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With the release of Rogue Spear, the ARMM team once again went into motion and began developing a new edition to NATO for the Rogue Spear game, once again focusing on guns. But as the developers worked towards their final goal, several new tools came about which allowed them to do so much more with their mod project. Those items? Modeling tools for weapons. First came an unofficial editor and then came the official tool plug-in for 3D Studio Max to remodel weapons. With this, the ARMM team was finally able to do some serious hard core work with the guns. Not only would they sound and behave correctly, but they would also look good, too. The final result is a stunning mod that adds a total of forty-four primary weapons and seventeen secondary weapons. Available for both Rogue Spear and Urban Operations, NATO 3 provides a stunning package in half of NATO 2's original size: a very manageable 3.5 megs (download link is listed below).

With NATO 3 comes a collection of very real-world guns. At the end of the article, I've attached a full list of the new guns available in the mod. In this paragraph, I will explore the mod further by examining some of the more popular weapons. The first gun, an SMG (or submachine gun) is the FN P90. Popularized by a lot of other games, this gun is an amazingly tight gun. With a high rate of fire and a tight reticule, this gun may take the place of the PDW. Finally, the magazine has an amazing 50 round capacity, making it a sure fire success in tight multiplayer games. I found playing with this gun to be an absolute joy. While strafing (moving side to side) is not as effective as with the PDW, shots while peeking and for just hosing down the enemy in close quarters battles were simply stellar. The next set of weapons, the assault rifles, holds a number of promising candidates.

Fig. 3. The new frag grenade launcher.

ARMM redid the M4A1 into a number of different variations, including a nice silenced version. Because of the range and powerful bullets, the final variable of silence makes this a fantastic gun in multiplayer arenas. Because the majority of the standard Rogue Spear and Urban Operations weapons are not silenced (and those which are silenced are poor choices in combat), the role of silenced guns cannot be appreciated enough in NATO 3. In the following paragraph, I will comment briefly and how the gameplay is changed for the better thanks to this mod. The Steyr ACR with flechette rounds was made hugely popular by its first appearance in NATO 2, where it was one of the most popular guns around. In NATO 3, it's once again a weapon of choice.

I found myself quite comfortable with this highly accurate gun and will probably be the gun of choice for most multiplayer games. Other notable weapons include a semi automatic pistol (the Glock 18C), which means it can act as a great backup to your primary in tight quarters where you might prefer to whip out another gun rather than try to reload your primary. Finally, there is the addition of a real six-shooter, combat knives, and even a maliciously fun grenade launcher. The breadth of the weapons should provide you with weeks of play-testing enjoyment alone.

Fig. 4. The Sig SWAT in action.