America's Army: upcoming versions preview

[akpe]

Πρόκεται για ένα απο τα πιό αμφιλεγόμενα, αλλα και αναμφισβήτητα απο τα καλύτερα multiplayer fps όλων των εποχών. Συνδυάζοντας δράση με ρεαλισμό, στρατηγική και ομαδικότητα, βασικά στοιχεία που το χαρακτηρίζουν, το παιχνίδι κυκλοφόρησε για πρώτη φορά το 2001, και συνεχίζει ολοένα και περισσότερο να προσελκύει φανατικούς gamers οι οποίοι αναζητούν κάτι παραπάνω απο τα απλά και "γρήγορα" multiplayer first person shooters.

 

Διατίθεται δωρεάν και είναι playable ακόμα και με dialup, ενώ για να τρέξει χρειάζεται τουλάχιστον ένα P3 στα 1.2GHz, μια κάρτα γραφικών 128mb με υποστήρηξη Direct3D και TL, και τουλάχιστον 256MB RAM.

 

Ας δούμε τι μας υπόσχονται στο έμμεσο και άμεσο μέλλον οι δημιουργοί του παιχνιδιού:

 

America's Army: Special Forces: Downrange (2.1)

Coming: By June 2004 (ελπίζω)

 

Downrange will mark the first time weapon-equipped vehicles make an appearance in the game. The Stryker vehicle discussed at last year's E3 wasn't added to the game as quickly as planned, but will now appear as in some maps, paired with the Russian BTR-80 for those seeing it from the opposing perspective. We saw an assault map where several Strykers were set up so Special Forces-qualified defenders could get in them and protect an objective with its .50-caliber gun, while the assaulting team took on the corresponding BTR-80s with another addition, the shoulder-fired AT-4 antitank rocket. The rocket has been balanced to require two hits to take out the vehicles, and since the AT-4 is single-use and disposable, it'll take teamwork to neutralize them.

 

As for technical improvements, Downrange will add brilliant sun flares to daytime maps. Not only will this make maps look nicer, but it may be possible to use the flare effect to your advantage, as enemies looking into the sun may not see players in the distance. Two maps will come in the update initially, with two more to come before Q Course's release, but sun flares have been added in to the existing maps as well.

 

Special Forces Q- Course

 

In America’s Army: Special Forces (Qualification Course) players progress through specialized language, survival, and weapons training to take on new SF roles including 18D - Medic, 18C - Engineer, 18E – Communications Sergeant, 18F – Intelligence Sergeant and 18Z – Operations Sergeant. E3 attendees will get a sneak peek at missions that America’s Army players will experience later this summer. Within multiplayer maps players will be able to virtually experience a new range of devices used by the Special Forces -- including the PDM (Pursuit Deterrent Munition), the Door Breacher, and the BDM (Bunker Defeat Munitions). Also, upcoming versions of America’s Army will incorporate new systems now joining the Army as modeled by the America’s Army Future Applications team. This team, which joined the America’s Army effort in 2003, uses America’s Army as a platform to model future weapons systems prototypes for virtual experimentation. Visitors to E3 will be able to employ the Combat Talon robot on the display floor and within America’s Army.

 

Q Course expands the game's signature qualification system to include training options that can unlock additional gameplay elements. While the exact courses aren't set yet, one of the plans is a language course that would allow you to hear and understand nearby opposing forces and get an indication on the map. Another option will be a Special Forces weapons course to unlock new weapons and items--such as a door-breaching charge and a PDM charge that acts as a quickly deployed mine to deter pursuers--while another course will give you a bonus rather than a penalty when picking up the weapons of opposing forces.

 

America's Army: Special Forces: Overmatch (2.2 ή 2.3)

Coming: By Q2 2005

 

Part of the team's current efforts are going into merging the Unreal Tournament 2004 code into the game, which provides technical enhancements that will allow for dynamic rain and snow effects as well as other visual improvements. The door breacher highlights other new features, such as destructible meshes so metal doors buckle and wooden doors shred to splinters. Certain objectives and map properties change each time the map is reset, so it won't be useful or even possible to breach the same door every time. All in all, the update will include a few training courses, plus several multiplayer maps.

 

Much of the demonstration we saw was for features not specific to the America's Army game, but they will make it in by the time Special Forces: Overmatch is ready next year.

 

Combat Overmatch Capabilities:

 

In Overmatch players will be able to explore first hand the combat overmatch capabilities of Special Forces Soldiers in which a handful of U.S. Special Forces Soldiers can engage and defeat armored forces of greatly superior numbers. Based on recent Special Forces operations, Overmatch drives home the unparalleled capabilities the Army achieves by melding top-tier leadership, teamwork, technology and training to create small units of action

 

Specifics on Overmatch were sparse, but the concept is that it will more closely replicate how actual engagements are unbalanced, with unequal weapons and numbers. While the training version--to be put to use this year--isn't required to be fun or balanced, the game will get around the issue of multiplayer balance by making the missions cooperative, with players acting as US forces against an AI-controlled opposing force. One of the training versions' scenarios using this system will replicate a well-documented battle in Northern Iraq last year, where a Special Forces unit only 12 men strong was surprised by and successfully took on a full Iraqi armored column. The key to the scenario is the very new, very pricey Javelin portable missile system, which is modeled in great detail.

 

In addition to the game development team in Monterey, California, and the training development team in North Carolina (which includes a few former Red Storm developers), the overall America's Army project now has a third team specifically working on modeling weapons that are in development. This team's goal is partly to simulate the weapons' effectiveness and partly to create the sort of high-fidelity simulations that can be then be used to train soldiers. In addition to the Javelin, we also saw the XM25--the evolution of the OICW and replacement to the M205 under-barrel grenade launcher that features a built-in laser-range finder. Also in the works is the Talon bomb-exploding robot currently deployed in Afghanistan and the beefier M1025A Humvee.

 

About the Game

 

America’s Army was designed and developed to use online game technology as a virtual portal through which gamers can explore Soldiering in the U.S. Army. In America’s Army players can explore and dominate challenges ranging from basic training to Special Forces Assessment and Selection to Special Forces Qualification Course. They can join various elite Army units and see the power of Army teamwork, values and technology.

 

To create the realistic levels presented in America’s Army: Special Forces, developers worked with Green Berets at locations ranging from firebases in Operation Enduring Freedom to the J.F.K. Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, N.C. America’s Army developers also joined with elements of the 1st Brigade 25th Infantry Division and 3rd Brigade 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Wash., to model Stryker Brigade missions and equipment.

 

America’s Army is rated T for Teen and is available as a free CD at local Army Recruiting stations, ROTC Detachments and Army events, and can also be downloaded free from various partners listed on the http://www.americasarmy.com'>http://www.americasarmy.com site.

 

Πηγές: http://www.gamerspot.com / http://www.americasarmy.com