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America's Army Comes to the Mac
mrpuffypants writes "Not to leave all of the Mac community out in the rain the U.S. Army has released a Mac version of America's Army. Now get out there and train for Iraq, maggots!"
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Now that the Macintosh has joined the ranks, "don't ask, don't tell" is in full force. (it is just a joke macaddicts...I support macs as part of my job...)
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
This seems like a rather bad idea on the army's part, in my opinion. I would think that since Apple has such a small slice of the market share that they would not even bother with a release, and more importantly, I wouldn't expect as many Mac users would be potential conscripts. I don't have any hard evidence for that, but considering myself (a long time mac user) and most of the other appleholics that i know, the mac user/pacifist overlap is pretty large...
I bet the fed is finally trying to convert us sunflower-loving hippies using a really cool game. So. Tempting. Must. Resist. Cool. FPS.
... KABOOM!!
Blam blam!
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Nyyyyyyyyooooooooooooo BOOM!
While the performance is understandably poor on my dual 800 (1.5 gb, GF3... I get around 20 fps) the game has real potential. Unfortunately its close quarters combat is quite flawed. Strafe jumping junkies who somehow manage to squeeze full-auto fire out of their M16A2 abound. Disappointing, to say the least. Looks like the devs kind of gave up on polishing the gameplay about 5/6ths of the way to completion. All that would be required to fix this is a simple realistically correct adjustment: You can't strafe jump while holding a full-auto assault rifle. Or, at least, my knowledge of the human body doesn't state that it's true. Who knows what genetically engineered super soldiers the Army is cooking up these days, though ;) I think perhaps some chained-jumping handicaps like those in RtCW, I think it was, would be appropriate. But, there are a handful of weapons to use, and sniping is appropriately difficult (though I haven't had a chance to try out it outside of the training field... yes I am an Exper Marksman :) ). So, to sum up... A game with strong potential, but it needs polish. And more FPS.
-- Apple: Where Microsoft wants to go today.
Come on, you apes! You wanta live forever?
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
Lying about sex with your intern, not impeachable.
In case you didn't know, Clinton was impeached.
If you get really high scores, do you get a knock-on-the-door in the middle of the night and whisked away to a secret CIA training camp? ;-)
-psy
I always knew SOMETHING was wrong with this place.... maybe that's it :-)
-braxton
http://www.bigfatonline.com/armyops-mac-170.tar.bz 2.torrent
I had grabbed the first half of it from an official mirror before I gave up and went to the torrent, so I can guarantee that if it's trojaned, it's trojaned in the second half :)
You think this is bad, just wait until "F/A-18 Hornet: Operation Iraqi Freedom" ships. Actually, I heard that the Windows version just shipped.
Some of us have joked that there won't be any air-to-air combat in in.
"Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
Its a joke, laugh.
/. on the Internet?"
/.ers are, however, considering that the name of the game is "America's Army"...
/.
/. "Get out there you chiggers and train for the US!"
"Honestly, this is a freakin' *WAR* people, its not a video game, and its not a walk in the park."
Yep, and I think the person who wrote that--along with every other person here--knows it. I made a comment above which is a Heinlein quote along the same lines, but I don't support our president in this (sorry, I didn't vote for him either).
It is also well known that "America's Army," the video game, is a recruiting tool for the US Army. Expect us to "show a little humor" with respect to that.
"What would you think about that if you were an actual Iraqi, reading
I'm not in Iraq and I imagine a very small percentage of
"Wait, lets change this video game a little bit and rename it to "Washington DC Terrorist Attack - Kill the President before He Rapes The World", and port it to Nintendo."
False analogy. The two are not comparable on any level.
That being said: Go for it. Announce it on
You won't get moral outrage from me over it being sold--I won't purchase it, I won't play it, and I won't encourage others to play it, but I won't claim that it shouldn't be sold. Part of that "freedom of speech" thing.
"Does that then make it okay for someone to say "Play this game then go there, Brother, and kill the infidels!""
I wouldn't be insulted if the Information Ministry or Military in Iraq released a game called "Saddam Hussein's Army" and someone posted on
Seriously, you are being oversensative. None of us care.
I'm opposed to the war, I still got a chuckle out of the "train for Iraq" line.
"Can Americans not plainly see that their perpetual arrogance and cultural irresponsibility is causing them more trouble than its worth?"
Can the hypothetical "rest of the world" (meaning you) see that sterotyping and generalized racism is causing us all more trouble than its worth?
""Americas War" is *NOT* something to be proud about, or defend eagerly, or even participate in willingly."
I'm not, I don't, and I'm not. Your point?
"It is the product of a sick and twisted culture!!"
Stop making leaps of logic that Orwell's Ministry of Truth would be proud of and you might get people to listen to you. Ranting about the Evils of America(TM) gets you nowhere in discussion, informing others, or in changing anyone's minds.
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
ArmyOps Tracker
You can track you all sorts of stats with the game. I love using it to track how many points I need to gain honor and seeing my frag rate. I didnt discover this online tool for almost a few months. If you are curious, you can see mine...My AA stats. Another cool feature is the signature file which is like a banner ad of your stats.
I can wait til I turn my 600mhz iBook into a server!
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
Probably didn't take much more than a recompile on a Mac to create this "port".
This is a GOOD THING and the sort of thing we need to see more of. Develop cross-platform games with cross-platform APIs. Give "Linux gaming" and "Mac gaming" both a shot in the arm with the same code.
Hey, we're not talking about Clinton bombing an aspirin factory on bad info here! He's not even President anymore.
