Right, after my initial impressions – see my post, ArmA2 – Initial Impressions, I’ve managed to get the game working nicely so I can now play the game and I must say I’m fairly impressed.

As you can see in the above picture, I’m in a  vehicle with Russians – this is a major plus with ArmA2 – you have the single player campaign, along with the extra scenarios which are good fun.

In addition to the single player campaign and scenarios, you have the armory.  Roaming the world with a weapon of choice, with challanges thrown in to unlock the other weapons within the armory – some challanges are hard to achieve! However some of the best ones are the clay pigeon/skeet shooting challanges – espcially when your a BMP-2 gunner or on a mounted DShK machine gun!

The game is huge, I believe this will take up a large portion of time to play, espcially with all the side issues.

As a note, the planes are a real pain to fly!

I seem to have sorted out the issues I’ve hard. I updated to the latest nVidia drivers and I dropped the quality back a tad (even though I hadn’t touched them from the recommended settings) – Now it’s working, I intend to play with the setting so I can get the highest I can with no problems.

Having just got myself a tax refund and having booked myself a weekender place, I decided that I’d buy myself a new camo. Well, I didn’t plan on buying a new camo but when I saw Partizan camo avaliable on Redzone.pl, I thought I’d purchase it, as it was half the price of anywhere else I’d seen it!

It arrived today and I’m very happy with it. It also arrived with the badges I ordered from the Red Alliance ages ago!

I knew the camo was the Modox version rather than the Splav version (which they do in the nice Gorka pattern) but when ordering it, I noticed it said it was KZM pattern – now I used to own a set of the KZM before it got destroyed (it’s made of burlap – so tore easily on branches etc) but I know that a few people on the Red Alliance have ordered the Modox KLMK and hvae been happy with it so I promptly ordered.

I’d never used Redzon.pl before but they proved themselves to be a reliable supplier – got my camo about a week after ordering it. The badges also came a week after I spoke to Jaguaar on the RA forums for them.

The camo is a lot different  cut than any I’ve used before – as per the previous KZM, I believe it’s an oversuit rather than just a camo but I could be wrong. However I’ll be wearing a pair of shorts and t shirt under it I think. Its a very light weight camo. The shirt/top has an elasticised “waistband” for want of a better term – similar in style to the para smocks of other countries.

It’s a very modern Russian camo and I aim to be using it more often. The colour difference between the two pictures, I think will change as I use it more often. It’ll be interesting to see how Modox compares to long term use to Sposn and Splav made uniforms.

In the picture, it appears the troops are also wearing the new Russian assault webbing, SMERSH. Having spent money on the weekend and the camo, even though I want to create a modern Russian loadout (I have a reasonable standard grunt loadout – my flora, RD-54 and AK74 suit that role), I may have to pass on the webbing. However I may make use of Milgeek’s very interesting ideas for SMERSH and NEMEZIDA look-a-like webbing. However SMERSH seems to have come down in price now and a set can be picked up for about $110.

However for the mean time, I need to get to a game to try the camo out whilst I consider load bearing options for the new look. I’m tossing up on whether to get the new and very nice looking Dboys/Kalash AKMS when it comes out, so I may be sticking with what I currently have.

I must admit I hadn’t considered getting this game but seeing as Milgeek has been raving about it for the last year and seeing it today for the price of £25 (what I judge to be a reasonable game price), I thought I’d pick it up, because after all, there’s only so much Team Fortress 2 you can play before you get fed up with the ROFLCOPTERS and people n00b calling.

Therefore I picked this up for a try.

My initial impression is that it takes FOREVER to install.  We’re talking 15 minutes and it’s about 2/3rds done. And it’s like I have slow hard drives, slow DVD drive or a poor PC.

After the game FINALLY installs, off you go. Well.

The game seems reasonable. No way it’s a jump in and play time game though. The controls will take some getting used to. If you can play it.

