Social media users are attempting to pass off videos of Bohemia Interactive's military shooter Arma 3 as real-life footage of the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which erupted into open war this week. Several of these mocked-up videos have circulated on Tik-Tok and Xitter, one of them purporting to show a member of the Hamas group shooting down Israeli helicopters. Bohemia Interactive have now released a statement calling on their community to publish and share Arma 3 footage responsibly, while offering advice on how to spot a fake.
]]>Arma 3's latest Creator DLC is out now. Called Spearhead 1944, it takes the realistic military simulator to World War 2 for a co-op campaign featuring over 90 period-accurate weapons and vehicles, as well as singleplayer and multiplayer scenarios.
The launch trailer below, and it looks great.
]]>Super serious shooter Arma 3 is leaning into its strengths in the next Creator DLC, called Spearhead 1944, which takes us back to World War II. The Arma series usually prides itself on realistic military simulations - apart from that one kooky expansion that added aliens - so WWII is almost the perfect battlefield for the long-running shooter.
Developer Bohemia Interactive say we’ll “be a part of the US First Army’s advance as they attempt to break through the German lines,” while using US equipment to “traverse the fields and bocage an all-new Normandy terrain.” Take a look at the impending battle below.
]]>Arma Reforger is the next game in the long-running military simulation series and will serve as an advance force for Arma 4, Bohemia Interactive have revealed during their ‘Future Of Arma’ stream today. Most of the information Bohemia had to relay was leaked over the weekend on Reddit, but it’s always good to get official confirmation of these things, amirite?
]]>The makers of Arma and DayZ have revealed Enfusion, the new cross-platform game engine they plan to build future games on. No, Bohemia Interactive haven't announced Arma 4, but they do say they would use Enfusion for "any potential new Arma game", so maybe that's something to bear in mind while looking at its screenshots of vast landscapes. While they don't have much more than screenshots and a wee video to show right now (sorry, engine enthusiasts), they do hint that they'll release some sort of "playable demonstration of its features" at some point "soon".
]]>As an on-off Arma 3 fan (250 hours seems like nothing in the Arma scheme of things), I generally find the base game not much of a game. Even with all the DLC, it’s still more of a sandbox for you to fill and play, but that’s what it was built to do. Others agree, which is why there are 89,000 mods on the Arma 3 Steam Workshop. Here’s some of the best.
]]>Arma 3’s newest Creator DLC drops a load of Vietnam-themed ordnance into the game today. Entitled SOG Prairie Fire, this DLC pack has been developed by third-party studio Savage Game Design rather than original developer Bohemia Interactive, and probably should have just been called ‘Arma 3 Goes to Vietnam’.
]]>Chinese tech megacorp Tencent are buying a minority stake in Bohemia Interactive, the Czech gang behind Arma and DayZ. Bohemia say they "will continue to operate independently and be led by the existing management team." Alrighty then!
]]>Playing games with other people is one of the beloved traditions of liking video games at all, and if you're the friendly type like us at RPS, then you'll enjoy games where you work with others, rather than against them. That's why we've put together our list of the best co-op games on PC for you to find common ground with your besties. Whether you want to shoot monsters together, shoot robots together, or get a divorcing couple to work together as they run around their own home as tiny doll versions of themselves, then you can find something to enjoy on this list of co-op games.
]]>Back when I reviewed Arma 3’s campaign, I whined like a hungry cat about how Bohemia never quite used the world to its fullest potential. I craved a mission that left me on my own to explore and adapt. Well, a mere five years on they've added something very interesting to the Steam Workshop. Arma 3 Apex: Old Man is an experimental, open-world, single-player scenario where you’re given a goal and a few hints, and then told to have at it. If you have Arma 3 Apex, it's free. I think I’ve found my Christmas present.
]]>Right now, there’s a room in Buffalo Grove, Illinois that's as quiet as a grave. The power is off, the robotic limbs are becalmed, and the once thumping presses are depressed. The Steam Controller assembly room is assembling no more, and with the recent Steam sale clearing out all the stock, the grand experiment is over.
It’s the final part of Valve’s great Steam Machines undertaking to be shut down. They’d hoped to convince you to have a PC in the living room, or a small box for you to stream your library from your main PC. The Steam Machines never took off, the Steam Link box was discontinued a year ago, and now the Steam Controller will no longer be made. Gone, but not forgotten.
]]>Livonia. The Baltic frontier. These are the voyages of gruff digital army cosplayers. Their continuing mission: to drive tiny robot trucks. To seek out new assault rifles, new combat arenas. To boldly go where... hold on, is that a ruddy alien? Sergeant, there's a bloody great extraterrestrial in my area of operations. I've seen films before, sir, you can get this one yourself.
Grab your tinfoil hats - Bohemia's dead-serious war simulator Arma 3 has gone interstellar in its latest expansion, Contact.
]]>In Vectorpark’s Sandcastles, you build fantastic towers and watch the waves erase your work every 10 seconds. It’s a very direct metaphor for the global climate crisis that threatens to flood coastal cities and exacerbate natural disasters. Sandcastles confronts us with our totally predictable watery doom, but we also find fun and expression in our totally foreseeable destruction. When the planet dies, at least we’ll be entertained.
Before you commit to starving and drowning, you should probably understand how and why it’ll happen. To imagine this nightmarish hellworld, readers can flip through climate fiction novels (“cli-fi”) and movie-goers can watch a big unprofitable climate disaster blockbuster every few years. But us mouse-clickers, we obviously don’t read books or watch movies. Instead, we play with climate. Behold, the climate crisis game.
]]>The straight-faced military simulation of Arma 3 will get a little weirder with its next expansion, named Contact, where serious soldiermen will encounter and investigate aliens. Expect strange lights in the sky, unknown aircraft, strange energy signatures, glowing orbs, the lot. It doesn't look like some kooky Stalin vs. Martians nonsense, mind, treating first contact with a suspected alien species seriously. Which sounds pretty great to me. It brings a big new sandbox map, with 163 square kilometres of kinda-real-ish Eastern Europe, for regular Arma activities too. Anyway, here, come meet some aliens in the announcement trailer.
]]>There's a major new Arma 3 expansion launching next Monday, April 29th, bringing the military sim back to its Cold War roots. Impressively large as it looks, Global Mobilization isn't by Bohemia Interactive, but the first release from their "Creator DLC" commercial mod program and produced by small team Vertexmacht. Mods going commercial isn't a new concept, but it has backfired for a few studios, including Valve's own failure to get the idea off the ground with Skyrim, and Blizzard's swiftly-abandoned premium mods for StarCraft 2. Still, Bohemia's approach seems more structured, at least so far.
]]>Arma 3 might be in the tail-end of its time, but there's life left in the old military sandbox. Today, Bohemia Interactive rolled out Warlords, a free new multiplayer mode based on fan-favourite Capture The Island. Two teams (or one against AI, or just a solo player, even) start in bases on opposite sides of one of Arma 3's big maps. Between them lie towns and bases populated by neutral enemy NPCs. Clear out camps, capture territory and gain resources to spend on new units and push further into enemy lands until one home base falls. A trailer for the new mode is below.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>Bohemia Interactive's Arma series remain almost uncontested as the games to own if the idea of realistic infantry combat tickles your fancy. The only barriers to entry have really been your willingness to deal with a game that prioritises realism over entertainment, the need for a relatively powerful PC, and the not-insignificant cost of the game itself. The Humble Arma 2018 Bundle fixes a third of those, offering everything in the series to date (minus the latest wave of DLC) for $20.
]]>Our Brendan yesterday pointed out that Day Of Infamy is hosting a free trial weekend but what for people who want warshooting that's more serious, more modern? For you lot, hey, Arma 3 is also inviting folks play the full game for free this weekend. Bohemia's military sim is on sale this weekend too.
But wait! Remember that Arma 3 also has a bustling mod scene. You could also play Playerunknown's Battle Royale, the mod which started this year's hottest craze. Or join one of those curious roleplaying mods where have jobs and play cops and robbers. Many options.
]]>Military sim Arma 3 today launches Tanks, the last of its announced DLC packs. Tanks adds a sleek new main battle tank and several other types of big cars with guns, along with new missions where virtuasoldiers will get roll inside those clanky boys.
The paid expansion is accompanied by a free update improving fightcars for all players, including modelled interiors for all armoured vehicles.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
I've long possessed a fondness for Bohemia Interactive's military simulators, ever since Operation Flashpoint invaded my hard-drive back in 2001. But ArmA 3 is the first Bohemia game since OpFlash to successfully modernise that that initial concept, striking a pleasing balance between ambition, accessibility, and stability of play.
]]>Arma 3’s new single-player mission pack, Tac-Ops, popped into existence last week, introducing three presumably very serious missions to the straight-faced military sandbox. They’re tricky, says developer Bohemia Interactive, and you’ll need brush up on your shooting, tactical positioning and adaptability. You should also learn some army phrases, but mostly because they’re fun to shout. Take a look at the trailer.
]]>Cowardice is a virtue. So says the team on this week's RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. That's because our theme is "running away" - games that encourage you to flee from danger, or that give you a choice between fight and flight. Adam will run from the soldiers of Arma or the post-apocalyptic antagonists of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Brendan will scarper from poor odds in For Honor or Overwatch, while Alice only pretends to run away in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, tricking her foes into giving chase before ambushing them like some kind of velociraptor.
]]>Don't come any closer. Brendan has some sort of illness. Because of this, there's no Electronic Wireless Show this week. However, we didn't want to leave your earphones completely unsullied, so went down to the audio archives and requisitioned an older recording. It involved talking to Hollow Janice, our beastial archivist with dense wiry hair who lacks both eyes and a soul. She told us to fill out some forms.
Today's episode is an old Ridealong by Brendan, in which he boarded a helicopter and flew through Arma 3's Altis Life mod with an outlaw called Hank.
]]>Come one, come all, but not all at once or you'll break our caching, and see the Steam Charts in all their glory! Which game will have reached the coveted #2 position this week?!
]]>Arma 3's [official site] Laws of War DLC, which puts you in the role of a humanitarian aid worker, is out now. At the heart of the package is a mini-campaign that fills the boots of explosive specialist Nathan MacDade, who has to identify and deactivate mines following the war in the Republic of Altis & Stratis.
The new humanitarian faction, called International Development & Aid Project (IDAP), bring with them new gear, including a van, a drone that can transport supply or deal with mine disposal and a mine dispenser, an "effective but controversial" weapon that does damage over a defined area. There's also various branded vests, bags, headgear and facewear, and a time trial challenge for the new drone and van.
]]>Simulated soldiers will get to join a humanitarian aid organisation 'Laws of War' DLC for Arma 3 [official site] next month, developers Bohemia Interactive have announced. This expansion, which Bohemia previously referred to by the codename 'Orange DLC', will bring a new mini-campaign starring someone from the new International Development & Aid Project faction. Naturally, this also means loads of new IDAP equipment that can be used elsewhere in Arma 3, including a cargo drone, new vans, and clobber. A new mine dispenser is in too, though it's probably not IDAP using that. Here, have a peek in this trailer:
]]>Because one launch isn't difficult enough, Arma devs Bohemia Interactive are going for one-and-a-half today. The big one is Argo [official site], their free multiplayer FPS spun off from Arma 3 [official site]. The half is an update for Arma 3 adding a new island to play on, the remake of Operation Flashpoint's Malden which Bohemia made for Argo. All this is to celebrate the 16th birthday of Flashpoint (or Arma: Cold War Assault, as Bohemia later renamed it) today.
]]>John has been writing these charts for just a few weeks and already he's had to book a week off in order to recover. I am made of more sterling stuff, and while he's gone it falls to me to share the details of which games sold the best last week on Steam.
]]>Arma creators Bohemia Interactive have announced that they'll launch their free 5v5 tactical shooter spin-off Argo [official site] on June 22nd. They released a public prototype free in November 2016 under their 'Bohemia Incubator' label and have been tinkering and expanding it ever since. Argo's an objective-driven game set on a remake of the original Operation Flashpoint's island of Malden, and that new Malden is coming to Arma 3 on June 22nd too. Arma 3 will also borrow Argo's cooperative mode, Combat Patrol. It'll be a big day for serious simulated shooting.
]]>Players will suffer sweats when they see these jets they are about to gets in the game of persistent threats. These new planes will appear in campaigns over the plains to cause some pains for territorial gains, and if one’s in your sight then just dogfight while taking flight with military might in Arma 3 [official site]. Your cover will be blown if you don’t go prone while one’s flown over you in the red zone. I’m writing as shown because everyone’s gone home and I’ve been left alone.
]]>We have a GIFbot in the RPS staff chatroom. GIFbot is a treacherous and unreliable creature, often offering wildly irrelevant or breathtakingly banal results when we type '/gif whateverphrase' and then cope with whatever it randomly pulls from whatever reprobate corner of the internet it's plugged into it. However, often enough its results are so irrelevant as to be perfection itself. And so we shall keep it around for an eternity, and reach for it in our darkest hours.
For instance, in the absence of a better conceit for the latest Steam Charts. For these, once again, are the ten games with the most accumulated sales on Steam over the past week. Take it away, GIFbot.
]]>Bohemia's military sim Arma 3 [official site] is three years old but goodness me, it's not slowing down. Bohemia have laid out their content plans for the next year, which include a free remake of Operation Flashpoint's island of Malden, and paid DLC covering new jets, new gear, new missions, and so on, then creeping into early 2018 we'll see more tanks rolling out. Busy year! A new video dev diary goes over the goods:
]]>Arma developers Bohemia Interactive today launched Project Argo [official site], a 5v5 multiplayer tactical FPS built upon Arma 3, as a free public prototype. It's one of the first games from their Bohemia Incubator label, also launched today, under which they'll tinker with experiments and prototypes. Some of these Incubator games will be scrappy and some may never be finished, which is why Bohemia plan to make many of them free. Bohemia have also put Ylands, their Minecraftbut, into the Incubator. Ylands is not free but does have a free trial.
]]>Phew, finally we get some new names in the Steam top 10 (previous weeks here'n'that), after the chokehold of the Steam Summer Sale is loosened. I did not expect that number 1, but I really did not expect that number 10.
]]>Arma 3 [official site] has jetted off on its summer hols with the launch of its Apex expansion today. Apex sends those surly soldiers to the sunny South Pacific to adventure on the tropical archipelago of Tanoa. Naturally, they've snuck a few fun toys into their luggage - one can hardly hit the beach without a thermal-masking uniform. A big update launched aside Apex too, with changes for all Arma 3.
]]>No new indie millionaries this week: we're still looking at the consequences of the Steam Summer Sale, so the weekly list of best-sellers is entirely devoid of new releases. Hordes of people who'd sat on the fence about 2015's big games jumped on the discounts, and that means many familiar names. Of course, you discerning bunch went and bought all the games we recommended instead, didn't you?
]]>A shorter than usual weekly Steam best-sellers chart this week, primarily because almost everything is explained simply by the words "Steam Summer sale", but partly because I've already spent a chunk of today compiling a big list of Sale recommendations to help our beloved readers' purchasin' decisions. You can have a pithy and/or explantory line about each game next week, promise. Meantime: these are the ten best-selling games on Steam last week. Expect next week's to look wildly different, thanks to the ongoing and regularly changing sale.
]]>Arma 3 will jet off on its summer hols to the sunny South Pacific on July 11th, developers Bohemia announced during E3 this week. The military sim's Apex expansion [official site] introduces the archipelago of Tanoa with 100 km² of sun, sea, shanty towns, sugar cane fields, and submachine guns. Along with a new area, it adds new vehicles, men, weapons and whatnot. Observe the customary E3 moving pictures:
]]>Phew: we have nine different names in the top ten sellers on Steam last week, rather than the recent trend for various pre-orders and season passes splitting the vote excessively. Question is, has Joe/Jo Public responded as rapturously to DOOM as Ian/Iana Critic has?
]]>Maybe you think you'll like shooting things, but you're not sure what flavour of shooting. Are you the type who likes tense, simulated military manshoots you can play with dozens of friends in wide open areas, with missions you make yourself and vehicles you can pilot and drive? Good news! Arma 3 is free on Steam this weekend.
Or are you the type who likes slightly-silly, rapid paced, run-and-gunning against chums and zombies? Good news! Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 multiplayer is free on Steam this weekend.
