Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising

[Rod_S]

Always loved the first one, even though the version I played (olde Xbox) was supposedly inferior to the PC original. I'm replaying the utterly glorious Sniper Elite on the Xbox now and have to admit to having a genuine penchant for tactical shooters - much prefer this style to, say, the full on intensity of CoD single player - I always hung back for sneaky sniping opportunities in Halo too.

Anyway. New Flashpoint trailer is out and the game is scheduled for Summer:

http://www.gamersyde.com/stream_10434_en.html

Fabulous. Looks like a proper MAN'S game.

[PVB]

That screenshot looks shit.

I played the PC version online a lot, mainly third party created maps/missions though.

Always died pretty quickly, usually because of some bastard sniper hiding in a bush a thousand yards away.

[funkstar]

ArmA is supposedly the "true" successor to Operation Flashpoint, but I've not played it. I never did complete the original either - got as far as a very sneaky covert ops thing involving the placement of demo charges on tanks after running around in a forest for half an hour. There was no savepoint until _after_ destroying the tanks...

Utterly brilliant until then, though. A *proper* war game, where a single bullet will usually kill you. Not too many of those around.

[GeeZa]

I much prefer tactical shooters, it's one of the reasons I liked MGS4, it's just slow and plodding but utterly brutal when it comes down to the business end. Was playing KZ2 multiplayer last night and not enjoying it. Far too random and chaotic with little-to-no opportunity for tactical play and no real feedback on what weapons do what best. I actually find UT3 has more scope for intelligent play which is weird, but it really does.

This is a good heads-up, hopefully it'll hit the spot.

[benedictw]

360Zine has a exclusive article on this. It does look very good.
http://www.gamerzines.com/downloading-360zine_29.html

Difficulty is determined by number of aids. Easy = the lot. Harder modes mean no radar, no bullet count etc.
What else? 4 player coop. Flashpoints wounds affecting gameplay return as well. (Hit to leg = slower movement, arm = harder to aim).

[Portland]

Used to love the orignial. Wonder if the lappy will run the new one?

[defsdoor]

360Zine has a exclusive article on this. It does look very good.
http://www.gamerzines.com/downloading-360zine_29.html

I can't believe that I only heard about gamerzines after issue 29

[Viscount Charles]

Played ArmA a bit - it seemed to replicate all the faults of the original Flashpoint, without any of the charm. Apparently if you patch and mod it enough it becomes quite good, but I cannot be arsed.

OpFlash though was a seminal game - building on tactical shooters like Hidden and Dangerous (another deeply buggy, yet fantastic, game), but with a real world, no boundaries feel to it. And yes, the mission editor built-in meant that people far more talented than myself could come up with some very realistic-feeling missions.

OpFlash was the daddy of co-op gaming IMO. And I would love to see a massively-multiplayer, persistent online version of he same thing. But I wonder if times haven't moved on - that people are too used to run & gun, manic games like Halo3 to want to spend 30 minutes hiding behind a bush, waiting for a tank to fuck off so you can blow up a church.

I also cannot be arsed to get anything to run on my PCs these days. If OpFlash2 is coming out for the consoles - and isn't 2 years late and shit when it arrives like the Xbox version of OpFlash1 - then I'll give it a go, for old-times' sake.

I think I met PVB though OpFlash originally. So it's got that much to answer for.

[The Captain]

This is apparently out on Friday, and looks pretty astonishing. . . The more I see of it the more impressive I find it. I hope the 360 version is up to snuff.

[Public Hermit]

Yeah I'm pretty interested in this, but there's no sign of a demo. Searching around seems to suggest that there will be one for the 360, but not when.

[Viscount Charles]

Me and a fair number of other Dentists (an online clan formed as a direct result of the original) already have the 360 version on order. if the retailers deliver on time, i know what I'll be doing next weekend.

[The Captain]

Excellent! The more the merrier! I'll definitely be getting this on Friday so if you see me on, drop me an invite if I'm welcome.