I start playing then maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, the PC gets a BSOD and restarts. Or the graphics screw up and stops a signal to my monitor. Not what I need. I doubt this is graphics card related as I can play other games quite happily.

Overall at the minute, I’m disappointed. It’ll be good, when the damn think works.

First and Only have ANOTHER new site!

If you missed the news that they had an ENTIRE shopping mall in Reading as a site, where have you been?!

However they now have ANOTHER new site, this time in Coventry. It’s an old tower block that they’ve nicknamed Nakotami Building. You can see the pictures here.

They’ve also updated there website here.

Personally I cant wait to get to another of there games as I’ve always found them to be great (unfortunatly, Milgeek seemed to have a bad day when he visited the Matlock one – see his review here.) Let’s hope that the good sportsmanship and marshalling from the Temple works it’s way around the company.

In my random searching for something to watch, I stumbled upon The Unit.

The nearest thing I can compare it to is Ultimate Force. Some of you may be groaning already as Ultimate Force has a bad reputation of not being “correct” or “right” – in my mind, Ultimate Force was something for blokes to watch on a Sturday/Friday night when the missus had been watching soaps/reality TV all night! – not to be taken seriously then.

However, the Unit, whilst American, does take itself seriously and delivers some very good TV.

Following the exploits of a top secret American special forces unit, The Unit follows the men (and there wives) of the 303rd Logistical Studies group – or as they’re know amognst themselves, The Unit. The 4th season has just finished and I’ve watched every episode, enjoying the development of the characters and storeyline.

Unlike Ultimate Force, The Unit also follows the soldiers lifes back home with the wives and thus builds itself up as a well rounded program. But let’s face it, we’re watching it for the gun fights!

One to worth looking out for.

I picked this game up a while ago and have just got round to playing it. I played the demo, back when it was just World in Conflict and it appealed to me but I heard rumours that you would get to play as the Soviets in the expansion so I waited until the expansion before buying the pack.

And I’m glad I did. The first thing that caught me after I played the first mission was that the game alternates between playing the Soviets and the Americans. This holds less appeal to me, as I wanted to paint the world red!

However, once I got over initial disappointment, I settled into the game and started having fun.

The revolves around an alternate history where the USSR invades Europe and then later, America (very Red Dawn!). The first mission starts with you sneaking across the Berlin wall and using Spetsnaz to plant explsovies for the future invasion and it eases you into the role of commander. Thinks rapidly become hectic later on though and you start to see how the flow of war works.

Many of the missions will have secondary targets that spring up throughout a mission. These secondary targets really do have affect on the outcome of the battle. In one mission I was asked to repair some AA batteries. Without fixing them, I was constantly harrassed by Hinds throughtout the mission, forcing me to spend my precious resources on mobile AA batteries to tackle the air threat. However if you repair the sites, you have get given the good news that the Soviets have stopped sending air attack at you, which makes it easier to complete the mission! Like real warfare, you sometimes have to ignore a secondary objective to complete the main objective.

Resouce gain is limited – you don’t have to worry about harvesting or anything ala Command and Conquer. You get given reinforcement points throughout the mission – however, keep an eye on them, as they are limited! You spend these on units you want and these are air dropped into the location. Be warned, it can take upto 20 seconds for them to arrive and then you have to reach your frontline from the drop site! You also earn support points. These as far as I know, respawn over time. These give you access to off map support options such as artillery stirkes and bunker busters. Most of the support options have 3 levels, each costing more points. This allows you to have a small artillery bombarment or a huge one! Some nice touches are when you get to use JUST the support options to help a comrade out.

Unit wise, the game is nicely balanced. Infantry can be torn apart in the open by tanks but in cover, they are fantastic. Vehicles are balanced as well. In fact, it took me a while to get used to the game balance and once I got the hang of it, I went to a previous level and completed it slightly better. Vehicles need repairs from repair tanks but I believe infatry gradually recover health if left to there own devices.

Graphics wise, the game is top notch, espcially when zoomed in (which is useless when fighting but nice to see your troops in action!) – Screenshots below (thumbnails open to 1440 x 900).

