ArmA II Comments by Tim Stone

Nice. :)

"It's Oblivion with assault rifles."

Sold. Although I hope it's better than Oblivion.

I believe the correct spelling is squaddIE not squaddy, EG.

Apparently there should be a demo out any time now. I like the sound of the campaign although I'm a bit worried that my computer won't run this game. I've not pre ordered it because I know it's going to be a bug fest and I really want to try the demo first so here's hoping it comes out today!

Also, is warfare only a multiplayer mode or can it be played against the computer?

Surely a review about a game as demanding as ArmA II should make some mention of system requirements, rig the game was reviewed on and other performance issues? Seeing as how, the majority of things I've read about this game are of people bitching their Core i7's are struggling.

The game sounds good but then Operation Flashpoint was a bit special too despite all the bugs and glitches. I'm tempted by this if only to play something a bit different but I'm concerned about the game's performance, something which is strangely missing from the review. I've read that it is a real resource hog and brings even the most powerful systems to their knees unless you lower many of the settings. Mind you, Operation Flashpoint did too back "in the day". I have a pretty decent PC that eats most games alive (odd expression really but you get my point?) but I'd be loathe to play any PC game at low or medium settings. I think I'll wait more feedback on the game before I commit myself.

This seems like one of those glorious examples of why PC gaming isnt dead yet, then again when you look at the specs you need to get everything out of the game you are also reminded of why its waining.

@AaronTurner - A demo would be very, very welcome indeed as I'll be able to see how the game runs on my PC. For some reason I never could get the first ArmA demo to work on my PC with Vista 64-bit. The demo loaded but the graphics and user interface were all messed up so I couldn't even access the game.

Another point... does the final version of the game support AA? I understand from the German version that was released a few weeks ago that it wasn't supported in that version but they had an earlier build.

Demo is out:
http://forum.armedassault.info/index.php...

I've read reports of this running fine even on 2-3 year old machines (basic dual core, 8800 GTS style set ups) so long as you don't insist on having everything on ultra-high, so I wouldn't worry too much. From what i've seen it still looks pretty damned good even on medium settings. I don't think graphics are what makes games like this anyway, they certainly weren't what made Op. Flash so good.

"heaps of bugs". we mean Hugs right? ;-)

Some benchmarks here for various systems:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,68577...

In the first ArmA warfare could be played against bots, but they weren't very tactical, to say the least.

"the majority of things I've read about this game are of people bitching their Core i7's are struggling. "

I've got a Core 2 Duo and GTX260, runs fine at 1920x1200 with most settings on high.

Yeah, I'm looking forward ArmA 2. Apparently the single player campaign is much better than Arma 1 and might be on par with OFP's or may even surpass it.

The inclusion of Modules in the editor sound fantastic to editor Luddites such as myself. One such module; the Secondary Ops Manager, means that if you simply link it to your player, the HQ radios you and spawns missions for you, complete with support (sometimes) such as reinforcements, artillery, etc.

The AI driving ability - amongst other things - is apparently being addressed and may arrive with the 1.02 patch which will be released either Friday or Saturday (if all goes well).

To be honest, having seen some of the wonderful picture and videos, I might just go AWOL and go for a countryside stroll. Tiptoe Through the Shell Casings so to speak...

@systems - Thanks for the demo link. I'm looking forward to trying it later on.

Judging by PearOfAnguish's comment, I should be able to play the game fine then as I have an overclocked Core i7 920 @ 3.36 GHz and a GeForce GTX 280 graphics card. I only play games at 1680x1050 too.

I have the first one, but I'll certainly download the demo before even considering this. It looks like the sort of game to melt hardware.

Just a note: The demo link goes to a WRP tech demo which seems to require you already have a copy of Arma 2 to run it - I think it's just to show off the sort of maps etc you can build.

wish i had the technical knowledge to build a gaming pc as id love to play these big open world fps.getting a bit fed up with cod imo too repetative and doesnt feel very skillful

I found this somewhere:

''The folks at pcaction.de gave ArmA 2 a 4 out of 10. The (german) review says, that there are "so many bugs, you can't count them all" and that ArmA 2 -without the promised patch- isn't worthy a buck. The editor says "right now you better don't touch ArmA 2 and wait for the first patch!".

Eurogamer makes no mention about multiplayer.Anyone knows how many can play online with it?

@costa_k - From what I understand the German's got an ArmA 2 beta effectively which has since been patched. I believe the UK version is this patched version but if it's anything like Operation Flashpoint (I never played ArmA so I can't comment on that) there will be numerous patches to fix the bugs and glitches but they'll never be completely eliminated. The bugs never spoilt my enjoyment of Operation Flashpoint though, I guess the ambition and scale of the game more than made up for the odd shortcoming here and there.

@GreatUncleBaal - Ah, that's a bummer. Ah well, I've taken the risk and pre-ordered ArmA 2 from GAME. It's only £25 so it's very tempting. :)

By the way, isn't this game coming out on the Xbox 360 and PS3 too? If so then I can't wait to see those versions. :O

Stupid PC games tempting me to upgrade!! My motherboard blew up long ago and I have since given up on PC gaming as it wont even POST. Anybody out there got a working socket 939 motherboard they no longer need???

