ArmA 2

[Alexander]

Well since the demo is out, and the game itself in certain places, what does everyone think of it? The general consensus on the game's forums seems to be that the game looks as pretty as hell, but suffers from optimisation issues.

[Landros Radick]

yes, patches help but even retail suffers a bit. It's pretty awesome, especially the new dragging and first aid system, but ACE2 will expand upon it and make it much more useful. If anyone has it or is getting it, I recommend: http://www.armedassault.info

Go there, get the Voice Reduction mod, the AI chatter and VOPSound 2.0 and install them. Leaps and bounds over the stock system. AI Dispersion mod would also help..

[death_grin]

It would look pretty as hell if they spendt the same amount of time on the first person player weapons and hands...they look 5 gens old.  The MG belt on 50 cal is HORRID.  Its a texture that moves and is really obviously completly 2d.  Aside from that its fun when Im not dead or walking 5 miles (which is most the time..)

[Landros Radick]

It would look pretty as hell if they spendt the same amount of time on the first person player weapons and hands...they look 5 gens old.  The MG belt on 50 cal is HORRID.  Its a texture that moves and is really obviously completly 2d.  Aside from that its fun when Im not dead or walking 5 miles (which is most the time..)

Unfortunately, BIS are idiots for not redoing their animation, voice and physics systems to keep it up to date. BIA, their Military developer counterpart for VBS1/2, already surpassed them by implementing PhysX into VBS2 and a reworked animation system.

[Ravir]

They're also idiots for keeping a convoluted control scheme, archaic game interface, and really horrendous input smoothing.  At first it looked really nice, the motion blur while moving around, the depth of field focus.  Then I realized that apparently my scope had no focus, I couldn't remember how to buy weapons, and I had spawned in the game with a sniper rifle, no ammo, and no clue what was going on.  If I got used to the game, it might be fun, but the supremely crappy input smoothing (you turn in *clicks* instead of smooth motion) kills sniping at distance, and every moving target I saw warped constantly.  No thanks, I'll hope Operation Flashpoint 2 actually looks and acts like a NEW game instead of just being a paint job on an old one.

[(TLL)Highlander]

I'll take your word for it
"In the devs we trust"

[KorJax]

Great game... when it plays right.

I'm very conflicted with the demo.  Some times I have a blast and I love it, doing pretty sweet things.  Other times I just have a horrible experience trying to play (most servers have some stupid setting that disables the map and makes it so you respawn exactly where you die which kills the entire gameplay structure).

I hear "serious clan play" with this game is excellent, plus apparently there are some cool 100+ player severs in the full game.  It's just... so nice when it works well but at the same time I just have a lot of problems with it.  Mouse smoothing issues were "fixed" for me by disabling mouse acceleration in windows (still there kinda), but the voice acting still blows, and the entire design of the mulitplayer system for joining in a public match is a failure at best.  The interface is absolutely horrible for multiplayer as well.

It's the most inconsistently awesome game I've played in a while.

Also I hate how they make the player run "realistically" by making it so moving is done via steps etc... except this ends up being annoying and unrealistic in the end because there is no fluidity to it like 99% of FPS games out there that have fluid controls.  I get used to it, it's just so pointless.

[death_grin]

oh yeah the step movement was a huge annoyance for me as well.  It takes five tries to get into a doorway because your always off but a foot.  It makes a dynamic enterance nearly impossible to coordinate correctly

[Duper]

The game gets a big "meh" from me. The demo feels more like a late Beta to me more than something that's ready for release. A demo should be your best foot forward with polish on it. (that's stuff that goes on shoes not people from eastern Europe )
AI model animation is 8 years old at least. AI's AI is terrible. They run around here and there without purpose, or very little.

since when do should shoot at any target 500m away with a M16a??
It's hard to see anything, but I guess there I'm spoiled from typical FPS graphics and real camo and environment interaction. I think that the model perspective is off at distance. That is, the AI models are too small at "such and such range".  but again, that's speculation.

the sound is ALL messed up. things that are hundreds of meters away will at times sound 10 meters away. Directional sound does not exist.

