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Quick Look: ArmA II

Dave and Jeff go super-sim. (Note: video framerate not indicative of game performance)

Sit back and enjoy as the Giant Bomb team takes an unedited look at the latest video games.

Jul. 13 2009

Cast: Dave, Jeff

Posted by: Drew

In This Episode:

ArmA II

200 Comments

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penguindust

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Edited By penguindust

In addition to being truly frightened by ArmA2, I now know that there isn't enough "Yakkity Sax" in all these Quick Looks...more "Yakkity Sax", please!

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Media_Master

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Edited By Media_Master

yeah, game is not for me

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soralapio

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Edited By soralapio
@lantus:

That's pretty much the level of performance I get and I have a pretty damn good gaming PC. The game is a mess.
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joelalfaro

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Edited By joelalfaro
@Jimbo said:
" I feel like you really need to tough out at least the whole of the first mission before you start to feel comfortable in this game and get a decent idea of what it has to offer. 

The amount of freedom you are given to decide the course of the first mission is extremely impressive for an FPS.  The original plan is to locate the radio mast and call in an airstrike, which you can do (and it looks awesome), or you can clear it out on foot and use satchels.  You might come across a chick getting raped in the village and if you save her she'll lead you to a mass grave out in the woods.  At the end of the mission you are asked if you want to guide in some missile strikes from the side of a mountain looking right down the coast.  You can do all of these things or miss most of them depending entirely on how you play the mission.  And this isn't one map, this is the map:  you could wander off in a later mission and go find this village any time you feel like it.

I haven't played enough of the rest of the campaign yet to say whether this level of freedom continues, but to me it feels like there is almost an RPG buried under the military sim trappings.  It's a shame people will pass it by just because the learning curve is a little steeper than they are used to.  Although the blame for that really has to lie with the developer rather than the player; accessibility and complexity are not mutually exclusive, and Bohemia - and their die hard fans - need to realise they can deliver the former without sacrificing the latterThe one thing that really irritates me as a gamer is seeing wasted potential - bad games will always be bad games, I can live with that - but when you see a game like this, which is so close to being a classic, it just drives me crazy.  If they could just find that little extra touch of design innovation and polish that's required, I'm sure they could find success amongst a much wider audience.  If they sorted out the terrible comms work, the voice acting and the archaic command control scheme, they would stop driving away 90% of their potential customers. "
A great, well thought-out response.
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mrmud

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Edited By mrmud

For everyone saying that this game looks boring or whatever, it should be fairly obvious that this is a game for a nice market. But for that market it is amazing.

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max3000

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Edited By max3000

Am I the only guy who thinks ArmA II is a very good game and isn't too complicated? Just finish the training and it'll all make sense. I found the tutorial to be very comprehensive.

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Captainlunchbox

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Edited By Captainlunchbox
@drewbert:
That woulda been my question haha. Thank you sir.
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Gav47

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Edited By Gav47

Great ending

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Jimbo

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Edited By Jimbo
@max3000 said:
" Am I the only guy who thinks ArmA II is a very good game and isn't too complicated? Just finish the training and it'll all make sense. I found the tutorial to be very comprehensive. "
The learning curve wouldn't have been considered particularly steep 10 years.  It's only the decade of console indoctrination in between that has changed peoples expectations.   I'd say the curve here is roughly comparable to something like the X Wing series, rather than a proper Flight Sim.

Your average game nowadays is about as involved as changing channels on your television - everybody here can play straight through most default SP on auto-pilot.  That's not to say games like that are without merit; they're just barely more interactive than watching television and about as demanding.
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twillfast

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Edited By twillfast
@TheIneffableBob:
Of course not, but it's fully possible to make it in a better way.

For example, instead of just recording the word "enemy" and then the word "car" they could record both, as in "enemy car". And the timing of the words can be better, at least to the point where it's not annoying to listen to.

It's obvious that hundreds of thousands (or maybe even millions of gazillions) of possible combinations can't be recorded, but if the effort is made, those combinations can be made to not sound like windows screen reader.
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minotaka

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Edited By minotaka

Hey this could be interesting, flashpoint was hectic back in the day!

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dagas

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Edited By dagas

I've read that tanks and such have HP and that if you shoot long enough even small arms fire will take down a tank. Unrealistic and bad. May be moddable though. Silent Hunter 4 had a HP based damage system, but there are mods that changed it to physics based so that ships sink based on physics not when their HP is depleted.

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dudacles

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Edited By dudacles

Dude what's up with their voices? Did they buy new mics or something?

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zitosilva

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Edited By zitosilva

This game is definitely not for me.

Also, I really laughed at "We ended up where we were, didn't we?"

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MaddProdigy

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Edited By MaddProdigy

My friend tried just running this game and his computer froze out, its awsome though.

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DreamAgain

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Edited By DreamAgain

Wow, you guys REALLY SUCK (no offense).  This game is not THAT hard.  I am 30% (estimate) through the game and only died a few times.

You can play the entire game 3rd person , vehicles, even the characters.  The 3rd person looks and plays really good, kind of like Socom or something.  I prefer 3rd person.

I am kind of sad at this quick look because I know it will drive ppl away from the game and it is a really awesome game.

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fox01313

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Edited By fox01313

Game looks dreadfully painful to play, do love the speed up option & we definitely need that in other games especially if there's the chase music from Benny Hill.

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Phetz

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Edited By Phetz

No more night missions. Please.

Good QL otherwise--didn't make me want to play the game (luckily I already wanted to, lol), but the commentary was entertaining.

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milpool

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Edited By milpool

haha best quick look ever.

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FuzzYLemoN

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Edited By FuzzYLemoN

ATTACK that MAN!

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tunnercar

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Edited By tunnercar

looks JUST like a dream... I... Had.No seriously thus looks to hard and complicated and sorta weird. Not first on my list.