]]>"You can imagine the editor as a military-themed Mario Maker on PC," says one Bohemian in a video showing off the new editor coming to Arma 3 [official site] later this month. It certainly looks a lot friendlier than Arma editors of yore. Sure, folks have already managed to turn Arma into everything from a zombie apocalypses to a job simulator, but more approachable tools mean even more people making stuff. I am always in favour of more people making things. The more readme files the merrier, I always say. Missions and mods too, I suppose. Here, have a look at the new editor:
]]>Altis Life is a mod for Arma 3 [official site] where players take on the role of paramedics, police officers, taxi drivers, salt miners and many other ordinary occupations. You start with a wad of cash and try to make your own way in the world. Maybe you start running minerals and metal between mines and refineries. Maybe you become a humble fruit picker and spend all your money on a sweet new scarf. Or maybe one day you'll have an interview to become a medical helicopter pilot, conducted by other players. It's all possible.
Recently I was dispatched to a UK server to make contact with the citizens. I discovered tales of banditry, traffic regulations, police corruption, salt barons and much more. Most of my information came from a criminal known as Hank. Here we offer you the chance to hear my ridealong with Hank firsthand (edited for time, of course).
]]>There was a shot. It was not the sound guns make in Call of Duty or Battlefield. It was more of a sugar stick snapping or stretched bones cracking. Sparks was still running, his back occasionally illuminated by passing bullets. Careful, considered commands still coming over comms. I, however, was not moving. My vision blurred, and I fell. A crack later, and I was no longer in first person – cast into spectator mode by death.
This is how my first mission with Folk ARPS, the Rock, Paper, Shotgun joint Arma 3 outfit, came to an end.
Here is how it began.
]]>Altis Life is a roleplaying mod for Arma 3 [official site], featuring police, ambulance crews and outlaws. We sent Brendan deep into one of the UK servers to see what the populace is up to.
Hank receives a message. ‘Raise your altitude or be shot down’. Before either of us have time to consider it, we can hear the telltale crack of gunfire beneath us. Hank lifts the helicopter higher and higher until the gunshots ebb away. We are flying high over the orange streetlights of Kavala now, over the main street of the town, the bank, the fishmongers, the pub. I turn to Hank. Was that the police shooting at us?
“Yeah,” he says, hand on the stick, “that was small arms fire.”
]]>Bohemia don't always seem the most organised with how they update their games, whether it's DayZ or Take On Mars, but they have been much better over the past few years with Arma 3 [official site]. I like especially their regular posts about their internal development roadmap, and there's now a post and new footage outlining updates and expansions to come in 2016.
]]>July is for lazy mornings in the sunshine, lounging around beer gardens with family in the afternoon, and tackling gaming challenges with friends in the evening. Despite the height of summer, the RPS community has continued to soar, with action in Arma 3 [official site], Europa Universalis [official site], Guild Wars 2 [official site] and Terraria [official site].
]]>A leak last week made pretty clear that a new tropical landscape was coming to Arma III [official site], and now it's really, formally, officially happening.
The South Pacific archipelago of Tanoa (pronounce that last part like in 'quinoa' or everyone will think you're a right mug) will arrive in Bohemia's military sim with an expansion in the first half of 2016. I don't believe they've named the expansion yet. Of course, given that this announcement already leaked, all we really have to show you that's new is the trailer we couldn't see before:
]]>I remember my second kill in Battle Royale. The first one, like many first things in life, was somewhat sloppy and forgettable. The second one was different. It was at night and I was hiding in a ruined building in Agios Dionysios. The blue circle had just popped up and I was looking at the map when I heard the footsteps. A man ran past my building and stopped under a tree some 15 metres away, most likely to do the same thing I was doing - look at his map. All I had was a revolver. I peaked over the crumbled wall, aimed at his back and fired three times. Razmon - that was his name - flopped to the ground.
On a surface level Battle Royale is simply free-for-all deathmatch, but unlike most public multiplayer mods available for Arma 3 today, it's based on skill and a tiny bit of luck. You can't buy anything or grind to unlock anything. How well you do is down to your map reading skills, planning, situational awareness and gun handling. In this way, it's the cleanest deliver of what makes Arma multiplayer great - and it's playable against strangers, without the need to clear hurdles and join a community.
]]>Forget Big Brother, the real gods of surveillance are ardent fans. A keen-eyed dude(ette) over at the Bohemia Interactive forums recently shared a shocking geographical discovery: a new South Pacific island has been spotted in the waters of Arma III [official site]. It seems a new expansion will be announced real soon.
]]>Ready to discover once-and-for-all whether X-Plane is better than FSX? Whether Falcon 4.0 is better than Milk Float Simulator 2012? Ready to read the word 'realism' 46 times in a single hour, and spit feathers on discovering that the sim that caused got you through your divorce has been cruelly cold-shouldered by an idiot with a bus fetish and a sci-fi blindspot the size of the Crab Nebula? You are? Splendid. You're in the right place.
Me, I like my video game wars unrealistic enough that I can cross an entire battlefield in five carefully-placed strafejumps but you, you may fancy them more simmy. If you like your shooty-shoots militaristic and damned demanding, yet you haven't hopped into the Arma 3 [official site] APC yet, hey: give it a go, as the whole game's free to try in a free trial weekend on Steam.
Arma 3 is also on sale this weekend, half-price, if you decide you want to keep it. Developers Bohemia are discounting their other games too, including a wee 15% off DayZ.
