America's Army 2.8.5/3.0

[FDS]

http://americasarmy.com/

A free FPS game for the PC actually developed by the U.S. Army. Yes, it is free because it is intended to be a recruiting tool for teenagers. However, most people just play it for fun and it's actually quite well made. It is also supposed to be one of the most realistic as far as FPS games go. It is pretty active with a fairly large community. A lot of players who don't like the gameplay of COD4, BF2, etc. have leaked over into it. The game does have an offline mode which is mostly just training you need to complete before you can play that teaches you the controls and such. The majority of the play is multiplayer online in which one team must eliminate all enemies or complete an objective to win the round. There are also maps with special objectives and coop maps against all AI (in 2.8.5). Lots of teamwork and strategy is involved.

Version 3.0 running on the Unreal 3 engine was just released not too long ago, but many people have problems running it because of the heavy system requirements. You can download 3.0 through steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/13140/) for free and 2.8.5 from various other hosts linked on their website. Version 2.8.5 still has a fairly active community of both die heart players and people who have chosen not to make the move to 3.0 because of either the system requirements or drastically different gameplay. v2.8.5 is very easy on your system and most anyone with a basic rig should be able to run it.

Just curious, anyone else here play this game? I've been pretty much addicted to the older version (2.8.5) over the past year or so. I personally can't run AA3 too well on my current system and am not a big fan of the gameplay compared to the older 2.x version. Here's my tracker account: http://battletracker.com/playerstats/aao/777951/?c6dd22af
yes I have a 100 honor account (the highest you can reach) and a secondary 71 honor. I've played roughly 1500 hours over the past year, have had player admin/punkbuster power privileges on 4 different servers, and been in/out of 2 or 3 clans. :P. I am by no means a veteran player by comparison to people who have been on this game since it came out in 2004, but like I said I've been pretty much addicted to it over the last year. The two maps I've played the most are ES2 Border (1000hrs) and Bridge Crossing (500hrs).

So, anyone else here play AA either 2.x or 3.x? What maps / servers do you play the most? What's your in game name/account? Are you in a clan? If you play 2.8.5 maybe share your xfire or something as it would be cool to play with other smogoners. I'd be glad to invite you to the servers I play the most and provide their respective public vent/ts ips too.

EDIT: BTW you can download version 2.8.5 installer (the best version) here: http://www.bigdownload.com/games/americas-army-special-forces/pc/americas-army-deploy-client-setup/

 

[Marisa Kirisame]

When AA3 came out it was extremely buggy and the response from the community was pretty bad because of it so I had never bothered to download it and instead took the words of my friends. I've been doing some quick research and it looks like they've fixed a lot of the problems from its initial release and I might even go ahead and try to download it; since it's free it shouldn't hurt to try.

I thought the concept was really unique, I wish we had more realistic shooters (I personally didn't find Red Orchestra fun at all) where you aren't some invincible man with infinite HP plowing down your enemies with insane amounts of firepower.

I find ArmA II (not to be confused with America's Army 2) superior to America's Army in every way possible and if you're looking for a true realistic experience on a more advanced game engine with highly intelligent A.I. as well as a fully customizable mission editor with many different types of vehicles and aircraft. ArmA II supports a full open-world environment and you can even have fights with a thousand A.I. on a massive battlefield. It requires a rather powerful computer to play though and does cost $50.

That being said, AA3 is freeware and provides a rather high level of entertainment as well as replay value due to the popular multiplayer and if you're trying to get away from the game-play style of Halo 3 and CoD 4 for cheap then this game is worth a try for sure.

 

[FDS]

When AA3 came out it was extremely buggy and the response from the community was pretty bad because of it so I had never bothered to download it and instead took the words of my friends. I've been doing some quick research and it looks like they've fixed a lot of the problems from its initial release and I might even go ahead and try to download it; since it's free it shouldn't hurt to try.

Yes, very true. I preloaded it for the release date and the whole launch was a complete failure. Regardless, after a few months they released a bunch of patches and it's running fine now. (currently v3.0.6) You still need a fairly high end system to run it, but looking at the specs in your sig you would have no problem. I will likely get into 3.0 when I buy my new system in a few months as many of my friends from 2.8.5 have moved there.

I thought the concept was really unique, I wish we had more realistic shooters (I personally didn't find Red Orchestra fun at all) where you aren't some invincible man with infinite HP plowing down your enemies with insane amounts of firepower.

I agree and I think the reason a lot of people choose AA is because it is as realistic as an FPS can be. You can't hold your aimpoint perfectly straight with zero recoil or run for miles with loads of gear on without slowing down. When you die you are dead and don't respawn 2 seconds later (maybe this makes people play a little more conservatively).

As for ArmA II I have never tried it. I just like AA mainly because it is free. That being said there are no open world maps for AA3 yet with AI, vehicles or anything of that sort. There are some select maps in 2.8.5 though with hummers, btrs, and tanks. Although the graphics engine is very outdated on 2.8.5 it's still fun and great for people with low end systems (like CSS is fun even though it's old). As for AA3 the unreal 3 engine is the same one used on COD4 and Bioshock. So for people who don't know what it looks like it has comparable graphics quality to these games.