I played the last AA and wasn't too fond of the gameplay. I don't recall specifically what bothered me about it but I know that I ended up cutting my rental short. The video doesn't show to much on AA3 but I'll keep an eye on it and definitely give it a fair shot. Any word on a release date and how does one get into the beta for this?

I've tried multiple times to get into these games and it always seems like they've made it harder to get into and play than maybe any other multiplayer shooter I've ever tried.

It's easier to join the real army than it is to get into a game of America's Army with people you know.

And then once I did manage to get into a game a time or two the shooting always felt really off. All the realism and tactics and things that might be involved sound cool, but it doesn't matter if the principle game mechanic feels... wrong somehow.

I'll probably take a stab at the third game anyway because I'm a sucker for this stuff, but my hopes are not high.

The only kind of AA match I played was the maps where you had to fight bots. Those are the only ones that I found interesting. The other maps are extremely hard to get into. Its like counterstrike only more so. One time I tried to get into a match on a hilly map with buildings and rocks and such. I spend 10 minutes walking around, hid in a bush and shot a guy who turned out to me my squad leader. He was so far away his icon didn't display.

The core mechanics have a lot of strange quirks too. if you drop an object, any object, the bots will react as if a grenade has landed near them. This gave every player a free "bot" detector that kind of ruined the fun. Looted weapons only have the ammo loaded into them and don't have any more. (though that clip is always full). I once played a pistol only match on the winter bridge map. Killed half the opposing team singlehandedly while hiding under a car. Only to find that I had to run to the objective, had no ammo and no way to pick up one of the dropped pistols littered all over the map.

Anyhow if they manage to make the gameplay less quirky I will be all for it. My only gripe is that my moniter sux balls at displaying solid black. Night missions look like ass.

I used to love this game. Started playing it soon after the initial release. Got really tired of being called a cheater for playing well so I quit. I might give 3.0 a try but I doubt it will take up as much game time as it used to.

This was the best thing, IMO, that the AA team did. It kept me in the game alot longer.

I played the original AA a ton back in the day. My favorite map was the bridge one. I liked the slower pace and lack of bunny hopping (though there was still plenty of that).

No, not confusing anything. Played both PC versions to date. Found both to play incredibly weird, and promptly uninstalled them after a week or two of trying and just getting annoyed. The shooting is weird. The number of times I was laying prone underneith cover, no one knowing I was there, and taking shots at the enemy at maybe 100 yards and never getting a hit is ridiculous. I'd think something was wrong with my mouse, go back and do the rifle training again, and... no, I can hit every single target in the training tests. This was the kind of thing that happened on a regular basis, map after map.

I'm not bad at shooters. I think anybody's that's played one with me will willingly tell you that. The AA games always felt broken and ended with me going back to Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. Unfortunately neither of those games is the same as they once were.

Just found out we can preload this on Steam and it supports steamcloud. Downloading now and looking forward to playing some with you guys on the 17th.

How about June 17 when it's released? I will post an event

I will be on vacation but count me in when I get back.

If it's anything like the original, there's probably going to be a lengthy boot camp type tutorial/indoctrination. It might be best to plan on getting together on the 18th. We will see.

-Jaya

I'd been watching this thread and thinking this very thing. One of the elements that really turned me off of previous AA games was the pseudo role-play front end you were forced to step through. I totally understand that it's necessary for the game to fulfill its job of being a recruiting tool, but my time constraints and attention span are such that I really want a shooter I can jump right into and start getting myself killed.

I've preloaded it on Steam, here's to hoping that the mandatory training session isn't too long and arduous!

No. Previews have been very clear on this. Training is no longer a prerequisite to playing the game.

In fact, many concessions have been made to make AA3 a better and more approachable game.

At least, that's what the previews say.

I have enjoyed the beta a lot so I am hopefully this game will get some traction around here.

I finally have a reason to install Vent on this PC.