I'm experiencing a black screen when I launch version 2.7 for the first time.

From AAManual

This is most likely caused by your firewall software. Current releases of Windows include Firewall software that protect against potential unwanted access over the internet. By default, the Firewall software installed on your computer must know about applications that require internet access.

The firewall software has paused the game process and is requesting your confirmation to unblock the program and allow access to the internet; however, the popup window may not be displayed over the full screen game display.

To correct this, you will need to manually add the newly patched game executable (ArmyOps.exe) to the unblocked application list for your firewall.

Alternately, you can quickly switch the game from full screen to windowed mode by pressing Alt+Enter immediately upon startup (before the firewall software pauses it), and interact with the firewall popup normally to unblock the game executable.

This problem has been identified on Microsoft Windows standard Firewall, McAfee Personal Firewall 7 and ZoneAlarm firewalls.

To unblock America’s Army on your Microsoft Windows standard Firewall (included with Windows XP Service Pack 2), open the Windows Control Panel by clicking the Start Button then selecting Control Panel, and then click the Security Center icon. Once inside the Security Center, choose to manage settings for Windows Firewall (this is near the bottom of the window). Click the Exceptions tab, then click the Add Program… button. Finally, locate your America’s Army game executable (by default it is located at C:Program Files/America’s Army/System/ArmyOps.exe).