I am not sure about the Ares rifle, but I know the Star rifles do make nice DMR's. Though it does take a ton of work to get them there.
The thing with Ares is that .... well they suck. The externals are quite nice, while the internals are shat. If you can start off with a G36, then look at getting the body kit for the SL8/9. This way you will already have great internals to play with, then add the body when you can.