ARMA II Questions - STEAM SALE

Hey, I've got a question for you guys that own ARMA II. I bought Operation Flash Point: Dragon Rising last year over ARMA II because it was the first of the two to hit a STEAM sale. I enjoyed the game, but overall the experience was a little underwhelming. The graphics were just okay. The firefights and gun-play were just okay, which is to be expected from a military sim. I hoped the game would come togeather in the depth of the battlefield eg large scale battles; flying planes and helicopters; smashing though the enemy's lines with armor; but Operation Flash Point at no point delived. The experece was very close to that of the original Ghoast Recon, so to say the least the game felt dated.

Does ARMA II ever deliver the large scale battles that I'd expect it to? Do you get to fly aircraft for more than 10 seconds and is it fun to do so? Are there any big armor engagements that take place? Or is it just like Operation Flash Point where you spend most of your time running around a big map only to take a few pot shots and some Chinese from 400+ meters?

The game is on sale for $20, which I think is way too much to pay for a game that's only as good as Flash Point.

Hey, I've got a question for you guys that own ARMA II. I bought Operation Flash Point: Dragon Rising last year over ARMA II because it was the first of the two to hit a STEAM sale. I enjoyed the game, but overall the experience was a little underwhelming. The graphics were just okay. The firefights and gun-play were just okay, which is to be expected from a military sim. I hoped the game would come togeather in the depth of the battlefield eg large scale battles; flying planes and helicopters; smashing though the enemy's lines with armor; but Operation Flash Point at no point delived. The experece was very close to that of the original Ghoast Recon, so to say the least the game felt dated.

Does ARMA II ever deliver the large scale battles that I'd expect it to? Do you get to fly aircraft for more than 10 seconds and is it fun to do so? Are there any big armor engagements that take place? Or is it just like Operation Flash Point where you spend most of your time running around a big map only to take a few pot shots and some Chinese from 400+ meters?

The game is on sale for $20, which I think is way too much to pay for a game that's only as good as Flash Point.

soliderPp

This has the biggest scale i have ever seen in a FPS.

There is large scale battles in Arma 2, and I think the last mission of the campaign is just a huge battle that takes place over the entire map and can take days to complete. The aircrafts are good imo, and the infantry combat is among the best I've seen, although it can be a little buggy at times. I've only played the demo of both, And I've sunk 9 hours into the Arma 2 demo, and about 15 mins into OFP. Tbh, why have you not tried the demo? Then you can see for yourself.Ikavnieks

my only problem with arma 2, is that operation arrowhead looks to be much better content wise.

There is large scale battles in Arma 2, and I think the last mission of the campaign is just a huge battle that takes place over the entire map and can take days to complete. The aircrafts are good imo, and the infantry combat is among the best I've seen, although it can be a little buggy at times. I've only played the demo of both, And I've sunk 9 hours into the Arma 2 demo, and about 15 mins into OFP. Tbh, why have you not tried the demo? Then you can see for yourself.Ikavnieks

HAHA! Because I'm dumb and I didn't even check to see if there was one =P

I'll give that a shot and see what I think.

Also, I've heard there are a lot of bugs in the game that can keep you from completeing your missions and giving orders to squad mates. Has there been any work on fixing these issues?

[QUOTE="Ikavnieks"]There is large scale battles in Arma 2, and I think the last mission of the campaign is just a huge battle that takes place over the entire map and can take days to complete. The aircrafts are good imo, and the infantry combat is among the best I've seen, although it can be a little buggy at times. I've only played the demo of both, And I've sunk 9 hours into the Arma 2 demo, and about 15 mins into OFP. Tbh, why have you not tried the demo? Then you can see for yourself.soliderPp

HAHA! Because I'm dumb and I didn't even check to see if there was one =P

I'll give that a shot and see what I think.

Also, I've heard there are a lot of bugs in the game that can keep you from completeing your missions and giving orders to squad mates. Has there been any work on fixing these issues?

[QUOTE="soliderPp"]

[QUOTE="Ikavnieks"]There is large scale battles in Arma 2, and I think the last mission of the campaign is just a huge battle that takes place over the entire map and can take days to complete. The aircrafts are good imo, and the infantry combat is among the best I've seen, although it can be a little buggy at times. I've only played the demo of both, And I've sunk 9 hours into the Arma 2 demo, and about 15 mins into OFP. Tbh, why have you not tried the demo? Then you can see for yourself.TerrorRizzing

HAHA! Because I'm dumb and I didn't even check to see if there was one =P

I'll give that a shot and see what I think.

Also, I've heard there are a lot of bugs in the game that can keep you from completeing your missions and giving orders to squad mates. Has there been any work on fixing these issues?

agreed, how is the performance, and quality of the engine itself, like is it stable and optimized or just kinda thrown together like Operation Flashpoint Cold War Crises.

[QUOTE="TerrorRizzing"][QUOTE="soliderPp"]

HAHA! Because I'm dumb and I didn't even check to see if there was one =P

I'll give that a shot and see what I think.

Also, I've heard there are a lot of bugs in the game that can keep you from completeing your missions and giving orders to squad mates. Has there been any work on fixing these issues?

Lach0121

agreed, how is the performance, and quality of the engine itself, like is it stable and optimized or just kinda thrown together like Operation Flashpoint Cold War Crises.

my only problem with arma 2, is that operation arrowhead looks to be much better content wise.

TerrorRizzing

Operation Arrowheads campaign is much more straightforward than the base game (more like what you would find in a game like MW2), its good but not as good as the base games. Arma 2's campaign was very unique as you would be given objectives and it was totally up to you on how to complete them. Like theres a mission where you have to find an escaped war crimanal, and its up to you to travel throughout the region, gather intel, search safehouse etc. before he escapes. And if he does escape before you find him you have missed your opertunity and its on to the next mission, its very open ended. And is one of the best if not thee best (military game) single player campaign in recent memory.

But Arrowheads multiplayer, afhgan setting and editor assets will probablay make for a better online experience than the base game.

poor, pretty poor, i was having like 20 fps with a q6600 as a 8800gt and medium settings

[QUOTE="Ikavnieks"]There is large scale battles in Arma 2, and I think the last mission of the campaign is just a huge battle that takes place over the entire map and can take days to complete. The aircrafts are good imo, and the infantry combat is among the best I've seen, although it can be a little buggy at times. I've only played the demo of both, And I've sunk 9 hours into the Arma 2 demo, and about 15 mins into OFP. Tbh, why have you not tried the demo? Then you can see for yourself.soliderPp

HAHA! Because I'm dumb and I didn't even check to see if there was one =P

I'll give that a shot and see what I think.

Also, I've heard there are a lot of bugs in the game that can keep you from completeing your missions and giving orders to squad mates. Has there been any work on fixing these issues?

Its all been fixed, after release they worked really hard ironing out the bugs. The newest patch improved performance considerably, and im not sure if the demo also got the treatment. So dont let demo graphics performance sway your decision.

[QUOTE="TerrorRizzing"]

my only problem with arma 2, is that operation arrowhead looks to be much better content wise.

101ColdOne

Operation Arrowheads campaign is much more straightforward than the base game (more like what you would find in a game like MW2), its good but not as good as the base games. Arma 2's campaign was very unique as you would be given objectives and it was totally up to you on how to complete them. Like theres a mission where you have to find an escaped war crimanal, and its up to you to travel throughout the region, gather intel, search safehouse etc. before he escapes. And if he does escape before you find him you have missed your opertunity and its on to the next mission, its very open ended. And is one of the best if not thee best (military game) single player campaign in recent memory.

But Arrowheads multiplayer, afhgan setting and editor assets will probablay make for a better online experience than the base game.

[QUOTE="soliderPp"]

[QUOTE="Ikavnieks"]There is large scale battles in Arma 2, and I think the last mission of the campaign is just a huge battle that takes place over the entire map and can take days to complete. The aircrafts are good imo, and the infantry combat is among the best I've seen, although it can be a little buggy at times. I've only played the demo of both, And I've sunk 9 hours into the Arma 2 demo, and about 15 mins into OFP. Tbh, why have you not tried the demo? Then you can see for yourself.101ColdOne

HAHA! Because I'm dumb and I didn't even check to see if there was one =P

I'll give that a shot and see what I think.

Also, I've heard there are a lot of bugs in the game that can keep you from completeing your missions and giving orders to squad mates. Has there been any work on fixing these issues?

Its all been fixed, after release they worked really hard ironing out the bugs. The newest patch improved performance considerably, and im not sure if the demo also got the treatment. So dont let demo graphics performance sway your decision.

After watching most of the videos on STEAM and having more or less everyone here say it's awesome I think I'm sold. I love military sims and this looks to be the best of the lot. You can buy ARMA II + ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead on STEAM for $49.99. That seems like a good deal considering all the content the game has so that's probably what I'll buy.

I'd be really surprised if my two ATI 4870's couldn't run the game even if it is poorly optimised. Now that I think about I said the same thing about GTA4 when it came out on the PC... boy was I was surprised with my 25 FPS on LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH. It didn't matter what I did to the settings it ran like crap no matter what. =P

If you're worried about performance, it's worth noting that Arma 2 is a very CPU intensive game due to the number of calculations being made at any given time.

If you're worried about performance, it's worth noting that Arma 2 is a very CPU intensive game due to the number of calculations being made at any given time.

psn8214

True, and to add to that one of the developers posted some good info. Putting settings like shadow detail, terrain detail etc. to high or above will make them completly GPU dependant, freeing up proccssor power for calculations etc.

[QUOTE="101ColdOne"]

[QUOTE="soliderPp"]

HAHA! Because I'm dumb and I didn't even check to see if there was one =P

I'll give that a shot and see what I think.

Also, I've heard there are a lot of bugs in the game that can keep you from completeing your missions and giving orders to squad mates. Has there been any work on fixing these issues?

soliderPp

Its all been fixed, after release they worked really hard ironing out the bugs. The newest patch improved performance considerably, and im not sure if the demo also got the treatment. So dont let demo graphics performance sway your decision.

After watching most of the videos on STEAM and having more or less everyone here say it's awesome I think I'm sold. I love military sims and this looks to be the best of the lot. You can buy ARMA II + ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead on STEAM for $49.99. That seems like a good deal considering all the content the game has so that's probably what I'll buy.

I'd be really surprised if my two ATI 4870's couldn't run the game even if it is poorly optimised. Now that I think about I said the same thing about GTA4 when it came out on the PC... boy was I was surprised with my 25 FPS on LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH. It didn't matter what I did to the settings it ran like crap no matter what. =P

[QUOTE="psn8214"]

If you're worried about performance, it's worth noting that Arma 2 is a very CPU intensive game due to the number of calculations being made at any given time.

101ColdOne

True, and to add to that one of the developers posted some good info. Putting settings like shadow detail, terrain detail etc. to high or above will make them completly GPU dependant, freeing up proccssor power for calculations etc.

I personally max all settings minus AA, and set the view distance to ~5000, which gives me 35-50 FPS in campaign and 60 and over online and in most scenarios.

Arma II is capable of portraying fairly large scale conventional battles but he single player campaign is designed around counter insurgency operations. You command a recon element whose main task is to gather intel about irregular forces acting against US and native forces in the fictional country of Chenarus (based closely on Georgia). There isn't a lot of full scale conventional warfare depicted for most of the campaign. That being said, there are a lot of user-made campaigns available for download that will give you just what you're asking for. Keep in mind that the AI doesn't really do a great job when it comes to "fighting" large actions. There won't be a lot of force cohesion as individual units will attack piecemeal. The AI isn't really big on self-preservation either so expect massive casualties on both sides when the battle first kicks off.