

 

[spittledip]

I don't like war porn recruiting people to let the government tell them to kill people for iffy reasons. The game's budget for free distribution is based on its recruiting new soldiers.

Well, we need soldiers and we need ways to recruit them. Interesting method I think.

 

[cplpro]

Convincing the players to join the Army instead of playing in any league online :sneaky: