Here's an upload of a video from a recent ITV documentary into Colonel Gaddhafi's support of the IRA. It contains shocking footage of a helicopter being shot down using weapons allegedly supplied by that baddie.

Except. Umm. It's actually ArmA 2.

Words. Fail. What. How. For goodness sake. UK media, can you stop being shit please.

If you're looking for the footage in the documentary in the ITV player - it's online here. The footage is in place from 28 minutes, 20 seconds.

Update: Here's a youtube video that appears to be the same footage. I think we can start to understand how this happened.

(via the Bohemia forums)

Update 2:
We've been in touch with Bohemia Interactive's CEO, Marek Spanel. He tells us that Bohemia weren't approached by ITV for permission to use the footage, and had no idea that Arma 2 was appearing in a war documentary on British TV. Understandably, they're quite surprised. "We are going to try to get some explanation from ITV how this could have happenned," says Spanel.

"Sometimes creativity and realism in our games lead into crazy results and this is one of such example. I just briefly watched the entire documentary and I still can not believe it as it is overall very serious and lenghtly feature," he adds.

"We are surprised our games apparently may look real enough to some users already that they can not tell it is not real life footage."

We've reached out to ITV for comment. Check out the videos of ArmA below for a sense of exactly how realistic the military shooter really is.


 

One week ago I got a press release telling me that in one week's time, ARMA 3 would get a brand new website. Excited, I set my WAR CLOCK OF DOOM to T-minus 7 days, turned all the lights off and lay in wait. Now, that time has come. The Arma 3 site is live, with eight new videos of the Gamescom presentation. You don't even have to go to the new Arma 3 website to watch them, because I've nabbed them and hidden them under the camo net below. Don't tell anyone.

Four new Arma 3 screenshots have appeared on the Bohemia Interactive forums, spotted by VG247. They show some more of Arma 3's vehicles, including a column of tanks and a jet flying so high we swear it's possible to spot PC Gamer towers somewhere below.

For more Arma 3, check out the E3 screenshots, the recent tech demo video showing the improved physics engine, and make a note of the system requirements. The new Arma will need a beast of a machine to run when it comes out next year.

Game trailers these days sometimes offer too much of what we don't care about. Live action sequences, pre-rendered cut-scenes and developer hype that doesn't help us at all get a real feel for the game we're looking at. That's not the case with this twelve minute trailer for Batman: Arkham City. It's over ten minutes of pure gameplay footage, starring Catwoman and Bats himself in a daring attack on ex-DA Harvey "Two-Face" Dent. If you want to experience the game clean then perhaps you may wan't to skip this one, but Rocksteady have garbled any dialogue that spoils the major plot-lines, so it's fairly safe to view.

We all love Minecraft for various reasons, but it wasn't until I watched some Minecraft machima this week that I realised that it's actually the perfect tool for animators. The sandbox means you can practically build any set you want (after you've slammed your pick-axe into enough rock), and whilst the blocky nature of the game means you'll hardly be producing the next Godfather, you can create a wonderfully stylised short. Take a look at Mans Best Friend, a tear-worthy little film about a miner and his dog exploring Notch's perfect world. Not recommended for those who are too macho to say 'Awwwww'.

We all have that one memory of a game that truly frightened us. For some it'll be an atmospheric moment from Silent Hill 2, for others it's being shocked by the sudden attack of a mutant in System Shock. Today I've gained a new one, and I wasn't even playing. It's actually from a video from back in 2009 that resurfaced on Reddit (thanks greyishpowerranger!), showing off an ARMA 2 battle featuring a mind-shattering 1,500 AI troopers. Set at night, you can barley see the armies, but in the dim light of explosions and tracer, the player stumbles through a harrowing virtual recreation of war. No scripted mission from any game - be it Medal of Honor, Call of Duty or Operation Flashpoint - has ever come close to simulating the overwhelming fear of being stuck in the middle of battle in the way this video does. You may want to turn your speakers down a bit for this one.

Should ARMA 2 be a little too old-hat for you though, we do of course have seven whole minutes from ARMA 3. Don't thank us all at once.

If scarily realistic military sim shooters are a bit outside your comfort zone, then perhaps The Baconing is more your kind of bag. The follow-up to Ron Gilbert's DeathSpank, it looks just as humorous as the previous offerings, although more emphasis on pork-based products. Its comedy value is, of course, positively restrained compared to that of Saints Row: The Third. In this commentary of the game's Steelport area, we're shown how to dive through car windows, punch people until they combust, cause as much destruction as possibly using a tank and burn things with a VTOL plane-mounted microwave laser. Best sandbox ever?



To finish up, relax and take a look at the world we can expect to live in come 2027. Sarif Industries is going to make life better, easier and orange-er. Thankfully we only have to wait mere months rather than sixteen years to see the world, when we all play Deus Ex: Human Revolution on August 23.

This video demonstration for German mag, GameStar, spied by RPS, gives us our first look at Arma 3 in motion. Bohemia designer Ivan Buchta takes us through some of the improved physics, grenade effects, vehicle interiors and underwater sections that will feature in Arma 3, though the astonishing vistas threaten to steal the show.

