pc
Nexon Launches Combat Arms
Posted by Mike Fahey at 4:00 AM on July 11, 2008
Remember the uproar that was stirred when folks thought that EA's Battlefield: Bad Company would have weapons only available for purchase? For the few of you who actually liked the idea, Nexon presents Combat Arms, their first multiplayer online FPS. Along with a hearty selection of free weapons, Nexon allows players to purchase new weapons adn equipment from their online store, tricking out their character to their hearts' and wallets' content.
You can head over to the official website to download the game for free and check out the tons of new content Nexon has added in honour of today's official launch, including new weapons, a new map, and the addition of a new game mode, Capture the Flag. Wait, they've only just added Capture the Flag? This should be entertaining.
Combat Arms [Official Website]

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Trevor
Posted August 6, 2008 11:37 AM
America is the bigest country in the world get over it. Theres other games we americans are just fortunet enough to get everything we want -.-
SATAN
Posted August 6, 2008 6:49 PM
Yeah LAG FTW. This game is only fun for the pain I cause to all the little US kiddies that I repeatedly PWN (something around 140k 12d {12d = lag deaths} spread) Accused of hacking many times. THIS is what happens when you game too much =P.
But really ... only play this game for either the LOLZ or if your tired of SERIOUS shooters. OUT. SEE YOU ALL IN HELL MUA HA HA HA HA HA HA
eric
Posted September 2, 2008 5:39 AM
my combat arms won't work what should i do
Tarenade-
Posted September 2, 2008 11:09 PM
Hey guys, this game is awesome, if your on dial up then yes serious lag! ADSL+ and a decent computer will hack this game!..very addictive with the clan war system! If FPS is your game join me and my clan members.."Team Melbourne".
riqued
Posted 4:38 AM 11/7/08
@sarcasmOD: You have to pay to see Mona Lisa in person
riqued
Aggort
Posted 4:36 AM 11/7/08
Not to rain on anyones parade or anything, but this game has been out for several years under the name War Rock. I was head of a clan on the game in 2004 when they first started looking for a change of the name of the game
Aggort
sarcasmOD
Posted 4:30 AM 11/7/08
Trends like this in gaming make it impossible for people to make a legitimate argument about gaming as art. If I had to pay money just to be able to see the face on the Mona Lisa, it would just be another marketed product, and not an art piece.
sarcasmOD
Warbuff6644
Posted 4:30 AM 11/7/08
It's important to note that everything that can be purchased with real money can also be purchased with in game money earned from playing. So if you play and are any good, you'll be able to "rent" the equipment you want. For those too impatient or crappy, they can use real money.
I've been playing the Beta and it is "generic free shooter the game!" People can come and go on the servers as they please so games could take for ever if folks keep dropping out. To solve the problem of everyone looking the same, just play free for all. XP
Warbuff6644
rad4Christ
Posted 4:29 AM 11/7/08
I admire the english in the flash header for the site:
Mission Object:
Elliminate All Enemies
rad4Christ
mistersneak
Posted 4:26 AM 11/7/08
Sweet, more "Paying for stuff that's already in the game but I'm not allowed to use"! My favorite!
mistersneak
wicko
Posted 4:24 AM 11/7/08
@MugiMugi: Sounds like they have their own servers, so latency would be a huge issue (it's already an issue in the current region). It would probably be unplayable. Now, if they allowed people to host their own servers somehow, then localization wouldn't be an issue.
wicko
Boboh
Posted 4:24 AM 11/7/08
i played the beta version... it sucked. I could tell the difference between teammate and enemy. In counter Strike the good guys dress like SWAT. In Combat Amrs, everybody looks the same. Good guy or bad guy. Friendly fire helps alot. Kill everybody then you don't have a problem.
Boboh
Sugoi
Posted 4:22 AM 11/7/08
@Pezdispenser: According to the game's wikipedia entry, it uses a rental system.
Honestly, it appears to be a prettier (and more customizable) version of WarRock. The real question is whether there are actual servers, or much like almost every other korean game like this, they're entirely peer to peer.
Someone please say it's not p2p, as that just ruins the hell out of any FPS for obvious reasons.
Sugoi
MugiMugi
Posted 4:21 AM 11/7/08
Still only for the US ???
I hate games who limit themself to ONE region, I can never play those games with friends as my friends is all over the world.
This will go down the drain as well for me if they don't open it up.
MugiMugi
Fulgurator
Posted 4:20 AM 11/7/08
Checked the site, everythings looks so standart/boring/dull/lame. I guess I'll pass, there's some Team Fortress 2 wainting for me.
Fulgurator
Thassodar
Posted 4:20 AM 11/7/08
@Pezdispenser: It's a rental type thing, kinda like Gunbound. Unlike Gunbound, though, there is no option to spend Nexon points to rent the gun for cheaper. All GP is earned in-game, while playing.
Thassodar
Pezdispenser
Posted 4:18 AM 11/7/08
Do you actually buy the gun, or is it more of a rental? I seem to recall some of these pay-for-stuff games only letting you keep your hard bought gear for a week/month/year depending on how much you pay.
Pezdispenser
elementary
Posted 4:18 AM 11/7/08
I'll do fine without the purchased weapons. Behold my sharpened stick and my other stick that's not sharp, but it's a little heavier.
elementary
Guttlesswonder
Posted 4:18 AM 11/7/08
Just so you know you need to actually link the text at the bottom. I am to lazy to google this.
Guttlesswonder
Dr_Q
Posted 4:17 AM 11/7/08
Damnit Nexon, instead of releasing that kind of crap, work on a sequel for Shattered Galaxy. I hunger for a new MMORTS with that much depth :(
Dr_Q
Goiuki4u's avatar has a severe case of Jekyll and Hyde
Posted 4:17 AM 11/7/08
Now all they need to do is award money for getting kills, and take money for dying, and force you to buy your ammo each round. Hilarity will ensue.
Goiuki4u's avatar has a severe case of Jekyll and Hyde
greyhoundbus
Posted 4:13 AM 11/7/08
So, how much do the guns go for? I might try this out.
greyhoundbus
Smash88
Posted 4:13 AM 11/7/08
So this is basically CS? But instead of getting all the weapons you have to pay for them....how...how...lame.
Smash88
Thassodar
Posted 4:10 AM 11/7/08
The site just went down for 20 hours yesterday. I've been playing for about 3 days, and the servers are still laggy as balls. The game looks pretty damn good though (think BF2/2142).
It also has a slight addictive feel to it, as well as being quick enough to pick up and play a round and then just leave.
Thassodar
FightingChance
Posted 4:08 AM 11/7/08
@TheGreySpectre: Not only that, but how do you reconcile real life differences and gameplay balance in weapons? The allure of real weapons is that they function relative to how they do in real life. For instance, on the screen shot the AK-47 is listed as having low damage and recoil, but high firing speed and accuracy, which is pretty much opposite of the firearm in real life.
FightingChance
thejakeman: visit my site!
Posted 4:08 AM 11/7/08
@Fulgurator: 5 bucks, but it comes with a Lovely matching handbag
thejakeman: visit my site!
Ctsephion
Posted 4:08 AM 11/7/08
wow-wee ! another military simulator that makes people think its worthwhile because you have to purchase extras! winning formula!!!!
Ctsephion
Terrorsaur.
Posted 4:08 AM 11/7/08
@Winterbringer:
You'll be here all week?
Terrorsaur.
Fulgurator
Posted 4:06 AM 11/7/08
Capture the flag! Now that's awesome. How much does a fancy new flag cost?
Fulgurator
Shiryu
Posted 4:06 AM 11/7/08
[combatarms.nexon.net]
don't have a cow, man. Google saves!
Shiryu
NessD12
Posted 4:05 AM 11/7/08
This game actually looked really cool. Now that it's out of whatever stage it was in you have to pay for weapons?
NessD12
TheGreySpectre
Posted 4:04 AM 11/7/08
If the weapons that you pay for are very much better than the free wapons I predict problems for the company in the future when people get frustated by dying before they get intrigued enough to purchase weapons.
TheGreySpectre
EliteKoala
Posted 4:03 AM 11/7/08
Broken link is broken
EliteKoala
goboard117
Posted 4:02 AM 11/7/08
well that just seems silly.
goboard117
Winterbringer
Posted 4:02 AM 11/7/08
Well, that's great but I still don't have any Combat Legs or hands...
ba dum tsch
Winterbringer
FrigidAir44
Posted 5:11 AM 11/7/08
It won't last. P2P games and purchased weapons.
Laggy and shit.
FrigidAir44
Saprol
Posted 5:10 AM 11/7/08
@Dr_Q: KRU Interactive owns Shattered Galaxy. They used to be part of Nexon Corp but they split apart and renamed themselves from Nexon Inc. Lawl. >_> I loved SG.
Saprol
TornadoTK
Posted 5:00 AM 11/7/08
@Aggort: War Rock is a little more Battlefield. Combat Arms is a little more Counter-Strike. Also, Combat Arms' customization is an interesting feature (being able to carry a backup primary weapon is great, AR/Sniper combo all the way).
I burnt all of my in-game currency on 1-day rental weapons. So, I played for one day. WP grenades and FF are not a good mix.
TornadoTK
SigmundTheSeaMonster
Posted 5:38 AM 11/7/08
Why can't I buy a cannon?? WHY????
(If I kill you, can I take your gun. That you paid for. Now that would be incentive!)
SigmundTheSeaMonster
sarcasmOD
Posted 5:33 AM 11/7/08
@riqued: Which is why I don't mind paying for games and still calling some of them art. But I refuse to pay more to unlock content.
sarcasmOD
jazix
Posted 5:29 AM 11/7/08
just tried it. the mouse feels like it has no acceleration at all. aiming is fine but looking around is all messed up.
jazix
flashtut
Posted 6:07 AM 11/7/08
@sarcasmOD:
I give the game designers credit for creating some of the most visually stunning masterpieces of our time, but since gaming is a for-profit industry, it's hard for me to see gaming as just an artform. There's too much corporate money being tossed around to see it more than it is, a form of entertainment consumed by the masses. I do however have respect for the indie developers who've managed to stave off takeovers by larger companies and maintain some integrity.
I've always admired Nexon for giving us games like MapleStory for free. Maybe they realized people were profiting by selling characters on their games and so they turned the tables so that they could profit from their games instead of others auctioning their items on eBay.
flashtut
Fulgurator
Posted 6:06 AM 11/7/08
@Pepsiman34:
You mean, like Kwari?
[en.wikipedia.org]
Fulgurator
DrunkenTrom
Posted 5:52 AM 11/7/08
I just played it for about a half an hour. It is mindless FPS fun but it is also generic. You actually rent the weapons for use by the day/week and you pay with points that are earned in the game. Most weapons cost about 1000 points to rent for a day. They start you with around 9000 points and you seem to earn points while from gameplay. I only played 3-4 games and earned about 500 points so at that rate I'm wondering if they'd need to adjust/lower the amount of points earned to make any money because at that rate it seems I'd never have to pay one red cent and could use about any weapon I wanted indiscriminately. BTW I had enough fun with it that I haven't deleted it off of my hard drive yet. I may give it another go later on tonight.
DrunkenTrom
Pepsiman34
Posted 5:51 AM 11/7/08
Why not just charge per bullet.
Pepsiman34
Thassodar
Posted 5:48 AM 11/7/08
@SigmundTheSeaMonster: You can take the gun, but only til you die and respawn.
Thassodar
Be0wulf
Posted 6:31 AM 11/7/08
You pay for what you want if you don't have enough points to purchase it that way. If you want, you can just play, earn points and buy weapons that way without ever having to spend money.
The idea that you have to pay money to have the good guns is totally wrong.
Be0wulf
Fulgurator
Posted 6:28 AM 11/7/08
@flashtut:
Yeah, beacause Art is never done with profit in mind. And much less the so-called "modern art"
Fulgurator
Salen
Posted 6:25 AM 11/7/08
Free to Play? Shouldn't it be more like Free to Play*?
