AA2.5 Assist - free alternative to Inf

After the US Army declared in november of 2011 that they are dropping support for their America's Army game on UT2.5 engine by disabling authorisation (because they apparantly want to devote their attention only on AA3, which is shit btw), some clever people got together and, basically, took over the AA2, along with their own little application/launcher which has everything in it:

- easy download and (portable) install of everything needed
- modern pc game tweaks and fixes in launcher
- server browser
- buddy list
and more...

Main part of this project is that authorisation/profile details storing is working again based on support from battletracker.com.

Site is located on http://aao25.com/

Few things to note:
New developers decided to focus on AA version 2.5, even though latest version was 2.8.5. Reason behind this is that this was last version that had linux and mac versions, and also, apparently, there arent any hacks for this version. Devs also included all the maps from latter versions though, and also some custom maps made by community(or so I think). Devs also made their own anticheat solution that was not possible to make before, while game was still closely guarded by the official developing team.

Having returned a bit to AA2, I must say that it really has unique realistic gameplay with rather good graphics and playability for wide range of pc configurations. Gameplay is very satisfying and reminds me a lot of SWAT games. Version 2.5 was also the version where they disabled bunny hopping, and did not yet include radar, so its perfect version for realism fans.

Oh, yea, you can also claim your "old honor"(level) from old AA auth, provided that you can present some kind of proof (screenshots, videos)

Picture of the launcher:



Video of some of the features I recorded:

[M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzt5TSVEV1c[/M]

BTH said:

Does this mean the maps are in an Unreal Engine friendly format? Could you open the maps in UT2004 and it's mods?

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According to this, they have been optimizing original maps and making new ones. But you better take a look for yourself.

http://aao25.com/maap/maap-info/

Psychomorph said:

Thanks for the info. I had great games with AA2 (or 2.5). Didn't bother trying AA3. I hope INFers can regroup in AA2.5.

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I hope that too, but the main thing is: there are always players on.

In 8 in the morning gmt +1 time there was already 20 players on, troughout the day there is usually 5-6 servers going on with players inside.

tomcat ha said:

i really disliked AA

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I can understand that there might be some annoying stuff, and I did make video to clarify:

(Watch in 1080HD)
[M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo0dKsPXzkM[/M]

When you have your weapon in iron sights, 99% of the shots will land where the barrel is pointing. Only when you get wounded does the conefire kick in.

Lt.Col.BoyHitsCar said:

there was 1 map that I did enjoy, you parachuted in on a big dune/valley of sand with a bit of tunnels. that one was fun at times.

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Beauty of AA2 is that it offers indoor, outdoor and, mostly, combined indoor/outdoor maps. Mostly people will play SF Hospital and Urban Assault, which are quick-round maps, but there are also other servers. For example, yesterday I was playing "Woodland outpost" map, which is basically a lighted camp in nighttime, being defended by guys without night vision. Excellent atmosphere and you never know from where the bullets will come.

Also, another thing that I like about AA is that it has maps with random objectives. For example, a briefcase with secret documents can spawn randomly on one of 4 different spots on the map, forcing change of tactics.

Worth noting is the fact that this is 2gb portable game. There is just one step you need to do - move the "25Assist" folder from:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and settings\USERNAME\Application Data\
Windows Vista/7: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\

into your folder with assist exe file.

Everything, including browser, game and settings, are now stored into this folder. If any updates are available to maps, game or assist utility, it will be downloaded automatically.

Finally, at this moment there are 20 players online on 3 servers. Maps are "Weapons cache", "Mout McKenna" and "Pipeline", which means that not all the time only few maps are played. There are plenty of servers with many maps on, so if you feel like it, you can chose a server with your liking and start it up.

andy_kosela said:

The only real map for AA was Bridge Crossing. I used to play on it every day in 2002.

b-boy_fuj --> What about bullet penetration? I remember AA was pretty weak in that area. Are this 2.5 Assist version a modded implementation of the original AA2 or it's a vanilla AA2.5?

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Bullets penetrate doors and wooden surfaces I believe.

BTW, this is a quote from the website:

"Most everybody knows that since the AA devs shut down the servers, we are now in control. We have the ability to do things now that weren't possible before. We can push changes to all of the servers and all of the players. Updates, modifications and custom maps. We have tossed a few ideas around in the past but have never had an official poll to see whether or not the community would like a feature update or not."

This is also true. Game is now moddable. There are couple of interesting server mods(mutators) written using the "U script".