America's Army 3 is the latest iteration of the America's Army franchise paid for with your tax dollars and developed by the U.S. Army.
The game was released via steam on July 17, 2009 to a very buggy start. This resulted in the firing of the dev team and a patch being released a few days later.
America's Army Devs Laid Off Following Launch (Updated)
by Chris Faylor Jun 18, 2009 4:20pm
Just one day after the launch of America's Army 3, the U.S. Army has opted to close its main Emeryville, CA-based studio in an effort to "consolidate development."
A representative for America's Army confirmed the news with Shacknews, noting that future development of the free-to-play PC military simulator will occur at the program office in Redstone Arsenal, AL. Exactly how many developers were affected is as yet unknown.
"This consolidation will allow us to gain efficiencies between our public and government applications," the representative explained. " We appreciate all the hard work that every member of the America's Army team has contributed to the project, and we look forward to delivering future America's Army game releases in the months ahead."
Update: While we still have no official word on the number of those affected by the "consolidation," an America's Army representative tells us that "some" of those from Emeryville have been asked to relocate to Redstone Arsenal and help with the "ongoing game development effort," with "about a quarter of the team" expected to do so.
The bugs at launch were due to higher than expected demand on their servers which in part can be attributed to the game collecting and sending 10 times more data than AA2. The patch has improved performance greatly but it seems that some users are still experiencing problems.
Patch Notes
Updates to America's Army 3 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:
America's Army 3
Removed apparent lag caused by other players entering or leaving a server
Improved start of round spawn issues
Resolved problem with training results not saving
Improved communication with Authentication server
Eliminated freezing up when moving from one training mission to another
Cleared up hesitation during training missions
Significantly reduce number of authentication transactions between player and Authentication server
Solved achievements save and display problems
Improved Login communication with Authentication server
Improved player statistics tracking for better accuracy
Improved overall performance
All that being said it's a really fun game. I personally love it and the fact that it's on steam makes it quite convenient.
Some videos to get you started
Posts
Then I uninstalled it.
It knows you're a filthy *AA3 scanning target machine ... Found European IP, adjusting slur accordingly* socialist and is failing you until you move to America.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
they addressed that in the patch.
Sounds to me that the developers were told, you're moving to Alabama when development for this game finishes and its released. Usually these migrations give the employees an opportunity to accept a position at the new location or be let go.
I know they already do part of the development here and they show it off all the time. The hilarious ironic thing is, they cannot show it to their target demographic, which is young males of late high school age, because of the strict no tolerance policies on guns at the local schools. The army is not allowed to show any images of the game that contain pictures or likenesses of guns. It's really funny because they have this huge semi truck full of big screens and computers that you can play this on that they bring to local shows and events on base, but if any school sponsored group is going to be there they close the thing up and all you see is a big semi with america's army on it.
No they really didn't. I've done the MOUT course 3 times and still haven't gotten credit for it yet. It's a shame I wanted to try and like this game, mabye I'll try again in a few months.
They didn't think of like, coding the game in not-awful ways?
Removes Password from AA3Launch.log
Fix for MBS not working after server travels to a new map
Fixes TeamReady in Mission Preplanning
Updated authentication SDK to improve reliability and performance.
Fix for freezing on training mission load
Improved performance on loading maps/training missions
Fixed several small memory leaks
Fixed performance issue with server that caused it to load UI elements into the server (where they aren't needed) and thus use up additional CPU and memory.
Modified training authentication so it is more efficient
Modified AMD negative delta time exception handling so it no longer stops the server or client, just logs the event.
Fixed admin add player admin
Fixed admin kicking of players. Now works properly with soldier name and has optional kick by player ID
Adds new AdminListPlayers to get list of players and their player ID's
Removes most of the server log spam, especially that tied to missions and mission setup and ROE.
Fixes several issues related to ROE firing off when player is bleeding, asphyxiating, or falling after being wounded by ROE
You can now strafe on ladders so you don't get stuck in Pipeline or Obstacle Course. Strafe too far and you fall off, just like AA 2.x
Modified program startup to clear out any old ATS temporary files.
Improved scoring messaging support for training missions
Fixes several scoring issues
Optimizes more of the authentication code and adds better exception handling in it.
Adjusts STS (stats) integration to better detect invalid objects to avoid crashes.
Fixes issues with single player stats not correctly initializing all of the time
Adds feedback to UI when player purchases training until purchase is complete (says "Purchasing")
Modifies MBS to track how many players are playing vs. how many players are on the server (player + Spectators) and now MBS browser only shows the number of players (so count won't exceed max players)
Turns HUD off whenever menu is activated (still an issue with battle planner activation the first time, however)
Adjusts the close menu logic to always close properly so double menus should no longer happen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgVU8WljP1k&feature=related
However I get the double menu like every 15 seconds. What the hell.
"Join the army. . . where you'll be forced to wait like 3 weeks before you can do anything for us and if you do there's no guarantee we'll give you credit for it until you can do it a half dozen more times!"
It's just like real life!
On the black screen
The patch is available now both through our AA Deploy Client and Steam. So update your game now, and get back to playing America's Army 3! Here’s what’s in the patch:
AA 3.0.3 Fixes/Changes
Removes Password from AA3Launch.log
Fix for MBS not working after server travels to a new map
Fixes TeamReady in Mission Preplanning
Updated authentication SDK to improve reliability and performance.
Fix for freezing on training mission load
Improved performance on loading maps/training missions
Fixed several small memory leaks
Fixed performance issue with server that caused it to load UI elements into the server (where they aren't needed) and thus use up additional CPU and memory.
Modified training authentication so it is more efficient
Modified AMD negative delta time exception handling so it no longer stops the server or client, just logs the event.
Fixed admin add player admin
Fixed admin kicking of players. Now works properly with soldier name and has optional kick by player ID
Adds new AdminListPlayers to get list of players and their player ID's
Removes most of the server log spam, especially that tied to missions and mission setup and ROE.
Fixes several issues related to ROE firing off when player is bleeding, asphyxiating, or falling after being wounded by ROE
You can now strafe on ladders so you don't get stuck in Pipeline or Obstacle Course. Strafe too far and you fall off, just like AA 2.x
Modified program startup to clear out any old ATS temporary files.
Improved scoring messaging support for training missions
Fixes several scoring issues
Optimizes more of the authentication code and adds better exception handling in it.
Adjusts STS (stats) integration to better detect invalid objects to avoid crashes.
Fixes issues with single player stats not correctly initializing all of the time
Adds feedback to UI when player purchases training until purchase is complete (says "Purchasing")
Modifies MBS to track how many players are playing vs. how many players are on the server (player + Spectators) and now MBS browser only shows the number of players (so count won't exceed max players)
Turns HUD off whenever menu is activated (still an issue with battle planner activation the first time, however)
Adjusts the close menu logic to always close properly so double menus should no longer happen
Steam: TheArcadeBear
I don't remember this game sucking as badly when the spec ops update came out.
For the record. It's so bad that I didn't notice the fact that it takes thousands of bullets to down a person by shooting someone. No I realized it about the ninth time that someone hit me about 8 times in the back. I would still have time to turn around.. kind of juke around (while still being shot mind you) and kill the other guy. It also took about 15 hits to kill him. Not fun. Didn't help that I was fighting in a map that could be easily confused with one from call of duty 1.
This is definitely one of the worst FPS's that I have ever played.
I love the first and second versions though.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.