Gaming Arma II: Operation Arrowhead Review

Are you talking about the SP Campaign(s)?

In MP it's a lot more fun when you play with mates against more mates (or others online). That's what it's all about (for me anyway).

 

As the review says, Arma II is all about MP (preferably with a squad of people you know), not the campaign AI.

 

I agree, the SP campaign is good fun and more than playable when the game's fully patched up, and I expect Operation Arrowhead to be just as optimised at least. There've been so many updates since release, it's a lot different. Not just bug fixes, but optimisations and tweaks to things like ballistics, sound, physics, ai etc...

The problems I had were with the first release of arma2, un-patched.

As for the MP game??

Seriously, go to dao.nu and have a go on their Hold Location maps/servers. 64 Vs 64 BF2 style game-play on a huge scale.

I warn you though, you might have to drop some of your settings a bit as anything more than 30 players slows things down a lot, and their server(s) regularly max out at 128 players!!


Once I got onto this, I never looked back

 

wow, so i can just buy the Arrowhead and dont worry about original ArmaII? sweet!

 

ArmA II is a game that represents the level of play that PC gamers expect. Arma II is not for casual gamers, N0obs, or entry level PCs as the game takes time to learn and master.

Once acquainted with the controls and game play Arma II is beyond real. Patch 1.07 has the game running smooth and Arrowhead brings in a lot of mods that the community has already made plus some new vehicles weapons and gadgets like improved night vision.

I'm running Arma II on a Phenom II x2 550 @ 3.9ghz w/ a 2 XFX HD 4890 crossfire @ 1ghz each max settings and the game is smooth and looks better than Crysis as the vehicles explosions terrain and NPCs are all very well detailed in a game on this big of a scale imo. The 1.07 patch utilizes 4 core CPu better now as well.

Yes like most great PC games Arma II was buggy but once patched to run on the million different PC configurations out there it's one of the best and most realistic FPS out there. Arma II is as real as it gets without having to see your local military recruiter. Excellent Game for HARDCORE GAMERS.

 

"more realistic thermal imagining engine." I have found ze glitch!

 

Nobody is permitted to learn how to play it then?

I play MW2 online sometimes (maybe 1/2 per week) and have played various FPS over the years, am I good enough by your standards or will I get abuse if I buy the game and try to play it?

 

I would say of Arma that, while it is learnable, the learning curve is long. It's not massively steep, not really, but it just keeps going and going and going. I mean when I started playing Flashpoint 1985 back in the day I knew a bit about FPS games and that was it, and I learned bits and bobs, and now several years later I know basic British army section battle drills, I know how a platoon assault works, I know how to run a close target recce, how to use fire and movement effectively, the proper ambush and counter ambush drills, I know how to build and script for missions, and despite all this there's still a million other things I don't know. It is a huge, huge, game.

 

NO your not because at the rate you play games ArmA 4 will be out before you learn how to set up and use the sniper rifle in Arma II. LOL just kidding

I'm not bagging on people but trying to convey a point that this is a Military Simulator and the game takes time to learn unlike a basic arcade shooter for a casual gamer.

No N0obs allowed as cheap tricks, hacks, spawn kills, jump shooting are not here. Only skill, tactics, and strategy.

The game is resource demanding and will require a decent rig to run and spending a bit of time optimizing display settings or ~ console settings to smooth out your type of game play.

Amra II is a great game so please go out and buy it just prepare to spend some time learning (single player campaign) before you jump into a multi player mode. It's a Great game that I'm sure you will enjoy.

 

If you're interested in seriously playing this game then this is a must read. Most clans/squads will base themselves off the tactics in here.

Contact!

 

I would also like an idea of what it takes. I would need to compromise on price, but a basic idea of a realistic minimum CPU and GPU would be cool.

Like would an i3-530 OCd be any good, or does it need to be i5-750/i7? And is it 5870 and above, or can you get away with less?

 

If you overclock your i3-530 a lot it will really help. As for graphics cards, a 5870 should get you good frame rates at 1,680 x 1,050 with a combination of medium and high (but not very high) detail settings.

 

Thanks. Looks like I'll be waiting till after the summer then! Can't afford a 5870 right now and I have a 1080p TV to fill up!

Would you need a joystick for vehicles?

 

You can use joysticks, but even though I play flight sims with a proper HOTAS joystick (Logitech G940) I prefer to play Arma II with the keyboard and mouse, as this makes it easier to jump in and out of helicopters and do stuff on foot.

 

Thanks James, that makes sense. One more, then I promise I'll leave you alone!

Is a headset a must? And if so, how much should I expect to pay for something reasonable? I'll really like to give this game a proper go in the Autumn and it seems being able to listen to commands and response etc. might be quite important....

 

A headset is important for any multiplayer game, so I'd recommend taking a look through this round-up we did earlier this year.

 

Ordered OA this mornin'!

 

The weird thing about this game is the massive difference between single player and multiplayer.

In single player the game grinds to a halt on the large missions. This is because it's controlling ~100 or more individual AI's..... in a huge map, so it's all bogging down the CPU and your graphics card does nothing to help. So on missions like Manhatten, I had to drop all the settings to very low to make it playable.

However, when you go online and play multiplayer, there is no AI at all (and if there is, it's being handled by the person who is hosting the server anyway). So the CPU is barely being used and your graphics card can now do it's thing in peace. So online I could crank the settings to very high and I had a great time and it looked great.

This is all on my PC, which at the moment, is a C2D e6600, an 8800GTX, and 2gig of ram in Win XP. So I think that is pretty damn good considering the ageing specs. I've just ordered a HD 5870 with 2 more gig of ram so I can install Win7 64bit, and a SSD, and I am going to overclock my CPU again, so I'm hoping that will help things.

As for this new expansion, it sounds a bit disappointing to me. I was really looking forward to them finally coming up with a good campaign that actually works, but by the sounds of it, it's short and not that great. At least there is the multiplayer though, and fooling around in the editor, so I'll still buy it.

 

I bought the pack off steam, had a co-op with a few friends last night, was really good, thought they were sshouting out distance and enemies, but even though they were telling me how to do it, I couldn't

 

One thing i've found (and several people report on the ARMA2 forums) is that its very I/O intensive / Disk heavy, so much so i went and got one of those crucial C300 64GB's to play this and a few other choice games on.

was playing without a SSD on the original ARMA2 on domination maps, those are a hoot when you get a big squad together.