I downloaded the demo yesterday and played a bit of single player to see what it was like. I'm NOT favorably impressed. The infantry action seemed ok, though the AI seemed very odd... before I realized how to use the scope, the bastards would hear me plinking away at them from several hundred meters and I'd get blown the hell away with a quickness. After I figured out the scope, I laid waste to the entire base without being shot at... a bit odd. But apparently the mission was on a timer and the timer expired and I failed. A tad annoying.

I then tried a different mission where you pilot a little chopper on a patrol. Chopper controls are difficult.... first it took me forever to figure out how to get into a chopper... and it turns out it's a bit sketchy. Once I got the flying controls, I could take off and go forward.. but turning is terribly difficult. And then some guy on the ground saw me, shot me, and killed me before I knew what was going on. While I was flying in a chopper at high speed. So...yea... not favorably impressed.

the demo does support multiplayer coop, presumably on that first map, so we can give it a shot and see how it goes.

Yeah i played the demo a couple of times and stil have it on my machine. Overall, i pretty much had the same sentiments as yours. I was however please to see that atleast the graphical retardedness in ArmA2 has been fixed. Or maybe that's the way they polished the demo, i dont know.

I mentioned this to Ox over steam, that I dont really think it's logical for the game to be set in a special forces kind of environment. Ie, small team, high tech weapons, a million forms of support at hand (UAV, artillery, direct HQ comms), etc... Op Flash was classic because it threw you into the infantry experience and that made it unique. You had your rifle and that's about it.

The AI did seem a bit weak in the opening seconds of the first coop mission. You get inserted practically within 200m of an enemy outpost, which is totally unreasonable for both reality and the concept of immersion. But basically I got within sight, went prone (not even behind cover) and simply started plinking away. Knowing that for some reason, the AI would in no be able to figure out where I was, let alone return fire. So much for realism.

Did you notice how your weapon was taking up 50% of the screen?

The sounds are also very off. OpFlash and ArmA had more or less the same problems, which could be fixed with a mod, but really the firing (incoming and outgoing) are warped. The voice acting is also fucking terrible, especially the main character. Ugh.

Overall, the demo doesn't convince me at all. I see none of the beauty I did in OpFlash or ArmA1, instead, the game seems to have lost alot of direction, as if it's distracted itself without actually having achieved anything new.

However, im willing to give MP coop a go, if indeed we can via the demo. I guess to make the best of it, Ox needs to get the demo and we can have a whirl. Hopefully playing that rather gash mission coop will reveal something worth buying.

illustrations...

Ox grabbed it, so it's just a matter of us three getting together.

btw, the performance is horrible. I have to crank the resolution all the way down to get playable framerates. Sure, 1920x1200 is high rez and sure, an 8800gt is kinda old, but why can I play Just Cause 2 and Red Faction at those resolutions and get playable framerates, and not ARMA? I guarantee they both have much more going on. Blah.

So... yea. No way am I dropping $30 on this thing. I'm willing to try coop with you two on the demo, but I don't expect it to change my mind.

Oh so I guess they havent fixed the performance issues. It's kinda like the original release actually. A great number of people found issues, whereas the other lot were fine. Now this installment may have helped SOME of those guys, but not all.

Okay, Ox get your booty online tonight and we'll give it a spin.

btw, I talked Ox into grabbing Op Flashpoint 2 demo. I own the game and, imo, it's much, much better. No performance issues, the AI isn't retarded, and the missions are a lot easier to follow. It also allows 4-player co-op through the campaign, plus there are shitloads of player-made add-on maps.

How about you grab a copy of the demo as well, Derf, and we can play test both game with You, Ox and I.

Yeah I suppose i should. I was put off on release since it seemed a bit too CoD-like for my taste. I'll grab the demo.

it's not very COD... wide open spaces, getting shot is pretty deadly, etc etc. No hiding around a corner until you magically heal or anything. I think it's close enough to realistic that you'd be alright with it.

I can't seem to install the demo, though, probably because I own the game. Hopefully I can still play with you. I may have to install the demo on Shiny's account if that doesn't work.

K im downloading it from Steam. 1MB a second, so should be go for today.