* Not actually free for all the cool stuff that is wildly unbalanced if you don't use it, and by use we mean pay for.
Salen
kumuasata
Posted 6:23 AM 11/7/08
Warrock said what?
kumuasata
Lootskin
Posted 6:21 AM 11/7/08
Is this US only?
Stupid America.
Lootskin
Delvar15
Posted 7:02 AM 11/7/08
Wow another WarRock... :goes back to playing BF2:
Delvar15
Combinator
Posted 6:56 AM 11/7/08
I've been playing this game for about a week and although it's really, really, REALLY generic and repetitive, it's fun and keeps me hooked, if only because everybody else are noobs. :)
As for the buying weapons with real money- that won't be a problem since if you're halfway decent you can kill whoever has that weapon and take it.
I think one of the best features of the game is the ability to take weapons off dead foes. It balances the game a lot better.
And I have played Warrock before, and I have to say this is far better than Warrock. And no, they aren't the same game- they both have large differences.
Combinator
Durandal
Posted 6:52 AM 11/7/08
Hahhaa, I love how MP5's UZI's and UMP's are Assault Rifles, and the SCAR-L is known for it's "tremendous stopping power." Someone should tell these people how bullets work, and that guns that assault rifles using the same rounds don't differ hugely in damage done with them.
Durandal
gnudna
Posted 6:40 AM 11/7/08
The game is free, i don't see what the complaints are for exactly?
Free game = cool
buy addon weapons for said free game = cool
Nobody is forcing you to buy the weapons and the game is still free. If so many people want to play free games become a programmer and make the damn game.
gnudna
celery
Posted 7:20 AM 11/7/08
@flashtut: So if just 99% of the purpose of the piece is money, we're good to go right? Good to know there's a cutoff. I'm quite pleased to hear that the definition of art now hinges on unverifiable assumptions about the artist's state of mind. I mean, it would just be silly to evaluate a work's artistic merit on its own terms without throwing some biased personal opinion in there, wouldn't it?
celery
flashtut
Posted 7:10 AM 11/7/08
@Fulgurator:
If the sole purpose of creating an art piece is money, then personally I don't see it as art. Plus, I would imagine most artists would be creatively stunted if all they could imagine were dollar figures dancing around in their heads.
I know a little about art commissions and for the most part those commissioned are given creative freedom and are not forced to design pieces with preassigned values attached to them.
flashtut
NeoXY
Posted 7:09 AM 11/7/08
@Delvar15:
No...it IS warrock
NeoXY
HT Tenrai
Posted 7:47 AM 11/7/08
Huh. I may have to give it a look-see. I don't mind buying non-game balance stuff.
HT Tenrai
Nessman
Posted 7:33 AM 11/7/08
That's sweet.. I'd totally check this out if i were a PC gamer. I just feel dirty without a controller though :(.
Nessman
Fulgurator
Posted 7:30 AM 11/7/08
@flashtut:
Then cinema (it's biggest part at least) isn't art for you.
As for cinema, most vg companies are evil and money-driven, but there's still some (tiny) space for creativity and freedom. In my opinnion games cannot be called art, but maybe when the industry (and freelance and indie developers) reach a more mature stage things could start to change.
Fulgurator
godot
Posted 8:08 AM 11/7/08
I got my money's worth. Couldn't bind left or right arrow keys... uninstalled.
godot
Solertia
Posted 8:30 AM 11/7/08
Hard to believe this is made by the same people who made Maple Story hahaha
Solertia
GunSavior
Posted 8:24 AM 11/7/08
I played an online game made by Nexon once. It was a mistake. There was blood everywhere. Oh god, I'm so sorry. :(
GunSavior
Hyperfludd
Posted 8:24 AM 11/7/08
Did uh...nobody check the site? You don't buy upperhand weapons, it's more like of a customize your weapons with colors and shit thing.
