Friday

The deciphered ArmA2 – Operation Arrowhead Q n’ A

Given how poorly ArmA2 has been received in a general sense (the hard core fans will get pissed at this, but wait until they read on) I find it surprising that BIS is seeing fit to release another game. Operation Arrowhead is technically an expansion for ArmA2, but given that it’s stand-alone, it reeks of starting over. There was recently a question and answer post on the BIS forums in which a moderator (w0lle) asked developer (Jennik) some questions gathered from the forums about this “expansion”. The whole thing is pasted below with the initial question in bold, the developers answer in italics and my thoughts in regular text. I’ve left all typos and bad english in place,  and that aside this won’t be pretty… and I used to be a fan-boy.

Will this be a completely new game? As in, will it add loads of new features to Arma 2, or will it just be a new campaign with a few weapons, but we still get charged for it?
Jennik: It’s more than just a new campaign. Arrowehead contains a completely new environment, US army units, weapons and vehicles and a lot more. At least, there will be some very new features introduced in Arrowheadt too.

New campaign, plus. Fine if it amounts to more than that… but it doesn’t, read on.

Will Arrowhead incude western forces besides the US?
Jennik: There will be some more than just US Army Units, yes.

I suspect he has no idea beyond having overheard there might be Brits.

Is there going to be a functional FLIR system out of the box (everything has heat based textures)
Jennik: Yes, there will be a FLIR system. We have one of the most sophisticated FLIR simulation systems already done for VBS2 and we will bring it in Arrowhead to fans of ARMA2 too.

In other words they’re taking something they already have from here, and slapping it into there. With almost any other developer I’d have faith that could work. Yes, it’s come to that point.

Will the game have Functional IR lasers (PEQ units) like in vbs2? Or Flashlights?
Jennik: I’m glad to say: Yes, and yes.

This is the sort of cheap-to-implement, but high-promo-value thing that you’re going to see a lot of. You watch, there will be a ton of videos showing soldiers walking around with laser sights and flashlights, but in the end it won’t amount to much gameplay wise.

Is the terrain based on Afghanistan? Or is it more of a desert?
Jennik: Kind of, it will include dense urban areas and the countryside too.

The smart thing to do would be to go all desert as the frame rate boost alone would help sell this thing. Why they think it’s wise to stick in a “dense urban area” that will no doubt cause the same frame rate issues all over again is beyond me. I think they’re masochists. Continue…