Yes, I know America's Army is free. But disregarding price, how does it compare to Counter-Strike (Yes... that's right, I've never played a Counter-Strike game).

1) One thing I like about America's Army is the realism. It's the most realistic FPS I've ever played, in terms of the actual combat. How realistic is counter-strike? Do people usually work together as a team? Is the damage done by the weapons realistic (ie, no taking a round and still walking)? Does your movement slow down after taking so much damage? Can you bleed to death? Are the recoil on guns realistic?

2) I'd say the community for America's Army is pretty mature (partially because a good number of the players are in the military), atleast for a FPS. Sure, it has it's share of hackers, but I don't find them to be large in number and because of the nature of the game, they usually can't go in and pwn everyone else unless they have some sort of invincibility cheat,which I've never seen.

3) What about the learning curve? One thing I DIDN'T like about America's Army is the steep learning curve. It's very clear who's been playing from the very begining and who hasn't. How long would it take me to hang with some of the moderately good players and still hold my own?

Answers.

1) CS 1.6 isn't realistic with its graphics. CS:S is like saying what the hell happend to its old crap graphics. And no people rarely act as if a team. If in a clan; yes. Gun damage effects are realistic. ( sorry not exactly sure what your asking ) No you don't run slower as your damage, and you do not hesitate while aiming. In fact there is no ironsights in CS. No bleeding to death unless server has modified the in-game proformance. Recoils arn't the best I've seen, but they are okay.

2) CS community can be decent at times, but you will run into some annoying ones. CS does have a variety of hackers; somehow they always find a way to get through the Valve Anti Cheating (VAC) system. But if the hack is detected, they will be banned for weeks or months.

3) You mean the lean right or left? If thats the question; CS doesn't have that, but you can crouch to a corner to look over it... Somehow I lost you here.

3) You mean the lean right or left? If thats the question; CS doesn't have that, but you can crouch to a corner to look over it... Somehow I lost you here.

By learning curve I mean "How long does it take to get used to the game or become decent at a competitive level?".


And thank you for your reply.

Lets see for my review:
I have played both America's Army and Counter Strike for quite a long time.

If you look at America's Army and Counter-Strike side by side, you can strongly see that AA is far more realistic than CS.AA includes (if I'm correct) prone, lean left and right, and more buttons and whistles.The teamwork doesn't happen, most of the time you go out single, run around and your dead.The damage in CS is quite accurate. You don't slow down after getting shot but when you are getting shot then you slow down, which is one unrealistic thing in CS. No you can't bleed to death..And for recoil its accurate but for "accuracy" it can get old and pathetic. For example the Machine Gun, Para M249 as its known, people tend to treat this as an AK or M4. They burst it and get kills, at about 5 hits. But when did you ever see and Heavy Machine Gun get distant kills like the M4 and AK? Extremely a con for that one. Also if you look at the models in CS, you don't see the secondary weapons and such, where as if you look in AA, you do see it on there body. Also the weight of the weapon which will slow you down, if your holding a sniper rifle its as if you gained 50 pounds, now once you switch from sniper to the pistol you'll feel like you lost the 50 pounds, isnt the sniper on your back? The weight is inaccurate.

Community?
God can't even help us on this one. It pisses me off, you hear unmature 12 year olds making annoying sounds over the mic, cussing at there age, calling others "noobs" and shouting "YOU GOT OWNED!" and just being a total fool of themselves. Totally spammed with these "kids" some are mature enough to get in the game and play. You'll see at least 1 hacker in a server but not all the time. If you see a hacker just note that yes, they'll have fun owning people and cheating, but they will get BANNED FOR 1 YEAR. I just laugh at them because the punishment will serve them right.

Learning Curve?
Well you play CS for about a week you'll get the hang of it. Its kind of like any Fps you just need alot of practice. But CS in my opinion is a little easier than most Fps' for the learning curve. Yea lol in AA you can get uberly owned by the pros in there. So just for an overview if you want Mature, Teamwork, and Fun then go for AA. If you want some unmaturity, with less teamwork, fun, and owning little kids than go for CS. But I would just recommend to just try the game, you can't always base if you'll like the game or not on reading about it. After all its pretty cheap too, that my review .

If you ask me both are pretty good games. AA is very realistic with just about everything, from damage, recoil, etc. As for the learning curve it may or may not be high depending on who is on YOUR team. While some people automatically expect you to follow suit with the teamwork thing others will try to help you get into it. Punkbuster does a pretty good job at keeping hackers away from games so they arent really a problem (never seen one on an honor server which are the only ones you should ever play anyways.) The thing with the aiming system in AA is that you should get used to bringing up your stights for everything. While it isnt necessary to do so in some cases, its a good habit to pick up for this game.CS has a slow learning curve because other than the buy your weapon system at the start of the match, its really like any other FPS with Team Deathmatch. The damage for CS is kind of unrealistic in the sense that you can survive a grenade blast that exploded right under you. There is no bleeding to death in this game, hackers tend to pass the security system every once in a while. The recoil is a bit unrealistic because even if your shooting full auto, as long as the enemy is on the red dot in the center of your sights there is a good chance you will hit/kill him. The last thing about CS is, there is no sight system (bringing up the sights on an M4, AK and such.) CS is more fast paced action while AA is slower paced. CS encourages teamwork although no one cares because of the fact that you can probably get more kills just running around on your own. So AA I think is a better shooter but, then again I really like realistic games. CS is a good time waster because it doesnt take long to get to fighting while with AA it can take a while.

Well I hope that helped, if you ever want to play a game against me in either my IGN in AA is: sharpshooter-vash, in CS my IGN is Covert Eskimo

I'd have to say both the games are unrealistic, Firstly.. THERE ARE CROSSHAIRS!! CS.. AA!! both have crosshairs, And when your in real world, in a real war, there is'nt crosshairs!! Thats the unrealistic thing about both the games, other then that, I'm fine, CS = bad, because of the number of hackers.. AA = average.. Theres no difference from AA to real war, just that there is'nt going to be respawn points in real war.

I'd have to say both the games are unrealistic, Firstly.. THERE ARE CROSSHAIRS!! CS.. AA!! both have crosshairs, And when your in real world, in a real war, there is'nt crosshairs!! Thats the unrealistic thing about both the games, other then that, I'm fine, CS = bad, because of the number of hackers.. AA = average.. Theres no difference from AA to real war, just that there is'nt going to be respawn points in real war.

You cant respawn in AA:D . Unless you mean after the game is over you come back, if thats the casr then, well it wouldn't be a great game if you died once and had to make another account would it? If you want more realism you CAN take off the crosshairs (doesnt help much anyway).