America's Army v2.7 is out...

E

EmptyFlame

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 22, 2005
Messages
122
... and what a giant turd it is. It's so buggy, it makes EA/DICE look like beta-testing gurus (sorry, had to throw that jab in there).

In all seriousness, they took some pretty big leaps with this version. They added co-op against 40+ AI enemies, new weapons (HMMV with CROW and a Javeline Missile System) as well as a 6 story urban combat map.

However, everything is so bug-ridden, it's barely playable. The version even affected other map performance with ~20% decrease in FPS for people with aging systems (like myself).

They pretty much failed at everything they set out to do with this version ... unless their goal was to alienate their fanbase.
 
Well you could say that. But how much does America's Army cost you to purchase??? Last I saw it was free. EA/DICE charges you 50+ bucks per game and still gives you the same crap.

So I say, you are getting what you pay for with America's Army. You would be getting the shaft with EA/DICE (I assume we are talking BF2 here).
 
I definitely agree that there is little room to complain for a free game, however this release was so incredibly sub-par in comparison to the others, it's surprising.
 
I didn't find it all that 'buggy' really. I don't like the design choices overall with the driving and javeline system, but that's really just an opinion. The driving seems overly clunky to me, I know they are shooting for realism (which is cool) but it simply is not that hard to drive a real vehicle off-road in real life (and I know, as I have many times). As for the javeline, there are just too many steps involved to use the thing and be effective. As for performance, I personally didn't notice any drop, but I run a pretty massive machine for gaming (dualcore, sli, raptors, etc).

I still think the game is fun, but it never holds my attention for long. Every release I play the game for a few weeks then just go back to what ever I was playing before it (in this case, that will be PoE2 ;)).
 
They bugged the browser big time.

Filters don't work, pings hardly show for any server, or if they do it takes freaking foreverto show.

As far as "this game is free," no it's not if you are in America. Where do you think they get the money for development? Taxes...
 
if you think about it.... it is pretty sad that everyone in the country is paying for the game, and i dont really think people will join the army because of it.... but keep on making it as i love it :) i stil havent dld'd 2.7, im on 2.6 as 2gigs is a lil too muhc (maybe tonight ill leave it on all night)
 
I'm usually one to overlook shortcomings with patches and such, but v2.7 is unforgivable.

It's horribly bug-ridden, and has some huge balancing issues in a favorite map of mine (Urban Assault... there's an invisible wall that prevents you from throwing a nade over Western obj., but from the other side you can throw a nade over just fine).

Fortunately, the Devs are working on a hotfix (the Dev server is running on version 2.7.1)... so at least they know it's buggy.
 
I wish they would just do a roll back to the 2.0 days
I stopped playing when it hit 2.4 (somthing just felt wrong when I played it from that patch on).
 
Hm, too bad it's buggy. Sounds like the changes could be good. Have to give it a try.

I love this game, but it is just far too realistic for me to play it too much. I like bunny hopping and running into a room with guns blazing... trying to decide if the sniper on the far hill is friend or foe, and sneaking around just isn't my style. Still love it though, just can't play it long before I get pissed... eliminated during the first 2 minutes, every round, for trying to me rambo. Oh well :D
 
I played it today. It's actually not that buggy on my machine. The Javelin training played fine. I haven't attempted dribing the Humvees yet but I will tomorrow. The fact stats is integrated into the game now rather that having to use a web based stat tracker. The big bugs will be sorted out but there will always be small one. Remember the game is FREE. Even games like Bejeweled aren't free and can't compare to this.
 
I just upgraded my Forceware drivers and gained nearly 15fps.

Game runs just as smooth, if not smoother than before!
 
waste your time submitting feeback to the them then instead of bitching in here of all places? and you dont even mention what is going on. wholly waaAAaAambulance!
 
G'ßöö said:
waste your time submitting feeback to the them then instead of bitching in here of all places? and you dont even mention what is going on. wholly waaAAaAambulance!
Click to expand...

I've done so. The reason why I didn't bullet point all of the bugs with the game is that there are too many to list (I read/post in these forums from work, so time is of the essence).

If you want a good rundown on what is wrong with the game, just take a quick peek into the America's Army Forums or AAOTracker.com's Bug Report Forum.
 
I haven't ran into many bugs yet.

I CANNOT STRESS how important it is to UPDATE your drivers. In an earlier post I said a 15 fps increase, but today in SF Hospital, I stat fps's it and saw that I was getting 50-70fps throughout the entire match. For some reason the menus and main screen I only get 30fps on though.

Before I updated my drivers I was getting 15-25fps.

So go update your drivers before you upgrade your PC.
 
50-70 FPS on Hospital? If you don't mind me asking, what kind of settings are you running?
 
EmptyFlame said:
50-70 FPS on Hospital? If you don't mind me asking, what kind of settings ar you running?
Click to expand...
Judging by his rig, I'm going to say lowest on everything. :\
 
No kidding! That's why I was curious. Not many gamers on this board with a slower rig than man, so he's peaked my interest.
 