]]>Last year Arma 3 [official site] was in the process of getting AT-ATs, thanks to a Star Wars-themed mod. The mod was eventually abandoned by its creator, McRuppertle, but he's uploaded footage from the first in-game test for people to peer at:
]]>Arma 3 [official site] has a nice approach to paid DLC. When makers Bohemia Interactive sell new odds and ends for cash money, they've also released free updates adding related extras for all.
This week they released the shooty Marksmen DLC, which adds more guns, scopes, ghillie suits, firing drills, and other things that go 'bang!' They also rolled out a hearty patch which improves the fundamentals of how guns work, and adds new bits and pieces including a scenario focused on feeling cool rolling around firing guns from moving vehicles. Heaven help me, I do enjoy shooty vehicle sections in games.
]]>Although winners have yet to be announced in the recent Make Arma Not War competition, the judges have published the shortlisted finalists. As a result a series of levels inspired by Hitman: Blood Money - far and away the best game in the Hitman series - have been brought to our attention. You can download 'em over here.
There are eight Arma III [official site] levels in all, each inspired by one of Blood Money's intricate scenarios.
]]>Part of Arma 3's recent roadmap includes more regular updates to the game's dev branch, introducing all manner of tweaks and new tools to the terrifying military simulator. As of this past week, that includes new helicopter physics.
Using knowledge gained via Bohemia's own Take On Helicopters (my title for this post is really very clever), a new set of flight physics have been introduced which "is more complex, taking into account things like a helicopter's construction, the weight of fuel/ammo, wind influence, stress damage and much more besides." There's a video of the new model in action below.
]]>Arma 3's battlefield simulation may not be so complex that one needs the full 26 weeks of basic training the real army provides, but it could definitely do with offering a little more guidance. Which it now does, thanks to today's 'Bootcamp' update adding all sorts of training, with a single-player mini-campaign, multiplayer bootcamp where players can play at drill sergeant and holler while forcing rookies to crawl on their bellies under barbed wire, and VR training that's an excuse to play around with its fanciest toys.
It also adds a 'Virtual Arsenal,' which is perhaps the closest you'll get to a soldier dress-up game.
]]>My first online experience with Arma 3 involved failing to grasp our mission, stumbling around in the dark, and falling accidentally out of a helicopter to be left stranded in a forest. Arma 3 Bootcamp is exactly what I needed. That's the name of the next update to the military sim, and it's going to introduce a new tutorial campaign, an 'instructor' scenario for multiplayer, a gun model-viewing encyclopedia and a virtual training mode. Plus greater Steam Workshop support and a new game launcher. Full details below.
]]>April 1st can be confusing enough already, and it's only going to get harder if things that were jokes once upon a time continue to make the leap to really-real existing games. Last April Fool's day, Arma 3 creators Bohemia Interactive released a go kart parody of a Volvo Truck advert. Now they've released Arma 3 Karts as a piece of DLC, out today for £1.19 on Steam and with a portion of the proceeds going to the Czech Red Cross. The original trailer is embedded below.
]]>While the internet is all a-bustlin' with news of the latest Call of Duty, another maker of military manshoots announced their future plans. Except we like these military manshoots. Arma 3's three-part campaign is out and finished, but a development roadmap posted on the official Arma site makes clear that they're not done yet. Things to come: Steam Workshop support, new DLC and a full expansion.
]]>On Tuesday I began my second pen-and-paper roleplaying experience, joining three friends for our first trip into Numenera. I'm amazed at how much time and energy the DMs I play with - my other game is D&D - are pouring into the worlds and stories they're creating. I have that impetus, but not the follow-through.
Arma 3's new Zeus DLC is tempting, though. It allows you to act as a GM on multiplayer servers, shaping military maneuvers around players in real-time. Less lore-building, more tank-spawning? A button that causes lightning to strike? My laziness could probably stretch that far. It's out now, and there's an old developer playthrough below.
]]>I've played Arma 3 for about 70 hours. At least 20 of those hours involved me loading up the editor, planting a helicopter and pilot on the map, and just flying all over the island. Altis is a breathtaking creation. I can't get over the fact that it exists. Bohemia's main duty since October has been to create a single-player campaign that uses their remarkable creation and engine, and the final part of The East Wind series of episodes was released a short while ago. I've played it and completed, and here's Wot I Think.
]]>Arma 3's campaign has been deploying from exploding helicopters for a while now; first Survive, then Adapt, and now the third and final act, Win, is available. It's available to all those who have bought Arma 3 so far, and while we ready a WIT of the whole campaign, there's a launch trailer below.
]]>The Arma series has a history of 'real life' mods, the designation of which suggests that ARMA isn't already a relatively accurate recreation of real life activities. Soldiers are not a fictional character class. The Life mods aim to drop players into a world where earning a wage and shopping for groceries is as important as firing a gun. Rather than being a first-person multiplayer interpretation of The Sims (which I would definitely play), Altis Life is cut from the same cloth as GTA V's online mode. Players can be civilians or cops, and the former are likely to come into conflict with the latter when they realise that forming a criminal gang is more fun than picking berries.
]]>Universe: "I have become known for doing at least one thing no one will ever see coming per day. For example, at the dawn of time, it was existing. Last week, it was Miley Cyrus doing a halfway decent cover of Outkast's "Hey Ya." I must keep all beings sentient and otherwise on their toes (and otherwise)."
Pinky: "Gee Universe, what are we going to do tonight?"
Universe: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky... actually, I hadn't thought about it. Wow. I'm really dropping the ball here. I have become complacent. I have failed."
