Armed Assault 2 (ARMA2)

[Coldkilla]

News Update:
ARMA2 DEMO coming June 15th or 16th. (Update: Demo delayed 4-5 days).
Arma2 1.02 PATCH

Official Website:[/b] Arma2.com
-Find additional Screenshots and info.
For up to the minute news/updates/addons/mods: Armaholic.com

"There was once a dark age when players were herded like cattle down rigid gaming paths - and Bohemia Interactive Studios were the Che Guevara types who set them free."
...Videogamer.com

Main Features

? Unrivaled realism
ArmA II models real world ballistics & round deflection, materials penetration, a realtime day/night cycle and dynamic wind, weather and environmental effects.

? 60 weapons, 120 air, land and sea vehicles
A comprehensive collection of modern military materiel!

? The most rewarding multiplayer environment
Fully cooperative campaign, massive PvP battles over air, land and sea. Fight friends online for control of 225sq kilometers of real-world terrain! (OBLIVION was 41, Farcry2 was 50.)

? Unique AI
No scripts, no pre defined pathways. AI adapt and use the open environment on the fly.

? Intuituive, powerful mission editor
Design your own mission in minutes or create intricate and unique campaigns.
ARMA 2 benefits from a game engine that has been in constant development for 10 years and is the basis for training simulators used by armies around the globe.

? A player-driven story
Explore multiple paths through a branching campaign. Your actions have consequences!
? Seemlessly blends FPS, RTS and RPG elements
Fight first-hand or control multiple squads. Manage resources and watch your units develop.

VIDEOS (In-Game):
Trailer (HD)
ChDKZ
USMC (HD)
NAPA
Citizen (HD)
Chernarussian Defence Forces
NEW 3/5/09: RUSSIA[/b]

Their Twitter Page.
Their Facebook page.

Extended links from their official website:
NEW!: Characters
NEW!: Chernarus
Factions
Weaponry
Vehicles
Unofficial: Track IR in-game usage (Shows 10 minutes of showcasing and demonstration inside Arma2).

All Videos are in-game, not prerendered or CGI. Any question about head movement is probably from the device known as "Track IR" which was supported in the first Armed Assault.
-Many units not shown in the videos. (UAV Predators drones + many more, cant them all remember now).

In-Game Sound Quality. (In OP).

Some plugs I thought I'd throw in:

-This is an open world game, one map. There are no constrictions, no bridges blocking entrances to secret doorways or locked areas of the map, no loading times between one area of the map and another. If you felt crazy, you could walk the whole 225km distance..

-You can literally snipe a person over a mile away, adjusting for bullet drop, wind etc.

-Game Modes: Everything, you can even invent them. (Yes, Invent, you). Here are some to help for those who need assistance. Your typical: CTF, TDM, DM, Coop missions. Then theres Assassination, Team assassination, team VS. coop (2 vs. teams coop against eachother) the list goes on to infinity. From the games main menu enter the mission editor and start editing! Then play your new mission with friends!

-Warfare PVP mission: Ever played an RTS game and wished to be one of the soldiers on the ground doing all the dirty work while still having a commander to build and defend your base from a first person perspective? This games got it, on a massive scale.

SCREENSHOTS (In-Game)
NEW IMAGES (5/19)
Low flying UH-1Y
Small Pond
Capital
Box Art

Direct Links to other images:
Tank Combat
US Air Combat
Russian Transportion
Civilian Animals
A walk in the park
The actual in-game map.

-Images are not edited, photoshoped, or enhanced in any way shape or form according to developers. They did say however they take a bunch of pictures and pick the best ones


Typically the first question people ask:
1. Is this like CoD1-2-3-4/CS2/CS/TF2/HLDM/UT? No. You get shot in the leg, your gimped and will not be walking - ever. Unless you have a medic ether nearby or in your squad. If your medic is 10 miles away, you'll have to get healed up before you bleed to death. If you thought Project Reality was realistic, you haven't seen anything yet. They've also added a feature in which you can "carry" your fallen comrades to a safe location.

Don't let that whole thing scare you though, once you get used to the game - you'll actually give a crap about not wanting to die. Online though, its a different story. Depending on the mission creator, usually most PVP games have a respawn on them. If your the mission creator (making missions is easy), you can make the call. Not to say there isn't faster paced missions, you can create a close encounter CTF or DM just like in your other typical games too. Most online missions though give you anywhere between 5 minutes to 10 minute lives before having to respawn. In other serious games (organized), its usually much longer due to better organization.

