Arma III is still quite some way off, with a release date of “2013″, but Bohemia are starting to reveal more and more of the latest iteration in their ongoing soldier sim project, giving us some tantalising glimpses of an overhauled engine and a reworked game. Creative directors Ivan Buchta and Jay Crowe took some time out from working on their near-future weaponry simulations to tell us about their plans for the game, the meaning of the near-future setting, the impact of Day Z, and the value of modding.
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Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Posts Tagged ‘Bohemia’
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Interview: Bohemia Talk Arma 3, Modding, Day Z
By Jim Rossignol on June 14th, 2012.
Czech Cashed: Arma II Getting Czech Army DLC
By Jim Rossignol on June 4th, 2012.
“The civil war in Bystrica is at its end. But it’s not the end of fear for the people. War criminals like Colonel Miyovic still terrorize the country with their militia looting and murdering civilians. Forces of the Czech Republic Army are sent to restore order.” Go Czech army! Also this: “15 new missions in the singleplayer campaign, scenarios and procedural template gameplay modes” and “two new summer-season terrains: Bystrica and Bukovina.” One of those is the lovely green environment pictured above. £8 pre-order pricetag on this, it’s turning up in Q3 of this year. One for a, uh, limited audience, perhaps.
Arma And Dangerous
A Chat With Rocket, Creator Of Day Z
By Jim Rossignol on May 16th, 2012.
The expanding popularity of an Arma 2 mod, Day Z, might have surprised all of us, but imagine the surprise felt by the chap who created it, Dean “Rocket” Hall. There are nearly 48,000 characters now registered in the game’s stats, when he imagined there’d be just a few hundred. His motivation to make the ultra-bleak multiplayer zombie survival mod might not surprise any of you, though, when you read his take on what games should be, and why the kinds of stories experiences like Day Z produce are so important. There were a couple of times in this interview where I hooted in agreement with what Rocket had to say. See if you can spot them.
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Rob, Zombie
Surviving In Day Z: Part Two
By Jim Rossignol on May 14th, 2012.
A large part of the internet is telling Day Z stories. People feel compelled to communicate what they’ve experienced in there. There’s a good reason for that. This unfinished modification is more interesting than 90% of games that will land in the same year. It is a game that – for many people – represents this kind of experience we were promised. An open-world, persistent, zombie game, where survival is the goal, and where each encounter with another real human being is a moment of terrible tension. What’s astonishing about this unassuming zombie mod is that it manages to take what is most interesting about MMOs – persistence, co-operation, risk of genuine loss in PvP – and add them to a multi-server FPS. Not just any FPS, either, but the monstrously deep simulation provided by master soldier sim, Arma 2. It’s unflinchingly bleak. It offers freedom, while threatening destruction. The stories that result from it are enthralling.
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A-ha, A Demo: Take On Take On Helicopters
By Alec Meer on November 30th, 2011.
What? What? It can’t really be just me who thinks of A-ha’s finest hour whenever Bohemia’s Take On Helicopters is mentioned, can it? Hmmph. Perhaps I can break the association by writing about the chopper sim’s new demo, which is out now. At 3.6GB it’s faintly monstrous, but the contents sound highly generous. You should take it on, take it on. It’ll be gone, in a day or twooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
(It won’t be gone in a day or two). Full contents and moving images below.
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Arma II: Reinforcements Out, Trailer
By Jim Rossignol on April 21st, 2011.
Ah, Arma II. The game that reminds me we need to be doing more games night stuff. Yes. We shall. But also an email from Bohemia that reminds me that the combined expandalone – Reinforcements – is out, and has actually been so for a week, I think. This new pack includes the British Armed Forces and Private Military Company expansions as one, and does not require the original game to play. There’s also a bunch of tweaks and enhancements that Bohemia have been making as the games developed. Fancy simulatory men being shot below, in a healthily footage-heavy trailer.
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Rotors Scoped: Take On Helicopters Coming
By Quintin Smith on March 31st, 2011.
Excitement is literally in the air! Bohemia Interactive (Czech developers of Operation Flashpoint and Arma II fame/infamy) have announced Take On Helicopters, a new simulator focusing on the rewarding challenge of flying helicopters as well as “beautifully rich landscapes”. I will admit to some disappointment that Take On Helicopters is not a game about taking on helicopters mano-a-mano, nor is it a game about taking on helicopters like you might take on an adopted child, having to then tutor your fledgling helicopter in the ways of right and wrong. “Well done, baby helicopter! It was RIGHT to chew up that taxman in your small yet deadly rotor blades!” And you could stroke its grille and listen to its silky purr.
What can you do, eh? The announcement trailer follows…
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Private Military Company Released, Trailer
By Jim Rossignol on December 10th, 2010.
The latest Arma II expandalone – Private Military Company – is out, a little later than scheduled. There’s a splendid launch trailer to celebrate this, below, which details a bit more about the story missions from this new campaign. I’m going to take a look at the full game as soon as I can. Meanwhile, check out our interview with BIS for more.
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Private Military Company: “News Media”
By Jim Rossignol on November 4th, 2010.
We revealed the new Arma 2 expansion a couple of weeks back: Private Military Company is BIS’ take on the murky world of the mercenary companies working in modern warzones. The latest trailer is one dressed up in the style of media coverage of the activities of these soldiers of fortune, which implicates someone or other in some kind of badness. Hmm!
Don’t forget we have some community-based Arma 2 action this weekend, with Operation Arrowhead games going on. Check out this post for details.
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Making Of: Operation Flashpoint
By Kieron Gillen on October 5th, 2007.
[Flashpoint has the dual appeal of being simultaneously one of the most realistic takes on the Soldier game the medium has ever seen and the only one where you can engage in the sport of Tractor hunting in an attack chopper. I've interviewed Marek and his brother a few times over the years, and they're one of the more gloriously eccentric and constantly enthusiastic developers I've met. Last time I was over there, talking about Armed Assault we had a lengthy discussion about how they were programming Butterflies. They develop incredibly militaristic games and they obsess over butterflies. It's hard not to love them.]
Before Bohemia released their classic Soldier-Sim, I had a chance to chat to director Marek Spanel about his life growing up as a games devotee in the Czech Republic. He described sneaking their first computer into the country after a trip to Switzerland. And then, realising there was no way to load or save data, jury-rigging cables to perform the task with their tape recorders. And then learning to program games so, finally, they could achieve their objective of playing a game.
The Dutch Army: N00bs.
By Kieron Gillen on October 2nd, 2007.
You may be aware that as well as releasing splendid (if a little – er – twitchy) Soldier Sims, Bohemia interactive turn their Armed Assault (i.e. Flashpoint minus the intellectual property rights) into military simulators. VBS2 is actually developed by Bohemia Australia. Among their clients are the Dutch army, who recently arranged a game between five professionally trained soldiers and five gamers. Jerry Hopper was there.
The gamers would do whatever gamers would do. The Army would work according to official doctrine. Since the soldiers in question weren’t actually familiar with VBS2, the results were perhaps a trifle predictable, but that’s hardly the point.
RPS would challenge the SAS to a game of TF2 to decide who’s the hardest three-letter-acronym group on the surface of the planet, but we’re far too scared they’ll slide a blade across our throats in our sleep or something.
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