ArmA III

Overview

Arma 3 is a sandbox oriented first person shooter in a realistic simulated environment. It takes place on two new islands called Altis and Stratis. The islands are highly detailed massive environments featuring a variety of terrain and cities 270km² and 20km² respectively. Arma 3 supports single player, co-op, and multiplayer. It is highly moddable and supports custom maps and modes.

Features

• Single player in which you can evolve from a lone soldier to a commander in a story driven and open ended campaign.
• Vehicles and weapons which provide accurate simulation.
• Customisable soldier loadout in which you can change your look and weapon kit.
• Physical simulation and improved animations. Arma 3 uses PhysX.
• The game world will be modeled from real geographic data.
• Multiplayer support with dedicated servers for both Windows and Linux.
• Completely moddable with easy to use mission editor.

Story

Arma 3 is set in the 2030s when a war between NATO and CSAT (Iran) has come to the Aegean islands of Greece. The single player campaign revolves around a British special forces operative named Scott Miller. NATO's initial attempts on the island fail and the player is forced to find a way to survive and and go on a variety of missions both on his own and with squad mates.

Steamworks

Bohemia announced on Feb. 21, 2013 that Arma 3 would use Steamworks, allowing developers to focus on developing the game itself rather than ancillary tools. The developer stated Arma 3 wouldn't release in 2013 without Steamworks. The server browser still uses some form of Gamespy technology. Players are able to export their missions from the mission editor directly onto Steamworks. Steamworks now also allows the download of user created mods wherein previously only mod sites such as Armaholic had the downloads and updates had to be downloaded manually, which steam is now able to do automatically.

Release

Alpha

Arma 3 entered an alpha state on Mar. 5, 2013. This is when it became available for sale on Steam. Steam buyers have immediate access to the alpha (and eventually the beta and retail versions as part of the included cost). With each successive tier of development, Bohemia is planning to increase the price from $33 for the alpha, to $45 for the beta, to $60 for the full retail release. This means fans purchasing during the alpha phase will ultimately pay almost 50% less for a full copy of the game.

Alpha Lite

The Arma 3 Alpha Lite started on Mar. 14, 2013. It is almost the same as the Alpha, although it does not include multiplayer, saving in the mission editor, or the ability to add mods.Three keys were given as Steam gifts to people who purchased the Alpha. This version also does not upgrade to the beta or full versions when they are released.

Beta

The beta was released on the 25th of June, adding more single player showcases, multiplayer scenarios, a new 'Green Faction', and multiple new weapons and vehicles.

Digital Deluxe and Supporter Tier

The digital deluxe version includes a digital soundtrack, maps, and tactical guide as well as a copy of Arma: Cold War Assault. The supporter tier includes all of the digital deluxe edition in addition to a copy of Arma X (a collection of all Arma and Arma 2 games and expansions), all future Arma 3 DLC (excluding standalone expansions or sequels), and a "forums badge".

Single Player

Although the full game was released, Bohemia released the single player campaign as 3 episodes. These episodes are called Survive, Adapt and Win. The eipsodes were free to all who bought the game. During the campaign the Player is placed into the boots of Cpl Ben Kerry a US soldier who is part of the winding down NATO force on Stratis.

During the 3 episodes the missions will take the player from Stratis to Altis, take part in and lead infantry combat, direct CAS (Close Air Support) and lead major armoured offensives. The player is able to make divergent story choices during the latter missions of the game.

System Requirements

Controversy

During development of Arma 3 controversy was caused when two of the games developers were arrested on espionage charges in Lemnos, Greece (inspiration for Altis) following them taking pictures of military bases. Giantbomb reported on the story here. They were held in custody for 128 day and then released on bail. Prior to the arrest of the two developers, the issue of the game causing potential threats to Greek national security had been discussed in the Greek Parliament in 2011.

The game has been banned in Iran.