Arma 3, the latest installment of the tactical military simulation game from independent developers Bohemia Interactive, creators of the award-winning mil-sim series Arma. Storyline
Survive, Adapt, Win
After years of intense warfare against Eastern armies, Europe has become the last stand for the battered NATO forces. On the verge of being driven into the sea, NATO command embarks upon a most desperate measure. In the hope of seizing what seems to be a well-guarded military secret, Operation Magnitude is launched. A small group of Special Forces and Researchers are sent to a Mediterranean island deep behind enemy lines. However, the mission is compromised and the task force destroyed, leaving Cpt. Scott Miller washed ashore upon the hostile island. In his effort to carry out the mission, he will face the dangers of modern warfare, an unforgiving environment, and the consequences of his own decisions…
[ul]
[li]Survive in the rich & authentic environment[/li]> [li]Adapt to the unsurpassed experience of modern ground combat[/li]> [li]Win the open-ended & story-driven campaign[/li]> [/ul]
Combining the strength of its predecessors with radical engine improvements, Arma 3 provides a unique experience of sandbox-oriented combat gameplay in the most detailed environment of the series. Key features:
[ul]
[li]Single-Player Campaign - evolve from a lone prey into a military commander in the open-ended & story-driven campaign.[/li]> [li]Vehicles & Weapons - control multitude of aircraft, vehicles and ships with the accurate simulation, shoot from anything from pistols to the sophisticated weapon platforms.[/li]> [li]Customizable Soldier Load - choose your uniform, assemble your weapon kit, change your loadout, get encumbered.[/li]> [li]Physical simulation & improved animations - take advantage of PhysX™ supporting the vehicle simulation, in-game interactions and the revamped animation system.[/li]> [li]Rich & authentic environment - explore the unsurpassed modern ground combat experience set on the authentic Mediterranean island modeled from the real geographic data.[/li]> [li]Multiplayer Gameplay - challenge both cooperative & competitive scenarios with full support of dedicated servers for both Windows and Linux.[/li]> [li]Completely extensible & moddable - design & create countless customizable scenarios using the intuitive & easy-to-use mission editor.[/li]> [/ul]
Graphics wise, the engine it seems Arma 2.5, the jump is not as big as from Ofp to Arma 1 or from Arma 1 to 2 . A sensible choice, it’s now when people have a computer to move Arma 2, moving the hardware goalpost again would be a bad choice.
That said, others systems like animations and physics are new.
Yeah, I’ll be there. I’m a sucker for these games. And I do mean sucker since I know I’ll be bothered by a zillion little faults, but I’ll dive in on day 1 anyway just to play with the editor.
As well as never having worked out how the gear screen works in the ArmAs, I also tend not to know who to speaking to whom… Are you speaking to 1? Or are you 1? Am I 1? I thought I was ‘spec ops’? And onscreen I seem to be Smithers! I don’t understand!!
Maybe COD is more me :)
I must say, it’ll be good to actually be ahead of the hardware requirement for once. I think some amount of the series’ perceived clunkiness is down to the performance demands of the battlefield.
Speaking of the 3rd picture, that weird backwards death position of the body looks like a typical ragdoll death in other videogames. I suppose between that and the physx reference, it confirms ragdolls in game.
Thinking about it just now I realized what people are talking about with the death animations. They all fall down the same way in Arma 2. It’s amazing how I don’t notice these things. I don’t remember the hand-waving reloads either.
There are 3 or 4 different death animations, they don’t fall always the same, but yeah, they are canned animations, while other game companies use the ragdoll method since 5 or 6 years.
The images (and text) speaks about a game less situated in present times and modern warfare (arma 2/oa) and more about a “fantasy” speculative future war. Nato being kicked in Europe???!!! Also the weapons and vehicles, the Comanche or comanche-like american helicopter is fiction, the russian chopper is a mix of two present russian choppers, and you can see “nextgen” modern rifles like the Fn2000 and the tar21. Not exactly the old and abused m16 and ak47 assault rifles.
Huge fan of the series, and I do agree with the comment from the ArmA 2 thread that this is the Linux of games. After trying to go through some tech support for a recent issue, I can honestly say it was one of the more obtuse, useless processes (especially for a typical game player) I’ve ever encountered. As much as I want them to make the UI more sensible, I really hope they work on stability issues right out of the gate.
Otherwise my gaming group is going to be all over this.
Cautiously optimistic here. ARMA is designed to be the perfect game for me, but never quite gels. Hoping Arma3 is able to hit the mark that Arma2 just missed. UI improvements would go a huge way for me!
ooh fantasy choppers! the commanche was cancelled after two prototypes, and the twin rotor thing with the digital camo looks like the love child of a mi-28 and a ka-50. lovin it. them tanks look like fantasy vehicles as well.
I liked the Arma series, but their physics/graphics engine is stuck in the mid 2000s. Such an ambitious and well thought out design, such poor execution when it comes to graphics and interface.
Give me the physics the Snowblind 2.0 engine and the interface of say, Battlezine or something similar. Also, cut down on the size of the play / game area. I know this seems like a step backwards but even Just Cause 2 had better physics and graphics with a larger land area. A large, open world means nothing if it’s sterile and lifeless. As is I am now convinced BInteractive has some great designers and coders, but lacks either the experience in physics and graphics to execute, or has an ego so big they can’t admit they need to outsource their sound, physics and graphics.
Every time I play Harvest or Heavy Metal in BF:BC2 and we are doing a combined armor/infantry/air assault (with artillery support!) I weep a little for how cool the Arma series could be, and how laughably bad it is in comparison to it’s competitors.
Before you say “But it has no competitors! Look at the feature list! Look at the tactical AI! Look at Warfare mode! Look at the editor! Look at the dynamic mission generator! We are lucky to even get that, as no one else is making this kind of game!”. All this is true intellectually, but it breaks down the moment you blow up a tank and it looks like the graphics and sounds from Falcon 4.0. Personally I’d rather play Conquest in Battlefield 3 and just pretend I’m playing Arma.