Also, when I installed the game and went to assign my key commands, every key command grabbed EVERY axis of my joystick. So I had to delete and reassign every command. And every time I alter one, the axis' populate it first.   Over all a VERY frustrating experience.

Frankly, Crysis did this much better. Just different weapons and a nano suit.
it's fun, but there are many things I DON'T like about it. I won't be buying this game.

I don't like the way the gun sways when you turn. You don't get the stabilization from a 3 point crouching stance. I personally HATE motion blur. When you turn and look at something, your eye snaps to the object. It's nearly physically impossible NOT to do this.  You head turns and your eye "snaps" to what you're looking at.  The slight blur when you're exerting yourself is cool though and a very nice touch.

I apologize for the rant, but this game doesn't meet up with the expectations set but the hype and trailers. It lacks polish and the fluid play I thought would be there. Maybe after a few patches, but I don't feel like financing someone's beta testing.

(am I off base here?)

[Alexander]

A handy effect I found: turning off "Post-processing" will get rid of that nausea-inducing motion blur, and will GREATLY reduce the amount of blurring at a distance - a god-send, it looks like "Post Processing" is for film-makers only (But enabled by default! >8O).

As for serious clan play - HELL yes, that -makes- the game. Getting on a public server and shooting russians with fifty-odd random pub-noobs is all well and good, but getting with friends, getting on a Teamspeak server and doing some serious gaming is the most fun you can possibly have.

[KorJax]

Also the freeaim can be changed/disabled.

Biggest problem I have were the demo servers all being shit but I hear in the full game that's mostly not an issue.  I tried playing co-op last night, and it was cool how the host could change the mission on-the-fly before it started, such as he added a couple of heli's so we could do a bad-ass airdrop.

Teamwork in Co-op is suberb, but the problem was, was the guy was hosting the server on his local client so it eventually totally lagged out (as the mission he set up was basically a giant island full of AI stuff).

I think I might buy the game.

[Ravir]

It definitely looks like it's on the same precarious edge that Operation Flashpoint was for multiplayer.  On random servers, with random n00bs, it sucks horribly.  On good servers with organized players, it could be really really good despite the major flaws.  I just can't get over how out-dated so much of it looks, and how crappy the control scheme is when trying to interact with things in the game world.  I might buy it later, but for now I'll be playing MWLL and America's Army 3, until CoD:MW2 and Op.F 2 come out.   I've also heard a lot about the "ACE" mod being total awesome-sauce for ArmA, so who knows, it might get some redemption there.  I just get really annoyed by a game where in order to actually enjoy it,  you have to "download this mod, change this config, remove this feature, install this mod AFTER that mod", etc.  I'm looking at YOU, S.T.A.L.K.E.R....

[Alexander]

Haha, you make it sound like there will be other games after MWLL.

[12oz Jesus]

Just FYI for the fence-sitters judging from the demo... For reasons hard to fully articulate, the retail game is MUCH better than the demo all around.  The demo left me very lukewarm but I've been nearly perma-grinned for the 20+ hours I've been playing retail - mostly the campaign, occasional MP.

Sure, it definitely has some bugs and "could-have-done-this-better" features, but no game I've played has so finely nailed the make-you-feel-like-you're-almost-there factor and even done a great job really making you feel like part of a Spec Ops team rather than a random soldier.  With all the widgets and gidgets firing behind the scenes and under the surface, I can forgive some glitches given all that is done well.  I'm really enjoying it.

I'll have to find a good group/clan to play MP with soon when the SP starts to get old.  See you boys on the battlefield.

[Alexander]

I'd reccomend USEC, case hey, I'm a member xD

www.usecforce.com

And yes, Retail is rather alot better than the Demo. The servers are of a higher quality, there are many (MANY) more people on them, the game is more optimised so there's less lag, you have access to all of the game's massive hoard of equipment... Oh, the co-op Campaign is pretty win (though there are difficulties saving...)