Mission Makers can set boundaries/no fly zones as well for the match if they feel like it, but usually there is no need.

I hope people find this game exciting to look forward to. Bohemia will create the true sequel to Operation Flashpoint...blowing away Codemasters. That is, if Codemasters ever decides to actually show a non-CGI trailer of their "OFP2" game.

Release Date: June 19th (Update: Steam June 26th).
More on release dates
Arma2: On Steam.

 

[Zenoth]

Looks quite interesting indeed, I'll keep an eye on it until its release.

 

[Dkcode]

I am hoping Bohemia get it right this time as Arma 1 had some serious issues and overall lacked the character that Operation Flashpoint had. It is pretty hardcore as simulators go though.

 

[skulkingghost]

I LOVED flashpoint, hated ARMA, I really hope they iron this one out~!

 

[EvilComputer92]

How many players can you have in one server?

 

[Coldkilla]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
How many players can you have in one server?

Arma1 supports 128 player games, I'm assuming the same for Arma2. (Most of which were organized on major websites). Most games are under this. Higher end servers support 64, and most are 32. Player count can be fine tuned, say to: 23, 48, 85 people.. you get the picture.

BIS acknowledged they were not finished with the original Armed Assault when they finished it. They were basically forced to release an unfinished product. Since 1.0 Armed Assault 1 has vastly improved 10 fold and is amazing game. I don't even know why they even called it Armed Assault 2, because people who played the first 1.0 version of the original were playing the pre-alpha version.

Operation Flashpoint 2 will tank. Screenshot released yesterday:
http://www.ofp2.info/ftp/pics/...pics1/ofp2chopper3.jpg
-Codemasters ether has a lot of work to do, or they are screwed. Major public relations release coming on the 20th.

Compared to Armed Assault Ariel:
http://www.armedassault.info/f.../OfpArmaArma2comp3.jpg

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Coldkilla

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
How many players can you have in one server?

Arma1 supports 128 player games, I'm assuming the same for Arma2. (Most of which were organized on major websites). Most games are under this. Higher end servers support 64, and most are 32. Player count can be fine tuned, say to: 23, 48, 85 people.. you get the picture.

BIS acknowledged they were not finished with the original Armed Assault when they finished it. They were basically forced to release an unfinished product. Since 1.0 Armed Assault 1 has vastly improved 10 fold and is amazing game. I don't even know why they even called it Armed Assault 2, because people who played the first 1.0 version of the original were playing the pre-alpha version.

Operation Flashpoint 2 will tank. Screenshot released yesterday:
http://www.armedassault.info/f.../OfpArmaArma2comp3.jpg
-Codemasters ether has a lot of work to do, or they are screwed. Major public relations release coming on the 20th.

Compared to Armed Assault Ariel:
http://www.armedassault.info/f.../OfpArmaArma2comp3.jpg

why did you link the same picture?

 

[Coldkilla]

Fixed. Here's the comparison images:

Operation Flashpoint 2 Tank
Armed Assault 2 Tank

Operation Flashpoint Chopper/Landscape
Armed Assault Chopper/Landscape
-Particularly, look at the terrain & background.

Graphics really don't matter all that much in my opinion, its all about gameplay. So once we see OFP2's actual gameplay we can start comparing the two. Until then, we have a lot of Armed Assault 2 gameplay footage running around the internets.

 

[SeaSerpent]

Wow.....that looks pretty cool. So it comes out some time this year?

 

[Coldkilla]

Yea. This year for sure. They are releasing a new video every week until the game is released. The videos they have released thus far are in the OP.

 

[Flammable]

i want

 

[minmaster]

graphics are nice, but it doesn't always equate to better gameplay. i had more fun with games like L4D which is not all that graphically as opposed to crysis.

btw, is this game similar to WWII online? in terms of realism i mean. ultra-realism could be a turn off for a lot of people who are new to the game. will i have to run for 30 minutes just to get close to the action?

 

[Coldkilla]

A lot of the people I play with on Arma1 play WWII online, I haven't so I'm not one to say.

In order to understand all of the mechanics (Giving orders, commanding units, driving cars/tanks, flying choppers, flying jets/cargo planes, UAVs), will only take about an hour to fully grasp (it may take up to 1 week to fluently know them). The FPS controls are pretty standard though, so if you want to just go online and start shooting at something in a CTF, you should be good to go right away. In fact that might be a good way to 'ease-in' and get a feel for the game. My guess is, this is how the single player starts out.

All mission types are different in terms of difficulty, online and off. Anything from coordinating night laser designator operations and get air support, all the way to full fledged invasions.

