Armed Assault 2 FTW!

I just managed to get my hands on the new Armed Assault 2. Back in 2001, I remember being engrossed in what was probably the best military simulator, called Operation Flashpoint. Since then I’ve bought every single release from the makers, from the expansions up to Armed Assault, and now, Armed Assault 2.

I must say, ArmA 2 is the best simulator yet from the company. I include a short video clip below to whet your appetite:

For one thing, you will notice that the placement of windows is different from ArmA and OFP. Fonts have been increased in size in some places, and the menu items “dumbed down”. If you’re a veteran OFP or ArmA player, you can still access the old menus the same way – keys 1 – 0 open the menus and the actions you can take within them are still in the same order. Hence, for example, to order your men to “fall back into formation” you can hit 1 -1 and issue the same command as you did before. Or, to fire at will, you hit 3 -5. They are all there. You don’t have to use just what you see on the menu in front of you.

I opened up the editor and had a go at it. It’s essentially the same editor as it was back in OFP through to ArmA. However, now there’s a new option called “modules”, which presented an interesting menu of adding ambient effects like animals and sounds. Should be interesting.

The biggest improvement, in my opinion, is larger portraits of your men on your squad bar. With larger portraits and hence, larger icons representing what they are (Grenadier, Machinegunner etc), it’s easier to locate and order your AT guy to take out the tank. In the past I sometimes just gave up and ordered the whole squad to take out the tank.

Right now I’m still having a blast in ArmA 2. You should too!