Official : Demo impressions & feedback

[stgodd]

i have played the demo but it crashes randomly. sometimes after a minute but sometimes it lasts upto 20min without crashing. i need to restart my pc for it to work again as i get a "no signal" error shown on my monitor.

its like something is overheating but i dont have a program that will record temps while playing games so i dont know. also my comp works fine with other games like crysis/battlefield or anything else that i can play for hours.

from the short experience i have had with the demo i love the gameplay but obviously i dont want to buy it if its broken. what is the chance that i will get the same crashing issues with the full game (or Operation Arrowhead)?

spec:
8800GT
core 2 duo 3.00ghz
2 gig ram
windows 7

[BuckyBit]

ArmA2 Demo and ArmA2 Full Game

My specs:

CPU: AMD 4850e dual-core 2.5GHz, 1MB L2 Cache 45Watt
Graphic: ATI/AMD Radeon EAH4670 (RC730) 512MB
RAM 3 GB
32-bit Vista SP2

all settings on "Very High" except shadows ("High") and no FSAA in 1440x900

demo and full game... runs like a glove. For hours. Very long hours.

...just saying. for reference. I call that a lower-end PC. I could squeeze out more frames by lowering some settings, but feel no need to. It does really run smooth.


AI

[I take back my AI comment from before. The AI is actually amazing.]

playing it on Veteran, so far I've seen:

- the drivers/vehicles follow the road pretty accurately
- they leave the road if enemy fire ahead
- they take a shortcut but return to the road immediately (and stay on the road)
- they drive over (high) bushes but not against trees
- they react to other car-AI when in a convoy

- buddy AI reacts to my commands (always)
- buddy AI acts according to military rules (most of the time)
- combine these two above

now, the "enemy-AI" aka "combat" part is maybe not the greatest, yet STILL a great experience in single-player. The demo does not represent that well. Especially the tutorial part, where some events don't trigger accordingly (in my experience).

Overall, the AI very complex, better than in many FPS, who restrict the gameplay (corridor shooters, standardized approach), script most parts to the ends, that the gameplay reminds you more of Space Invaders + use mostly "fake"-AI for effects.

Story

What the demo also does not show you too much - the story is coherent and deep. You really get from your base to the mission and progress through the day of a soldier. The political elements in this game reminded me very much of the early post-soviet era and the struggles many countries in Eastern Europe had to go through. I've seen the demise of Yugoslavia, for example, first hand. The story and the way it is told in this game is very well executed (I'm in Mission 7).

Besides the jokes about the voices "ENEMY - FRONT - ZERO - FIVE..." (actual jargon) the voice acting in this game is fine! I like the conversations. I like the different languages. If you only speak English, you won't understand what the "Chernarussians" talk about - or even what YOU say (I turned off the subtitles) because they speak Czech and you'll hear also Russian. You can catch it in the Menu Log. You play a foreign soldier in a foreign land. People can be helpful or hostile. You don't know who and when. Gives the game a great atmosphere. Clearly some political comments in this game - even non-verbal.

Gameplay

The things you see in the demo are a good vertical slice of what you'll do in the game. But it is just a teaser. You only see a glimpse of the action that is possible. That's why it's a demo.

And I didn't even touch the multiplayer! I am too afraid to play and suck at it. But co-op/team/squad must be extraordinary with the right people and the right skillset.

I just started playing the game while also enjoying some youtube vids and fan-sites + http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/ - sorry to all the vets who play ArmA for years. You shouldn't read this thread anyways?

[TyFytr]

I played the ArmA2 Demo and the recent ArmA2:OA demo.

Arrowhead is nice. The original ArmA2 demo would crash my system to black screen after a bit, but Arrowhead demo works nicely on and on without any crashes. I'm enjoying the Arrowhead demo. It looks good and I'm interested in the ArmA world.

[DarthPsymon]

You forgot to include any weapons training or command issuing training.
The game expects an american keyboard (I think) so when it said press \ twice for auto hover, I had to work my way around the keyboard testing keys until I found the one that worked. It was the # key.

For reference, keyboard layouts.

I wanted to raise these points as I feel they could help new players get into this game better with less frustration.