Oh... oh, you were talking about Bush.....
obviously you are new to gaming since "strafe jumping" is actually called "bunny hopping". also you cannot fire while jumping. you can fire while strafing back and forth. i assume that you started today, you probably havent played many of the maps and maybe still in the MILES (laser tag) maps like MOUT and Tunnels. Those maps are intro maps you will see how the game can excel when you are on a large outdoor map like Radio Tower or a FPS killer map like Bridge.
.50 caliber sniper rifle, m4 with laser sight,grenades, flash bangs, smoke nades plus the enemies counter weapons.
o ru ms&file=viewtopic&t=1142
When AA was first released, I thought of it as Counter Strike 2 with all the cheats removed which is one of the reasons I stopped playing CS. But I discovered that AA was team orientated. If you can find your nitch on a squad, you can really dominate.
Some things that you missed that I think should be noted:
- you can shoot through doors now and bullets can ricochett and kill you
- TK (that is "team killing) is a huge no-no
- You will need to learn the Rules of Engagement (ROE) which have a negative effect on gaining honor.
- You get bonus honor for being squad and fire team leaders.
- You need to know your CEM (Combat Effectiveness Meter), the higher it is, the more accurate your shot is.
- To forgive ppl, when you are TKed accidently. Apologize when you TK someone.
- There's many different qualifications such as Airborne School, Sniper School, Mtn Range division, etc... by passing those schools, new maps open to you.
- The higher your honor the better your chances are of getting the weapon you requested.
- Game weapons (depending on map and team size): M16, Saw, m16 w/ 203 grenade launcher, regular sniper rifle,
Coming in AA 1.9, two new classes: Medic and Special Forces. I am looking forward to becoming a medic (although its not like a true medic, but a combat medic with a gun -- read americasarmy.com). Rumors are that you need to have a 35+ honor to be a medic and 50+ for Special Forces.
I've logged 70+ hours into this game, playing for a few days then stopping for a week or so (depending on work and life duties). So I feel qualifed to review the game.
overall for a free game, its pretty damn good. the FPS are quite good if you have a good video card. a gf3 is okay. i dont think my 600mhz iBook with its ATI 16mb video card could handle it, but maybe it will be okay as a dedicated server.
"hooah"
fps tweak
http://75thrangers.us/portal/modules.php?name=F
a quote from the post...
" Ok I was gettin like 23 fps on bridge SE, and i new
i could do better. I have a radeon 9200 128mb. So a
Dev told me that i could tweak the Cache size in the
armyops.ini file and it would help alot. The default
is 32. If you haev a 128 mb card set it to 128 mbs, 64
card =64 cache. I went from 23 fps to 60! "
i have an ati 9000 128 pro...i made the changes and it didnt seem to do much. i had my friend make changes to and he has a gf4 ti 4200 128 and he didnt notice any changes.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
Just played for a bit (I'm not saying what time zone I'm in!) and my first impression was surprise at the languages being used in chat.
I know non-English-speakers are not unusual in FPS games, of course. But something about the in-your-face stridence of American military machismo in the game made it an odd cognitive dissonance.
I can see a Huey Long (or Joe McCarthy) figure showing a screenshot of dudes blasting people with their m1a4 or whatever, talking in Czech... and then McCarthy lambasting the Army for training the next generation of terrorists.
Or do I just need my morning coffee?
Does this remind anyone else of the 80's movie The Last Starfighter where the goofy kid living in a California trailer park gets the high score on a video game and gets recruited by the "Star Leauge" to save the Earth or Universe or Star Leauge or something like that?
This really could become some next generation of recruitment.
I mean, think of the possibilities for NASCAR to recruit top scorers for Gran Turismo, or the National Football Leauge to recruit top scorers of Madden 2004. Heck, if you can wiggle your fingers fast you must be able to do the real thing too. I'd hate to get in a kick boxing competition with the high scorer of Dynasty Wariors 4. I bet that overweight 12 year old would use the old A-B-A-B-B on my ass and the next thing I know he'd be holding my beating heart in his hand!
All of a sudden I miss the 80's
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Join the Army, they said.
See the world, they said.
I'd rather be sailing.
"...then I took a dozen rounds in the chest. It was... a bummer..."
No, it's you who's massively misinformed, you silly AC:
p ec ial/clinton/stories/impeach122098.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/s
There's a difference between being impeached and being removed from office.
I have to agree - being able to think for yourself is generally an impediment to obeying orders.
If you were going for the Simpsons reference, the correct phrase is "YVAN EHT NIOJ". Bart was unknowingly recruiting for the Navy, not the Army.
To make this game perfect it needs a few things:
First, when you try and log off, you should stand a good chance of being told you'll have to wait another month or six before you can stop playing and attempt to log off again.
The reasons given for your missions should bear little to no relation to reality.
Massive extra point bonuses for securing oil wells.
And most importantly, if you die you never, ever get to play again.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
. . . but only if I can fight against America.
Otherwise it's kind of boring.
The beauty of hypocrisy is you can practice it, decry it, and admit it all at the same time.
Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".
B.R.A.S. =
Breathe
Relax
Aim
Squeeze
At least that was the mantra for basic rifle marksmanship when I went thru Army Basic Training almost 11 yrs ago. The way you practice this is by dry-firing the M16A2 (I actually had an A1 issued by accident but the bastards caught me on my first day out in the range, dammit!). You put a dime on top of the deflector and you try to squeeze the trigger without dropping the penny.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
Hi! Can't remember URL, but some time ago here in Moscow was a challenge painboll between Q2 team and FSB team, as I remember. Quakers wiped out federal sequrity team. Of coarse, that was not real bullets...
"America's Army", now 99% subliminal message free!