ROCO*AFZ* Posted December 31, 2006 Author Share Posted December 31, 2006 Also noted i was killed before i entered or spawned on many servers... CTF is better though then the TVT for sure bug wise. Will be checking the co-op soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trident-za Posted January 1, 2007 Share Posted January 1, 2007 (edited) I must say that this demo is growing on me - the more I play (COOP) the more impressed I am. OK, I would prefer more FPS and there are some issues but... the gameplay is awesome. I'm loving the huge variety of options available because of the terrain (trees, shrubs, hills, dips etc). Other things I'm enjoying: -the presence of grass and small shrubs which not only provide you with concealment, but also obscure your own field of vision - the crack of bullets passing near you (at first I though the cracking sound was a feeble gunshot sound....) - the damage model (being unable to stand because of leg injuries is irritating, but good) - the squad management options are also pretty good - being able to form your own little sub-groups when and if you want is good. - lying down and carefully viewing the terrain, seeing nobody... standing and getting shot by some dude about 10 metres in front of you who was in "dead ground" Edited January 1, 2007 by Trident-za Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waika Posted January 1, 2007 Share Posted January 1, 2007 (edited) Even though I bought the full game I tried the demo just to see how well it compares; while generally it's a fair representation -- the full game has a lot more content and play options to tool around with, so, the issues people are commenting on seem a lot less significant as you have so many options and so much to play with. It would be dishonest to say that Armed Assault doesn't have its share of bugs and warts; but a good deal of them have to do with people trying to run the game with wide open render settings on render constrained systems. With a little care and attention to your in-game and driver settings you can tweak past a lot of what appear to be issues and still have a nice looking game. All that said Armed Assault still has a ways to go... The good news is that this is all BI does, they don't make dozens of other unrelated games on different engines like Barbie's Magic Play House, and Pookie Pen's Mystical Pants, neither does BI churn games as abandonware 'product' purpose built more for a 'features & benefits' marketing statements and a planned 60 shelf-life like a certain other Publisher's "Franchise Products"... And unlike a certain other Publisher and its POMU Developers; BI has a proven track record of systematically and effectively fixing literally everything, and supporting their games for as long as they're played. Even OFP is still being supported and there is an official BI sanctioned project to port the game and all its expansions to the newer ArmA engine. Like Trident-za and others trying the demo and playing the full game are saying; I think Armed Assault 'grows on you', and like Ghost Recon will be a slow burner that will pick up enormous momentum. A lot of the disappointment, kicking and screaming we see is exactly because the game has added a lot of new features, offers new game-play, depth, sophistication -- and has a new concomitant learning curve to go with it -- just like the first Clancy games did when they were new... Considering all the dumbed-down games marketed as 'tactical realism' and people have been accepting as the norm for the last five years, it's not hard to understand why Armed Assault is overwhelming a lot of people... Edited January 2, 2007 by Waika Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pritzl Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Ah wth, here's my list: Graphics: Quite good on my rig and though I usually don't even comment on graphics there's a rather big problem with ArmA's visibility distance. Even at 200m enemies are barely visible. At 600m+ even looking through the sniper scope yields mediocre results. I don't know if it's just the limited colour palette or the artificial blurring in the game but it really makes spotting the enemy a chore. Audio & atmosphere: Exceptional team feedback (albeit a bit repetitive) and great environmental touches like dragonflies and sea-gulls. The weapon sounds themselves sound a little tinny in some cases, passable in others. Nothing exceptional. Interactivity: Brilliant but a bit buggy on occasion it seems. I understand that given the number of options but it would frustrate the bejeezus out of me. Controls: must have been thought up by Dr. Frankenstein. Far too many buttons and combinations to memorize distract you from the gameplay. I can never picture it reaching the level of intuitiveness required for me to enjoy the game. Worse, I've experienced a lot of glitches like clicks not registering or doubling up into two successive clicks. (which often results in a very different outcome) AI: Friendly AI is just incompetent in my experience and I don't know why. I've tried it under the control of an AI leader so that it is comparable to the enemy AI (even better supposedly since I set friendlies to expert and enemy to novice) but they just fail to do anything impressive. Enemy AI is quite plausible for the most part, except for accuracy. Accuracy: Sometimes I wonder what grognard in which layer came up with the ballistics model for ArmA. It is simply ridiculous to have that much guesswork in what is afterall a game. Yes, it's not easy irl, but irl most of us would whiz our pants and crap our shorts at the first sound of gunfire. Should