The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
This is my first Prime post ever I think, so be gentle...
Maybe you've heard the old adage "beware of Greeks bearing gifts", well in the case of America's Army it might be wise to be a little wary of geeks bearing gifts, because this is essentially a completely free first-person shooter. Now the problem with free games is that they usually suck or have an enjoyment span of about 10 minutes (anyone else still tossing spears since Snuggly posted the link?)
This game's a little different, however. Firstly it seems that the Donald Rumsfeld defense department has spent a fair amount of money on producing a top-notch game. Now I could go on about engines and other technical gubbins but I don't know anything about what they used to make the game, all I know is that it's a multi-player orientated shooter à la team fortress where you play a US army soldier, and it's 100% gratis, providing you have the bandwidth to download the hefty setup file.
What makes this game rule is that it is very well thought out. You see it's designed to make you and me want to join the US army, so it aims to provide a realistic representation of your time in the US army. You go through training in order to be able to take part in missions, the better you perform in training, the more options you have open to you. Yes, this means that you do have to put up with a fair amount of pro-US propaganda and edu-tainment info about US bases and facilities, but it's a free game so what the hey.
You start off as a mere recruit, with the rifle range open for you to learn to command the basic army rifle. After a bit of practice you take on the first stage of training, shooting at targets on the range. Now any fool and his dog can hit the requisite 20 targets to make it through to the rest of the training, but it takes a keen eye to get 36 out of 40 targets, with only 40 bullets, and thereby qualify for sniper school. Once you've got your minimum 20 targets you move on to assault courses, which are easy in comparison, and weapons familiarisation, which is a walk in the park (literally as it happens). Finally all that stands between you and some real army action is the training mission. This will be the first time you venture on-line and meet other raw-recruits, as this is where the game comes into its element.
The emphasis is on team play, because if you try and be a Rambo you will die, most likely because some idiot frags you having not paid attention in grenade throwing class. When you operate as a team however, things liven up. Yes, you can tool up as a one man army, resplendant with smoke bombs, flashbangs, 'nades, and a machine gun, but it's much more fun to try and play like a team, as I will explain later.
Some basics first, the game's quite clever in that you are always a US army soldier and your adversary will always look like a terrorist, as you decide whether to play assault or defence, simultaneously your adversary will see himself as US army soldier and you in terrorist attire. Not that this makes much difference, but it's just a mildly interesting little fact. While you're playing you can radio team-mates either by typing (only do this when in a safe position, as it's a most frustrating way to die if you're typing when someone pumps you full of lead) or by using pre-set sound samples (such as the quite brilliant "Grandma was slow but she was old! That don't make no sense at all!" if you're squad leader) You can also crawl, crouch and run, prerequisites in today's first-person shooters, and you can be sent to virtual prison if you kill your team mates :-)
However, the main reason you should download this game is for one map. "The Bridge". It's possibly my favourite multi-player map ever. So simple and yet so addictive. Assault is charged with crossing the bridge and getting out the tunnel on the other side, while defence has to defend the bridge at all costs. It's a map that brings everything into play - correct grenade usage, smokes and grenade launchers. And also it's very difficult to win unless you play as a team. Also this can be quite fun, such as when an entire defense unit hid in the woods next to the tunnel, leaving a somewhat confused assault team to eventually meander ther way across the bridge wondering why no-one was killing them, only to be massacred once they neared their goal.
Pluses:
It's free
It's fun
The Bridge level
random chants (misterhappy shouted: "Hooah!")
lots of dedicated servers
Negatives:
Blatant US propaganda
Foolish americans making moronic statements
large download if you haven't got broadband
And there we go, I usually loiter around the bridge level as misterhappy, and if anyone wants this I could probably send you a copy on cd if I like you and you can't be bothered to download it.
Maybe you've heard the old adage "beware of Greeks bearing gifts", well in the case of America's Army it might be wise to be a little wary of geeks bearing gifts, because this is essentially a completely free first-person shooter. Now the problem with free games is that they usually suck or have an enjoyment span of about 10 minutes (anyone else still tossing spears since Snuggly posted the link?)
This game's a little different, however. Firstly it seems that the Donald Rumsfeld defense department has spent a fair amount of money on producing a top-notch game. Now I could go on about engines and other technical gubbins but I don't know anything about what they used to make the game, all I know is that it's a multi-player orientated shooter à la team fortress where you play a US army soldier, and it's 100% gratis, providing you have the bandwidth to download the hefty setup file.
What makes this game rule is that it is very well thought out. You see it's designed to make you and me want to join the US army, so it aims to provide a realistic representation of your time in the US army. You go through training in order to be able to take part in missions, the better you perform in training, the more options you have open to you. Yes, this means that you do have to put up with a fair amount of pro-US propaganda and edu-tainment info about US bases and facilities, but it's a free game so what the hey.