[MarkcusD]

The new demo works fine on the same machine that the previous demo wouldn't run on.

[musterfox]

Trying the demo. One major problem I am facing.

No matter what I do, I cant bind "mouse 2" to move "forward". The game accepts the binding but doesn't enable it for some reason. I cleared all other "conflicting" binds that were clashing because they were also using mouse 2 but still no luck.

Any help appreciated....

[shadowcreaper]

the demo of arma2 OA still hasnt fixed the major freezing issue when you in a truck or hummvee and then use map and then game freezes and have to restart pc ...VERY anoying and still hasnt been fixed sinse arma2 beta.

wish they fix this as it proper anoying

[xX_Renegade_Xx]

Originally Posted by stgodd

i have played the demo but it crashes randomly. sometimes after a minute but sometimes it lasts upto 20min without crashing. i need to restart my pc for it to work again as i get a "no signal" error shown on my monitor.

its like something is overheating but i dont have a program that will record temps while playing games so i dont know. also my comp works fine with other games like crysis/battlefield or anything else that i can play for hours.

from the short experience i have had with the demo i love the gameplay but obviously i dont want to buy it if its broken. what is the chance that i will get the same crashing issues with the full game (or Operation Arrowhead)?

spec:
8800GT
core 2 duo 3.00ghz
2 gig ram
windows 7

A friend of mine also had the same error on a different game so you could try the suggestions in this thread and see if that rectifies it:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1334140

[elmoi69]

As an Arma 2 owner i must say this is a big step over its older version. This new engine runs perfectly smooth in my rig without any error, i got to say that Arma 2 fills like "other game apart" compare to this one IMHO. I was in the fence to buy this game, but i think i will get it now. Good job!

I run the demo with this:
1650x1050 MR
All settings medium to high and normal.

My system:
W7 32 bits
4gbs.
Video HD4870 512
Intel Core 2 duo E8400 3.0 ghz

[iceman087]

game runs fine for me,shot reg seemed a little off in the singleplayer.also the key bindings for my saitek evo were messed up,i couldnt seem to get the trust mapped right,its either up or down,cant seem to get both to work,had to use arrow keys and the rudder seemed messed up.works sometimes but other times it would just spring back when trying to turn...

So, greatly enjoying the game.
Was LOVING the editor, really went crazy with it, up until the point I saw it wasn't letting me using my custom missions in multiplayer.
Uhm...so...Is the editor included in the demo just to tease you? If not, how can I use my custom missions in multiplayer?

Hope someone can answer this =P

Well either you dont expect much of performance or have slide show vision because unless you have a 20K machine this thing is worthless as of today. I wasted a 50 spot on this and if anyone on this forum is saying this runs smooth they are not being honest or have a NASA super PC that can render the universe. I have a I7 , 6Gig, GTX480, raptor HD, 850 Watt PSU, and it runs like 20 FPS on low settings. Now to be clear I can run benchmark and get 80 FPS but when running game it may spike at 40-50 FPS but it runs in low 20’s most of time. I would give this away if I could !! Had STEAM remove it from my long list of last purchased games from STEAM.

Originally Posted by jimwho

Well either you dont expect much of performance or have slide show vision because unless you have a 20K machine this thing is worthless as of today. I wasted a 50 spot on this and if anyone on this forum is saying this runs smooth they are not being honest or have a NASA super PC that can render the universe. I have a I7 , 6Gig, GTX480, raptor HD, 850 Watt PSU, and it runs like 20 FPS on low settings. Now to be clear I can run benchmark and get 80 FPS but when running game it may spike at 40-50 FPS but it runs in low 20’s most of time. I would give this away if I could !! Had STEAM remove it from my long list of last purchased games from STEAM.

Do what I did: Run in Windowed.
Runs beautifully.

[MarkcusD]

I'm running 1920x1200 on the highest settings and frame rate is fine. Maybe the demo isn't the same as the final game. i7, gtx285. Though I will say I'm not as sensitive to frame rate as other people (high 20's are fine for me).

thank you! i downloaded this demo 2 days ago, and it was so slow that i was about to give up on it. found this post, typed in the commands, now i can run this game on very high, and i'm properly enjoyin it. thanks again-

Cheers,
skill