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The Arma 3 beta has now been released! Although a program in 'beta' stage tends to be feature-complete,
the Arma 3 beta still only contains the island of Stratis, while the full game will also
include the much larger island of Altis, which is where the majority of the missions and
gameplay will most likely take place. However, we still get a lot of new features
to play with. The main new feature must be the multiplayer
scenarios, a core feature of the previous games. You get to play two different missions,
the first letting you defend a camp until reinforcements arrive. The second is called
'Combined Arms' and is the real deal, as it combines all of the classic Arma elements
to showcase a large and sprawling battle with combined coordination from infantry and vehicles.
This can also be played in single player if you have no friends. Like me.
There are also four new single player showcases: The night mission lets you sneakily infiltrate
the enemy territory at night and serves to show off the new engine and its enhanced lighting
effects. The 'Commanding' showcase lets you try out
the improved squad command system as you defend a village against an enemy assault.
'Supports' has you attacking an enemy airbase, utilising all of the backup at your disposal.
The final showcase is 'Combined Arms' and is the same mission as mentioned earlier in
the multiplayer scenarios section.
As well as these additions, there are now firing drills which act as tutorials, teaching
you the basics of the Arma gameplay.
The graphics haven't received much of an overhaul over the alpha, not that it looked that bad
in the first place. The trees still appear quite cartoony and for the time being the
only real improvements will likely be optimisation and smaller adjustments, at least for the
foreseeable future. The Arma series has always supported a large
number of weapons and vehicles to play with and the beta gives you plenty of new devices
to mess about with. It doesn't stop at this, however. A personal favourite addition has
to be the mines, which will spice up the gameplay immensely. I'm sure it won't be long before
some sick individual posts horrific videos of these deathtraps in action. We can assume
that yet more features will be added as the beta progresses so as to have a nice smooth
progression into the final stages of development.
Which new feature are you looking forward to most, and why? Leave your comment below!
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