I never played much of the first one. Got it at launch and couldn't play the damn thing due to the frequent crashes. Was going to give this one a miss (initially) but after reading half this review and watching a bunch of the videos online I figured "What the hell?"

OpFlash was an amazing game, so hopefully I'll get around to playing more than 10 minutes of this one.

That is NOT a link to the demo.

There is a 2GB demo coming next Monday/Tuesday apparently...

http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?...

That post was indicating the demo would be out on Monday or Tuesday of this week, so it's overdue.

Those benchmark figures are a little disappointing, looks like I may not be able to run this on my system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoiZ1BJzs...

@AaronTurner - Those PCG benchmarks are a bit misleading because they tested with the fillrate at 200% according to the comments and screenshots for the High/Very High comparison. The fillrate will have a huge impact on the performance of the game because anything about 100% is rendered at a higher resolution then internally scaled down to the resolution you're using in order to improve the image quality and make up for the lack of anti-aliasing support. If you leave the fillrate at 100% then you'll be able to crank up many of the other settings at the expense of jaggies or run the game with a better framerate.

EG never mentioned anything in the review about poor performance and I don't think they're using the latest hardware (I think they use a GeForce 8800 and a Core 2 Duo from memory) so from that I guess we can presume the game isn't THAT demanding.

Have the german version and I can confirm that optimisation is in place for this game. I do think it's worth the score though, for the coming Domination and Evolution MP mods it's almost worth a 9 in my eyes.

I'm playing it with a Core 2 Duo E6600, 4 GB RAM and a GTX 260 at 1650 x 1080 and it's fine, sometimes there are weird hickups (what I was hinting at above), so you don't need a monster rig.

I'Ve got a very similar system (C2D @ 3GHz, GTX 260), and I am finding the performance less than stellar. It's not consistent at all either - one moment it's fine, next it drops frames like there's no tomorrow. It doesn't help that the controls are really sluggish (mouselag) until the framerate is pretty high. And you can't really set the fillrate to below 100% - the visuals become such a mess then that you just can't spot enemy soldiers anymore.

On the plus side, the game can look quite phenomenal at times, the island is fantastic, the AI seems to have lost its X-ray vision, and it certainly has its terrific moments, even if these moments are often ruined by something stupid the next moment. The armoury and the on-the-fly misison generator are top as well.

I don't have any real control issues, but yeah, the framerate drops weirdly sometimes. Hopefully a patch will sort that out. And it does look fantastic in some places yeah :) Especially around the shore.

@donnie2008

It's surprisingly easy to build your own, you should give it a try next time.

This will be my next purchase then

I preferred BIS' "Statement of Intent."

Demo is ever so slightly overdue, but we should be releasing it soon™ the good news is the demo will let you try out pretty much all facets of the game and give far more of a real taste of what's to come than 99.999999999% of demos out there :)

Well I'm hoping it happens today, I have the day off :)

I have a horrible feeling I'm going to have to upgrade to get any sort of performance out of the game although I assume there will be optimisations in the upcoming patches.

The bugs and performance ruined ArmA for me, will be watching the official forums for a number of weeks before considering a purchase.

They need to work twice as hard to win back the trust of PC gamers burnt the first time, and from the sound of things have not learnt their lessons (ie don't release the game until it is properly tested and optimised).

It's strange what is acceptable for some games and not for others.

"But no sooner had I turned the car round a message came through saying the mission had ended in failure. Huh?"

So it's not Oblivion with assault rifles, it's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with... oh, wait.

from the sound of things have not learnt their lessons (ie don't release the game until it is properly tested and optimised).

If only life were that simple, unfortunately in the real world it's not down to us to decide when the game is released :)

Placebo, good to see you here so I can query you :) Will the next patch include english language for us with german versions? Also can we expect "speed ups" anytime soon? :)

"speed ups"? This isn't an arcade game, you can't eat some magic mushroom and suddenly run around like Mario!

My understanding is that 1.02 will bring all versions together language wise :)

Great. "speed ups" was ambigous english for "better performance" as in "better framerate". Magic mushrooms is something I can script in myself thank you.

I'd already pre-ordered this off the back of the YouTube videos.

Not usually so quick to jump on a game but it looks intense and full of fun.

Skurmedel I know I was just having a little fun ;)

1.02 should bring some performance, AI and campaign improvements/fixes :)

Okay Placebo :) Thanks for telling. Great game by the way.

""But no sooner had I turned the car round a message came through saying the mission had ended in failure. Huh?"

So it's not Oblivion with assault rifles, it's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with... oh, wait. "

While the scripting is shonky, that's most probably not a bug. The AI is active all the time, and if a patrol came to the crash site before you do...

I actually like that, as long as you can't fail a mission that is essential for progress.

I will buy this, but not until 2010, by which time it will have had the patches needed to make it stable and the game it should have been when launched.