I used to play America's Army religiously {until I got into Battlefield 2 when it was released in June 2005}. It's a totally free online shooter developed by the American Armed Forces with the help of a software developer. (There's a Naval version that I used to play as well). The download is a couple of Gigabytes in size, but I highly recommend those that have steam installed to install this game. It's ready for pre -load now and will be playable from the 17th or 18th June onwards.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/13140/
It's come a long way since I last played it with cooperative play added nearly 2 years ago plus custom made maps by the community. I don't actually know how many maps there are to play now, but when I last played it in 2006 there were about 20 brilliant maps. The graphics then were superb, and they have had several updates since.
I'm hoping that we will be able to set up private servers via steam, though doing so will probably preclude us from adding stats points and levelling up. Though in a closed circle of friends that's not absolutely necessary becasue levelling up really only gives you preferential access to the different classes you can choose from (for example, id a level 20 and 30 were playing, if the level 20 chose to be commander, and the level 30 then chose to be commander, the level 20 player would be bumped down to a lover class, however if the level 30 decided to choose a lower class the level 20 player would remain the commander. (I have a suspicion though that you can't play commander until you've attained at least level 15) You progress in America's Army by earning point via kills and accomplishing missions, plus winning matches. Matches last until a mission has been accomplished, or you are the last man standing and I think there's also a time limit, but not 100% certain on that one. In the event that the time runs out, the winning team will be those that have scored the most when taking into account the number of kills, secondary missions accomplished and the number of soldiers that have been healed. During a match when you are killed you have to wait until the match has ended to re enter (which is a good incentive not to die and tends to stop run and gun methods; making it a much more enjoyable experience. Once killed you can follow the progress of the match by following any player around from a third person viewpoint, though you can't interact. I think there's a facility to send messages to others that have also been killed, but you can't communicate to those in game (unless you have a teamspeak server, though it's frowned upon to pass on information to your team members).
Earning points enables you to level up every so often, (see below for more details of this which in turn gives you privileges in game; the higher the level you are, the better positions you can select during the start of a new match, for example sniper, sergeant in charge of a squad or the commander. If you win a match, the commander gets a larger slice of the points , the squad sergeants next, then the rest get the rest of the points, though you can also earn individual points for other attainments in game (such as healing a wounded soldier or killing one). To move up a level you have to earn a specific number of points. The higher you are in level the harder it is to get to the next level.
When you first start the game you actually play single player, and have to do your basic training which starts with movement then firing ranges. There are several stages to this before you qualify to actually play online. I found this stage a lot of fun because I am basically a single player fan, but online play can be better if you find a good group to play with. Some of the servers I've playe don in the past had clans that were deadly serious about their gameplay and for me that just wasn't fun. I was actually kicked from one server, not becasue I did something stupid or illegal, but becasue I wasn't following the orders of my squad seargent to the letter. There are also a couple of optional stages which can be done once you’ve started playing online. They are Special Forces training, Medic training, and Airborne training (there's possibly been others added since I played, but I haven't researched the subject yet). To be able to use certain weapons (the best ones basically), and to play some of the maps as well as be able to progress beyond a specific level {level 15}, you have to have completed the Special Forces training which involve aircraft and tank recognition tests as well as a stealth exercise where you have to get from point A to point B without being seen by the enemy, and special weapons training using weapons such as the Barrett Rifle and rocket launcher. Airborne training opens up certain maps that you can’t play until you’ve learned to control a parachute. This just involves jumping out of a plane and being able to land within a specific zone. Though it’s not as easy as it seems. Whereas the medic course enables you to heal team members which also gives you extra points towards attaining your level ups; {I think you get 2 points for every soldier you heal} and involves a basic first aid test and some practical work (in game of course). All of it is fun and gives an extra edge to this brilliant online action first person shooter. Don’t let the above put you off; it seems quite a lot to do to be able to actually play the game fully, but as already indicated, you don’t have to do it all at once, though if you don’t do the Special Forces before you attain level 15 you’ll be stuck on level 15, and will not be able to select any position at the start of each game that uses Special Forces weapons, though you can still use them if you pick them off dead comrades or enemy.
One thing you have to be careful of in this game is killing your own team members. If you kill more than a few in any one map you will be sent to Fort Leavenworth and are basically locked from the game for a short period; also when this happens you lose some of your earned points, in fact any team kill reduces your points and can even cause you to drop a level if you’re points take you below the threshold for each level rise.
On average you can earn upwards of a couple of hundred points to around 500 points for each game if you are the commander and get lots of kills, though on average 50 to a 100 points is more realistic if you're playing any other rank. Level ups start from level 10, which is what you are awarded for completing basic training. I think the first five levels cost 2500 points each, then the next 5 are 3000 then the next 4500 …... etc. So you can see the higher you go the harder it becomes to level up. Each game can take anywhere from 20 minutes to around 40 minutes depending upon the number of players and the mission involved.
I highly recommend all of you who have Steam, to try it, and to those who don’t have Steam, get it now, it’s ALL totally free and you’ll then be able to download Half Life 2’s deathmath and Lost Coast for free as well, plus you’ll be able to join us in our monthly online game, which by the way is only for fun and not competitive.
I’ve probably forgotten some details about the game, because it’s been almost four years since I last played it. We had a private clan called ‘The Pointmen’ and used to run it on a private server, with around 14 of us shooting it out every week, three or four times a week (all of us had full time jobs as well). Sometimes only four or five played, sometimes the whole clan, but I can honestly say we all had the time of our lives and created some friendships that are still going strong. We stopped playing it for two reasons; only myself and one of my online friends paid for the server and it had become a little too expensive especially as I’d just lost my job due to the accident that I've mentioned elsewhere in these forums - (Old codgers thread, lol); we didn’t like asking the others in the clan for money so had to shut down the server, (though we did announce a month before we shut it down that we would be; but no one offered to help keep it open, despite the fun factor and camaraderie it created); the other reason it was shut down was because Battlefield 2 was becoming more of an option for all of us to play (We also played Battlefield Vietnam , Men of Valor and later Men of Honor: Pacific Assault, plus a few other games, (none of which required a paid for server if you weanted a private game).
With respect to America’s Army, it’s a great team based game and the game can be enhanced a lot by using Teamspeak. You can set Teamspeak up so that each team member can speak to each other but the opposing team can’t hear you. Ideal for a team based game play. It’s a similar principle to 'voip' which some games support; but it's not quite the same because you don't have as many options to configure who you can speak to. The great thing with a Teamspeak account is that you can set it up to use with multiplke games as you get quite a few channels to play with in a basic subscription. There’s also a lobby for general chit chat.
If there are enough community members interested in joining the giveaway Steam group (we have around 18 members, but most haven’t been active yet) and in particular in playing America’s Army and Half Life 2 deathmatch I will personally hire a team speak channel to dedicate to the games we play together.
Regards
Whiterabbit