Pinky: "I don't really understand, Universe, but this Arma 3 game is boooooooooooring. Nothing ever happens, and then I lose-- NARF. Oh, I know! It needs a dinosaur level."
Universe: "Why, Pinky, that's entirely preposterous and frankly idiotic and... wait! That's it! Pinky, you're a genius."
Pinky: "Narf? Also, when did I become the universe's demigod sidekick? Brain?"
]]>"Assume the role of the game master," starts the website about Arma 3's coming Zeus DLC. For a brief moment I pictured my face floating above the Arma 3's Greek islands, digitally smeared like the late Sir Patrick Moore's.
Alas, this is even better. A new mode for Arma 3's multiplayer where one player can act as a kind of dungeon master, using a real-time editor to craft or tweak multiplayer scenarios on the fly. It's like having an AI director, only the director is your friend and even more malicious.
]]>Arma 3's campaign singleplayer is being released in three chunks. The first, released late last year, was called Survive. The second is out today and is called "Adapt". There's a trailer below, which shows a player adapt from a lying-down to a standing-up position, and then there's an explosion and lots of little parachuting men.
Woo.
]]>Arma has always been a modders paradise, though I imagine the mad success of DayZ has prompted Bohemia to encourage the practice even more. Thus, the Make Arma Not War contest. By producing content in one of four categories - Total Modiciation, Singleplayer Game Mode, Multiplayer Game Mode and Add-on - modders can win part of a prize pool of €500,000. If your project shows potential and regardless of whether or not you win, Bohemia might be in touch to offer you a development contract.
Details and an introductory video below.
]]>For a while, I was a proponent of Bohemia releasing an Arma game that was just a platform for the fans to build upon, and it almost happened with Arma 3: they released the game with a few showcases and Steam Workshop integration, but held the campaign back to work on it post-release. Except doing that made me realise that it does feel incomplete without something official to ease into. Survive, the first episode of the campaign, turned out to be a cracking few hours of island-based action. It reminded me that Arma's sandbox could easily be used to create a tightly controlled story, as opposed to the sandboxy mods usually install. I'm excited to hear that the second part, dubbed Adapt, will be arriving on January 21st.
]]>When Comrade Stanton gazed into the beautiful behind of Arma 3, he thought it was a sideways roll for the series. Part of the problem was that the game's campaign wasn't included, and instead was coming via three "free" DLC packs in the months after release.
Now the first part of the campaign is out, and there's a launch trailer below.
]]>Videogames are impossibly complex, and it's a miracle they work at all. Have you ever stopped to think about what a game like tactical shooter Arma 3 is doing, 30 times a second, every second? All those polygons it's drawing on screen, the bouncing of light off those polygons, the physics of every vehicle, the animation of every character, the artificial brains to bring those characters to life. And, of course, the guns and the bullets they fire, ripping through the world, arcing, losing momentum, draining health.
Arma 3's ballistics are more impressive than any game in the series, and this video from dslyecxi, leader of the ShackTac troop, shows why.
]]>Arma 3 arrived with a weather system, a day-and-night cycle, an island so beautiful that it makes me want to go on holiday, quad-copters, bunnies, and a fully-integrated mission distribution system. But it was still missing a proper single-player mode, which I am keen on playing. The official campaign from Bohemia will come in three parts as DLC, and the first part of that will be released on Oct 31st. How do I know? They told me. They also sent me some lovely screenshots of it, and I've dropped them in below.
]]>We're still waiting for official Arma 3 content to arrive from Bohemia, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to play. The Arma 3 Steam Workshop is a time-sink of missions, mods, and misc add-ons that I can only describe by pulling a face. Just imagine a quizzical kitten. What's on there? What's worth playing? What's worth experiencing (which might mean it's broken but worth a look, or it might be so ridiculous that I couldn't help but install it)? Here are a few things that caught my eye.
]]>If Arma 3 is a chunky military stew, then Arma Tactics is what's left if you end up getting engrossed in a game of sports (everyone loves sports, yeah?) and leave the pot on. A reduced (and possibly burnt) tactical tagine that was previously only announced for tablets and phones, because they can't handle the big stuff. Well that's benefiting the PC: the resser-uppers at Bohemia have been on the case, bringing the turn-based close-combat strategy game to us this October.
]]>Look at that screenshot. Study it. That's not just any ass. That is a rear view of former PC Gamer writer Richard McCormick, and a few days ago I spent at least an hour with this in my face while guiding us around the extensive coast of Altis in an assault boat. It took up so much of my screen for such a long time that I came to see it as not just a digital derriere, but an emblem of ArmA III.
Let's find out why.
]]>The attractive island exploration simulator multiplayer military simulator, Arma III, has officially transitioned from its extended beta phase into full release mode. Sort of. Bohemia have dropped the beta tag but they haven't added a campaign to the game yet - that'll be released in the near future and patched in. After months of discoveries, which mostly involved Craig crashing helicopters while eyeing up shacks, bees and Altis, it feels like the game has been out for a good while already. The release version includes the full island of Altis, with 12 showcases and 3 faction showcases, 10 challenges and 9 multiplayer scenarios. We'll have a Wot I Think soon. For now, engage your visual organs and watch the launch trailer.
That almighty mighty thump you just heard was Bohemia deploying the island of Altis into Arma 3. The first stage of the full release is the delivery the huge landmass into the development branch of the game (Steam > Arma 3 Beta > Properties > Betas), prepping it for a load of content to follow. Unless you're handy with the editor, or download one of the early missions on the game's Steam Workshop, there's not much to do yet, but that shouldn't stop you from loading it up. The detail they've put into Altis is reason enough to play it. It's beautiful. A landmark creation for the PC. I've put together a little tour of the island if you fancy seeing the sights.