Those impressive draw distances will require a hefty machine to render. Bohemia released the game's system specifications when they announced Arma 3 at E3. you can find full details in our Arma 3 announcement post, and get closer to those landscapes in the E3 Arma 3 screenshots.

Arma 3 was announced at E3 this year with talk of an "open-ended" single player campaign and "sandbox-oriented combat gameplay." In a recent interview with Everyeye, spotted by Blues News, Bohemia designer Ivan Buchta expanded on this, revealing that Arma 3 single player will let you take quests form NPCs in an open-ended environment, and even pursue side missions to get hold of better equipment, support or new vehicles.

Butcha explains how the system will work. "In the game, the player can obtain either "quests" directly related to the story, or some "side-quests" which would help him to get something special: equipment, information, guerrilla support, vehicles and so on."

"For example, your main objective may be to destroy an enemy base, because a friendly force is threatened by the enemy presence. By following some hints, you may eventually get a local guerrilla chieftain to distract the OPFOR in order to weaken its defenses or receive some close air support, all of which can make your effort much easier. Maybe you would even stumble upon a piece of Intel which would make the friendly command reconsider their intent.

"To achieve such changes, you would probably have to do a favor for the guerrilla commander or to prove the need for CAS by delivering some extra Intel - simply to accomplish a "side-quest".

The new mission structure won't stop those who want to jump straight into the action, however. "I would also like to note that we are not abandoning the scenarios (missions), which are much simpler and shorter providing the element of instant fun," says Butcha. "I am sure this kind of gameplay will be attractive for many players including the seasoned Arma veterans."

For more on Arma 3, check out the E3 announcement, or the Arma 3 screenshots. Arma 3 is due out next summer.

A quiet week for free PC games - pretty much all I could find was something called an ArmA 2 and some sort of war-themed hat simulator. Team Fortress 2 mean anything to you? Apparently that's free now. Luckily, the lineup is bolstered by some gorgeous indie gems.

Team Fortress 2

Valve. Get it on Steam.



So they actually did it. After all the rumours and speculation, Valve have announced that Team Fortress 2 will be free forever. If you haven't bought it and you never buy an in-game item, you still get all the maps, classes and game modes paying customers do. The only limitations are that certain rare items aren't available to find or craft, and you have less inventory space to store the ones you do find. But spend even £0.29 on the cheapest item, and you're treated as a paying customer and those few restrictions are removed.

Team Fortress 2 added an in-game item shop late last year, letting players pay real money for the many unlockable weapons and hats for each class. This switch to free-to-play comes with a huge new update adding even more of these items for almost every class. But if you're new to TF2, you won't care about that: you've got enough to learn without any extra items to think about.

A good way to learn the ropes is to play the King of the Hill mode - choose it when you look for a match, or if you're using the server browser, look for maps starting with koth_. It's nice and simple, just one control point to capture, so you can learn how the classes work in a controlled environment. The Medic is a good class to start with, since you're always appreciated and you can pay attention to what your team mates are doing rather than shooting people. Just keep the healy beam on the big man.

Arma 2: Free

Bohemia Interactive. Get it from the Arma 2 website.



Arma 2 is a hyper-realistic military sim with an extraordinary sense of scale and accuracy, but the single-player campaign that never quite hit the heights provided by multiplayer. Which makes Arma 2: Free an exciting prospect. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Operation Flashpoint, Bohemia have taken the best bits of Arma 2 and lobbed them online for you to grab without paying a penny.

All you miss out on is the campaign, the highest quality graphics settings, and the ability to use mods. What you can do is create your own campaigns in the excellent editor, or play those other people have created. The community is huge and creative, and you can find lots of the campaigns they've made over at Armaholic.

It's a huge and often scary game, simulating real war mercilessly. Group up with some friends, lay some explosives, and lie in a bush together for an hour while you wait for the enemy tank convoy to roll over them.

Skinny

Atmos Games. Play it on Newgrounds.



I haven't seen a game so quietly beautiful in a long time. This 2D, silhouetted platformer has such an extraordinary sense of style that it's captivating within seconds - and that's before the game itself has even had a chance to get going.

When it does, it's a pleasantly floaty platformer about a robot. You'll jump, grapple and smash your way around the immaculately designed world as you first embark on a quest to recover your son's lost marbles, then find yourself involved in something a whole load bigger.

You gain new abilities as you work your way through the game, and the surprisingly strong and heartfelt storytelling keeps Skinny engaging throughout. I haven't enjoyed a browser game this much in ages. A very strong recommendation.

'Dillo Hills

fexLab. Play it on Kongregate.



If you're familiar with the iPhone game Tiny Wings, you'll be at home with this armadillo-based equivalent. If not: you hold a button to roll down slopes, then release it to let the momentum carry you uphill and into the air. You can also, er, 'soar' by clicking the upper half of the screen to delay your descent, smashing through birds mid-air for no ethically sound reason. Gems on certain slopes give you an incentive to come down sooner or soar a little longer.

The game's (re)created very well, with some pleasant aesthetic touches giving 'Dillo Hills a much needed dash of its own character. It's peaceful, and pleasant, and a great way to spend a rainy half hour.