ARMA 2 aint for the impatient

[Zak33]

but it is awesome.

That is all

thanks to Lowe, McMav and Geist in particular

Sleep well and dream of plentiful helicopters with no noobs queueing to use and abuse them

[Lowe]

Nope, it can take a while to get about the place but then with 225 square km or map to play over...

You soon learn how to get about the place though with choppers and the like, but tonight wasn't the best example with people nicking spawns and stuff or leaving them in inappropriate places.

Still, in time it'll calm down. It's all a bit new at the moment for many people and we just need to get through this period of over excitement

[EggenMcBerg]

Sleep well and dream of plentiful helicopters with no noobs queueing to use and abuse them

And the nightmare shall be of some total lumpty careering into the hot-zone driving your MHQ

[Zak33]

And the nightmare shall be of some total lumpty careering into the hot-zone driving your MHQ

lol...true.

Now that I'm awake and lively again, I shall expand for those about to plunge (or not) into this game.

As ever I'll use other games such as Cod4 for reference.

Remember when you first died a lot in Cod4 or CoDW@W because the maps were quite large, full of hidy holes, cross fire spots and the walls had cunningly positioned narrow slits, holes and cracks for the people who knew the map to kill you?

Remember when you first saw how many kit and equipment and perk combos would be available to you and you spent ages getting one you liked?

Remember when some camper who knew the map just killed you over and over from about half a mile away?

Well... CoD4 and CoDW@W is like a really complex room in your house in size terms, and ARMA 2 is like your whole house, garden, road, street and most of the large part of a town.

In fact..it's like the online world of Lineage 2 or WoW. Because it is MA-HUUUU-SIVE.

(this is prolly NOT coincidence, but the last game where I jogged that far with a full pack on was Project IGI)

I'll try to be lucid, though I keep getting flashbacks, which is very exciting because it means the game has crept into my unconciousness.


When I spawned I knew roughly how to teleport to the spawn vehicle. Each team seems to have two, but they need driving by the team to the spot where we think it'll be safe. Ignoring the noobs on last night who were about 12 years old and just drove trucks and tanks for a laugh, (one of them was off to Greece apparently ) once spawned in the right place, Lowe and I were off across the hills and through the forests, running at a steady pace, and MAN THIS GAME LOOKS GOOD. It's a bit of a PC killer but when running through a large forest, with LOADS of independant trees and bushes around the edge, it really does make you think "how big IS this place?" Well, after some running up hill and down dale (very steep hills in places, some excellent gradients and cambers) I realised that my gun site was HUGE while I was out of breath, so crouching for a while to regain my breath, it shrank back to an accurate size.

At a slightly later time Lowe was flying a great big Black Hawk chopper and after I'd embarked upon it.. along with a large friendly crew of mass murderers, we went all Platoon and skimmed the forests, and then got shot down by small arms fire I think. Either way, we kissed each other warmly before dying in a huge tangled wreck.

For anyone who's played lots of IL-2, FB, AEP, Pacfic Fighters and 1946, you'll know how long you can wait to get a full crew together and how long it takes to taxi and make your way to target and how depressing it is when you all buy the farm together.. well... it happens in ARMA 2. Regularly.

BUT.. with the mobile spawn truck UNDER our chopper, Lowe dumped it off, and then when we died we arrived there later. There is a pause for a respawn, as in some COD servers, and it shows your keeness to get back in as to how fast your heart races while watching the bloody clock count down.

Bloody hell, I was itching.

Few more deaths, a change of mission and we;re flying over to the coast... we need to be on that island. Map up, and I realise how few people can navigate. Lots or radio/comms noise too, so Lowe is struggling to know where to go. I try my hardest to shout over the Platoon and 'Nam quotes and drunken laughter

They're gonna think I'm dead boring.... but no... Lowe calls for quiet, prolly blew a kiss to a drunken soldier and we're landing by the coast.

This is real beach.. and it's the whole length of the map..... nice sea too.

AND LEISURE boats. SO we grab one and zoom over. But the bloke I'm sat next too..... DIES NEXT TO ME! from a bullet from god only knows where... and I'm cacking myself thinking I'm not gonna be able to spawn on the beach and swim this sea... and my boat skills are minimal. Lowe seems unconcerned. The way the charaters are portrayed in this game is funny. The choice of spectacles particulary. I'd chosen some rather fetching Harry Potters and I'm glad to say the effect must have been dazzling to my team mates.
Lowe is captaining this leisure boat with his shades on and looks relaxed as hell. I'm covered in blood and brains from the bloke next to me.

