Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Seven Minutes Of Arma 3 Footage

By Jim Rossignol on June 30th, 2011 at 11:11 am.


German games mag GameStar has managed to get a look at Arma 3 in action. The tech is looking several strides ahead of the previous Arma game, and surprisingly bright and colourful, too. The demo shows a bit of sniping, vehicles, and the new physics in action. The resolution and view distance of the landscapes also appears to be better than real life. At the end of the demo, there’s something a bit new, too: underwater combat. It’s all the rage, eh?

And don’t worry, Englishers, the actual presentation is in our default language.


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89 Comments »

  1. 30/06/2011 at 11:15 agent47 says:

    The animations look way more fluid now

    • 30/06/2011 at 12:19 SprintJack says:

      Actualy it’s still the old animation system in this demo. The new one wasn’t ready for E3 i think.

    • 30/06/2011 at 12:27 Alexander Norris says:

      I was about to say, pants, it looked like they were still using the animation-based movement. Hopefully they’re ditching that for the final game.

    • 30/06/2011 at 12:36 Gap Gen says:

      I guessed what Marek said in his recent blog post, that ArmA (and to some extent ArmA II) were a little rushed and panicked because they had no money or publisher support, and needed to pump something out fast. I’m hoping that they now have the cash to put some money into QA and polish the game up. Certainly the add-ons to ArmA II worked really well and showed a lot of promise. We played a lot of the British add-on just to hear the Geordie & Welsh shout-outs.

    • 30/06/2011 at 16:36 Prince says:

      The animation from 0.05 to 0.35 didn’t look very believable at all.

  2. 30/06/2011 at 11:22 Nighthood says:

    Looks bloody lovely, and I’m sure it’ll play beautifully too.

    Submarine combat could make for some interesting games too.

  3. 30/06/2011 at 11:22 Aldehyde says:

    That looks pretty damn sweet, it’s all supposed to be one big island with no loading times as well, right? I envy the people who will have the patience to play this game “for real”.

  4. 30/06/2011 at 11:24 tomeoftom says:

    That’s it. I’m buying a new PC.

  5. 30/06/2011 at 11:25 kataras says:

    That actually looks like Greece, which reminds me I should go on holidays soon!

    The game looks like a vast improvement in GFX and animations. However is it me or the sniping looks like it doesn’t have bullet drop?

    • 30/06/2011 at 11:29 Nighthood says:

      Presumably, they had the zeroing set to the distance of the enemies, that way it’ll look like there’s no bullet drop, when really there is. If you look at the top corner when he’s using the gun it does have an option for zeroing, so I imagine he’s just set it up beforehand.

    • 30/06/2011 at 11:33 kataras says:

      Fair enough. That makes sense…

    • 30/06/2011 at 11:45 westyfield says:

      I would recommend perhaps not going on holiday to Greece at the moment.

    • 30/06/2011 at 11:50 kataras says:

      @westyfield: Well I come from Greece and the ‘danger’ is widely exaggerated, unless you decide to go live in some of the posh hotels in the center of the city (and why would you do that in the middle of the summer)… Going straight to the islands should be safe (don’t know about cheap though) unless a civil war breaks out suddenly!

    • 30/06/2011 at 12:01 westyfield says:

      Ok, fair enough. News over here is largely hysterical about Greece at the moment.

    • 30/06/2011 at 13:01 Hmm-Hmm. says:

      Going to Greece shouldn’t be a problem, I assume. More than that you’ll actually be helping their economy by going there.

    • 30/06/2011 at 15:47 Snuffy the Evil says:

      That’s because it is Greece, or at least a Greek island. I forgot the name of the one it’s modeled off of, though. Lenmos? Lamos? Something with an ‘L’.

    • 30/06/2011 at 16:41 Ergates_Antius says:

      Lesbos?

    • 30/06/2011 at 21:25 BeamSplashX says:

      @Ergates:
      TEEHEEHEE.

      I swear I’m in my twenties.

  6. 30/06/2011 at 11:26 osbournecox says:

    Check out those nice rocks.

