Flashpoint dragon rising Vs ARMA II. Are these good and which is better?

[Castout]

I'm bored to death and I need something to keep my brain from going into a relapse due to boredom :D and I'm contemplating on either ARMA II or Flashpoint Dragon Rising to keep me company and will probably try to drag a friend or two.

The question is are these two a good game? If so which one is better?
I'm looking for combat realism and high replayability

Or am I better of snapping Mass Effect 2? or Dragon age awakening?

I still prefer boardgames but finding an opponent is tougher than I imagined.

[HunterICX]

ArmA II

ArmA is know for its modding community wich gives you a lot of variaty with the game.
also MP is where ArmA shines, especially on servers like Tactical Gamer where they play it the tactical way (they plan pre-mission, they form up small teams/squads, keep good radio contact (voice-com) and the teamwork is excellent.)

HunterICX

[Fincuan]

Depends on what you prefer I guess. If you liked the original Flashpoint then Arma2 is the obvious answer, no questions about that. If not, then read on a bit more:

The original Operation Flashpoint series, which Arma and Arma2 are part of, is realism-oriented gameplay combined with excellent moddability. As Hunter said there's hundreds of user-made units, islands and other content freely available. The community is small but very active and dev support is excellent. A stand-alone expansion called Operation Arrowhead is coming out in a few months, which'll hopefully bring some new blood to the community.

Dragon Rising has the Flashpoint name, but the content is more of a traditional shooter. Sort of a Flashpoint-COD hybrid. Not geared towards realism very much, but less "shooterish" than CODs. Very little moddability so the community is pretty much dead by now and the game officially abandonded by the devs.

[stabiz]

To me Arma 2 is frustrating at times, just adding mods is way more complicated than it should be, but its beyond doubt the best infantry simulator out there. Dragon Rising is just crap, IMO. Its neither a good sim or a good shooter, a typical attemt at pleasing all humans and thus it fails.

[Castout]

Well that's a quick consensus. Thanks for the input. I
ll check out ARMA 2 community to find out more.:up:

[Arclight]

Think I picked up DR for €5,- on Steam; still feels like wasted money. :-?

Started it up, saw the animations of simply moving, fell on the floor rolling around laughing for 5 minutes, quit and never looked back. :lol:


Get ArmA too while you're at it. :D

Have our own server for the guys on SubSim. Open to public, but only good guys dropping by. ;)

[Savage]

Also look into getting ACE2 for Arma 2. Looking forward to Op. Arrowhead :)

[Dowly]

Depends. Well, not in case of OFP 2, it sucked. But if you have played OFP1, dont expect much new from A2 (but expect a very good PC to run it, which is unforgivable, A2 was supposed to run much better than A1). You can get A1+A2 pack for 50€ or so, I'd advice to get that, stick to A1+ACE1 until A2 is ironed out and optimised properly.

PS. Both A1 & A2 are like SH, they give a half arsed game for modders to fix and better. If you want singleplayer exprience, both A1 & A2 fail at it miserably.

[Castout]

Think I picked up DR for €5,- on Steam; still feels like wasted money. :-?

Started it up, saw the animations of simply moving, fell on the floor rolling around laughing for 5 minutes, quit and never looked back. :lol:


Get ArmA too while you're at it. :D

Have our own server for the guys on SubSim. Open to public, but only good guys dropping by. ;)


Well I've been playing DR in the weekend and though it's arcadish I enjoyed whacking human players. Great fun I must say. What a stress reliever. :D


Depends. Well, not in case of OFP 2, it sucked. But if you have played OFP1, dont expect much new from A2 (but expect a very good PC to run it, which is unforgivable, A2 was supposed to run much better than A1). You can get A1+A2 pack for 50€ or so, I'd advice to get that, stick to A1+ACE1 until A2 is ironed out and optimised properly.

PS. Both A1 & A2 are like SH, they give a half arsed game for modders to fix and better. If you want singleplayer exprience, both A1 & A2 fail at it miserably.


Umm the combined pack isn't available here. Arma 2 is sold at 55 bucks here while DR is at 50.

I just got notified that my board game local pre-order is ready for pick up or delivery. It's twilight struggle deluxe. If it's as good as people say I may postpone buying Arma 2 for need of ruling da world. . .or maybe not :D

I promised myself this to be my last board game because most are sitting on the shelf except during big holidays. If only more people played board games more often...especially in the weekend.