We land, dive out, and we're off yomping up the slope to the radio mast that we've gotta nail for our side mission.

Long story short, but I had no stachel charges, so the boys who had the right equipment blew it and we're off back down the hill to the beach... and I can't get into the boat cos I've got some weird menu glitch. THIS is what people say about ARMA in the heat of anger. IT'S FULL OF FRIKKIN GLITCHES and BUGS.

I had one later where I just COULD NOT access the armoury crate and had to die and respawn to get any of the right gear.

Anyway.. the confidence in the game is rising in me... and I choose a spawn site that runs out to be a spawn vehicle with no tracks on it, cos it's been nuked.

I'm the only one from my squad and Lowe want's us all back a million miles across the map for a heli flight. But the spawn unit is still officially in the game and we can't have a new one until it's gone. I have a satchel charge

Suss the menu for it, suss how to blow it.. job done.

But now, literally miles from anywhere... I'm on my tod. Jack Jones. Hann Solo. "Are you lonely toniiiight?"

I decide to run there. It's a computer game. I can run it.

For the next ten minutes I hear Lowe and the squad getting more and more riled by the noobs on this public server who are queueing for a heli on their own just to try to land in the middle of a red hot killing zone. None of the make it, and they do it again and again etc. No teamwork..... my squad's getting riled. I can hear it. Scottish angry accents, pissed off english accents.... someone's gonna die soon.

And I'm running, tree to tree, and now... hill to hill. Town to town... I ran for 17 minutes. I timed it. 17 minutes
In CoD4 I can get 20+ kills and die nearly as many times... in 17 minutes...

and my poor solider was shagged. I had to stop and rest a few times because I could hear gun fire and when aproaching towns and houses weirdly I felt safer than in the forests.. those forests.. they're HUGE. Houses feel like CoD4. Vast tracks of forest and then open field... madness. Gun site wider than the grand canyon... scary. Not likely to be anyone out here. But I'M out here.. and would we know if we were passing.. me and my enemy? Scary.

I skirted around, trying to be hidden, what looked like a petrol station of maybe a toll booth on a hill... and then I was in site of the target zone.

Lowe had just landed the boys there and a tank on my sife was causing grief. I hid in a barn to the side, CoD4-ing out through the windows, when I saw the tank go BANG where someone whacked it with a big beast of a rocket (I have no idea what) and then as I creep out of the barn, I see the two tank pilots running.

I'm not bad with a gun when I can SEE the buggers to shoot at. Both down. Pleased with self.

3 minutes later and I've killed a team mate cos I don't recognise his equipment and he's not in my squad so has no icon. Fool.

Well, after waffling on.. I hope some of youget the message. Don't buy it if you're into CoD4 running and bunny hopping. !

[Andy3536]

Nice review, it was an entertaining run last night.

There's so many vehicles at the red zone aswell you've really got to take it easy or they'll just make mince meat of you, AT weapons are a must for attacking the towns.

Had a nice moment when an enemy copper bringing in troops was blown up by me using captured heavy artillery, made me wish i was running fraps.

Team killing seems unavoidable in some cases though, had a sniper come passed me in a Russian GAZ who was soon no more. At the same time i mistook the black Russian rifle for an M16 and didn't fire and promptly died

[EggenMcBerg]

one of them was off to Greece apparently

Sounds all too familiar...

[shackahn]

Guys I bought this last weekend, and I had a quick go of the training.

I attempted the "MOUT" i think its called? Where you attack the town.

Both times I have failed miserably, I am used to COD and Wolf do you think I could get into this game, and is it best to jump online, as I dont want to become one of the noobs mentioned above

[jim]

If you haven't read this thread already, I'd highly recommend it.

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-wargam...ult-guide.html

[saofg]

My Copy is on order

So Zak33 your gonna have to put up with some company soon.

[Zak33]

My Copy is on order

So Zak33 your gonna have to put up with some company soon.

/slaps head

there goes the neighbourhood

Will be a pleasure, though I'm still a total noob. For those who don't know, saofg is also Bishops Finger (Eve) and Lemming2, Cod4 and CoD5

[McMav]

Glad you enjoyed yourself Zak however you cant be a helo machine gunner without some 'nam quotes Jus a pity we didnt have any hueys on that map

[Lowe]

Glad you enjoyed yourself Zak however you cant be a helo machine gunner without some 'nam quotes Jus a pity we didnt have any hueys on that map

We'll have to have a word with Wildfire and see about getting a couple chucked in

[noTHINGface]

Glad to see some peeps playing Arma 2 on here. I'm still loving the game, it has its.... quirks but the rewards are so worth it. Maybe see you on the field some time.