]]>I love the disconnect of Arma 3. Look at the shot above. That APC is the IFV-6c Panther. You can tell it's a scary beast because it has all those letters in front of it, and there's that gun turret on top. And where have Bohemia plonked it? In front of a lovely sunset. It feels like a massive joke that got out of hand: "Can we recreate an incredibly holiday island?" "Yes we can. We can build beautifully a rendered Mediterranean island, with flatlands and rolling hills, tiny villages and huge cities." "Great! Now let's fill it with hulking war bastards and blow shit up." And so they did. They're so proud of it that they streamed an hour of their new island this weekend, and I have embedded it like an unexploded bomb. Except you may approach this.
]]>Hunting through impressive Arma 3 mods is a full-time job. Luckily for me, it's my full-time job, so I get to show everyone what amazing things the community has been making and keep myself in the manner to which I've become accustomed (impoverished, hungry, covered in sores). So in admiring this amazing in development Arma 3 Construction Mod, you're doing me a favour. Go on, admire it. It's definitely worth a coo over: it's a building mod that will enable you to create everything from simple shacks to complex, multi-story, er, shacks. The trailer is very impressive.
]]>I already sort of consider Arma 3 to be out, but I've sunk 40 hours into the alpha/beta/whatever, so that's skewed my view of it. To me, it's out, even if there's more to come. To Bohemia, the real launch will happen sometime in September. This will bring with it the full island of Altis, with 12 showcases and 3 faction showcases, 10 challenges, 9 multiplayer scenarios, but it won't bring the single-player campaign. That's been delayed, and will be episodically delivered. The first episode, Survive, will be out within four weeks of the initial release. The following two sections arrive in the following months.
]]>It's story time again with community Arma tsar Andrew "Dslyecxi" Gluck, who has been explaining all about how to play Arma 3, via a series of videos. His latest tackles an aspect of the previous games that always gave me - and I am sure a few others like me - the willies: helicopters. Sure, it's often possible to take off with a helicopter in these games, but parking them in a tree just seems impossible. Fortunately Dslyecxi explains that I've been doing it wrong all this time, as you'll see below.
]]>Dean "Rocket" Hall has no plans to port DayZ into Arma 3's shiny new MAXIMUM GRAPHICSABILITYROCKABILLY engine, but fans? Well, they're free to do as they please. And so, the Zoombies mod was born. It is, for all intents and purposes, the DayZ Arma 2 mod transferred directly into Arma 3. Same models, weapons, and systems, but with lots of sleek, seductive makeup for the zombies and glorious goodies like a streamlined inventory. Sounds like quite the thing, huh? It's not quite DayZ Standalone, but bravo nonetheless.
]]>Jim is basically the J. Jonah Jameson of RPS: I was handsomely making sweet news for you guys when he stormed into the forbidden RPS chatroom of mystery, slammed his fists on the desk with the rage that only an editor can muster, and demanded I find some mods. "It's the weekend!", he angrily typed. "If you don't find at least three mods by the end of the day that the readers can play, you can go and beg VG247 forra job." And then he stormed out, muttering about page impressions, tea, and robots. Luckily I've been on a bit of a modding binge of late, so I have a few interesting things for you. Do you have Arma 3 installed? That's nice.
]]>I promise we have some good news lined up, but right now I have to tell you that if you have an account over on Arma 3 developers Bohemia's website then you'll have to change the password. They've had one of those database hack things happen. Usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords have been acquired, though payment information is safe. They've taken the cautious approach and reset all their passwords. Points for using the word "nefarious" in the warning, Bohemia.
]]>Deep breath... *boom*. The little dot in my sights zigs to the left. *Crack*. He zags to the right. I have no hope of hitting him at this distance, as I'm only aiming in his general direction, but it's enough to make him think he could die at any moment. He's taking decisive, military action, but with a hilarious, half-ducking run. I give up shooting, because hunting for more bullets is a pain, but he carries on running and dodging without any more shots from me. My goal has been fulfilled: to make him run like John Gordon Sinclair in Gregory's Girl.
]]>If, like me, you are a kind of cyborg, you might recall that one of Arma's keenest community leaders, Andrew ‘Dslyecxi’ Gluck, has been overseeing some of the trailers for the alpha of Arma 3. That's true now that the game has entered beta, too. His latest work is SITREP (pronounced as if you are giving orders over the noise of gunfire) which covers some ground we've already seen - the clever simulatory embellishments of Arma 3 - as well as explaining what that long alpha thing was all about. The idea of it all, I believe, is to entice you into the beta, via their store.
Yes.
]]>All good things must come to an end, and the Arma 3 Alpha is pretty good (Steam says I've played it for a healthy 36 hours). If you're still considering buying it, you only have one more day left to buy it at the alpha price of €24.99, £19.99, $32.99. Tomorrow the Alpha fades out, like a flare sputtering its last embers of warning light, and the beta replaces it. It has more official content: 10 vehicles, 7 weapons, more showcase missions (Combined Arms, Supports, Commanding & Night), 2 multiplayer scenarios and 4 challenges, and with it comes a base price of €34.99, £29.99, and $44.99. Think of it as a military upgrade, or a nice new pair of trousers.
]]>"But Craig", you're probably saying to your monitor. "I totes remember insects casting shadows in Arma 2. Like seriously." To that I say: "That's cool. Let's talk."
