Another try... another boink !

[JRD]

So here I am... new rig and all... decide to give A2 another go. Maybe with a little bit of hardware fuelled enthusiasm I can get through the parts I'm stuck since my last attempt.

I could easily copy my last savegame from my Vista 64 laptop into my W7 PC (different OS have different folder structure so STEAM won't recover my previous savegame files.... I guess  ::) ) but I decided to give it a try since the very beginning as I want to enjoy the eye candy with a proper rig this time. Besides, knowing the missions makes the actual playthrough quite faster.

So I'm through with mission 1 quite fast - 37 mins and move on to mission 2. Long story short is: after clearing a village to begin a full scale invasion of a country I have to climb to a mountain top from where I can spot key targets, lasert tag them and have the artillery from a massive warship erase them from existence... easier said than done  :D

First time and I can pinpoint targets and have them blown up (great view from up there). My men take care of enemies flanking us and... nothing happens...... no mission accomplished...  ????

Reload from a previous save 3 mins earlier... all I have to do is pull the laser marker from my pocket and mark the targets again, a nobrainer... sure enough, no dice... the game just won't give me the option to call the artillery  :-(

Again, reload, again no dice... no artillery option available....  >:((

Another try and this time all goes well, but mind you, it's the end of mission 1  ??? ... I'm just wondering why have I come back to this game if I KNOW it's a damn bugged game  :D

[Art Blade]

Because you're an optimist? :-D

[JRD]

To be honest it's just because this game looks great and the missions I played are quite what I was expecting from OFP2.

I'll try a bit more and see how far I can go. I'm currently playing the mission Manhattan which took me 9 hours to finish on my first playthrough  ??? ... so I'm sure I can do it in a couple hours this time around as I know where the targets are.

Hopefully I'll have less frustration this time  ;)

[Art Blade]

just take your time, mate  :-()

[PZ]

Good luck JRD, you'll probably need it!  ;)

[JRD]

I finished mission Manhattan pretty easily this time around. Knowing what`s to come and where to expect enemies makes it quite faster.

One thing actually made a big difference: as I was waiting for the chopper to pick up Lagushina (a nurse who was helping the insurgents) I had to wait for a long time at the LZ. I almost reloaded thinking it was another bug keeping the chopper to come but I could see a lot of friendly AI activity from where I was standing and it was very amusing:

- An APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) dropping units over a hill. I could see how they swept an area where I saw some enemy units a few minutes before using my binoculars. I heard some gun fire and enemy units were gone, pretty good job  :-X

- A Chernarussian Defense Force (CDF) chopper flying over the woods in about the same area as the APC was sweeping. It was firing rockets and the MG and I could see the smoke coming out of the woods and hear the muffled sound of explosions. After what seemed like a long wait (10-15 minutes or so) the chopper left the woods and came to the LZ. It was my ride that was directed to another task as it was flying to get the nurse!  8)

- I also got a radio message saying I didn`t have to search for weapons smugglers as they had been killed in another firefight... cool, one less boring find-and-arrest task  8)

So I went back to my vehicle parked far from where I was - I knew that approaching the LZ by car would trigger an enemy assault to kill the nurse so I walked through the woods, flaking them and attacked the enemy on their camp overlooking the LZ  ;) - my men responded very well to my orders to flank, target and assault. As I moved to the next task - find the insurgents leader, I saw an enemy jeep with the engine on and a corpse for driver  ;D - I disembarked and searched the area and spotted a field hospital and a BMP!!! That was the enemy base I had so much trouble attacking on my first playthrough... and on a different location this time  ???  As I moved in my sniper found one target and killed him and the BMP was red on my map, indicating an active enemy. I ordered a strike over the area, firing for effect with all strength  >:D and a couple minutes later all hell came down on the area, clearing the field hospital. The BMP had the engine running but was unmanned and all the area was completely destroyed with dead bodies and fallen trees everywhere  >:D ... the location happened to be the one the chopper was bombing a few minutes before! My airstrike only finished what the chopper had done before and the insurgent leader was with the weapons smugglers, 300 meters from there, also killed by the AI so all I had to do was search his dead body and retrieve intel from him  8)

Couldn`t be easier this time around. If I hadn`t played that mission before I`d be even pissed off with the AI that had all the fun and left to me dead bodies to search ????

