Ok, this is mostly aimed straight at Jim, but has anyone or does anyone here play Armed Assault, commonly abbreviated ArmA? (Short version: read more at Borkpaedia, come visit us in IRC if you like what you see)
Edit: I found a better description of the game on the SA forums.
[quote author=“Dante the goon”]
ArmA is basically a first person tactical military shooter with large elements of realism and simulation, with a focus on online play. It’s the spiritual successor to OFP made by the same company and team but with a different name due to legal issues. If you’ve never played OFP the best way to imagine it is basically SWAT or Rainbow Six in a war theatre setting. It’s not a simulation, and due to the scale there are limitations (it’s never going to have as good a flight model as a dedicated flight sim for example) plus they’ve taken some liberties to make it more fun to play. Arma doesn’t appeal to everyone though. It is a much more realistic game than CS, BF or UT and if going on solo rambo rampages in a twitch-based game is what you like, you probably won’t find Arma much fun. However if you enjoy overcoming challenges through tactics and teamwork, Arma is the game for you.
For those not in the know, and nobody seems to actually know of this thing so I am going to assume most of you are indeed not in the know, ArmA is a tactical military sim, the successor to the legendary Operation Flashpoint series. It’s basically BF2, except whereas BF2 is a “first-person shooter,” ArmA is a “simulator.” It’s sort of like what X-Plane is to Ace Combat. The battlefield is the fictional island of Sahrani, which is big enough so that it’ll take you quite a while to get to the front line in a UH60, and that’s if we have the benefit of helicopters or any other type of vehicle, so you’d better not die. There’s none of this minimap or enemy marker kind of BS, just you, your compass, your combat watch and your map. Oh, and if we play in veteran mode, which we usually do, forget about the reticule. Also, your weapon isn’t locked to the center of your screen—there’s a “deadzone” where you just move the weapon instead of moving your view (although this is configurable to your personal preferences).
Anyway, if you read the Borkpaedia article linked above, you’ll see that we’ve got a DoB squad going and our own private dedicated server. Yeah, that’s right, we are that batpoop insane. I’m not sure why nobody has posted about this yet, but it seems like just the thing Jim would want to get in on. If you like squad play, you’re in for a treat. Battles range from open battlefield warfare on the ground, in the sky and, sometimes, on the water to intense CQB as we’re clearing out a town filled with RACS, OPFOR or both (or BLUFOR if we’re playing as OPFOR).
Traditional ArmA missions are your duck-in-the-hole special forces squad insertion behind enemy lines, village clearing, ambushes, demolition, stealth, you name it. The latest patch has also introduced a new mission developed by Bohemia themselves called Warfare, and it’s basically first-person strategy, and all we’ve been playing for the past three weeks. Read all about it at that link, it rules.
So, Jim, if you’re interested, hit us up in IRC. There are a whole bunch of us that play regularly, and it’s a ton of fun. We’ve even created our own mod of Warfare called DoB Warfare, where, among other things, we spawn at base with a set of military motorcycles. The other day, I rolled up behind Gaf and Shawn in the goddang General Lee with its horn blaring. It was insanely awesome. Come play with us.
[edit] Oh yeah, forgot to mention one awesome thing. Missions are persistent on our dedicated server, which means that if we leave in the middle of a Warfare game or traditional mission, the AI will keep fighting (in the case of Warfare, they won’t capture towns if no human players are present) and the game will still be going on when we rejoin the next day. We’ve played a single Warfare match non-stop for four to six hours; if we split it up, games may take days before a winner is declared.
Now, I doubt Kevin ever comes here often enough to retort that in his cunning way of expressing WoW-themed sexual innuendo, but I wish he would. Thippy is missed wherever he faps these days. But I guarantee you, good sir, even THAT would make Jon laugh so hard he forgets to notice his aggro bear wondering off and a minute later wipes the group because it brought back every mob in the instance to us. 
