Greetings.

This has been probably asked and answered repeatedly, but I have to make sure.
I have to know whether I'm the idiot, or it is the game that it's too difficult.

I just got ArmA. The first title. A gift from a dissatisfied customer. Just not the kind of game
he likes. I knew it was the "tactical" sort, and I do like the tactical sorts.
Installation, patching (to 1.18), graphics settings -> all smooth. And no, I don't become a bird nor do
I experience other weirdo trickeries I've been reading about.
But the sound is kinda sucky, and the controls are unintuitive. I have endured much worse in other
games, though. I can make it work.

And... I think I have it running on the easiest difficulty level (Regular?) - if there is one.

Then how is it that I die and die and die, and not two times in the same way and not two times for
the same "mistake"? This game is making me believe that I'm some kind of idiot who can't mind his
own business for the sake of staying alive.

I die. I die a lot. I spend more time at the reloading screen than not in actual game.
I went through the hell of installing and patching a game, and all I'm playing is a Loading Screen.
It's not fun.
Do not think that I'm the kind of rusher that charges at the enemy screaming Rrraaaaaah!!!, and
bulletting left and right 'til I'm the last thing astand. No. I take my time. I look around. I count
the enemies, I take note of bushes and buildings. I examine my gear to see what's what. I look at
the map, trying to figure out a good escape route, or also what's the places to avoid because it's
too easy to ambush me if I head that way.
And when I think I got some plan that might actualy work, that's where the game outsmarts me.
Eventually I become a receptacle for bullets. Their Situational Awareness is something legendary.
When I manage to evade their assault is feels so much like PURE LUCK. Because if I repeat the
session, the outcome is almost always You're Dead.
Am I playing Dungeons & Dragons applied to military? Or is there some skill factor involved that
depends entirely on me - as I would expect since *I* am controlling the dude with the gun?

I've been a soldier, and I know all too well what a single bullet can do. So don't go there, thanks.
I also know what happens when you open fire on a bunch of soldiers. They don't all take cover to fire back.
Some will just cover to cower and never come out of hiding in terror of getting a bullet themselves.
And others will just start sweating like prostitutes in a church and be unable to aim straight should
you even walk up to them with open arms.
The soldiers I see in this game all look like consumed professionals, who endured a dozen firefights
each. That's not real-life like at all.

I'm totally not having fun with it. For much less I have uninstalled games that I desired a lot
more than this one. And I don't know what's keeping me from eradicating its presence off my hard
drive.
Actually today I got real close to do it. But here I am, in hope to find a VERY GOOD reason not to.

So do your best and try to give me that very good reason.
Just don't tell me to play multiplayer. I don't have time for multiplayer - period.