I really wanted to like this game, really...
ArmA sounded like a great option, specially now that Ghost Recon and Rianbow Six became arcade shooters, but it's filled with lots of problems.
1. The graphics engine is awful, yeah, it looks cool but s runs pretty **** with a lot of slowdonws, in my PC (AMD Phenom 9500 Quadcore 2.2Ghz, 4Gb RAM and a 9600 GT, Enough to run much heavier games than this with full details and great frmae rate) it runs very crappy, in some areas almost to the level of being unplayable.
2. Probably the worst control scheme ever, very unresponsive, when operating a vehicle the hints screen show you the default controls you try to use them and noting happens, for example in the combat helicopter, spacebar is suposed to be the key for weapon change but it does nothing, you must press "F" Instead, even if you have the default controls mapping.
3. Talking bout controls you must use almost every single key of your keyboard.
4. Training missions are awful, becuase you'll learn almost nothing, they don't show you how to swith places in vehicles, how to move the tank turret independently form the main battle tank.
5. Weapons have the weirdest acuracy levels ever, a guy who reviewed this game before mentioned that it can't be possible that a light machine gun had better acuracy than sniper rifles wich are very hard to control.
I KNOW THIS IS A SIMULATOR, but Bohemia Interactive should be aware that:
- A real soldier doesn't look at a PC keyboard to look for the right key and perform the required action.
- A real soldier doesn't take a look to an infinite list of commands and orders when he needs to issue orders to his/her squad.
- A real soldier is trained to run even if he's carrying a heavy load of weapons and equipment.
- A real soldier (and also a normal person) has a field of view much superior to any computer monitor, no matter how great is its aspect ratio, i mention this because enemies are real hard to spot.
Closing comments, if you're looking for a real military sim, look for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, it is not as frustrating, offers great realism and doesn't sacrifice gameplay because of that.
If you can overwatch all of those problems, you could be able to enjoy this sim.