Arma 2 recommended mods and websites

I reinstalled Arma 2 recently mainly to play Operation Arrowhead. I never played the first Arma other than one or two missions and I didn't finish the Operation Arrowhead expansion when I got it. I got about 3 missions into the campaign and due to some bugs got frustrated and just put it down. The main problem I had is that I, like many others, tried to play the game wrongly. You cannot go in and attempt to play this game like Call of Duty. What you get out of it is what you put into it.

The game has a lot of depth and that will make many put it away since it does not play like your typical first person shooter. The game is also extremely moddable. One of the things I was looking for in my search were more scenarios and skins. Giving the fact that I am almost two years behind on this game you can imagine that I had a lot of catching up to do. While I do like my traditional hexed based wargames sometimes I like to get in there and take charge of the action myself and Arma 2 is really the closest thing I have found to let me do that. With controllable squad mates and the ability to drive any vehicle in the game it is a lot like Operation Flashpoint only without the suck.

Arma 2 is by no means a perfect game however. The interface is sloppy, the mission waypoint objectives are frequently bugged and not able to be advanced, squad AI is sketchy at best, and the game has a tendency to bite off more than it can chew in system performance. When it all comes together and works well however it is a thing of glory.

That of course was not enough for me. In any game that I can mod (like Combat Mission Shock Force and Elder Scrolls Oblivion) I like to push the limits and change it as much as possible. So without really finishing another mission other than the first British Forces expansion one, I was off to further mod the game and see what was out there.

I came upon the following sites:

http://www.armaholic.com

http://www.armedassault.info

http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot

http://arma2.filefront.com

http://www.plannedassault.com (Use your web browser to pick and place squads and platoons, set objectives and define the situation. Next, wait for PlannedAssault to generate the corresponding mission and download it)

I was only able to find two scenarios and one must have mod thus far:


Rainy Fall Scenario: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=11547

Chesty Puller Campaign: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7599

Last but not least the Advanced Combat Environment: http://ace.dev-heaven.net/Advanced_Combat_Environment

If you know of more mods please let me know. It is a hard search through the tons and tons of skins and partial mods that really do not do much to the game.

Finally of course I took a YouTube video of some of the gameplay for those that are wondering what the heck this post is all about. Near the end of the video I demonstrate how to call in support in its different varieties including doing a too close to call artillery strike that almost killed all of my men.