The military shooter ArmA 2 has gotten a sizable sales boost from the Day Z mod, and mod-maker "Rocket" is continuing to add more sadistic tweaks for those seeking a tough challenge. The popular game mod has now updated to 1.5.8, adding a "sickness" feature to the game. Because zombies clearly weren't enough to worry about before.

Read more: The symptoms of the sickness »

The hardcore military simulation ArmA 2 has seen its sales spike to five times the norm, thanks to the recently-released mod called Day Z. Why such a big jump in sales? Well, it seems that as much as folks like realistic military shooters, throwing zombies into the mix--at least according to developer Bohemia Interactive's Marek Spanel--"creates an experience so addictive that I believe it can stand as a gaming experience on its own."

Read more: Day Z for ArmA 3 as well? »

If you've yet to experience the horrors of simulated war, Arma 2 developer Bohemia Interactive is lowering the bar to entry. Today at E3 it announced Arma 2: Free, a free version of the battlefield simulator which doesn't have its every feature but certainly has enough for a jolly good time.

Arma 2: Free gives you Arma 2's full multiplayer side, complete with the mission editor, and dedicated server support. There are, of course, a few drawbacks. Arma 2: Free has lower-quality graphics, as you can judge see in the screenshots, no support for user mods which add new external content, and lacks the regular campaign. However, you'll still get to play user-made single-player content and it is, after all, free. Read more »

War is serious business, and it's nice to have Bohemia Interactive remind us of that. The Czech developer today announced a new entry in its realism-heavy battlefield simulation series Arma, for release on PC in summer 2012.

Arma 3 will take players to a sunny Mediterranean island, where apparently there's a "well-guarded military secret" to be seized. As well as an "open-ended and story-driven" single-player campaign, Arma 3 will offer co-op and competitive multiplayer modes. There'll also be the ubiquitous mission editor. Read more »

[Update: June 14 @ 6PM] This giveaway has ended. We will notify the winners shortly.[Original Story: June 12] Shacknews and Meridian4 have joined forces to give away three copies of ArmA II: Combined Operations.Combining the tactical-sim action of ArmA II and the ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead expansion, Combined Operations is the perfect package for those interested in joining the Shack Army.

If you want to squad-up and join this giveaway, here's how: Read more »

A lot of times we play games not for preview or review, but just to have fun (Shocking, we know!). Field Report provides our first-hand experience with the latest games.

Bohemia Interactive's ArmA 2 is billed as the "ultimate military simulator" and they aren't kidding. I've been playing shooters for a very long time and recently the modern military shooter is in demand. I had dabbled with Operation Flashpoint back in the day, but my computer was never beefy enough to run it well. Now, equipped with a decent machine and a new copy of ArmA 2: Combined Operations, I venture into the brutal, unforgiving world of realistic military combat. Read more »

Yet more new ARMA 2 fixes, features and improvements have arrived today along with a bonus campaign in Patch 1.05, available now as a 270MB download from FileShack.

Patch 1.05 adds a mini-campaign 'Eagle Wing,' set several years after the original ending and casting players as the pilot of an AH-64 Apache helicopter--also new in this patch. Read more »

Bohemia Interactive's battlefield simulator ARMA 2 will receive free downloable campaign content as part of a large update scheduled for late December, the developer announced today.

The 'Eagle Wing' mini-campaign continues the story of one of ARMA 2's campaign endings a few years down the line in 2010, and sees players piloting the new AH-64 Apache attack helicopter in "two extensive new levels" Read more »

Bohemia Interactive has today released patch 1.04 for its battlefield simulator ARMA 2, available now for your downloading pleasure in a 134MB file over on FileShack.

Chief among the patch's changes are eagerly-awaited improvements to mouse handling and responsiveness, further crash fixes, and a smattering of multiplayer fixes. Click on through for the full changelog. Read more »

Now on FileShack is patch 1.03 for Bohemia Interactive's battlefield simulator ARMA II, improving the AI and bringing many fixes to campaign, multiplayer and co-op play.

Highlights include toning down the AI's cat-like hearing, autosave logic which avoids saving at unsafe times, crash and stutter fixes, and improved building destruction. Read more »

DESIGNATED DEMOMAN COLUMN! TO THE FRONT. CLOSE! SHACKNEWS READER MAN! IN FRONT OF SCREEN? VERY CONFUSED!

Sorry! I've been playing the ArmA II demo, and it looks like I've adopted some of its odd, robotic speech patterns. With all the attention the game pays to realistic armed combat, you'd think maybe someone could have spent just a few minutes making sure the characters speak actual English. Read more »

Last week's Direct2Drive and Steam sales lists are in, and both Bohemia's shooter ArmA 2 and Related Designs' strategy title Dawn of Discovery performed well across both services.

Enticing weekend Steam sales also saw several titles shoot up to the top of Valve's list. The 50% off sale of Fallout 3 drew enough gamers to put it at the top of the charts, while the 2K Huge Games Pack saw plenty of action. Read more »

An updated version of the v1.02 patch for ARMA II is now available on FileShack, packing numerous enhancements and fixes over the previously released v1.02 patch.

Improved game stability and "newly implemented full support" for anti-aliasing are among the major tweaks developer Bohemia has brought to the PC military simulator. The patch can only be installed over version 1.00 or 1.01 of the recently released game, but retains multiplayer compatibility with all past versions (1.00, 1.01 and 1.02). Read more »

Now on FileShack is the demo for Bohemia Interactive's battlefield simulator ArmA 2. The whopping 2.84GB download contains one campaign mission, a multiplayer map with three game modes, the 'boot camp' tutorials, and oodles of weapons and vehicles.

Already released in Europe, ArmA 2 will arrive in North America through Steam on Friday, then hit retail shelves on July 7 courtesy of publisher Got Game Entertainment.

Got Game Entertainment has announced that it will be the North America publisher of Bohemia Interactive's battlefield simulator ArmA 2, bringing it to retail shelves on July 7.

While ArmA 2 is already on sale in Europe--published by 505 Games--and will be available through Steam from Friday June 26, NA retail release details were unknown.

Read more »