The game has cinematics as well which really add to the storyline.

Conclusion, well overall it’s a very polished game. However the annoying part for previous owners just buying the Soviet expansion, is that they’ll have to replay the entire campaign to play the Russian levels. Unless it’s different in the original (which I doubt – to much extra coding!). I’ve seen no DRM or DRM issues. It should be also noted that the game developers seem to have done there homework as the models are very detailed and to my eye, very correct in the unifroms they wear and the like.

It’s a very similiar game to the old Ground Control but that’s no bad think as the game was fanstic as well.

it’s well worth playing if your into strategy games.

Well, a very rainy and moist day! Also one of the first (if not the first) time I’ve not completed a whole days airsofting!

I’ve recently moved to Loughborough to work at the University. When I moved I was pleased to see an airsoft site just off the next junction down on the M1. A bit of research said that Grange Farm airsoft had achieved a 5 star rating in the slightly suspect Airsoft International magazine (various reasons why this magazine is terrible can be found online). This led me to take this with a pinch of salt but to have a site less than 30 minutes away seems rare and well worth checking out.

Initial Impressions and Gameplay

Arriving at the site, there seemed to be plenty of players for the day and having arrived a bit later, I used my car to setup up from but they did have a large-ish safe room with tables and chairs. Green fees were cheap at £20 for the day (with a members reduction) and much to my surprise, the fees included a bacon roll for breakfast!

Safety brief and the like done, we moved onto the first game of the day. For this, our team had to attack a dug in enemy whop had the benefit of higher ground and decent cover. We managed to break the enemy in a reasonable time, us having unlimited regens and them having 2 medic lives then out.
During this game the rain came and drenched everything and everyone.

The second game was a longer game to last until lunch. Our team now had to escort a hostage to a “city”, drop him off there then continue to our rescue zone. We proceeded to the “city” (two caravans) successfully and without contact but trying to get to the rescue zone, we got bogged down and struggled to make headway. However we finally made it with some help from the marshalls (over half of our team were hire guns/first timers) and eventually the game ended.

At this point I was forced to admit to defeat as I had a thumping headache, partly I think due to the rain then sun, then rain then sun conditions and the result of a few to many drinks the night before with some uni mates!

Marshalling and Site
The marshalling was top notch. All the marshals were friendly and helpful and throughout the last game continued to offer advice and support as we advanced on the objective. The bacon cob was also a very welcome addition in the morning! At lunch, burgers were served but I’m not sure whether this was included in the price of the game or not as I had brought my own food and ate that instead (at this point, I wasn’t feeling like eating a burger!) Also, I let the marshals know that I’d had enough and had enjoyed it but had to leave, they refunded me half my green fees as I’d only played half a day! This seems to be a normal think as when I paid in the morning, a chap said he was only playing the morning and they charged half price for the game. Something like this really makes you appreciate good customer service, especially in the current economic climate where all money can be a bit tight. (both for the owners and yourself)

Site wise, it was mainly flat with some large open expanses but with some banked areas, some buildings and the like. The trees in some places were very ordered so killzones could be setup down the length of these “avenues” but in other places, it was more like a normal, unmanaged wood. There was a lot of thigh length grass so with the rain, my boots and lower legs were soaked all day, but on the plus side this provided ideal hiding cover.

Conclusions

Overall, I would rate Grange Farm as one of the best sites I’ve played at. Having a good safe room, working toilets (not a portaloo!), a decent and clean kitchen where the food was cooked, great marshals, quality customer service and a decent site, Grange Farm is a quality site and I have to agree in this instance with Airsoft International, the site does deserve 5 stars out of 5!

As mentioned before in my post, New Project -  AK47S,  I am using old AK pieces I have lying around. Anyhow, as I was assembling the parts, I managed to destroy the hop rubber and thus needed to purchase a new one.