This was supposed to be a post about the wonders of Arma 3's new screenshot mode, splendidly named the Splendid Camera. It still is. Splendid Camera, I shall always call it by its full name, is one of those additions that shows you how deeply into the community's den that Bohemia are willing to burrow to make people happy. In this case it's a function that's specifically designed to allow players to fly around the game, slow time, remove the HUD, and even change exposure and focus settings, just so they can take nice screenshots. That is how I discovered that both Arma 2 and Arma 3 had insects that cast shadows.
]]>Ah yes, and while we're talking about Bohemia stuff that reminds me to post the most recent Arma 3 guide video thing. This is the one that really gets at the heart of what Arma is about: multiplayer things! If you are not chatting with chums as you co-ordinate to not get shot, then you are doing it wrong. Doing that right, of course, requires quite a bit more insight, and who better to point you in the direction of not cocking it up, than Arma superfan Andrew "Dslyecxi" Gluck?
]]>The scenario: you have the Arma 3 Alpha and you've exhausted the stock missions the game comes with. You're also rubbish with the editor, and you don't live with someone Arma Arm Armasson, who can show you what to do with it. Don't worry. There's no such person, so you're not missing out on his sage wisdom. And Arma 3 is pretty easy to have fun with. Here's what people have been up to
]]>"Oh boy! I can finally get into prison early!" Oh videogames, don't ever stop allowing me to create phrases of such ear-perking outlandishness that people could mistake me as ringleader of a merry band of elves. Other gems now possible thanks to Steam's paid-alpha-centric Early Access program include "Hooray! Frighteningly authentic war's happening even sooner than I thought" and "I wasn't planning on being shipwrecked with no hope of escape today, but I certainly can't complain." But Prison Architect, Arma 3, and Under The Ocean are only three of the 12 inaugural games on offer. The rest - and perhaps even some freshly baked wordthinks - are after the break.
]]>Bohemia Interactive is doing smart things at the moment. The first smart thing they did was to give me access to Arma 3 before everyone else had it, which made me happy. That is a smart thing, because I am very important person, and my mum says I am handsome. The second smart thing they did was to release the Arma 3 Alpha to people who are not me, because it makes multiplayer games a lot more fun, and it means they can get to work with optimising their Greek pixels. The third smart thing was just launched: everyone who owns a copy of the Arma 3 Alpha has copies of the Lite edition to give away. Check your Steam Gifts, everyone. A heavily armed Santa Claus has been!
]]>Over the past few years I've noticed a theme of players seeming to "get" certain games as well as - and often even better than - the developers of said games do. The Arma games are one such series, where the input from ultra-dedicated players is one of the most powerful assets to the series. Who better to captain the Arma 3 trailers, then, but one of Arma's own superfans, Andrew 'Dslyecxi' Gluck, who helps run the ShackTactical community.
This new trailer series (first one below) is ostensible about the Arma 3 Alpha, but this first trailer ends up being about the series generally. If you've not ever dabbled and want to understand the appeal, this is where to look.
]]>The Arma 3 Alpha has shot to the top of the Steam charts, and for good reason. It's looking like Bohemia's most potent offering yet.
Trailer and thoughts below.
]]>I've been playing the Arma 3 alpha! I know. But before we get to that, let's see what project lead Joris-Jan van ‘t Land has to say about the state of the project, and the plans for this early release of the madly anticipated sandbox soldier sim. Read on for victory!
]]>From next week you'll be able to play Arma 3. Yes, the headline gave it away, didn't it? Pre-ordering a "Arma 3 Alpha, Arma 3 Digital Deluxe, Or Arma 3 Supporter editions" (all available soon) will soon give immediate access to Arma 3 on Steam, or at least to an alpha test of a limited build of the game that will run until the full beta test some time in the second quarter of the year. Bohemia explain: "Featured in the Arma 3 Alpha are four showcase missions (Infantry, Vehicles, SCUBA and Helicopter), a limited subset of weapons and vehicles, two multiplayer scenarios, the powerful scenario editor and modding support. The 20 km² island of Stratis, which is positioned right off the coast from Arma 3’s main destination ‘Altis’ (270 km²), will form the backdrop of the Arma 3 Alpha." There's much more to come, as the scope of the test expands.
]]>I wonder if this thing could be related to this other thing? Whatever the case, Bohemia Interactive are putting their next egg into a single basket, and that basket is Steam and the egg is Arma III. Rather than just sending out a press release to tell us, Bohemia have posted a detailed blog entry to make the argument that removal of choice for the consumer is 'a good thing'. Primarily, it'll allow Bohemia to concentrate on making the game, ensuring it's out in 2013 rather than slipping as a result of "two quite serious situations": the arrest of members of the team and, less specifically, Bohemia's unhappiness "with how the project was going".
]]>DayZ's standalone version continues to be shrouded in real life's most potent zombie fog - aka, mystery - but Rocket's not the type to intentionally keep people in the dark. So he's been trickling out details where he has them, and now we know that a closed test is "imminent." But how exactly will it work? And what lies beyond - for instance, once players start flooding into nebulous "endgame" territory or. further, when ArmA III reawakens the ancient modder kraken currently sleeping in Rocket's soul? Thanks to Reddit's eternally inquisitive hivemind, we now have answers.
]]>The two Bohemia Interactive developers arrested on accusations of spying in Greece have, it's been announced today, been released on bail. And even better, are free to return to the Czech Republic. This has come about, remarkably, after the involvement of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, directly in communication with the Czech PM, Petr Nečas.
]]>