You start off as a mere recruit, with the rifle range open for you to learn to command the basic army rifle. After a bit of practice you take on the first stage of training, shooting at targets on the range. Now any fool and his dog can hit the requisite 20 targets to make it through to the rest of the training, but it takes a keen eye to get 36 out of 40 targets, with only 40 bullets, and thereby qualify for sniper school. Once you've got your minimum 20 targets you move on to assault courses, which are easy in comparison, and weapons familiarisation, which is a walk in the park (literally as it happens). Finally all that stands between you and some real army action is the training mission. This will be the first time you venture on-line and meet other raw-recruits, as this is where the game comes into its element.
The emphasis is on team play, because if you try and be a Rambo you will die, most likely because some idiot frags you having not paid attention in grenade throwing class. When you operate as a team however, things liven up. Yes, you can tool up as a one man army, resplendant with smoke bombs, flashbangs, 'nades, and a machine gun, but it's much more fun to try and play like a team, as I will explain later.
Some basics first, the game's quite clever in that you are always a US army soldier and your adversary will always look like a terrorist, as you decide whether to play assault or defence, simultaneously your adversary will see himself as US army soldier and you in terrorist attire. Not that this makes much difference, but it's just a mildly interesting little fact. While you're playing you can radio team-mates either by typing (only do this when in a safe position, as it's a most frustrating way to die if you're typing when someone pumps you full of lead) or by using pre-set sound samples (such as the quite brilliant "Grandma was slow but she was old! That don't make no sense at all!" if you're squad leader) You can also crawl, crouch and run, prerequisites in today's first-person shooters, and you can be sent to virtual prison if you kill your team mates :-)
However, the main reason you should download this game is for one map. "The Bridge". It's possibly my favourite multi-player map ever. So simple and yet so addictive. Assault is charged with crossing the bridge and getting out the tunnel on the other side, while defence has to defend the bridge at all costs. It's a map that brings everything into play - correct grenade usage, smokes and grenade launchers. And also it's very difficult to win unless you play as a team. Also this can be quite fun, such as when an entire defense unit hid in the woods next to the tunnel, leaving a somewhat confused assault team to eventually meander ther way across the bridge wondering why no-one was killing them, only to be massacred once they neared their goal.
Pluses:
It's free
It's fun
The Bridge level
random chants (misterhappy shouted: "Hooah!")
lots of dedicated servers
Negatives:
Blatant US propaganda
Foolish americans making moronic statements
large download if you haven't got broadband
And there we go, I usually loiter around the bridge level as misterhappy, and if anyone wants this I could probably send you a copy on cd if I like you and you can't be bothered to download it.
Page:
I've got an 700Mhz processor with a 32MB 3d Prophet graphics card and 500MB of RAM and it works fine on that.
Sounds good but I doubt my poor 56K would cope with it.
Are there any certain system requirements needed? I had a quick browse but couldn't see any on the site.
Anyone remember 2am games.com? That site ruled for easy online games for all, whatever happened to it.
Are there any certain system requirements needed? I had a quick browse but couldn't see any on the site.
Anyone remember 2am games.com? That site ruled for easy online games for all, whatever happened to it.
www.americasarmy.com
ok.
I'm currently tempting my computing teacher to put it on the school network, after all, it's a VERY educational insight into joining the army and encourages qualities such as team work...
:-D
ok.
I'm currently tempting my computing teacher to put it on the school network, after all, it's a VERY educational insight into joining the army and encourages qualities such as team work...
:-D
By the way, not bad for a first prime post, Mr. Happy...
I'm off to download it know - ww.americasarmy.com
I've downloaded this before as it looked like it kicked but then my PC refused to run it for some reason, probably ME.
Got XP now so it may work, will have to try it again.
All seemed like some big advertising campaign to make fat American kids join the army.
Got XP now so it may work, will have to try it again.
All seemed like some big advertising campaign to make fat American kids join the army.
Sounds good, though I haven't bothered with online games fer ages...
You're on, Bridge level anytime, but it'd be better to fight with me :-)
You'll need to be quick though, because I'm off to uni soon, and I have 8 whole hours of lectures a week to get through :-)
You'll need to be quick though, because I'm off to uni soon, and I have 8 whole hours of lectures a week to get through :-)
All the times I tried earlier for some reason didn't work. Tried again a while ago and it worked, did some of the training but have yet to fight it out properly.
Looks great and all the different types of training etc make it fun to begin with.
Thanks on pointing this out. Shame so many seem to have ignored what is a great game so far and also FREE.
:-)
I'll fight you some time on the game.
Looks great and all the different types of training etc make it fun to begin with.
Thanks on pointing this out. Shame so many seem to have ignored what is a great game so far and also FREE.
:-)
I'll fight you some time on the game.
E-mail still aint here. Did it take you ages to get it?
Shame as I really wanted to have a go at it. Anyway Pub calls. Hopefully it will be here by tomorrow and I can have a go then.
Shame as I really wanted to have a go at it. Anyway Pub calls. Hopefully it will be here by tomorrow and I can have a go then.
Page: