Somewhere on a Mediterranean paradise, a soldierman pauses. Things feel different today. The sun is a little warmer, its glare less harsh. The bees cast more aesthetically-pleasing shadows. The turtles swim in more intelligent patterns.
Suddenly, everything is beta.
It’s also bigger. Combined with what was already there during Arma 3’s paid Steam alpha, the game now offers 20 weapons, 18 vehicles, three factions, eight showcase missions, four multiplayer scenarios, four challenges, a scenario editor and modding support for as many partridges and pear trees as you like. Oh, and you’ve still got the entirety of the 20 km² island of Stratis to explore.
“The Beta is a big opportunity for us to involve more players in Arma 3’s development and is the next step along the road towards our full release,” crowed Jay Crowe, creative director on Arma. “With a variety of new singleplayer and multiplayer scenarios and a whole bunch of new sandbox content, we’re looking forward to introducing players to what true combined arms combat really means in Arma 3.”
My guess is that combining your arms in combat makes for a super powerful punch, utilising all eight available knuckles. But we won’t know for sure until we buy into the beta via Steam or, if you’ve already purchased alpha access, allowed the automatic update to take its course.
Buy into the beta and you’ll get access to the retail game. Bohemia’s asking price is up since alpha and will increase again before full release, so you’re better off biting this particular bullet as soon as you’re sure.
Arma 3 currently comes in Regular (34.99 EUR/29.99 GBP/44.99 USD), Deluxe (44.99 EUR/39.99 GBP/59.99 USD) and Supporter editions (69.99 EUR/59.99 GBP/91.99 USD), though the latter is only found onBohemia’s own store.
Have you bought it yet? Or, like me, are you kicking yourself for not having done so yesterday?