Armed Assault II (ArmA II)

ARMA II Looks beautiful, performance is based on how you wanna play it, if you want the game to look great with all the bells and whistles, you're gonna need an Geforce 200 series G-card or and SLI setup. Otherwise be prepared to have the graphics seriously pulled back. I have a Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz CPU, 6GB DDR800 Ram and two 8800GT's in SLI and It runs O.K, far from impressive though.

The game still packs that great simulation experience, Sounds are great, distant gun-battles and jets or helicopters sound life-like, especially when they fly over you, even the odd sand fly buzzing around your head can make you wanna swipe at thin air =). Gun physics are very real as are the gun models, not to mention the cockpits of every vehicle modelled down to every fine detail.

ARMA II does have some let-downs unfortunately, The User Interface lacks improvement, but overall co-ordination and ease of use, in-fact I'd say it's even worse than the all original Operation Flashpoint now, because you have to memorize every command menu on your keyboard, and that just doesn't work especially when your in a battle floundering just to get your men to go prone or engage the enemy.

Another bad point is the AI, this I found to be a major let down and caused immense frustration as they would struggle with even the simplest of commands, Mounting a vehicle or Helicopter for instance proves to be a nightmare, they either don't react, take a detour around the forest before mounting the vehicle which was right beside them in the first place, or they just get stuck on something. I often find myself leaving most of my team behind and doing missions with just one AI or even none, it defeats the purpose of the simulation but it's far less frustrating.

Overall I think the game still holds that authentic feeling to it, but is lacking a lot of much needed improvement.

Generally a wonderful game but its requirements of a beastly computer and occasional crashes stop it from getting excellent. Apart from that it is a recommend buy

Arma II is a first- and third-person tactical shooter that simulates a military operation in the midst of a growing civil war in the fictitious European country of Chernarus.

Despite an infuriatingly buggy single-player campaign and some artificial intelligence driving issues, Arma II turns out quite fun.

This is a very realistic game and spray-and-pray tactics will not work one bit. The average AI enemy, while a good shot, isn't inhumanly good and can be tricked or flanked. Unfortunately, the AI characters on all sides are atrocious drivers and have a knack for causing traffic jams, capsizing vehicles, and flattening allies.

I played on the NZarma server and found the Game excellent in Multiplayer. This product is far superior to BF2 and is a True Military simulator. This is the closest you can get to real Warfare without endangering your life. This is no CS shootem up its a military simulator thats packed with Action and Realism. BI have superby blended in realistic Vehicles and weapons into the best game for 2009. The NZ Army have a similar product they use to Train Troops with called VBS2 so this product is used by the Real Military.

Have to say that the game allows you to learn plenty about controlling and commanding, the introduction and training is essential if you want to be able to get the most out of the game, but once you have mastered this you are in a unbelievable world of fun and challenge. Have not played on-line as not set up to do this but it looks from the ads and Blogs that this is top notch.