ArmA 2 - Dog Company Comes Into Contact

This video brought to you from the good men at Dog Company.



I loved the comms and the leaders continuously telling the team what to do and how to do it. It's not rare in online gaming to see leaders that assume you can read their minds.

By the time the firefight starts, the two teams got their hands full and couldn't support each other.

Kudos, Dog Company and keep up the good work! And thanks Desdinova for the heads up!

Cheers,

Strike Fighters 2 North Atlantic - Carrier Landing Practice

Before embarking into anything serious in the North Atlantic theater of operations, I have been practicing carrier landings with both the A7 and the F-14A.

This would have been a perfect Top Gun moment, but I just got in the wrong aircraft. :)

Both aircraft maneuver very well at low speeds and although I can get the "trap" consistently, I feel I am not doing it right.

Combat Mission Battles for Normandy Commonwealth Forces - Watch Out! The AI Got Smarter

It's a test I've run since the original Combat Mission Shock Force hoping that the computer controlled units would use cover and/or concealed routes of advance. After a while I gave up: the computer controlled units couldn't see neither the tree nor the forest.

After a certain discussion in a community forum elsewhere I decided to retest this with the Commonwealth Forces module and the results were shocking good.

Strike Fighters 2 North Atlantic - Released

Hot off the press! Third Wire's Strike Fighters 2 North Atlantic ...

Released a few hours ago, this combat flight simulator lite brings back a lot of memories (haven't played one of these Third Wire sims in ages!).

DCS Black Shark 2 - Thunder Run, Russian Style - Briefing

When bullets start flying, there is nothing more precious to a Russian Army commander than key terrain.

It is not just real state, it's the early door opening that unhinges the enemy's resistance.

Combat Mission Battles for Normandy - Commonwealth Forces Module Released

Man, I know it was near release but I wasn't expecting it today.

This new Combat Mission module brings new formations and missions. UK, Canadian, Polish for the Allies and Waffen SS and Luftwaffe Field Divisions, all for some great 3D tactical war gaming.

ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead - Named Area of Interest "Viking" - Fear in Shades of Green: Covert Attrition

Even for non-special forces, the acme of the infiltration-exfiltration combo is the enemy not knowing of your presence.

But in the context of our long term mission, that BMP wasn't going to make our lives easier when the day to attack the outpost comes.

Companion Website and Discussion Group

Hi,

The blog has grown a lot, real life is not getting any simpler and we have some collateral damage.

1. The change to a new Blogger template has rendered the blog's search function useless. As a result of that, older blogger entries are virtually inaccessible and unknown for readers who started reading the blog in the last year or so.
2. Due to the limited time that I have available for gaming and blogging, many entries have been divided in several parts. This results in a very uncomfortable reading experience for the followers of the blog.
3. Again, due to the limited time I have available, virtually all comments the readers post in the blog have gone unanswered for the last 4 months.

I thought about it and here are two things I came up with:

• I opened a companion website where I will post the most read entries of the blog. There are many blog entries I want to share with those of you who many not had a chance to read them. Entries that in the blog are divided in parts will be available in just one page of the companion website. I was thinking about offering a pdf version of some of those but I don't know if there is enough interest for that.
• I also opened a discussion group so you can comment and discuss without the constrains of the Blogger comment feature. I'm not so sure how seamless is this Google discussion groups thing, but at least is something. My free time is unlikely to get any bigger, but I'm hoping to read great discussions about these games and sims we love.

All of the above subject to a very good amount of future tweaking and modification.

Cheers,

ArmA 2 - Asymmetric Warfare Components

BO has been there and has seen these weapons. He has been working for some time into bringing them into ArmA 2. This is his latest video update. Enjoy.

Wanted to try to bring a little more realism to the game via the unknown. That unknown is of course IED's in all their dreadful forms. This is still a WIP. I understand the sensitive nature of this killer all too well. As a active duty member of the Armed Forces (Combat Engineer), I've deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and have come face to face with them. So please, no hate mail.

Cheers,

Microsoft Flight - It's Free and it Will Cost You a Fortune

Microsoft Flight was released this week. I knew beforehand that I would not like it, so for me it was destined to be a big "meh!". Yeah, no complains, no rants, not even a comment of what Flight is or is not. Installed it, flew a bit, uninstalled and forgot about it within hours.

But I don't want to leave you with just my apathy for Microsoft Flight. As pathetic as it is, let's review the reviews. :p

There is a great commentary about it at SimHQ. Favorite quote on flight modelling "crashing actually takes some work".

Another review at the Flying magazine calls it a big disappointment. Favorite quote about the pricing model  "Microsoft expects users to pay for add-on content, and maybe some would. My guess is few pilots will." (bold is mine)

The guys at Rock Paper Shotgun have a great article on it too. With their usual awesome style they wrote a piece that is both gobs of fun and informative if you can read between the lines. When they post a picture of an Icon A5 landed in impossible places, you laugh ... And if you were expecting a flight simulator, then you cry a bit afterwards. 

AVSIM has its review too. Long. As an apology to an angry wife. AVSIM loves Flight with a passion and that's OK. But if you go through their forums, it feels like if AVSIM has adopted a sort of policy about Flight, and that is you like it or you are out. These guys have completely lost credibility with me. It is just plainly embarrassing to browse their Flight forums and see staff and other assorted honchos criticizing negative reviews of Flight like the two first above. It is not kosher to criticize other reviews on petty flaws. Sorry AVSIM guys but I will stay away from your webpage for a long while. But thank you anyway for the big advertisement banner that forwarded me to Flight's webpage ... 

Cheers,