So I went to Firesupport and selected a Guarder rubber as I’d heard good things about it. But it was £5 and costs £5 postage. What could I do to make it worthwhile? So I browsed the site for a while… until I found something, added it to basket and ordered.

Well my ordered arrived today and here it is…

CA GP-30 and Guarder Hop Rubber

I ended up purchasing the CA GP-30 along with my hop rubber. I did a quick comparison on buying this from China/Hong Kong before I purchased and it came to a better deal buying it here in the UK. However I did order some grenades from eHobbyAsia which I’m currently waiting for and I’ll review when they arrive. These grenades are made of plastic (Polyoxymethylene) and supposedly are fairly good as they suffer less in cold weather than normal aluminium grenades due to the thermal properties of plastic over aluminium. A pack of 3 and postage came to just under £45, so that’s £15 a grenade, which when compared to others, is remarkably cheap (some Madbull one’s costing upwards of £60 EACH!)

I’ve found myself playing a fairly high amount of CQB games to Woodland games recently and during those games, I’ve often found myself at the forefront of attack. Maybe this is the side effect of having played for a few years, I know the BB’s sting but I don’t die for real. And possibly my sheer bloody stubbornness during regen games to make use of the regen (especially in we regen, they don’t games). Anyhow, with the GP-30, I aim to be leading up more attacks and helping the team to advance.

As Milgeek found, I had no instructions to fit the launcher. However I’ll put a quick guide up ASAP. It’s not to difficult but did require the removal of a few screws.

Considering I only wanted a hop rubber, paying £130 at the checkout (+ the costs of grenades!) means I probably paid for the most expensive hop rubber ever!!

After the slight technical hitch that deleted my previous article, I’ll put up a quick and to the point second review as it was the first time at the new site.

This is Phoenix Urban’s second Urban site. I’m unsure what happened to the first but I assume it was either deemed unsafe or the demolition works carried on. Either way, they have moved to a new site, just outside of Chesterfield.

Initial Thoughts

Arriving on the site we were greeted by a chap who took our names from our online booking and pointed us towards the car park. Here we unloaded our kit and made our way to the safe room, except we hadn’t been told where this was! We did manage to find someone to ask in the end and made our way to the safe room. It was an old office block so there was plenty of room to setup kit and store everything. There were no tables or benches but this wasn’t such a bad idea as it gave more room to move about (the safe room was actually a bunch of small offices so people kept walking between each room to speak to others/get kit etc).

The obiligatory safety brief took place. At this point I realised how good it was that I’d brought my new full face mask, as the site limits were 500fps for single action snipers and 370fps for fully auto AEGs! After a safety brief, we went onto the first game.

Game wise the games were good. Teams were well balanced and ran well.

Lunch started and one of the excellent things about Phoenix is the burger van they have at the site! After a good lunch of curry and chips, we started the afternoon games.
These games were good but towards the end of the day tempers were getting frayed and people being to cheat/cheat call. This brought the afternoon games down in fun for various people but I didn’t see any cheating and was generally away from where people were cheat calling so I wasn’t affected by this much.

Conclusions

Overall the site is fantastic. A mix of open areas with a spattering of small close in areas adds together to create a dynamic and changing area. Marhsalling was good. They did jump on people cheat calling and investigated people that were suspected of cheating and I believe they coped well. People wise, myself and my mate got on with the people we chatted to and it was nice to chat to other airsofters. As always, people seemed to enjoy the site of my scorpion/drum mag combo and this helped me out nicely in close quarters (even though I had the AK74SU).
The site is quite nice for snipers as well and it provided a good shooting ground for my mate. Overall it’s a nicer site than the previous urban site as there seems to be less falls and places to “knock yourself”, however I think a 370fps limit is very high, espcially considering some of the close range shooting that will take place in the site. As an urban site, Phoenix gets a good rating from me and it’s well worth checking out.

Which meant that the MySQL database messed up, meaning I lost my previous post on the review of Phoenix Urban!!

I’ll try and redo it again and I apologise for the missing post