we model that too? After missing a 500m gimme shot on a clearly visible enemy sentry with 5+ sniper rounds even though you're prone, elevated, holding your breath and zoomed in it starts to get old. It gets really bad when that same guy finally wises up to where you are and proceeds to nail you from that distance with his AK-47! Command system: just as convoluted as the controls but with an added layer of obfuscation. Why would the directions to go prone/crouch be in the "combat mode" submenu? I still haven't figured out how to get a selected to unit to go to a specific spot on the map. I point at the desired spot, select move and have tried pretty much every option on the subsequent menu and never succeeded in getting the order accomplished. GUI: Was there a contest to see how many different screens/steps the programmers could add to each action? It takes forever to get anything accomplished. Try counting the number of screens you have to cancel through just when backing out of a MP session next time if you don't believe me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trident-za Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 I also struggled to get to grips with the control system.... epsecially with trying to effectively "command" your AI team while get shot at. It does get easier with practise, although there are plenty things I've not figured out yet. I guess a decent manual would probably help too However, the control issue has not bothered me enough for it to be a showstopper. I'm actually enjoying the freedom of the game so much it's kind of fun trying to figure it all out. For the most part I've only played COOP, and mostly on a locked server with myself as the only human... after a good few (unsuccesful) attempts at the mission, I finally decided to do a "close-in" reconnaissance of the town, and spent over an hour creeping around, identifying enemy patrol routes, possible approach routes etc etc. Believe it or not, this was amazingly satisfying for me - more than an hour without a single shot fired, but great fun. I realize that this would probably cause most people to die of boredom, but I appreciate the fact that this is possible in a game when and if I choose to do this kind of thing. Oh, and for interests sake... the "intel" I picked up on my recce has been immensely valuable in planning different ways of doing this mission. The only thing I do find a little frustrating is the accuracy of the enemy AI, but even that isn't too much of a problem. It is unfair, yes... but it also enforces the kind of gameplay I was hoping for. At the end of the day, this game won't be for everyone, just as OFP wasn't. For me, personally, this game has been the answer to a prayer. The bugs will be fixed (hopefully) and things will improve with time, patches and mods. But, it's a game I can see myself playing for a long time to come... not a lot of games have had that affect on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pritzl Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Like I said, I loved many things about ArmA and usually enjoy a good cerebral game. I'm just stupefied as to some of the design decisions. e.g. why can't I turn off/reduce the sway which is present even when prone and holding your breath? There is no one single thing that turned me off but put all together it is disappointingly frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trident-za Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Like I said, I loved many things about ArmA and usually enjoy a good cerebral game. I'm just stupefied as to some of the design decisions. e.g. why can't I turn off/reduce the sway which is present even when prone and holding your breath? There is no one single thing that turned me off but put all together it is disappointingly frustrating. I've noticed that the amount of sway is dependant on two things: how "rested" you are, and how wounded. If I've run somewhere, gone to ground and tried to look through the weapon sights, they are all over the place.... but the longer I wait the more stable my view becomes. Also, if I'm wounded - the sights just don't stabilize at all, and get extremely jumpy indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noraf Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Ah wth, here's my list: Graphics: Quite good on my rig and though I usually don't even comment on graphics there's a rather big problem with ArmA's visibility distance. Even at 200m enemies are barely visible. At 600m+ even looking through the sniper scope yields mediocre results. I don't know if it's just the limited colour palette or the artificial blurring in the game but it really makes spotting the enemy a chore. Blur settings are actualy quite nice, just be sure that there are a free line of sight, haven't had mutch problem with shooting guys @ 500 meters ( though, i do prefer the spr over the m24 ), just keep in mind that the bullets will drop, but if you're elevated, not as mutch ( and you might have to aim below the target to hit if you're high anough ) always try to attack with the sun @ your back, if possible, or even better, at night ( though, the mussle flash is a sure give away, so shoot and relocate!) Audio & atmosphere: Exceptional team feedback (albeit a bit repetitive) and great environmental touches like dragonflies and sea-gulls. The weapon sounds themselves sound a little tinny in some cases, passable in others. Nothing exceptional. Unfortanley, BI have never been good at sounds it's the sad truth ... Controls: must have been thought up by Dr. Frankenstein. Far too many buttons and combinations to memorize