Not quite Flashpoint, but flashier than its supposed predecessor
Secondly, having ArmA experience an update to graphics opens the possibility for something that totally awed me about this game. I was playing the Command mission in the Demo, and I proceeded up a hill overlooking the city I was to attack. I ran my platoon right into an ambush, and a huge firefight ensued. Tracers were zipping everywhere the eye could see, which to me was breathtaking. I've never experienced that level of detail in a game such as this. America's Army comes close, but falters when it comes to scale.
Speaking of scale, a downside to ArmA is that the player seems small when compared to the rest of the environment. As an example, when you load up the game next, pick up a dead terrorist's AK74. Then, sight the dead man's rifle through the iron sights. You'll notice this game's major flaw after you do. The rifle seems tiny, and it's nearly impossible to see the sights on the rifle. I own a civilian copy M16, the AR-15. When I compare how this rifle appears to me in real life, as opposed to the model of the AK74 in the game, the rifle seems very, very small. I might not have shot any of the AK variants in real life, but I know that when you sight a rifle, you do not hold the rifle at arms length in front of you, which is how the model in the game seems to appear. It's quite difficult to use iron sights in this game.
Another fault with the scale of the game is that targets at distances greater than 200 meters appear like ants in the game. They are nearly impossible to hit for this reason. Targets in Operation Flashpoint at 200 meters appeared scaled to realistic sizes. You could iron sight in that game and hit targets at that range. You cannot do that in ArmA.
While the firefights are spectacular, the scaling flaws just simply keep me away from this game. Having experience with shooting assault rifles in real life, it's just nearly impossible to let the scaling flaws go.