Arma 3
Ranked 7 of 14 simulation games by recommenders
Praised for large-scale combined arms freedom and immersion. Critics often call it janky, with poor netcode and clunky movement.
Praised for large-scale combined arms freedom and immersion. Critics often call it janky, with poor netcode and clunky movement.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 65%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Immersive, customizable platform
“It's a game/platform that _wants_ the user to customize it and have a stake in its technology.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” “It's _so_ janky but in my mind way more immersive for reasons I just can't fully explain”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” Open large-scale combined arms
“the ARMA3 campaign is quite alright (once you realize how much freedom you have between the missions)”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” “open large scale combined arms experience not being available in any other recent video game”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” Developers open with community
“The BI community managers were very forthcoming when we had questions”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” “an eye-opening look at how the gaming sausage is made in real time”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor netcode and janky feel
“It's _so_ janky but in my mind way more immersive for reasons I just can't fully explain”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” “ARMA has famously awful netcode.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Stop Killing Games fails to secure EU law despite 1.3M signatures” Clunky vehicles and movement
“yeah vehicles can be fucked even today”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” “I can't stand Arma's movement anymore”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” Hard codebase to work with
“It was a total PITA to work with but not due to the engine itself”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub” “a PITA to work with the Arma codebase”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub”
Other simulation games people recommend
The four most recommended other simulation games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dwarf Fortress | 74 | 29 | 72% | 12 | 11 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Airport Simulator | 41 | 8 | 84% | 1 | — | — |
| Firewood Splitting Simulator | 32 | 11 | 74% | 1 | — | — |
| RollerCoaster Tycoon | 21 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Arma 3This page | 13 | 7 | 65% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
19 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I personally would attribute the better audio more towards Arma”
“has its own dedicated servers and has no such login requirement”
“yeah vehicles can be fucked even today”
“why I always go back to Arma 3”
“It was a total PITA to work with but not due to the engine itself”
“a PITA to work with the Arma codebase”
“I can't stand Arma's movement anymore”
“SQF in Arma 2 and Arma 3 being my gateway drug into SWE”
“The BI community managers were very forthcoming when we had questions”
“the ARMA3 campaign is quite alright (once you realize how much freedom you have between the missions)”
“open large scale combined arms experience not being available in any other recent video game”
“It's a game/platform that _wants_ the user to customize it and have a stake in its technology.”
“It's _so_ janky but in my mind way more immersive for reasons I just can't fully explain”
“I'm a bit sad they never managed to make an equally enjoyable campaign in any of the later installments.”
“an eye-opening look at how the gaming sausage is made in real time”
“ARMA has famously awful netcode.”
“an ancient, broken, outdated port, but it exists”
“some of the Rainbow 6 games, and Arma, tend to enforce carry limits much more harshly”
“Game servers for instance, do not support it, the one that I think about is: Arma 3.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.