There are tactical gaming communities that engineer ArmA like mad military scientists--they meticulously create custom maps, apply rigid rules of engagement and proper radio protocol to produce precise, elegant war cooperation. Legion of Sparta is one of them. Last week, we wrote about the group's project to remake Ghost Recon: Island Thunder in ArmA 2. I joined their most recent session--deftly captured and edited by community member Fatal Papercut. Men died. Airplanes blew up. I'm the one with the beard and the high explosives.



God, what fun. This is an experience no one has ever had on a console: the care taken to produce of a custom mission (on a custom-made island), organize participants, properly communicate, and append mods to make the game do what you want could only happen on PC. Ironically, the fine in-game camerawork seen above is captured using an Xbox 360 controller, remapped for precision movement.

Special, bullet-filled thanks to Legion of Sparta, Dai-San (squad lead), Lightspeed (map creation), Fatal Papercut (camera and editing) for the invitation. If this looks fun, go chat up Legion of Sparta on their forums. They play other games, too.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River's creative director, Sion Lenton, thinks military simulations are “immersive” and “realistic” but not necessarily “fun.”

Speaking to PC Gamer, Sion directed gamers yearning for an accurately simulated warzone towards Bohemia Interactive's ArmA series, and claimed that PC is “Not the market to be in.”

Ooo-rah indeed.


Sion Lenton was Executive Producer on Codemaster's Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, released in 2009. PC Gamer described it as “An attractive and powerful sim that spoils itself by trying too hard to be a straightforward military shooter.”

We asked Sion about that decision to move even further away from the series roots with the follow-up: “We want to steer away from the idea that it’s a simulation; we’ve banned the word in the studio. Authentic is fine, as it gives you some leeway to be creative, and that’s what we are. We’re creative, we’re making an entertainment product, and it should be fun. I don’t really get much fun out of military simulations. They’re immersive, they’re realistic, but I wouldn’t call them fun.

“If you want simulation, then it’s out there; go play ArmA. We wanted to do something different, in our own space, and we don’t want the Op Flash brand tied down to simulation.”



I'd argue that it is possible to have fun in ArmA, even though it's an unforgiving beast. Evan has video proof. What's even more odd about the comments is that ArmA developers Bohemia Interactive are responsible for the first game in the OpFlash series, Cold War Crisis. By 2001's standards, it provided unparalleled scale and extensive realism. The developer left the Operation Flashpoint name behind at Codemasters when it switched publisher.

Sion also didn't seem enthused by our platform of choice either, despite some high profile developers considering it to be one of their strongest assets: “As great as PCs are, from a sales point of view, it’s not the market. There’s a bigger market out there and if you get success you can start to experiment more. You need to get the sales under your belt, and then that gives you the freedom to do other things.”

Operation Flashpoint: Red River is due for release on April 21 in Europe and April 26 in the US. For more information read our Operation Flashpoint: Red River preview, or watch the latest trailer. What do you think of Sion's comments? Ever managed to have fun in a simulation?

A modder has painstakingly recreated every mission from Ghost Recon: Island Thunder in ARMA 2. ARMA 2 player Fatal Papercut was such a fan of the maps that he decided to film a crack team as they played through the missions. The result is a pair of videos that perfectly capture the authenticity, and sense of tension that make ARMA's skirmishes great. You'll find the second mission, Jaguar Maze below.




You can download the Island Thunder maps from Armaholic. If you fancy jumping into ARMA 2, the PC Gamer ARMA 2 community meets most Saturdays. We may not be as organised as the team in the video above, but there's still plenty of drama, courtesy of rogue volcanoes and magnificent battle buses. To join, simply swing by the ARMA 2 section of our forums and say hello.

While other, less war-hungry citizens of Earth were watching a movie awards show last weekend, our insane ArmA 2 community was violating seven protocols of the Geneva Convention by taking over an entire country with a weaponized bus. Here's a video of how we did it.

One of the mad scientists of our ArmA 2 community, Hypnotoad, created a custom mission for Operation Arrowhead. Using ArmA 2's "attachto" script, he used game logic to weld an absurd amount of fixed guns to one of our favorite, impractical combat transports: the passenger bus. Hypnotoad is the confident gentleman at the beginning telling us to "expect everything" as we prepare to embark. Now, witness the power of this fully armed and operational Battle Bus.



Secondary thanks to PCG intern alum Mike Quach for recording these antics.

As we do on most Saturdays, our ArmA 2 community rallied in Ventrilo last week to cooperate in the shooting of AI-controlled men. We did it with guns--realistic ones. Tangos were downed. Rules of engagement were occasionally observed. Compasses were used to indicate direction.

But there was also a volcano: a chimney of earth-hate overlooking our perfectly ordinary raid of an insurgent village. The volcano was angry. It melted the tires on our truck. Without warning, magma bombs began to fall all around us. The volcano's artillery nearly claimed me--a medic had to revive me amid the panic. We sardined ourselves into a Russian helicopter to escape. It didn't work.



Thanks to Max for the video capture (and above-average aim with his MK16). The mission above, called "Joe and the Volcano," was created by ArmA 2 community member cheesenoggin. Download it here--I'd recommend that you do.

Bohemia Interactive are launching this year's community awards to reward the best and brightest modders for its military sims, ARMA and ARMA 2, including Operation Arrowhead and other expansions. If you've enjoyed playing the missions and mods offered up by the ARMA community, here's your chance to vote for the best.

Voting is now open and you can make your nominations on the official ARMA 2 site. Voting will close on January 31st and the winners will be announced in March. Here are the categories you can vote for.

Best MOD/Addon Of The Year 2010
Best Mission/Campaign Of The Year 2010
Best Website Of The Year 2010
Best Member Of The Year 2010
Best Video Of The Year 2010

 
For more on ARMA 2, check out our review of the latest expansion, Private Military Company, or see Evan take out a tank with a sniper rifle.

Logan, Dan, Evan, Josh and Andy share their holiday wish lists and exceptional gaming moments of 2010 on this end-of-the-year podcast.

Download the mp3, subscribe and call in with your exceptional moments, questions and predictions of the future, toll free: 877-404-1337 ext 724.

PC Gamer US Podcast 253- Year Of The Trackball