 

[Coldkilla]

New Video Released:

Chernarussian Defence Forces

Also on youtube.

I love how the game is using factions to cross over from 1985 to the modern era. This faction is just using old tech thrown away by Russia and using it to their benefit (also with the benefit of being trained by NATO). I can't wait for the real Russia faction to be unveiled.

Stay tuned: Next week Thursday, another faction will be unveiled. (A new video).

Edit: Ohhh and that music, that music I missed so much from OFP
-I liked how they brought that back in.
Edit 2: They also put up a new blog if interested.

 

[imported_Imp]

Graphic-style looks exactly the same as Arma and Operation Flashpoint. From the trailer, controls still seem choppy, and everything is floating off the ground. Must be using the same engine. I'll probably still get it, but will wait for the price to go down first.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I've always wanted a good realistic FPS. Hopefully without the hassles of real life, though (taking forever to get to combat, horribly unbalanced air power ). I hope they get the controls to work well, too - an FPS just sucks if the controls aren't any good.

 

[XJustMeX21]

Any reason to pick up the original now if ARMA 2 looks interesting to me?

 

[Flammable]

is there a release date pinned on this?

 

[minmaster]

graphics are nice indeed but is it going to require the top of the line hardware to run it at decent frame rates? would this game be more demanding than crysis? if so, i'm gonna pass, i can't stand slide show frame rate no matter how nice it looks.

 

[Coldkilla]

The engine is VBS3. Operation Flashpoint was VBS1. Armed Assault, is, well, you get the picture.

The aircraft have always worked out realistically (in my view). Since the map is so large, its almost impossible to simply look out and find a target (unless in a large city when you just level each block). Getting laser designators, forward observers is usually the best route. Vehicles and other heat emitting vehicles are a different story, however - but you still have to be within a certain range/angle of attack before you can fire - also, ether you or a teammate must have called out the target before the target appears as enemy or friend on your radar, so flybys are sometimes required.

The release date is pinned this year. My guess is they are going toe to toe with Codemasters prior to their release of their version of "Operation Flashpoint 2". So I'd say be summer. It's still "TBA" but the developers say "One video per week until release", so soon probably.

Its interesting, I never thought much of Bohemia and their ability to create "graphically good" games. Arma2 seems to actually (for the first time in 8) years, proven me wrong!

The original Armed Assault (If fully patched 1.15), runs very well and is a great game - if you play online. The SP campaign was never really the selling point this time around. (Arma2 is wayy different). It was originally released in something like "pre-alpha", due to budget concerns and they were in desperate need of some cash flow. Armed Assault (they say), was only OFP1.5 - this is the true sequel they have always wanted to make. - Probably why they have the OFP music in here!

As far as system requirements: The graphics can be adjusted for any machine and are future-proofed. When I say future proof, I mean future proof. Not only do you have a large menu of graphical options, but you have the wonderful "view distance bar". The better your machine, the further you can see down the horizon. A typical/average is 900m, still giving you the full experience of the game. But crank it to 15,000 in a year or two when hardware finally catches up with it. Armed Assault one maxed out at 10,000. Today's high end machines can hit that. Multiplayer has a default view distance of 900 (in Arma1), so all players can have an equal experience. This can be changed with server settings, however.

VBS2 (Arma1 Engine) - To become new training game for the US Army.
VBS2 is not a game. Its a multi-thousand dollar training simulator - that looks exactly like arma1..

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I've always wanted a good realistic FPS. Hopefully without the hassles of real life, though (taking forever to get to combat, horribly unbalanced air power ). I hope they get the controls to work well, too - an FPS just sucks if the controls aren't any good.

You mean Crysis is NOT realistic?:laugh:

 

[Coldkilla]

lol!

 

[Coldkilla]

New Images Released: 8 in-game screenshots

These almost look like the 2009 version of OFP!

Which kinda makes it awesome I think. So far, theres this underground faction that uses outdated military technology (outdated Mi24s, t72s, BMP-2s, etc) found from the days OFP. Then on top of that theres the modern era USMC & Russia. I think that makes for some great variated gameplay.

A new video promoting one of the last few factions (Russia/N.A.P.A) promised next week Thursday.

 

[SeaSerpent]

I think this might just replace BF2 for me, have to wait and see I guess. Tired of waiting on a patch that is never going to come out and a non existent BF3.

 

[TehMac]

Battlefield 3 most likely exists...there is a 5th BF game in development, you know. And DICE did say "It's the treat hardcore PCG's want."