[Arclight]

Alright, I gave it a second chance, but are you ****ing kidding me? :O:

Graphics are a joke at their highest, especially LOD distances, and the viewport is a joke. But let's leave the graphics aside.

I'm firing over 200-300 meters with a marksman rifle, and I don't hit squat. That on it's own just ruins the whole thing.

Though to be honest, I'm judging it from an OFP view-point; like it actually is something that deserves the OFP name. Another problem is I know a few things about weapons, enough to know that a marksman rifle that can't even reach out to 300m effectively is an instant fail as far as realism goes.

Sorry, but I don't like arcade shooters. As hard as it tries to provide depth to gameplay, it ultimately fails to deliver a believable experience. It's trying to be a PC game on a console, and that's something that just doesn't work.

* oops, sorry, forgot to bitch about the constant running: no toggle between run or walk? Really? :huh:

[Jack Davidson]

ArmA 2 is a particular favourite of mine and I'm looking forward to Operation Arrowhead. The ArmA modding community is great....lots of additional content, equipment, maps, islands, campaigns, as well as some very active groups for MP. :yeah:

I tried the demo for Dragon Rising and couldn't get beyond 5 minutes into it...just didn't do it for me at all... :down:

[Castout]

My ARMA 2 copy should arrive tomorrow :DL.

Though I'll probably get Arrowhead too when it comes out if I like ARMA 2 but the thing is US forces have been made into game far too much. I'd like to see more of European armies(German, French, etc) and more middle eastern armies such as Israelis, Iranian, Hezbollah, Syrian, etc.

Games involving US army or US marine have been made too many times already. It's a good thing there's the Russians in ARMA 2.


Alright, I gave it a second chance, but are you ****ing kidding me? :O:

Graphics are a joke at their highest, especially LOD distances, and the viewport is a joke. But let's leave the graphics aside.

I'm firing over 200-300 meters with a marksman rifle, and I don't hit squat. That on it's own just ruins the whole thing.

Though to be honest, I'm judging it from an OFP view-point; like it actually is something that deserves the OFP name. Another problem is I know a few things about weapons, enough to know that a marksman rifle that can't even reach out to 300m effectively is an instant fail as far as realism goes.

Sorry, but I don't like arcade shooters. As hard as it tries to provide depth to gameplay, it ultimately fails to deliver a believable experience. It's trying to be a PC game on a console, and that's something that just doesn't work.

* oops, sorry, forgot to bitch about the constant running: no toggle between run or walk? Really? :huh:

Umm I get good kills in 600 m ranges with the Sniper rifle in OFP: DR!:yeah:
I've been promoted to Corporal and now ranked at 8500 something from the 20,000 something when I first started.
With rifleman rifle equipped with marksman optics I usually set for one shot rate of fire and aim for the enemy head from the distance. Felt great when they go down.

I enjoy the MP a lot and now trying to infect a friend too.

My most memorable moments in OFP DR is in a particular annihilation session where two teams fight each other to death, me as a Sniper managed to have some long distance kills without ever being noticed or fired upon. In fact in that session I was never killed. In the end I ran out of my Sniper rifle ammo and decided to make myself a sort of ninja. So I switched to my medium range mini sub machine gun and started to create havoc in the town in the middle of the map. The enemy team started to panic as I tallied some kills and began firing at the wrong direction altogether trying to suppress me I believe while I was somewhere else and had them on my sight within a mere 5-7 meters when the game ended.:D. We lost but that was FUN :yeah:.

[Arclight]

I don't get it. :doh:
I'm looking for combat realism and high replayability.
How does that lead to OFP: DR? :huh:

If that statement was accurate, you're just gonna wet yourself when you get ArmA.

[Castout]

I don't get it. :doh:

How does that lead to OFP: DR? :huh:

If that statement was accurate, you're just gonna wet yourself when you get ArmA.


Umm really ARMA 2 would absolutely be terrific then.

Well I never handle a real rifle so I wouldn't know what is realistic and what is not. It sounded my decision to get ARMA 2 is worth it.

As for Dragon Rising I just feel that it is realistic enough for me and it has got a high replayability value too in its multi player sessions. I've had some great fun with DR.

