Deziddon.com

Welcome to the personal web-site of Dez Iddon, a web-site developer / designer residing in Clonmel, Ireland. Come in, Stay a while, Stay Forever!!

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27.05.2007 ~ Armed Assault - slowly counting to five

You're a United States Marine... a lone United States Marine lying prone in long, hard grass. You weren't always alone, but that's a different story...

Pressed against your shoulder is an M-4 5.56 carbine, complete with underslung M-203 40mm grenade launcher and an ACOG red dot sight. You're sweating. The grass around you makes you want to itch and sneeze all at once. But you can't. Not yet.

Below you, oblivious to your presence, is a North Sahrani regular. The enemy. He's armed too, another bloody Ak-74 - how does Kalashnikov sleep at night**? It's slung over his shoulder as he walks alone. He's been walking that tight circuit for reasons you can't begin to explain for 20 minutes now. He needs to be gone.

You expect a blawkhawk full of cocky Rangers here in less than an hour. Their job depends on your job. Your job is to make sure he isn't here. He's got a radio so he's left you no choice.

You inhale, your red dot sight slightly below and to the left of your target. He's just a target now. You've done this to targets countless times, this'll just be the first that walks in tight circuits for 20 minutes. You thumb off your weapon's safety, the selector on semi-auto.

You anticipate his next step and inhale ...

A blue bottle floats by your scope.

A blue bottle? ??

Son of Flashpoint

Anyone who pays attention will already know that Operation Flashpoint was the only game that I've kept on my computers for any length of time. Sure it was ugly and occasionally clunky, but once the sheer scope offered was realised, most criticisms went out the window as you prepared to do war. Even if you didn't complete the fantastic campaign you eventually dabbled with the mission editor. From there you probably got your hands dirty with the SQS scripting language and maybe even made a few addons! After all, it was a game that could grow with you.

But time has passed. Games have grown in requirements and complexity, and with them players' expectations. Late last year Bohemia Interactive did a Euro release of its continuation (in spirit if not in name) of the Flashpoint line, redundantly titled Armed Assault.

Broken 1.0?

Rumour mill has it that Bohemia was short on green and needed to make an earlier than ideal release to keep the wolf from the door. That would certainly explain the Czech and German releases of Armed Assault. Horror stories abounded about gameplay issues from texture caching to constant crashes. But with every complaint posted, there was a fantastic bead of hope. It was silently understood that the game wasn't finished, that with patience the already purchased broken software would spectacularly come of age. That it would somehow be worth it...

Patches came, patches went...

I bought the euro release of Armed Assault. Screen shots of the Czech and German release were doing the rounds, and they looked great! This was Flashpoint alright, but Flashpoint updated! I was very excited, the four hour bus ride couldn't have possibly gone any slower. The quick installation was too slow. The loading sequence was too slow. The training was too slow. The computer crashed. The reboot was too slow. The...

Wait a sec? Reboot? The impatience I can put down to pure excitement, but the computer blue-screening? Haven't seen that in a while! Ok - let's try again... another bluescreen...

First impressions... This isn't Flashpoint!

Everything is the same but different. I used to street fight (literally) in BAS littlebirds - now I crash in any chopper in 30 seconds. I used be able to estimate bullet drop on targets 500 metres away in the rain and drop them in one (ok... sometimes two) shot! CQB is impossible - rifles jumps like ... something that jumps a lot! And the enemy are all supermen. All of them! One shot one kill. Fuck this!!!

Back to Battlefield 2

Ah bunny hopping! Ahh being called a 'cheating n00b' for getting a lucky headshot at an on-rushing assailant! Ahhh waiting in a queue to board a blackhawk. Ahhhh getting shot while waiting in queue to board a blackhawk. Ahhhhh bailing out of a blackhawk because the 12 year old in the pilot seat (who'd been second in the queue) hasn't flown before. Ahhhhhh watching strafing runs end in big target fixation related explosions. Ahhhhhhh fuck this!

Version 1.05

Flashpoint is back! Wait, did I say Flashpoint? I meant Armed Assault. Patch 1.05 made it all ok. Not only do the 'main-bits (the walking, running, driving, killing bits)' work properly, during the lulls in combat you can't help but admire the level of detail the game offers.

Sure it's 400km² of terrain with modelled tides, real day/night transition, real star formations and the speed of sound - but I've found it's the little things that make me stop and stare. Imagine you're prone in long grass, a drawn bead on a distant target. You're holding your breath just before you pull the trigger and a fly wanders past.

Not a quake2 1 pixel fly with a dodgy sound effect, a fully modelled blue bottle. Wow! While it doesn't help in an engagement (I was spotted and killed while admiring that little black bastard) you can't help but be drawn into the game. Another that springs to mind was a rainbow that just happened to appear on a wet but sunny day. A rainbow in a combat game! Now that's detail*!

Anyway - short version! The game finally feels more like Flashpoint now. Installation of patch 1.05 (and its new flight model) means I can learn to fly properly all over again (I'm not street-fighting yet, but reasonably comfy below 10ft @ 120kts, and can hit targets with FFARs and come back with minimum damage).

Close quarters is still a bitch, but the firearms behave in what I perceive to be a realistic manner (I can still see the target in the sight picture after a single trigger pull!). It's definitely all the joys of Flashpoint again, but it's a pretty Flashpoint with cherrys and swearing! Just as it should be =)

On my own again?

With its more mature audience (few of whom whine about not being able to jump bullets) comes a thoughtful & team based multiplayer experience, which while often savage, tends to be a real brothers in arms experience. Seeing that I don't like spending my weekends in ditches of cold water, covered in black makeup brandishing a pointy stick pretending to ambush people (anymore) - this is the perfect substitute!

So what do I get for my bucks?

* If you just made a Leprechaun joke you deserve to die in the most hideous way possible. If, on the other hand you began to make plans to visit the end of said rainbow with rifle in hand and HUMMVW/gold cart in tow, give me a shout so I can trundle along and re-educate those lucky charms eating bastards =)

** I was willing to bet he'd be in a massive bed of money surrounded by beautiful women, but it turns out he's just selling Kalashnikov branded vodka instead... 

Tags: 07, ArmA, army, computers, custom, games, guns, military, wow.

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