Jump to content

Arma 2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 84.202.208.245 (talk) at 15:16, 15 January 2010 (Misunderstanding of the copy protection (might need a better description though)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

ARMA II
European cover
Developer(s)Bohemia Interactive Studio
Publisher(s)505 Games (Europe)
Morphicon (Germany)
Got Game Entertainment (North America)
Akella (Russia)
Steam (Online)
Designer(s)Ivan Buchta
EngineReal Virtuality 3
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release

Genre(s)Tactical shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, Multiplayer

ARMA 2 (often incorrectly referred to as Armed Assault 2[6]) is a tactical shooter video game for the PC developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio. It is considered the spiritual successor in the Operation Flashpoint-series following its predecessor, ArmA: Armed Assault (ArmA: Combat Operations in North America). ARMA 2 was released in summer 2009.

Gameplay

ARMA 2 is a tactical shooter with significant vehicle and aircraft elements. The player is able to command AI squad members which adds a real-time tactics element to the game. This is further enhanced by introduction of the high command system, which allows the player to command multiple squads using the map. ARMA 2 is set primarily in the fictional Eastern European nation of Chernarus, (meaning "Black Russia’"). The Chernarus landscape is based heavily on the Czech Republic, the home country of the developer. The original Operation Flashpoint (OFP) was developed by Bohemia Interactive Studios (who own the Real Virtuality engine) and published by Codemasters (who own the Operation Flashpoint brand). ArmA and ARMA 2 are the spiritual successors to OFP. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is Codemasters' independently-developed sequel.

Campaign

Harvest Red is set in autumn 2009 in a fictional post-Soviet country called Chernarus (Black Russia). The country is in a state of political unrest, with a western backed democratic government trying to hold onto power from pro-communist rebels. After many months of civil war, the communist rebels failed to overthrow the current government and set up the Socialist Republic of Chernarus. The Chernarussian government asks the west for help and the United States sends the U.S. Marine Corps via an Expeditionary Strike Group off the coast of Chernarus. The campaign starts when the U.S. Marine Corps' Force Recon is deployed to Chernarus to quell the civil war.

Bohemia Interactive revealed during E3 that the game will have a "roleplaying feel to it"; with in-game events affecting the character as well as the entire campaign. An example would be terrorizing noncombatants and losing their trust, thus encouraging them to give away valuable information to enemy forces. The entire campaign can be played either offline (singleplayer) or online (cooperative play for up to four players).

Setting

The game takes place in autumn 2009 in the eastern part of a fictional post-Soviet state called Chernarus, particularly the region of South Zagoria and the remote island of Útes.

The area of approximately 225 km² is based on actual satellite photos of České Středohoří. All necessary data is loaded silently in the background, therefore the player is at no time interrupted by any loading screens while traveling through the terrain, though there are loading screens between episodes.

Features

Factions

ARMA 2 features five distinct armed factions, all with their own vehicles and weapons. Caught in the middle are the Chernarussian civilians.

Equipment

ARMA 2 features around 80 realistically-represented weapons with many variants from including assault rifles, machine guns, and missle launchers. There are around 130 vehicle variants, and any vehicle that exists ingame can be controlled by the player, including everything from civilian cars and tractors. Similarly, all aircraft encountered in the game can be flown by the player. All have limited fuel and realistic weapon loadouts.

Ballistics

All weapons have realistically simulated ballistics. Rounds travel in parabolic trajectories and show effects of bullet drop dependent on their caliber. Muzzle velocities are modeled, and rounds lose velocity and knockdown power over time traveled. The ranges at which weapons are zeroed are, however, fixed by the game. Sniper rifles can use stadiametric rangefinding to adjust for long-range shots. US rifles use mil-dot scopes while Russian rifles use Bullet Drop Compensation (BDC) scopes such as the PSO-1.

Mission Editor

ARMA 2 includes a feature rich mission editor which makes it possible to create user made single player missions or campaigns and multi player missions. Mission editor includes a wizard which makes the creation of basic missions extremely simple. More complex missions can be enhanced with scripting commands. The syntax and interface has been kept largely consistent with ArmA, meaning that missions are easily ported across and that there is a wealth of documentation available for new users.

Modding

ARMA 2, like its predecessors, has an extensive support for modding the game.

Technology

System requirements
Minimum Recommended
Microsoft Windows
Operating system Windows XP or Windows Vista
CPU Dual Core (Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, Intel Core 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 3200+ or fasterQuad Core CPU or Dual Core CPU (Intel Core 2.8 GHz, AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 + or faster)
Memory 1 GB RAM2 GB RAM
Free space 10 GB
Graphics hardware Nvidia Geforce 7800, ATI Radeon 1800 or faster (with Shader Model 3 and 256 MB VRAM)Nvidia Geforce 8800GT, ATI Radeon 4850 or faster (with Shader Model 3 and 512 MB VRAM)
Network Internet or LAN connection required for multiplayer

Engine

ARMA 2 uses the third-generation Real Virtuality (PDF) game engine, which has been in development for over 10 years and of which previous versions are used in training simulators by militaries around the world. This engine has full DirectX 9 support (Shader Model 3).