distract you from the gameplay. I can never picture it reaching the level of intuitiveness required for me to enjoy the game. Worse, I've experienced a lot of glitches like clicks not registering or doubling up into two successive clicks. (which often results in a very different outcome) The controls are extencive, thats one thing, but on the other hand, they give you a hudge freedom to play it your way... Command system: just as convoluted as the controls but with an added layer of obfuscation. Why would the directions to go prone/crouch be in the "combat mode" submenu? I still haven't figured out how to get a selected to unit to go to a specific spot on the map. I point at the desired spot, select move and have tried pretty much every option on the subsequent menu and never succeeded in getting the order accomplished. Prone is a combat mode... The other : Select a unit ( or multiple ), take out the map, and klick on it, the unit(s) will that way be ordered to move there ( hope that helps ) AI: Friendly AI is just incompetent in my experience and I don't know why. I've tried it under the control of an AI leader so that it is comparable to the enemy AI (even better supposedly since I set friendlies to expert and enemy to novice) but they just fail to do anything impressive. Enemy AI is quite plausible for the most part, except for accuracy. Well, the friendly ( and enemy ) ai, thats a long story, but i'll try to keep it short and simple : You got several combat modes to chose from, and rules of engagement, weaponds control settings and so on... if they aren't set right, you can get the ai to be canon food, and stupid as hell... as for friendly ai led ai, the same goes there, though, it's the mission maker that sets the states then, and if that's not set right, it won't be very nice to watch... same goes for enemy ai, it got several settings a mission maker got to choose from, and when set right, the ai can be amasingly good. the other day, while playing a coop mission, i got blown to smitters (litterary (sp) ) by an enemy... i was trying to get in for an at kill on a shilka, had had a short fire fight with some guarding spec ops, when i hear someone running near by, turn around, and just sees one enemy spec ops round the other corner of the building i'm hiding behind, running away! from me... a second afther he rounded the corner, i saw a stachel charge neatly placed, almoust between my feets, and that was the last thing i saw, before flying trough the air, with a solid BOOM chasing me from the detonation but all in all, it's a game that takes some getting used to, not to mention that not everyone will like it. I'm actually enjoying the freedom of the game so much it's kind of fun trying to figure it all out. For the most part I've only played COOP, and mostly on a locked server with myself as the only human... after a good few (unsuccesful) attempts at the mission, I finally decided to do a "close-in" reconnaissance of the town, and spent over an hour creeping around, identifying enemy patrol routes, possible approach routes etc etc. Believe it or not, this was amazingly satisfying for me - more than an hour without a single shot fired, but great fun. I realize that this would probably cause most people to die of boredom, but I appreciate the fact that this is possible in a game when and if I choose to do this kind of thing. I've spent quite some time, working to get in posision, once on a coop server, we were 4 playing togheter, worked our way around to flank the enemy camp, took us a good 45 minutes to an hour, just sneaking around to get there, then, boom boom boom! the enemy spottet us, and let it rain with rpg's on us, we were all dead within seconds one of my best times ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightspeed Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 lol..sounds good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoQuarter Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 Been playing the demo for the last week and my impression of it so far is...Push. I have a low to mid-range system spec and while I can run GR:AW high (optioned or forced) silky smooth, I have to set everything to low (or disabled-AA) in ArmA to avoid a slide show. Flip of the coin, just unlucky I quess. Can someone with the full version say whether the transition from the map view back to FPV is the same as with the demo, i.e., too long? Love the topo. Love the way the AI maneuver to counter-attack. The sound absolutely sucks. Graphics...Push. I'll pick it up when/if it's released in the States, hopefully in the meantime it will get a refit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 Yes the map takes some time to load (not so much here) but anyways i use ESC which brings u a mini map(u can zoom in) with no loading time. Also there are some missions edited by 6thsense where they add a "quick map" which u can select in ur action menu, so u can move and check map at same time. Maybe more people will use this in their missions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noraf Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 Yes the map takes some time to load (not so much here) but anyways i use ESC which brings u a mini map(u can zoom in) with no loading time. Also there are some missions edited by 6thsense where they add a "quick map" which u can select in ur action menu, so u can move and check map at same time. Maybe more people will use this in their missions. although, the esc map is only awailible in mp games... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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