Not sure how many people here would actually like these games, but it's worth a try I guess.
Thread needs music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2lI39gFbs&fmt=18Some background information first.
Operation Flashpoint Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujS4wJ0RUcYOperation Flashpoint (2001):
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis is a tactical first person shooter and battlefield simulator developed by Bohemia Interactive and published by Codemasters. The game involves a hypothetical conflict between American and Soviet forces on taking place in 1985 on a group of fictional islands. The game became well known for its realism in simulating military operations.
ArmA trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7oxNbw65G0ArmA (2006):
After losing the Operation Flashpoint intellectual property to Codemasters, Bohemia Interactive's successor to Operation Flashpoint was named ArmA, latin for "weapon of war". ArmA takes place on the fictional island of Sahrani, and revolves around United States involvement in conflict between the northern communist and southern democratic factions (sound familiar?). ArmA is considered the direct descendent of Operation Flashpoint and expands and improves upon its design in numerous ways. Like Operation Flashpoint it became known for it's realism. However, it was often criticized for its numerous bugs at release and its added complexity, mostly due to the fact that ArmA was less of a "game" and more of a "simulation" than Operation Flashpoint.
ArmA 2 trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmdz-Ka1O4QArmA 2 (2009):
ArmA 2 expands and improves upon much of the gameplay from ArmA and Operation Flashpoint. While it retains many of the simulation elements of ArmA, it also includes several improvements to user-friendliness, perhaps in response to criticism that the first ArmA was too much of a "simulation" and not enough of a "game". Still, like ArmA it is often criticized for it numerous bugs and glitches at release (most which have fortunately been fixed by now) and excessive focus on simulation rather than gameplay, though most fans wouldn't have it any other way.
Virtual Battlespace 1 & 2:
While not a "game" that you or I would normally be able to purchase, The Virtual Battlespace series is a series of training simulators also developed by Bohemia Interactive for use in soldier training. I think they're worth mentioning here since Bohemia's games, especially ArmA 1 onwards, use a lot of elements from these simulators. Virtual Battlespace is used by the armed forces of several nations worldwide, including the U.S., UK, Canada, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand among others.
I don't include Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising because it was developed by a different company and in my opinion it's too different from the Operation Flashpoint/Arma to be grouped with these games. Just to be clear it's not that I dislike Dragon Rising, it's just that I think it would be better discussed in a seperate thread if anyone wants to discuss it.
To sum up the gameplay, all these games are tactical shooters that try simulate real-life military operations, or at least to the extent where it can still be considered fun (by some people's standards anyway).
Be warned however, the learning curve for these games is much steeper than most first person shooters. Just about every key on the keyboard is used, so it may help to keep some kind of quick reference handy. If you get shot, you'll probably die. If you don't die you'll be severely impaired due to your injury, or in the case of ArmA 2 you may squirm around on the ground in pain while bleeding to death over the next few minutes unless someone gives you a hand.
Also keep in mind that these games tend to be very buggy out of the box, so if you get them retail then remember to patch your game. This is especially true for ArmA and ArmA 2. As much as I like their games, their bugtesting is kind of crap.
All of them have both player vs. player and co-op multiplayer. There are often both "tactical/hardcore" servers for those who want to really use realistic tactics as well as more "casual" servers for those who want a bit more freedom to mess around.
These games also have a very big modding community, and as a result there is a LOT of user created content ranging from whole gamemodes to user-made missions, vehicles, and equipment.
ArmA 2 is my multiplayer game of choice at the moment. I have it on Steam so if you want my Steam name you can find it in the ShrineMaiden Steam group.