It features realistic day-night cycles, changing weather, fog and visibility, and a view distance of up to 10 kilometres. Every weapon in the game fires projectiles with real trajectories, drop off, and penetration characteristics. As such, no weapon system in the game is a "guaranteed" hit - only after the engine has simulated the event can it be determined if a given shot or missile has hit the target.[citation needed]

The number of agents supported by the engine is limited mainly by computer performance[7]. This allows a wide range of scenarios to be played, from small unit actions up to large-scale battles. Almost all events in the game are dynamically defined, including most unit speech and AI choices about how to evaluate and respond to specific situations in the game world: scenarios rarely unfold the same way twice - although a side with an overwhelming advantage will tend to win consistently.

The player can choose to turn their head independently from their weapon / body, unlike in most shooters where the view is locked to the weapon. This allows players to look left and right while running forwards to maintain awareness of the battlefield or to look around while in a confined space without having to lower their weapon.

In order to make immersive missions faster to develop and less predictable, ARMA 2 features an optional "ambient battle" feature in which the world around the player can automatically be populated by friendly and hostile units who will engage in combat.

Game updates

Shortly after the game's German release a 1.01 patch appeared, with the objective of improving AI.

Another patch, v1.02, was released on 20 June fixing more AI pathing issues and various singleplayer campaign problems. Then, another updated patch v1.02.58134 was released on 26 June. Patch v1.03 was released on 4 August, albeit without an option for stand-alone server hosts. Patch 1.04 was released on 15 September. On 22 December, patch 1.05 was released, which includes a new mini-campaign, Eagle Wing, and a new vehicle, the AH-64 Apache.

On August 19 Marek Španěl from Bohemia Interactive announced that the latest beta patches are available to everyone from the official ARMA 2 website.

Demo Version

The demo version of ARMA 2 was released on Bohemia Interactive forums June 25, 2009 and shortly thereafter on Steam.

In the demo version, the player is given the possibility to play two single player missions as well as six of the eight training missions. There is limited access to the mission editor. There is also access to a benchmark and limited online multiplayer.

Copy Protection

ArmA 2 uses different copy protections depending on publisher as well as a inhouse-coded copy protection solution against tampering known as FADE. If the software detects that it was pirated, the FADE-system degrades features of the game, rendering it unplayable. Downloaded version on STEAM is not limited by number of installs yet other download services maybe utilize some limits. As of version 1.05 the publishers copy protection have been removed from ArmA 2 although FADE is still included.

Reception

ARMA 2 has been praised for its realism, graphics, and the sheer scale of the game. However, as with the original Armed Assault, the game has received criticism for the number of bugs it contained on release[9] and the quality of the AI[10]. A reviewer at TheReticule.com ultimately felt that though at times it "doesn't work", the game is "a genuinely excellent game of the same pedigree of Operation Flashpoint and has done a lot of [sic] regain my faith in BIS".[11] Another reviewer noted that the game managed to show the "job of a real soldier today: contact with the population", something that is lacking in other similar games [12] The developers have since released several patches addressing common bugs.

Expansion pack

On 13 August 2009, Bohemia Interactive Studios and IDEA Games announced, on ign.com, that an expansion pack entitled ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead will be released sometime in the future. According to the site, players will be able to play as members of the United States Army in a fictional region of Central-Asia named Takistan. Operation Arrowhead will include two new maps, a variety of new units, vehicles and equipment, as well as the eponymous campaign.

The expansion will be standalone, meaning it can be run without the content in the original ArmA II, but players who purchased ArmA II will also be able to integrate that content into Operation Arrowhead. The developers plan on releasing some of the core changes introduced in Operation Arrowhead (such as performance optimizations) as patches, allowing regular ArmA II players to access to any engine improvements introduced in the expansion. New content, however, will remain exclusive to Operation Arrowhead.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Hrej.cz". Press release. 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  2. ^ "ArmA II". 505 Games.
  3. ^ "Arma 2 on Steam". Steam. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  4. ^ "ARMA II in North America!". MCV. 2009-06-22. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  5. ^ a b Fahey, Mike (2009-06-23). "Got Game Bringing ArmA II Boxed Copies To North America". Kotaku. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
  6. ^ Španěl, Marek (2009-04-29). "ARMA 2 - The Name Tale". Bohemia Interactive Studio. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  7. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KK6Fo3Y0AU Heavily overclocked system displaying 1500 agents in battle.
  8. ^ a b c d "ARMA 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
  9. ^ a b Stone, Tim (2009-06-17). "ARMA 2 Review". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
  10. ^ Shannon, Daniel (2009-07-20). "ARMA II Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2009-08-07. Buggy campaign is almost unbeatable; AI drivers should have their licenses revoked
  11. ^ Wild, Greg (2009-06-10). "ArmA II – The Verdict". The Reticule. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
  12. ^ Mandement, Laurent (2009-08-06). "Test d'ArmA II sur PC". Gamers.fr. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arma_2&oldid=338006711"