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catpowerd

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Edited By catpowerd

YOU.ARE.GETTING.KNOCKED.THE.HECK.DOWN

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TheMcNasty

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Edited By TheMcNasty

It feels like every time Dave was about to articulate an interesting point, Jeff interrupted by yelling something.

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Sam3R

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Edited By Sam3R

wow...u really can play games!

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LordAndrew

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Edited By LordAndrew

That is just too complex for me.

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MrKlorox

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Edited By MrKlorox

You act like we could actually hear the game in these quick looks. FYI we can't. Turn up the game volume in the mix.

@theMcNasty said:

" It feels like every time Dave was about to articulate an interesting point, Jeff interrupted by yelling something. "
That seems like the dynamic between his and Jeff's personality. Jeff seems more extroverted and Dave more introverted. As an introvert myself, I get spoken over so goddamn often I just wanna smash faces. Hence my preference for type instead of speech.
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OrangeChikenSTD

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Edited By OrangeChikenSTD

i thought the voice acting was a joke when i played the demo -__-

it might be the worst voice acting ive ever heard from what i remember

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Foxdemon2k

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Edited By Foxdemon2k

Jeff is so annoying in this one :|

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TheMcNasty

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Edited By TheMcNasty
@MrKlorox said:
"That seems like the dynamic between his and Jeff's personality. Jeff seems more extroverted and Dave more introverted. As an introvert myself, I get spoken over so goddamn often I just wanna smash faces. Hence my preference for type instead of speech. "

Give an introverted man a keyboard and who knows what expletives will oust themselves.
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MrKlorox

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Edited By MrKlorox
@drewbert said:
" Hey guys, the framerate issues you see are not with ArmA II, but with our capture setup.  ArmA II was running pretty smoothly while we were recording.  We will have this issue fixed by the next time we do PC capture so this doesn't happen again. "
Hi. Glad you're looking into it. I had a feeling it wasn't the game. One thing I noticed, especially in this 'dark' video, the color/brigntness scale doesn't seem to use the full spectrum. The color black looks like the darkest gray on this site instead of actually black. And whites are just really really light gray. I find myself loading up a custom gamma profile in RivaTuner every time I sit down to watch an original GB video.

Note that the classic GB intro used in all videos uses the full scale without adjustment. The whites are all the way bright, and the blacks are all the way dark. Same for most non-GB sourced videos. This makes me think the issue's source is from the recording device instead of from the rendering process.

@theMcNasty:
I thank tech for giving me a way to vent. Hadn't smashed one face over being cut-off yet.
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VoshiNova

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Edited By VoshiNova

I actually really dig Arma 2, I have no prior experience with flashpoint, arma 1, etc.

But I love the realism and the ballistics models. Fantastic game.


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Edited By buckybit
Pulling a "Brad" 5 times is now called pulling a "Drew"

I am greatful that the Bohemia guys are still dedicated to make videogames and not just VBS-Sims. After the success of Operation Flashpoint - like many of you know - the team got a contract to make real battlefield sims and they are very successful doing them. Unfortunately you have to sign up or already be in the Military to experience this non-game.

Many of their experience will make it into Flashpoint 2 which makes me even more excited about that new game.
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the_purgatory_station

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like them duders said before, this type of game is probably played by people that make flight sim cabinets.  i

Sandbox-style, squad based shooters = Fun
Sandbox-style, squad based shooters = Fun
don't build cabinets but i am liking this game after the QL.  i'm totally salivating at the first mission.  i would be attacking it like the rescue hostage scenario at the end of Proof of Life or maybe a la the base attack in Predator. 

yeah love games like these and Ghost Recon 1(PC) for it's sandbox style; setting up weapon loadout and player positions, telling them to Go Loud, sitting back and enjoying the firefights.
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JukeboxJoe

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Edited By JukeboxJoe

Did we get him? ARGH!

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PentaCube

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Edited By PentaCube

was the audio pretty over driven to anyone else?

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Th3_James

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Edited By Th3_James

if my comp could run maxed

i would get this

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Kohe321

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Edited By Kohe321

Awesome Quick Look!

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Edited By NarcolepticBat
@VoshiNova said:
" I actually really dig Arma 2, I have no prior experience with flashpoint, arma 1, etc.But I love the realism and the ballistics models. Fantastic game. "
Yeah i wanna try it super bad but my pc can barely run this video.
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Shadow

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Edited By Shadow

You're a grey warden, huh?  Why?  Yes, I get that's an ad

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leky1

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Edited By leky1

AWW!NO PS3!

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foggel

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Edited By foggel

It's like a ransom note yelling at you haha.

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Arrested_Developer

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@theMcNasty: I'm pretty sure there are no interesting points about that game.
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drew327

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Edited By drew327

Such a funny quick look

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natetodamax

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Edited By natetodamax

I can't believe they released the game with that dialogue. Kinda hard to be realistic when you're fighting a war alongside Microsoft Sam.

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gbrading

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Edited By gbrading

TARGET 199905 TO OUR FRONT.

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Eraser74

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Edited By Eraser74

Arma is a really great war sim, much more realistic than the Call of Duty or Battlefield games out there. It´s super hardcore, but also very rewarding, when you get the hang of it.

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BluPotato

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Edited By BluPotato

I realy wanted to love Arma II. I liked the concept but I just couldn't deal with it. I just kept feeling like I was playing it wrong.

I'll go back to sinking subs in Silent Hunter 3 and doing the trig to kill them.

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YOUNGLINK

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Edited By YOUNGLINK

DayZ is awesome!

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CZYjoeDAVOLA

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Edited By CZYjoeDAVOLA

Is it just me or is the frame rate absolute trash

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svengoolie

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I think this was just a shitty game.