[Viscount Charles]

Anyone who sees me online (GT - The Viscount) is welcome to join me - send me a message and if there's space, I'll invite you. A word of warning - I generally only play these games co-op; deathmatch type affairs are best left to FPS games like HALO and COD4.

My views after 6 games or so is that:

(i) the netcode works, unlike OpFlash;

(ii) the matchmaking sucks, and there appear to be weird conflicts out there with certain players unable to join sessions involving certain other players;

(iii) it's a lot less frustrating than OpFlash in terms of deaths - played on the lowest setting, you only get one-shotted if you're unlucky (or reckless);

(iv) it's a lot more frustrating than OpFlash in terms of kills - you only get to one-shot an enemy if you're very lucky;

(v) the machine gun doesn't suck as hard as some people would have you believe;

(vi) it can be *bloody* hard to see the enemy sometimes (which is a lot like real life, as it happens);

(vii) grab ammo whenever you can - thanks to the inability to see, then hit, anyone, I use a LOT;

(viii) Vehicle handling is a bit crap - if you want to play a driving game, buy Forza instead;

(ix) loadouts are completely fixed (just like the original) - personally I'd like to ditch the grenades in favour of more ammo and have the binoculars on a button too;

(x) there are a LOT of commands packed on to the controller, and I haven't worked out the command system at all so far - the instruction manual and in-game help are pretty poor;

(xi) the biggy IMO - the island is huge, but manages to feel really empty. If this is an island under occupation, about to be reinvaded, there's almost chuff-all signs of life. No random patrols, no evident command structures, just your squad, the 20+ enemies that you'll need to take out on that particular mission, and bugger all else. This leads to an impression that the place is completely empty, and far from being a huge "sandbox" to play in, it could just as easily have been a set of stand-alone missions played out in much, much smaller maps. Which is a shame. Perhaps it's just down to poor (ie soulless) level design, or maybe the 360 can't handle more activity on the maps (though GTA4 manages to create the feel of a living, breathing environment).

[The Captain]

(xi) the biggy IMO - the island is huge, but manages to feel really empty. If this is an island under occupation, about to be reinvaded, there's almost chuff-all signs of life. No random patrols, no evident command structures, just your squad, the 20+ enemies that you'll need to take out on that particular mission, and bugger all else. This leads to an impression that the place is completely empty, and far from being a huge "sandbox" to play in, it could just as easily have been a set of stand-alone missions played out in much, much smaller maps. Which is a shame. Perhaps it's just down to poor (ie soulless) level design, or maybe the 360 can't handle more activity on the maps (though GTA4 manages to create the feel of a living, breathing environment).

I haven't got this yet - I'm picking up some point today. My brother has though and this was his biggest whinge about the game last night - they've really sold this on being a Far Cry-ish open environment, but really the island is just context for the missions.... If you try and stray outside the mission areas then it's game over. So it may as well have been a series of stand alone missions, as it's all window dressing. Not a big downer in itself, but they've really sold this on being a sandbox-y thing and it really, really isn't. Puzzling and disappointing. I'm still getting it though :-)

[Viscount Charles]

The good news is that it's definitely growing on us (gone from being a 6/10 to an 8/10 after a few hours co-op), and they have nailed the difficulty pretty much spot-on; every mission is challenging, with many more failures than successes, but they are "doable".

The lack of "sandbox" feeling could have been fixed so easily, by adding in a few random events, patrols and vehicles that have nothing to do with the mission that you're trying to do, and getting rid of the mission area limit.

I'd also have liked a bit more of an opportunity to customise my loadout (esp. in multiplayer). I'm a fan of the M16, think sniper rifles are tantamount to cheating, find the M4 way too inaccurate, and would love to mount some sort of optics onto the M249. It would be particularly fine with something like an Eotech on it. As it is, the iron sights obscure more of the screen than I like.