Next is a mission where the tides turn and the game branches - I`ll be left behind at Chernarus and have to choose between crossing the country on foot to reach the allied base or join the resistance and help them fight off the enemy

... stay tuned for more adventures!   :-D

[Art Blade]

JRD, that was pretty awesome ??? :-() :-X

Cool story :)

[PZ]

Indeed - great read!  :-X

[JRD]

Finished Manhattan and went on to Bitter Chill, where things get nasty and you have to choose a side. Again, knowing what's coming makes the game easier. After getting to the base, I found some dead bodies and realized I was left behind so I had to reach an assembly area and try to leave the country. Of course you are not supposd to reach that point so the first time around I kept dying from an invisible shooter so I didn't even bother this time. Instead I went to the Sobor area where I knew I was supposed to meet with the resistance in case I chose this path, or go further west to reach a CDF base and request asylum. Well... I almost went to the asylum choice just to see what would happen but it was so damn far I went the same path I did first time - the resistance  ::)

All went according to plan, managed to reach the position without any nasty encounter - well, one encounter with a platoon and an chopper that resulted in death by rocketfire... nothing a reload and go-around-that-hill wouldn't solve  ;D... resistance met, mission finished.

Next was just an escort mission with an enncounter with enemies. You are instructed to avoid combat, specially because they have a chopper over the area and you are on foot, so it's a no brainer. First time around I had a sniper and pulled my best moment in the game when I downed the chopper with a single shot to the pilot's head... maybe I can replay that part and then attack the village just to see what happens, but I'm pretty sure the aftermath is exctly the same. You leave the area and move to Novy Sobor to a mission where you have to attack and take over four villages occupied by Russians.

I'm almost at the same point I was previously, so let's see if I can get any further this time around  ;D

... stay tuned for more adventures  :-D

[PZ]

 :-X

[Art Blade]

nice shot, taking that helo out  :-() :-X

[JRD]

I registered it here  >:D

[Art Blade]

 :) When I look at those pics, I really wish the game was less of a chore. The images look good and I remember walking around in the environment with joy, only the gameplay didn't quite convince me (apart from the lonely sniper custom mission).

[JRD]

I remember looooooong walks through the woods trying to avoid contact with armor and helos, as a rocket launcher is not a fun toy in real life apparently  :-(

The level of frustration was quite high on my first playthrough and that`s why I gave up trying to finish the SP. So far I`m doing much better and frustration is much lower. I had the bug at the mission where you have to laser target enemy positions and another one preventing me to watch a cutscene - no biigie as it was a short one I`ve seen before and I could hear the sound so I knew the game wasn`t frozen. After that no bugs (so far  ::) ) and I`m looking forward to see what`s ahead of me.

One thing also made me quit. My processor at the time was below the specs so the game was running on medium to low settings and going slide show when the world was filled with moving stuff, so to finish the mission where I quit was really a chore  :D

Also now I don`t care about perfectionism any longer so to move on should be easier  ;)

[Art Blade]

 :)

[JRD]

That was one nasty - but funny - bug!!

The mission I'm playing requires me to assault and control 4 cities. I have a few rebels under my command so the whole level becomes way complicated to manage but with time and patience one ends up doing it.

So I took a place called Novy Sobor, the first out of four villages to be taken. As you control the place, the friendly rebels move in with a kind of mobile HQ. Approaching the HQ and clicking MB opens up a menu where you can choose between BASE and DEFENSE. This is the point where the game turns into an RTS game with a monetary system in place and the possibility to buy stuff and etc... kind of a mood breaker for a shooter in my opinion, but whatever... let's see what we can take out of it  ;)

By going into the mobile HQ menu puts you in an Age-of-Empires-aerial-kindda-view and selecting BASE or DEFENSE will turn your cursor into the desired object you want to place like any RTS game.

As I place my base in a fitting place...
...
...
... I FIND MY CHARACTER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING OCEAN, SOME 10 KM OFFSHORE , FLOATING AS IF HE'D FALLEN OFF A BOAT ???

WHAT THE f@#k IS GOING ON  ????

HOW DA HELL DID I END UP HERE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD  ????

FLOATING AT SEA OUT OF NOTHING... ONE SECOND YOU ARE INLAND AT THE BATTLEFIELD, THE NEXT SECOND FAR OFFSHORE... JUST LIKE THAT  ????

My men goes "where are you? Whats your location? Can't find you... " showing I was right there with them a minute ago...........
... as I move, my rifle drops so I go "out of ammo" since I have no weapon with me anymore and all I could do was swim back to shore - or reload game, of course!!

Man... I've seen bugs in many games... glitches and funny stufF, but this one was... was... well, I have no words to describe it  :D

[Art Blade]

"wet" ?  ????  :-()