bohemia-interactive posts

Bohemia Interactive, the development team behind the first Operation Flashpoint game and the two ArmA military shooters, is taking on a new genre. The team announced today that it is working on Take On Helicopters, an aviation simulator centered on, natch, helicopter flight.

There's even a storyline in this game as your player character takes over a failing aviation business and must "take on" contracts and missions to revive the company. Bohemia says the game will have a realistic flight model, detailed helicopters and cockpits, expansive locations in the US and Southeast Asis, multiplayer co-op and competitive features and a mission editor. The game is due for release in the fourth quarter of 2011.

This patch will update any version of Arma II to v1.09, including the Steam release. However, it's recommended that Steam customers wait for the client to automatically update the game. The patch includes a number of bug fixes and gameplay fixes. Continue reading after the jump for a complete list of changes. A playable demo can be downloaded here.

Download Arma II v1.09 Patch (276 MB)
Download ARMA II Demo (2.84 GB)
Check out all ARMA II downloads

ArmA 2 fans who didn't want to download the last two expansion packs will be able to get them both in one stand alone retail product, at least in Europe. Developer Bohemia Interactive announced this week that it will release ArmA 2 Reinforcements on the other side of the Atlantic on April 1.

The game will combine the previously released expansion packs British Armed Forces (shown above) and Private Military Company. That will allow players to check out two separate single player campaigns along with lots of new weapons, vehicles and more. There's no word yet if ArmA 2 Reinforcments will be released for the US market.

If you live in the Eastern time zone of the US there's just 12 more hours of 2010 left on the calendar. There's also not much time for the daily sales deals that have popped up for the month of December. Check out what you can save for today only and for one case for the weekend.

• Impulse has the space-based MMO EVE Online on sale today online for just $9.99.
• Sorry folks; it looks like GamersGate is done with its daily sales event; however you can still get hundreds of games that have been on sale for the past week.
• Bohemia Interactive has put a number of its game on sale in its online store, including its flagship game ArmA 2 for 75 percent off.
• Direct2Drive has put Medal of Honor on sale today only for 50 percent off its normal price.
• Games For Windows Marketplace has Lego Batman on sale this weekend for $9.99.

The newest patch for Arma II: Operation Arrowhead updates the game from v1.50 or above to v1.57. Highlights include improved game performance and four new scenarios for owners of the Private Military Company expansion.

This patch is for the retail boxed version of the game and will not work with the Steam release. Continue reading after the jump for a full list of changes. The playable demo for the original game can be downloaded here.

Download Arma II: Operation Arrowhead v1.57 Patch (415 MB)
Download Arma II: Operation Arrowhead Demo (2.5 GB)
Check out all Arma II: Operation Arrowhead downloads

The newest patch for Arma II: Operation Arrowhead updates the game to v1.56. Highlights include a trimmed down version of the Private Military Company DLC expansion (called Arma 2: Private Military Company Lite). All units, vehicles and weapons from the DLC are available with lower quality textures and audio files. You'll have to purchase the Private Military Company DLC in order to gain access to high quality textures and audio.

This patch is for the retail boxed version of the game and will not work with the Steam release. Continue reading after the jump for a full list of changes. The playable demo for the original game can be downloaded here.

Download Arma II: Operation Arrowhead v1.56 Patch (141 MB)
Download Arma II: Operation Arrowhead Demo (2.5 GB)
Check out all Arma II: Operation Arrowhead downloads

These separate patches update the individual retail releases of Arma II to v1.08, Operation Arrowhead to v1.55 and the British Armed Forces DLC expansion to v1.01. These patches are for the retail boxed version of the game and will not work with the Steam release. Continue reading after the jump for a list of change highlights. Comprehensive notes are included with each patch. The playable Operation Arrowhead demo can be downloaded here.

Download Arma II v1.08 Patch (323 MB)
Download Arma II: Operation Arrowhead v1.55 Patch (254 MB)
Download Arma II: British Armed Forces v1.01 Patch (3 MB)
Download Arma II: Operation Arrowhead Demo (2.5 GB)
Check out all Arma II: Operation Arrowhead downloads

Last September ArmA II developer, Bohemia Interactive announced that it had acquired the development team at Centauri Production. Today we are seeing the fruits of that labor with the release via Steam of four games from Centauri Studios. Two of the games are puzzle titles: Pat and Mat (priced at $9.99) and Fish Fillets 2 (priced at $4.99).

The other two games are slightly more mature. One is Alternativa, a sci-fi point-and-click adventure game that's priced at $24.99. The other is Point of Ground, (shown above) a third person zombie shooter that also comes with Steam achievements for $9.99. All fhe games except for Fish Fillets 2 also have Steam Cloud support. From now until November 12 all four games have a 10 percent price cut.

The folks at Bohemia Interactive are continuing to offer downloadable mini-expansions for its military shooter ArmA 2. Today the company revealed its plans for the latest such release, Private Military Company, which takes the series into the dark and mysterious world of the modern mercenary group.

Due out in November for $9.99, the mini-expansion will add the new ION, Inc. playable faction to the game in a new single player campaign that will have the group investigating Takistan's (supposedly) shut down nuclear program. Look for new weapons and vehicles to play with as well. There's a little more info on Private Military Company via an interview at Rock Paper Shotgun.

Bohemia Interactive, the Czech Republic-based development team behind the ArmA series of military shooters (as well as the first Operation Flashpoint game) has just announced that it has fully acquired three more Czeck-based game developers: Black Element Software, Altar Games and Centarui Production. Financial terms were not disclosed but the press release stated all three developers will work on their own game projects but will also work cooperatively.

Black Element Software has released action and first person shooter titles such as Shade: Wrath of Angels and Alpha Prime in the past. Altar Games is known for its X-Com inspired turn-based strategy games UFO: Aftermath, UFO: Aftershock and UFO: Afterlight. Centauri Production has released family-themed games as well as adventure titles like Memento Mori.

The newly expanded Bohemia Interactive is working on a number of upcoming games including the previously announced action-strategy game Carrier Command: Gaea Mission. A newly revealed title is Point of Ground, a third person action game with "tons of zombies". It also plans to continue supporting and developing its military shooter series.