• ArmA 3 Island Renamed After Developers Imprisoned in Greece

    By now, you're probably familiar with the story of Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, the two Bohemia Interactive developers who were arrested on charges of espionage and detained in Greece for over 120 days. If this is news to you, let's take a quick look at the story.

    Buchta and Pezlar visited Greece on vacation, checking out the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea. It is important to note that ArmA 3 features an island in the game known as Limnos, which is inspired by the real-life island of Lemnos. While in Greece, the pair took photos and videos of a handful of publicly-accessible areas as many tourists tend to do when taking a vacation. Unfortunately, Greek officials believed the two to be international spies, sent to take photographs of private military installations. The duo were arrested on charges of espionage, which they firmly and passionately denied, and were locked up in a Greek prison. Flash forward 128 days and Buchta and Pezlar were finally released on bail and were able to return to their homes in the Czech Republic. Their trial awaits, but in the meantime, they are home safe and sound.

    Now, as you might imagine, Bohemia Interactive isn't exactly pleased with the arrest and detention of two of their friends and developers for such a long, difficult time. As such, they have announced that the passion they once felt for Lemnos is gone and the island will be receiving a name change before ArmA 3 ships later this year.

    The island will now be known as Altis, and Bohemia Interactive had the following to say regarding the name change:

    The decision follows an incident involving the arrest of two Bohemia Interactive employees, who were spending their holidays on Lemnos. Both were detained for 129 days on suspicion of espionage. They were recently released on bail...

    However, in view of recent events, the team no longer feels passionate about using the previous name, 'Limnos', and hopes that the new identity, ‘Altis’, will help emphasize the fictional nature of the game.

    The rest of Bohemia's statement can be found at http://www.bistudio.com/. ArmA 3 is due out later this year and will be a PC exclusive.

  • ARMA 2 Free Edition Trailer and Gameplay Video

    The excellent folks at GamexOnline on YouTube have put together a brand new video, showing off some gameplay from the free edition of Bohemia Interactive's popular military simulator, ArmA 2.

    ArmA 2 Free (A2F) offers all of the great features of ArmA 2, including:

    • Free Military Simulation
    • Free Armory
    • Free Unique Multiplayer
    • Free Dedicated Servers
    • Free Creativity

    Get a good look at A2F in the video above and drop by http://www.arma2.com/free/ for more information on the project. Important to note, however, is that A2F does not support user created mods. In other words, you still have to buy ArmA 2 if you want to play DayZ.

     

  • ArmA III Shines in These Gamescom Screenshots

    The world of ArmA III is exciting for multiple reasons. To begin with, the game looks gorgeous and introduces the brand new game engine Real Virtuality 4.

    The game engine, alone, is enough to get us incredibly excited to play Bohmemia Interactive's gorgeous military simulator. Thanks to the aforementioned game engine, ArmA III features a massive map that takes place on two Greek islands; Stratis and Limnos. Set in the mid 2030's, ArmA III redefines what we've come to expect from military simulators and its no surprise that Bohemia Interactive would be the ones to redefine a genre that they might as well have built from the ground up in previous ArmA games.

    The second reason we're excited for ArmA III is that Dean 'Rocket' Hall, creator of the massively popular Zombie MMO DayZ (a mod for ArmA II), has promised that DayZ will be updated for ArmA III when the latter is finally released. DayZ, in the sprawling Real Virtuality 4 engine, is about as exciting as it gets for the zombie survival genre.

    Check out the screenshots below!

  • Bohemia Previews Their Arma 3 E3 Demonstration

    Hands down, one of our most anticipated shooters to make an appearance at E3 is Bohemia Interactive's Arma 3. The game has been catching our eye for some time now, and we can't wait to see what the team brings to E3.

    To get a little sneak preview of what E3 attendees will be feasting their eyes on next week, Bohemia Interactive has released an E3 2012 teaser trailer for Arma 3. The trailer shows off the demo that Bohemia will be giving at E3. Between the gorgeous environments, the underwater sections, air support, helicopters and massive, sprawling maps, we don't know which aspect of Arma 3 gets us most pumped up. Take a look at that map, from overhead, the sheer size and scope of it is staggering.

    The full E3 preview will undoubtedly end up online, and we'll have plenty of coverage of the game straight from the show floor! Follow along with our E3 coverage over at our E3 2012 hub!

  • Bohemia Talks Lighting in Arma 3, Showcase in Video

    One of the often overlooked aspects of a first-person shooter game engine is the capabilities to produce true to life lighting environments.

    Bohemia Interactive is confident that Arma 3 has some pretty impressive lighting capabilities, and to prove it they have released a lighting showcase video and an in-depth interview with Pavel Guglava, one of the Lead Artists on Arma 3. Pavel is responsible primarily for lighting and environments, and goes in-depth on those very aspects of Arma 3.

    The interview is a great read, and the video is a must-watch for fans of the Arma franchise. Here is a quick snippet of Pavel's comments, and a link to the full interview can be found below...

  • Bohemia Interactive Unveils Stratis Island in Arma 3

    Bohemia Interactive unveiled a brand new island in Arma 3, yesterday, adding even more geographical variety to their upcoming tactical shooter.

    For those who haven't played Arma before, the series isn't quite like any other shooter around. Bohemia Interactive strives to create a true-to-life military simulator and tactical shooter. From the authentic bullet ballistics to the massive draw distances, Arma 3 is looking to be an impressive experience. The game sprawls across the Limnos and Stratis Islands in the Mediterranean, including 50 villages that can all be entered, explored and destroyed at your discretion.