Yeah my friend who plays pretty much this game only was pretty dissapointed in it, I will have to check it out though.
 
You know, the most painful, stressful, and debilitating process in the life of many a programmer is the first few days (and, to a lesser extent, weeks) after a major release. No amount of testing in the world can prepare you for the terror of a sudden onslaught of users griping about how they don't like the new version of *whatever*, or that this *thing* is broken, and you are a lazy, good-for-nothing, piece of crap programmer who needs to go back to flipping hamburgers or pumping gas or whatever you were doing before you got this job, because you obviously know absolutely nothing about absolutely anything. No amount of testing is ever enough. No amount of bugfixing is ever enough. The testing and debugging process, to me, is final and clinching proof of the statement "build something idiot-proof, and they'll build a better idiot". The final product is almost always greeted by a powerful flare of resentment and loathing from a certain part of the customer population.

After a few cycles of this process, I think most coders become numb and resentful to the wishes and complaints of users. Nothing they do is ever good enough anyways, so many of them simply stop caring.

I imagine it is even worse with video game development, as there is a much stronger artistic aspect to the product. Also, the hardware configurations you are expected to deal with have nearly infinite permutations...complicates things a bit.

Being a programmer, though not a game programmer, I try to be patient and understanding of the many and various problems related to software development, especially with AA, because it is free. Yes, American's pay taxes for it, but we also pay taxes for much more wasteful enterprises than that. I am glad to see the Feds embracing video game technology...much better than them wasting all of their time and my money trying to ban and destroy the things I love to do.

Granted, I haven't played through much of AA 2.7, but I haven't seen any real problems yet. Everything I've tried has worked properly. The driving is a little complex, but I like it. Games don't have to be easy to be good. I generally prefer a good game with a steep learning curve...something that makes you think and learn.

Just thought I'd interject. Call me bitter if you like; you may not be wrong. I don't really care.

-Mark.
 
Most of my settings are on normal except for character detail which is on high and I turned Vsync off.

I can post screens for proof.
 
HaMMerHeD said:
You know, the most painful, stressful, and debilitating process in the life of many a programmer is the first few days (and, to a lesser extent, weeks) after a major release. No amount of testing in the world can prepare you for the terror of a sudden onslaught of users griping about how they don't like the new version of *whatever*, or that this *thing* is broken, and you are a lazy, good-for-nothing, piece of crap programmer who needs to go back to flipping hamburgers or pumping gas or whatever you were doing before you got this job, because you obviously know absolutely nothing about absolutely anything. No amount of testing is ever enough. No amount of bugfixing is ever enough. The testing and debugging process, to me, is final and clinching proof of the statement "build something idiot-proof, and they'll build a better idiot". The final product is almost always greeted by a powerful flare of resentment and loathing from a certain part of the customer population.

After a few cycles of this process, I think most coders become numb and resentful to the wishes and complaints of users. Nothing they do is ever good enough anyways, so many of them simply stop caring.

I imagine it is even worse with video game development, as there is a much stronger artistic aspect to the product. Also, the hardware configurations you are expected to deal with have nearly infinite permutations...complicates things a bit.

Being a programmer, though not a game programmer, I try to be patient and understanding of the many and various problems related to software development, especially with AA, because it is free. Yes, American's pay taxes for it, but we also pay taxes for much more wasteful enterprises than that. I am glad to see the Feds embracing video game technology...much better than them wasting all of their time and my money trying to ban and destroy the things I love to do.

Granted, I haven't played through much of AA 2.7, but I haven't seen any real problems yet. Everything I've tried has worked properly. The driving is a little complex, but I like it. Games don't have to be easy to be good. I generally prefer a good game with a steep learning curve...something that makes you think and learn.

Just thought I'd interject. Call me bitter if you like; you may not be wrong. I don't really care.

-Mark.
Click to expand...

It's understandable that there'd probally be bugs, those are just somethin that pc gaming is goin to have.

But how can you say a filter system that doesn't work for many people isn't noticeable/able to be fixed pre-release?

I mean that seems like something they could have easily saw wasn't working correctly and then patched it up before putting 2.7 out.
 
HaMMerHeD,

Being in IT myself, I can completely understand your point of view when it comes to major releases and bug-fixing. However, some of the major bugs in this last release are sitting on the surface. These aren't bugs where you have to do the hokey-pokey with your character backwards to get them to work.

For example, as mentioned, the server filter. About 70% of the time you load the game, it's completely broken. The detailed textures setting in the options menu is broken. Drivers and passengers for the up-armored HMMV standing up in their seats through the roof or riding along outside of the vehicle (a la Killer Klowns from Outer Space, for those who get the reference).

And don't even get me started on the AI. I understood that there were more than likely going to be some bugs with it, but when the Army's SITREP paints one picture and you get the equivalent of the VERY SPECIAL Forces, it tends to piss you off.
 
ominslash said:
Most of my settings are on normal except for character detail which is on high and I turned Vsync off.

I can post screens for proof.
Click to expand...

Do you hit 70fps outside or just inside the hospital?
 
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