Another new patch for AA3 has been released today.  So far the speed of the patches is a good sign as far as the new dev team goes, and hopefully we will continue to see improvements.  As far as the patch goes, it fixes a decent amount of stuff both in gameplay and connecting to servers.

To read the patch release notes, read on.

Read On...

Good news guys! The devs have just released a new patch for the 3.x series.  3.0.4 is said to be the biggest patch so far and hopefully it helps out.  Good timing to, just perfect for the July 4th Weekend.  I would imagine like usual the first day will be slow because of all the downloading that will be going on...but It should even out over the weekend!Happy Independence Day!

Tonight the AA 3.0.3 patch was released via steam and download client.  Not all the problems have been addressed, but it is a huge step in the right direction.  I'm glad to see that even with the recent downsizing we are getting regular patches to fix some of the problems that have plagued the early life of AA 3.0.

Official Statement:

In response to comments from the America's Army community, and based in no small part on their assistance in identifying issues, we're pleased to announce the release of an AA3 patch that addresses many of the issues we've identified.

The patch is available now both through our AA Deploy Client and Steam. So update your game now, and get back to playing America's Army 3! Here’s what’s in the patch:

Click read on to view the full list of fixes

Read On...

In an effort to allow more people to play the game the AGP has decided to temporarily unlock all soldier weapons and abilities.  The idea is that by unlocking the weapons and abilities users will no longer be required to do the training.  Eliminating the training reduces a large amount of the authentication requests that have been causing a large majority of the issues with 3.0.  Lets hope that this fix allows us to play and enjoy the game, mean while the devs will continue to work so that we can enjoy the training missions in the near future, But for the time being DO NOT attempt to play the training missions or you will defeat the purpose of this unlock.

Click read more to view the official announcement.

Read On...

For those of you who are new to steam, there is the wonderful thing called the 'pre-load' which comes out a little while before a game is released.  This pre-load allows you to download the game prior to its release so that when the day actually comes, you can spend your time playing the game as opposed to downloading it.

With that being said, the pre-load for AA3 is officially out at steam. I encourage everyone to head over there and get it downloading, and also to spread the news and hopefully get some new blood back in the game. To visit the pre-load page simply click here. For those who don't have steam, you will have the option to download it from that page; and for those of us who do have it, one simple click will get AA3 downloading.

This game will unlock in approximately 1 week, and 22 hours

The official release date of AA3 is going to be announced exclusively on the facebook fanpage:  America's Army: The Official U.S. Army Game.  I am not sure when the announcement will be made but they have been moving things along in the facebook page pretty quickly.  The group was created on May 20th with the promise of an exclusive video release, the video was then released on the 27th.  If the AGP remains loyal to the same timeframe we could speculate that the announcement will come on or near June 4th.   This date in its self is interesting, it is exactly one month prior to the date the community picked as the date they expect the game to be released.

The facebook fan page continues to grow, if you are not already a member you need to join up and invite your friends.  There is very litle one person can do to effect the popularity of the game, but if the community as a whole puts an effort into promoting the game on facebook I believe that we will see a reward for our efforts.

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In january the AGP released a new website, aa3.americasarmy.com, which provided the community with a series of videos about AA3.  Today the last video(of the original listing) was released.  However, the video was not released on the AA3 Homepage but instead on facebook.  To view the video visit the facebook fan page "America's Army: The Official U.S. Army Game" where you will find the video in the videos section.

Some of the information in the video is old news; but, the developers do give us a little more insight into the possibilities of the Unreal Engine and what it means for the future of Americas Army.  The video touches base on various effects within aa3: explosions, smoke, particles, shadows, lighting, face customization, and detail about character animation.

On another note, the facebook fanpage is quickly becoming a great advertising medium for the AGP.  The fan page was created exactly 1 week ago and has already amassed nearly 3000 members.  If you are not already a member of the group join it and tell your friends about it.  Lets push this group and see how many people we can get to join it and help educate potential players on why Americas Army is great.

Click here to view the video.

Today's news comes in three parts including a video, some games, and a glance at yet another one of the different roles AA3 will bring us.  To start off with what I found most exciting is a new development video which takes you on a run through the AA3 obstacle course.  This is not the same course that we all know and love, but I'm sure it will grow on us with time...  

To view this new video, move your mouse this direction and click here

Next up on my top 3 list would be the games, which despite being fairly basic in concept and gameplay, managed to entertain me for a solid 20 minutes, which let me clarify is harder than it seems.  You can check out a screenshot of the downloadable game 'Blackhawk Challenge' to your right in case you didn't notice, or just go here and try them all out for yourself.

Now last, but definitely not least, is a new role that we haven't had very much experience with.  It is the Squad Designated Marksman.  This role is a cross between a rifleman and a sniper, and as such is designed to engage targets in between the ranges of a rifleman and a sniper (300-600 meters).  To read more about this position click here.  Now to watch/read/play everything in this article and more, why not take a browse through the AA3 website and see all the stuff the dev's are doing in anticipation of AA3.