  7. 30/06/2011 at 11:26 Duke of Chutney says:

    “Check out the nice rocks”

    I checked them out alright

  8. 30/06/2011 at 11:30 PiP999 says:

    I just hope that they will add a few more scripted events in single player. Freedom of choice is great and all, but I remember some missions being completely action packed and wonderfully exciting on one playthrough and an absolute snooze-fest on another.

    Also, it looks like they are finally making the game more fluid and the pixels look nice too, so kudos to them!

    • 30/06/2011 at 11:58 PickyBugger says:

      Nah no scripted events please. The levels may have sometimes been a snooze but games like this really rely upon not knowing what is going to happen / where the enemies are.

  9. 30/06/2011 at 11:31 sparna says:

    …just dive down to the bottom to see some fish.

    *focuses on one sole fish*

    There it is.

  10. 30/06/2011 at 11:33 osbournecox says:

    *hits a buoy*

    boom.

  11. 30/06/2011 at 11:36 stahlwerk says:

    Droolworthy graphics, amazing what they did to that engine (it’s still the OpFlash codebase, isn’t it? “Receiving…” and all that). Here’s hoping it will run on mere mortal PCs.

  12. 30/06/2011 at 11:37 Kevin says:

    I’d love to see Bohemia make the Mad-libs-style voice-acting a little less jarring this time around. I know it is sort of a necessary part of the game, but there are sims out there that do a much better job of making that system sound natural (games like the fixed-wing Jane’s study sims and Silent Hunter). For god’s sake, it’s even worse in ArmA than it is in OPF and Falcon 4.0, which is saying something.

    …that on top of toning down the minimum requirements. If they can get it down to the top-end Core Duos, then fair enough. But an i5 as a minimum is just plain outrageous even for a 2012 title. Sure a lot of us (myself included) take PC gaming seriously enough to upgrade at reasonable intervals, but Bohemia should still try and reach as wide of an audience as possible, and I think it’s inexcusable if the barrier of entry is hardware rather than the actual content of the game.

  13. 30/06/2011 at 11:40 kikito says:

    I didn’t expect to see pretty flowers here (2:18)

  14. 30/06/2011 at 11:46 emotionengine says:

    I’m actually kind of intrigued by the idea of Bohemia Interactive doing a tablet shooter. Even if I don’t plan on buying a Motorola Xoom or whatever anytime soon (or at all, to be precise).

    Also this video reminds me that I want a Comanche 5 game. Now. Or screw that, what I want is Longbow 3.

  15. 30/06/2011 at 11:49 osbournecox says:

    At 6:18 – it sounds like the narrator says: here’s a lesbian guy. just push him a little.

  16. 30/06/2011 at 11:53 Corrupt_Tiki says:

    Oh yeah, This game looks nuts.

    Damn, I know I will upgrade my computer specially for it.

  17. 30/06/2011 at 11:54 Red Rabbit says:

    I’m curious how underwater combat will turn out. I’m pumped as hell.

  18. 30/06/2011 at 11:57 DrazharLn says:

    I thought the sea looked like blue plastic (apart from the wake of the ship, that looked ok for the couple of seconds I saw). The top layer needs to be more transparent with the colour coming from the depth of the water you’re looking through.

    I think this is part of the reason why skin looks plastic in CGI things, because skin is actually translucent and the processing for working out what the translucent surface looks like based on what’s under it is expensive.

  19. 30/06/2011 at 12:09 Wilson says:

    Huh. I thought I could pass this one over, because it probably wasn’t going to add much of interest. I may have been wrong. As usual, it looks like there will be so many minor improvements and neat features that I will feel compelled to get this at some point.

  20. 30/06/2011 at 12:34 HeavyHarris says:

    Ugh. It all looks good, except for the god damned weapon handling. Trained soldiers do not wobble like fucking clowns on unicycles. agswthwryjeutjuejeujur!

  21. 30/06/2011 at 12:35 Tams80 says:

    Well, so many things that could possible be said, but…

    Pink Flowers! How dare they. Colours should be forbidden from manshoots!!11!!!!!

  22. 30/06/2011 at 12:37 PoulWrist says:

    Nice :) looks great.

  23. 30/06/2011 at 13:10 Garfo says:

    looking good so far :)
    hopefully infantry will feel better this time round ;)

  24. 30/06/2011 at 13:15 groghog says:

    Wehicles, Enwironment and Wolumetric clouds

    • 30/06/2011 at 14:57 royaltyinexile says:

      orly?

      Why don’t you try to pronounce some Czech words? ;)

      “Třistatřicettři stříbrných stříkaček stříkalo přes třistatřicettři stříbrných střech.”

    • 30/06/2011 at 15:36 Aedrill says:

      @groghog
      I wanted to call you racist but I think douchebag fits as well.

    • 30/06/2011 at 17:30 DrGonzo says:

      So finding someone’s mispronounciation is racist now? I thought it was just funny. Well I guess everyone is a little bit racist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM&feature=related

    • 30/06/2011 at 18:47 Aedrill says:

      Picking on someone’s mispronounciation is a bit racist if it’s someone who dared to not be born in UK/US/Aus/Whatever and was stupid enough to choose to live in a country with other-than-English national language. It’s a bit racist and very douchebaggy.

      Just like royaltyinexile said. I’ll find you legitimate to make fun of foreigners speaking funny right after you manage to pronounce this Czech sentence properly.

  25. 30/06/2011 at 13:17 Owain_Glyndwr says:

    Ragdolls! FINALLY!

  26. 30/06/2011 at 13:22 B0GiE-uk- says:

    I hope they add a GUI interface like BF2 and rid of all the keys. Nothing worse than having to stop the game to look into a manual to find the right button to do anything!
    Looking like a buy to me though!

  27. 30/06/2011 at 13:32 Teddy Leach says:

    ENEMY. UNDERWATER. MAN. AT. 50. METERS.

  28. 30/06/2011 at 13:58 Nallen says:

    Physics looks crap, specifically at 3:40. They are metal shipping containers, why are they floating about?

    • 30/06/2011 at 14:11 Unaco says:

      Because it’s still in Alpha?

      I’ve watched quite a few videos, with the parts in this video shown, but with a lot of commentary. They say that they’ve implemented the new Physics system, but are still working on tweaking it, until it’s right. The game isn’t released for at least another year, probably closer to 18 months.

    • 30/06/2011 at 14:18 Nallen says:

      It might be an idea to exclude the bits that don’t work from the demo then, rather than specifically drawing attention to them.

    • 30/06/2011 at 14:25 Unaco says:

      Or… Include the new features (the physics being a feature that we’ve all been waiting for since OFP), with the understanding that they aren’t complete yet, and that the footage does not represent the finished gameplay.

    • 30/06/2011 at 16:49 sinister agent says:

      He said a couple of times that it’s not quite right and they’re working on it. It’s clearly basically right, but some of the weight/gravity numbers need sorting out. Well worth showing it at this stage, I’d say.

  29. 30/06/2011 at 14:37 Walsh says:

    What was that weird tank?

  30. 30/06/2011 at 14:44 EOT says:

    Oh well. Looks like I’ll be buying a new card when ArmA 3 comes out. Though I guess that just like ArmA 2 it will sit unplayed in my steam library on the off chance someone wants to play online unless the AI has seen massive improvements. Right now I find it so atrocious that I’ve given up on SP due to it’s inability to follow basic orders like ‘follow’ and ‘return fire’ with real any degree of success.

    I can never find the RPS server either. When ever I type it in all I get is an unpopulated test server.

    • 30/06/2011 at 15:19 kataras says:

      http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?28-ArmA-2-Combined-Operations-We-have-our-own-server

      Click link. Read details. Apply them.Join server. Get teamkilled or die in a horrible helicopter crash. log off.

    • 30/06/2011 at 15:26 Unaco says:

      Filter for ‘rock’ in the browser, and you should see the server. The *TEST* server is the current ARPS CO Server. It’s *TEST* because we only started using it recently, and we’re actually dropping it to pick up another box (with the same provider) quite shortly as well. It’s likely empty because of the time of day you’re looking at it… we’re mostly UK/Europeans, and so tend to play in our evenings… between 5pm and 10pm British time, usually. We do tend to play a little every night, though maybe not all of us every night of the week… but there’s usually something going on each evening. Or, if you want to start a game with us, you usually only have to ask and at least a handful of people will join you. We have one dedicated, definite night on Tuesday evenings, starting around 7pm BST… and usually get another decent, large scale session on Friday and/or Saturday nights. Other nights, apart from Sundays (when we rest, and contemplate The Great Crate God) it’s usually smaller sessions.

      Most of our sessions are organised in the RPS Steam chat room… so, if you have Steam, join the RPS Group, and jump into chat. A lot of the ARPS people idle there, so you should be able to get the lowdown. Also, check out the ARPS thread in the PC Gaming Community Section of the Forums here.

    • 30/06/2011 at 17:31 Herkimer says:

      In addition to the RPS server, there are oodles of groups that play ArmA and are not dicks, ranging from the totally casual (“drop in and play whenever, just don’t be a dick”) to the more serious (“we meet at X time on Y day, and don’t be a dick”). You could check out United Operations, Tactical Gamer, Shack Tactical, and 6th Sense, for a start.

  31. 30/06/2011 at 14:51 Jake says:

    The scenery looks so lovely, it will be a shame to have a war all over it. I know there probably isn’t a lot of demand for a picnic simulator but it might be nice to just go to this island and just relax, you know? Read a book or something, look at the fish.

    • 30/06/2011 at 15:05 Nighthood says:

      It’s ArmA, if you want to do that you can, just make it a custom mission and you’re all set.

    • 30/06/2011 at 15:17 Unaco says:

      Yeah, what Nighthood says. You’ll be able to make such a mission in the editor, add in whatever other ‘units’ (they could be civilians) or wildlife you wish (I assume you can add wildlife with the editor, though don’t know for certain). You could make it objective-less, so you can just do whatever you want, or add in some sort of objectives (i.e. travel from A to B). There is tremendous freedom with the Engine and Editor, and you don’t HAVE to make a military style mission. You can just drop a Player Character, and a vehicle, then load that up, get in your vehicle, and explore.

    • 30/06/2011 at 16:20 sinelnic says:

      What is this picnic thing I keep hearing about? I know it has to do with that part of my computer room that is not in my computer room, like the fourth dimension, and is all bright and doesn’t exist.

    • 30/06/2011 at 16:48 Ergates_Antius says:

      The final mission in the expansion for the original OpFap was to drive to town and meet your mates in a bar.

    • 01/07/2011 at 02:54 Jake says:

      I dunno, I think using a mission editor to make friends to go on a virtual picnic with would be really depressing. Especially as I would know they were only really there because I placed them there.

  32. 30/06/2011 at 15:33 Red Rabbit says:

    Also, one thing.
    Why don’t they make the scopes like in Red Orchestra 2. instead of blacking everything around the scope out.
    I’m not a programmer but I’m sure it can’t be that hard to achieve.

  33. 30/06/2011 at 16:29 Kadayi says:

    Visually looks stunning, but they clearly have a lot of work to do on the physics (those storage creates went over like cardboard boxes). My one concern really with the game is the choice of location. When they were flying around it looked kind of flat, and tad sparse with regard to trees etc. That could prove problematic, still I’ll undoubtedly get this for sure.

  34. 30/06/2011 at 16:52 sinister agent says:

    Looks utterly gorgeous – a nice choice of environment, it seems. I generally don’t get on well with underwater bits in games, but that does look lovely, and I can imagine entire sub…. er, minigames being made out of underwater scavenger hunting or hide and seek or whatever, even without adding the combat.

    Promising stuff. Here’s hoping the UI and AI are a bit less hateful.

  35. 30/06/2011 at 17:03 Araxiel says:

    I can see what happens during muliplayer with me as a pilot:
    GET IN THAT. CHOPPER. UNDERWATER. AT 100

  36. 30/06/2011 at 17:57 Bluestar says:

    What i want to know about the boats is….

    …can they be driven down hillsides?

  37. 30/06/2011 at 19:00 sirdorius says:

    Wow, physics. I’ve never seen that in a game before. Can’t you just make the game playable on a mid range PC and bug free?

  38. 30/06/2011 at 19:10 povu says:

    That water is really really blue.

  39. 02/07/2011 at 18:48 Antlerbot says:

    It’s full of wee-icles. They are like vehicles, but so much more fun.

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