Kinda like deja vu (with risen and arcania, now of2 and arma(2))

Back to Topic: Here's the latest trailer/gameplay video
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclu ... army/51452

America's Army 3 now available via Steam (for free of course). And probably outside of Steam as well, but then you wouldn't get achievements.

you know achievements is just a market research mechanism?

downloading it as we speak. [or at least i would be if steam didnt keep crashing]

So, first thoughts? Saw Satis playing it yesterday.

well, i started the download troday and had a peek at the steam forums.

apparently its very very bugged.

yea, bugged. A few things.

1. If you had an AA2 account (like me) you can import it for some sort of bonuses or something. Neat
2. Graphics are not all that impressive, but good enough.
3. Like the original, you have to go through training before you can do anything. I did the obstacle course and M16 qualification. I did better in real life basic qualification.

The game hung on the menu once, but recovered. It then hung up loading the next level after the M16 range and I had to reboot. So yea, it's probably pretty buggy, though how much bugginess is due to the game and how much to overloaded authentication servers I don't know.

Giving it a try. It's buggy indeed: first time it hang on me i had to shut it down, when i reconnected it said i completed almost all training things .. needless to say i failed the last test gloriously because i had no clue about controls.

Tried to join a MP game but no luck so far. Maybe i should try longer than 2 minutes though.

meh, I tried to play it a few times yesterday and it just hung every time I tried to start something. And by hang I mean I had to restart the pc...no ctrl-alt-del, no alt-tab. I think I'll try again in a week or two.

The last set of updates seems to have fixed most of the problems. I was able to do all my training and get in some online fighting. It's pretty fun, actually. There's a lot of stuff that's 'coming soon', so the game seems kinda unfinished. But what's there is fun.

But it's also buggy. If you hit esc to go into the menu to, say, look up key bindings, when you get out suddenyl the mouse doesn't work, though keyboard keys do. I've also had some bizarre graphical glitches trying to throw grenades where the M16 model isn't replaced by the grenade model. Also some weird lag issues and such.

However, it's free and still pretty fun. I think it's worth it. I'm not sure I understand how leveling up works, and the stats don't work, but hey, whatever. I think it's good for jumping in for some fun every now and again, and as time passes and the game bugs get fixed and features get fleshed out, the value will only get better. This being the Army game, I don't think there's any fear of the developer failing to support the product post-launch.

I wonder, just how does the game "motivate" players to join the army? Are their billboard? loading screens with info about signing up? Does it have a menu option that links to an online registration site?

And does it dram on about America The Beautiful a lot? Cause you know, I'd probably go FF rape on my team's ass as soon as things become too nationalistic or facistic (don't worry, I'd do the same in a 'Belgian Army' game, but that'd probably consist of a game of Space Invaders with mines instead of aliens ).

'Watch out for the evil mines attacking the nation!!'

When you're playing, the pro-Army propaganda is minimal. Just small unit tactics and infantry action. Realistic weapons and stuff, of course.

The scoring system and training and stuff are very pro-army crap. You get 'points' for 'honor' and 'integrity' and 'duty' and all that shit for doing various stuff in the game. Once you get enough point, I think you 'level up' by getting a promotion. You can also unlock additional training, I think, so you can use more weapons and whatnot.

Mostly it's not a big deal... you get points for stuff like not shooting teammates, for killing and capturing baddies and securing objectives and such. Nothing wrong with that. The only thing iffy is all the go-army crap with 'honor' and all, but whatever. And yes, there's a menu link for learning more about the army and presumably joining. Obviously I'm not clicking that link. I already know what to expect down that road.

Lol. I can already imagine you stumbling to your pc on a drunk evening, trying to play AA3 but instead registering for a tour in Iraq. At least, when I do that, they won't let me to as a belgomaniac. That's a relief.

Anyway, sounds ok then. If I download it i'll wait until the game is properly 'fixed' though. And I KNOW I'm gonna have fun with those integrity, honor blabla.

hah...you can join the US Army as a non-US citizen. Expect some background checks, but yea... it's touted as an easy way to become a US citizen. Come on Ox, it'll do you some good.

Haha, I'm pretty sure I'd pass the background check, and the medical easily as well. But the psychological profile...I dunno. I think i'd have to 'cheat' and give false answers. People like me don't really belong in an army...it's not even the anti-authoritarian in me, more that I have a huge, HUGE problem dealing with dumbasses and dickheads. In life in general you can somewhat avoid them based on your level of education, choice of profession and so forth (not that any of those are a guarantee by any means), but in the army you're grouped together with a whole bunch of guys who could be either a retard or really cool people by random chance.

And I'm thinking they'd spread the amount of retards pretty evenly over each platoon based on the entry tests, in order not to create 'ghetto' and 'super' platoons. Since 70% of all people are retarded (probably more with army people), that could turn out pretty badly.

Another piece of self-aggrandizing judgmental nazi generalizations, signed: me

You make it sound like there's one job in the Army. Sure, you join the infantry and you'll probably end up with some people that are one step above chimpanzees.

However, if you were to go into, say, satellite uplink repair, or flight controller or something, it's not likely there'd be a lot of really dumb people there. The dumb people don't get offered the hard jobs.

My MOS (military occupational specialty, ie job) dealt with operating and repairing a missile launcher. Not a lot of really dumb people made it through that... there was one guy who just couldn't figure out that you had to turn the equipment power off before yanking out circuit boards. Yea... he didn't make it through training.

Who knows, maybe you could do psyops (psychological operations). Basically the point is to fuck with the enemy's heads. Sounds like an enjoyable job.