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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
RPS Feature Boots on the ground
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
I’d forgotten all about DayZ, but being reminded of it’s existence brings the memories flooding back. That moment when I broke my legs, and my friend had to put me out of my misery and inadvertently became a bandit. That time when I was stranded, weaponless on a rooftop and the same friend arrived just in time to save me. The session where I was playing with Pip while she was streaming, and got taken hostage by two of her friends who convinced me they were random strangers.
The devs have written a status report, containing news both good and bad. The bad: the next major update isn’t coming until next year. The good: DayZ will come out of early access in 2018. Maybe then I’ll dive back in and try to get myself kidnapped again.
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.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
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: Read the rest of this entry »
We’re talking away
I don’t know what
I’m to write I’ll write it anyway
Today’s another day to distract you
Gabbing away
Bohemia’s space sim looks pretty okay
Taaake Onnn Maaars
Take On Mars [official site]!
Ittt’s nooow ooouuut
Take On Mars!
I’llll beeee gonnne
With this sooong Read the rest of this entry »
Bohemia Interactive’s Mars ’em up, Take On Mars [official site], is launching out of Early Access and into full game status on 9 February. It has a new trailer to mark the occasion which you can watch after the jump. The trailer focuses on the story mission which was recently introduced and deals with a The Martian-esque plotline where one person survives a descent into Mars’s atmosphere but they’ve lost connection to Earth. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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:
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.
One big milestone DayZ [official site] has headed for on its hike through the boglands of Early Access has been a new renderer [the bit of a game engine which turns numbers into pictures -‘Technical’ ed.]. Developers Bohemia Interactive have been working on a new DirectX 11 renderer which should bring far better performance to the open-world survival game, and maybe tart it up a little too. This has, of course, taken far longer than they’d planned (and said), but it is coming along. Check out this new video showing off the DX11 renderer and some dangerously heavy rain.
“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:
Cast your mind back to the hazy summer of 2012, when the world first went wild for DayZ [official site]. ITV sent Ross Kemp in to interview DayZ’s most notorious player-killing gangs, an entire edition of The Observer’s New Review supplement reported on arts and culture in Chernarus (with a fascinating piece on puppet theatre!), and MasterChef’s Invention Test round gave contestants scavenged ingredients – trail mix, tinned sardines, a can of Mountain Green, etc. My, how the survive ’em up took off!
So you may have a DayZ forums account, in which case you should know that they were hacked recently and you should do that whole password-changing dance.