Hyperfludd
flashtut
Posted 8:17 AM 11/7/08
@Fulgurator:
By cinema (it's biggest part) you mean the big budget films, then rarely have I found art in them. I've found them to be mostly formulaic and contrived, nothing of substance. Call me a cynic. Sure I've found good entertainment in most of them, but not art. Nowadays you just see remakes of the old classics, remakes of foreign films, comic book adaptations, or video game adaptations. To me it just seems Hollywood is running out of ideas.
The Departed one of my most recent favorite movies was very entertaining. It was based off of Infernal Affairs which I found even more entertaining. Did I find it artistic? Actually, yes but because the screenwriting was brilliant, not so much how Hollywood made its mark on it or the high-profile actors and directing.
flashtut
pylon_trooper
Posted 8:57 AM 11/7/08
I really enjoyed downloading the client, doing all that, then finding out it was North America-only. That was the best part. Finding out I couldn't play it.
I just want Blitz 1941 to come back. Come back, Blitz 1941. You were the best MMO ever.
[jp]
+ Watch video
When is that pulling itself back out of Korea-only?! The worldwide servers were jam-packed when the open beta was on.
pylon_trooper
flashtut
Posted 8:55 AM 11/7/08
@celery:
Art is subjective. I was in no way trying to define the meaning of art, just my own interpretation. I can do that, right?
flashtut
Fulgurator
Posted 8:47 AM 11/7/08
@flashtut:
Well you're right: nowadays hollywood-based cinema sucks donkey balls, and the best word you could say about big budget films usually is "entretaining" but that doesn't disqualify cinema as a form of art. There are still some movies every now now and then that have that certain spark of creativity and talent that makes them artistic. Maybe It's one-in-a-million kind of event, but it's there.
The same could be said about videogames, to a lesser extent due the profit-based structure and immature status of the industry.
Anyway Art is subjective almost by definition so we're both wrong and right. It's always insteresting to discuss such thinghs, tough.
P.S: "The Departed", uh? I'll watch it, thanks for the recommendation.
Fulgurator
flashtut
Posted 9:12 AM 11/7/08
@Fulgurator:
I can understand where you're coming from.
You may or may not like The Departed. It's one of those movies you may find entertaining but you may not agree that it's artistic in nature. But I don't think it'll be a total waste of time for you, at least I hope not.
flashtut
Fulgurator
Posted 10:10 AM 11/7/08
@flashtut:
Yeah, yeah, I'm not trying to prove you wrong, sorry if I sounded harsh at any moment. I just wanna discuss the matter, in fact I wanted to know your point of view.
Fulgurator
OoBaSNoRk
Posted 10:43 AM 11/7/08
This game is awful, it has fail netcode with hoppy players, wonky physics and the list goes on. The first server I joined was full of kids making racist comments about a spanish speaking person instead of just launching the game, I thought I had wandered back into xbox live. Points for trying to make a free game people can enjoy, but no thank you.
OoBaSNoRk
jus227
Posted 10:35 AM 11/7/08
The game looks nice, but where is question #4?
jus227
isobelle
Posted 10:53 AM 11/7/08
@OoBaSNoRk: racism on the internet? NO WAI!
isobelle
Terrorsaur.
Posted 11:29 AM 11/7/08
@isobelle:
Thats like people making statements with no evidence to back it up.
Oh wait.
Terrorsaur.
Chef
Posted 1:17 PM 11/7/08
"just download the client and start shooting people in the face."
I'm sold.
Chef
nitram100
Posted 9:55 PM 11/7/08
le sigh...
Just downloaded it and installed to find out it's only available for people from the only country in the world, United States.
nitram100
Revenge_of_Nekojin
Posted 2:15 PM 12/7/08
@nitram100: I do have that problem with a lot of other free to play games though. Region restrictions due to licensing, always. Sometimes I can get them to let me in anyway since I'm stationed here and not a Japanese national, sometimes they stick to their 'omg ur ip sayz ur japonese' guns. *shrug* Oh well.
Revenge_of_Nekojin
Revenge_of_Nekojin
Posted 2:12 PM 12/7/08
@nitram100: Eh? I'm in Japan and I can play it. I have a US Nexon account though.
Revenge_of_Nekojin