But I'm looking forward to try out ARMA 2 tomorrow and see why it's defended so heavily here :DL. I've downloaded the patch and tomorrow my copy should arrive. This Thursday is a holiday and my mind is torn between reading Twilight struggle board game manual which is also coming tomorrow and ARMA 2.

And there's Falcon 5.5 too that's released today.

I just hope the multi player community for ARMA 2 is well alive and kicking for a long time from now. I bought it mainly for the multi player part of it after all. Being a late comer I expect my ass being handed down all the time at least for the first few weeks.

[Arclight]

Don't get me wrong, if you like DR that's fine, it just doesn't really mesh with your previous statement. At least not for someone who has played OFP/ArmA.

ArmA 2 seems to be doing just fine, it's the previous title that has been abandoned. :-?

[stabiz]

Castout, you should check out Red Orchestra as well at some point, its more of a traditional shooter than Arma2, but with heavy focus on realism in the weapons, ballistics, health, etc. Very good game. (You play as either Germans or Russians on the Eastern Front)

[Castout]

Don't get me wrong, if you like DR that's fine, it just doesn't really mesh with your previous statement. At least not for someone who has played OFP/ArmA.

ArmA 2 seems to be doing just fine, it's the previous title that has been abandoned. :-?

But then again realism is a perception isn't it. I remember being very very excited about Grid then I tried SHIFT and then just few weeks earlier I tried to reinstall Grid but was so disgusted by the way the car handles I uninstalled it right away LOL.

I haven't played ARMA though I played the original OFP looong time ago even then it was already an old game.

I'm just afraid they would develop ARMA 3 and release it sometime next year :D.

If you mean being abandoned by developer well I don't mind that as long as it is not being abandoned by the players themselves. But somehow I think you meant both.:nope:


The original OFP was a hit because there was never OFP 2 until now.

[raymond6751]

I've bought both and suggest it depends on your game style and amount of patience.

Flashpoint is purely a shooter, first person only. I was so disappointed in this, comparing it to their earlier FP versions, that I removed it from my machine. I like third person games.

Arma II is a good 3rd person game with the ability to go to single person. It is a monster on memory. You need at least a quad core machine maxed out to the max to get smooth gaming. I have a triple core with 4 G of memory, and the latest vid card but it still crawls.

Between the two, the Arma interface is much better to work with.

[Castout]

Castout, you should check out Red Orchestra as well at some point, its more of a traditional shooter than Arma2, but with heavy focus on realism in the weapons, ballistics, health, etc. Very good game. (You play as either Germans or Russians on the Eastern Front)

I'm aware of the game and it was available then a copy which lying on the store shelve for months.

How's the community for red Orchestra? Still well alive and kicking?

What made me reluctant to buy red Orchestra then was because everywhere else(abroad) the price of the game was being dropped like crazy but I would have to pay for it as if it was just then released. Even then it was already out for some time.

That only copy is now gone though so I don't think I would be able to get it now.

[Arclight]

It's available on Steam for a steal, if you don't mind digital.
But then again realism is a perception isn't it. I remember being very very excited about Grid then I tried SHIFT and then just few weeks earlier I tried to reinstall Grid but was so disgusted by the way the car handles I uninstalled it right away LOL.

I haven't played ARMA though I played the original OFP looong time ago even then it was already an old game.

I'm just afraid they would develop ARMA 3 and release it sometime next year :D.

If you mean being abandoned by developer well I don't mind that as long as it is not being abandoned by the players themselves. But somehow I think you meant both.:nope:


The original OFP was a hit because there was never OFP 2 until now.
I wouldn't hold my breath for A3, that should be a while. :lol:

I mean abandoned by players, though I suspect most are just playing on private servers and thus out of sight. Support is still very much alive. OFP DR on the other hand has been abandoned since early this year by their developers, and as far as I know the players are rather scarce too, but I can't say that from experience.


Realism is subjective, yes. Though DR has a fair dose of it, it lacks many (many, many :DL) features to make it more of a sim. Admittedly, ArmA only got there with mods (ArmA 2 is much better out of the box regarding wounding and dynamic environment), but at least it can be modded, has ongoing support and an active community.

Ah, think I hit the sore spot; DR was tossed out with missing promised features, unmoddable and abandoned. That's probably what bothers me most about it. :-?