Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Its worth buying on PC £17.99, but I would never pay £30+ for it on a console.
 
I haven't played it since the first day I got it, can't be arsed, although I've started playing Left 4 Dead again instead
 
Wow, so I'm the only caftard still playing this? Oh well...
 
I bought it last week (got a sweet deal on Steam too due to exchange rates).

Played through co op with some mates - it was alright, not brilliant.

The best bits are the ones that open up the world for you to play your way - Looking for Lois (rescuing POWs) was probably the best in the regard - once you've rescued the POWs you're meant to go down the valley (filled with angry communists) towards an extraction point. We tried doing it that way twice and ended up failing because the hostages kept getting in the way of the abundance of enemy fire. So the next time we got the hostages, and lumped it back up the hill to where we were inserted, and circled, avoiding the entire valley deathtrap. Similarly, the mission with the downed helicopter pilots, infiltrating the gas station, and the Decapitation mission (with the barrett!) provided more free form experience.

However, just as these missions highlighted the strength of the game, they also showed some of the weaknesses. There's an entity limit of 63 (due to the lack of processing power in consoles, carried over when they ported it to PC), which means that if you stray from the area that the developers wanted you to go through there will be no enemy patrols or outposts, and the game will just spawn enemies cheaply. For example, Looking for Lois, when we were crossing the mountain we were moving in a diamond with the POWs in the middle. The guy at the back was looking behind us, the sides were watching the flanks, and I was watching ahead. Suddenly, out of no where on this grassy mountaintop, an entire squad of PLA just sort of stood up from the grass right where the rear guard was looking (and that we had just walked over).

Some of the missions are hideously linear. In particular, the final mission, and the assault on the monastery missions reminded me of Call of Duty 4 singleplayer, and not in a good way. There are a number of features that PC community members have found in the game code that haven't been enabled in game on PC because they couldn't be enabled on console - for example, leaning to look out of cover is something that they didn't have enough buttons for on a console controller, so it wasn't implemented on PC either, despite there being binds for it in the game XMLs. There's a bit of an issue with mouse acceleration and there being no toggle to turn it off, again a hallmark of a rushed port (view acceleration is used on consoles to aid faster turning with an analogue stick, but translates poorly to mouse control).

Finally, and my biggest gripe of them all, is that I haven't played proper multiplayer, because the server system is shambolic for the PC (no dedicated servers = good luck trying to host a game with more than three people in it). While the game is capable of supporting 32 players in 16v16 action, realistically most people are limited to four player co op or hosting 8 player matches and hoping people with low pings join because CodeMasters haven't released a dedicated server program for use by server providers (internode, Game Arena, etc) so people are having to host matches on their home internet connections, which aren't capable of sustaining many players.

Essentially there's a good game in there but it's hindered by being poorly ported.
 
I have had no game killing glitches, and the people I have played with haven't either. Obviously we have been lucky so far (to an extent), but I do feel this is being overstated.

Once you get you're head around the squad mechanics it works quite well, there are the odd AI quirks but nothing to make fall out of love with this game. In fact this is a really good shooter and I suspect that some of the people deriding this game are stuck in COD mode and haven't got the patience for this kind of game... which is fair enough. Doesn't make the game shite though.

I've got to try out ARMA but I need to sort my PC out first... and that won't be any time soon.
 
You get them in mp... I used one in my first few matches and took out about 15 people in 3 secs (then swiftly nose dived into a tree). Gotta get back to this game...
 
Theres a helicopter during the first mission. On the beach near one of the secondary objectives. Cant remember which one, might've been on the western side of the map as your heading north to the other end of the island.
 
Thats the one. First time flying it i went straight into the water and died haha.
 
i am thinking about getting this game but have heard mixed things, people saying its crap because you can die from one bullet and then others saying its great due to realism and that the people calling it crap are impatient fecks who are not playing the game tactically in the way it is intended to be played, is it worth the investment tards?
 
Meh, when I first got it I really enjoyed it sparky, but after two days I put it down to play something else and haven't played it since. I've not even completed the single-player.
 
so it could be one of those game i only enjoy for a few days? maybe i will see if i can rent it out first
 
Yeh if you can rent it then do so. As I said, I played it quite a lot the first couple of days (though even then not excessively), but then have had no urge whatsoever to play it since. It doesn't help that the online is massively gimped, no matter which platform you're on.
 
Operation Flashpoint Red River

going to get this new one next week when i get paid, red river looks awesome!









official UK advert



Call of Duty and its ilk are fairground-ride approximations of modern warfare. Their designers carefully arrange buildings, beams of sunlight and terrain to turn the head and draw the eye as you move along the rails. Explosions blast and enemies pop up as you pass through invisible triggers, only to be reset by the SFX team as soon as you're done, ready for the next tourist to gawp at.

These games are often exhilarating and absolutely deserve their place front-and-centre of mainstream gaming for their visceral, immediate thrills. But they are, nevertheless, a Disneyland rendering of contemporary combat. The primary emotion you feel travelling through the mechanical string of set-pieces is one of puff-chested power, rarely fear.

It would be senseless to imply that Operation Flashpoint, console gaming's only military sim series, is anything like real war. But the emotions the game elicits are undoubtedly more nuanced and realistic than those of its corridor-shooter cousins. There are still the invisible trigger points that cause enemies to burst out of buildings on cue. But in this world, ammo is scarce, bullets drop height the longer they are asked to fly, and there's no precision-engineered path through these wide-open desert spaces to bustle you mindlessly along to your next objective.

When your gruff-voiced Staff Sergeant barks down the headset to call in mortar fire on the farmhouse two clicks north – where a clutch of insurgents are holed up with AK47s and ideological issues with your uniform – you're more likely to scan the horizon with a keen sense of stress and panic. Which one of these identical huts that punctuate the landscape is the target again? Pick the wrong building and not only will you draw the fierce blue ire of your staff sergeant, but your Alpha squad companions could be blown all the way from Tajikistan to CNN.

The US Army caught a lot of flak for friendly fire in the Iraq war. But it's surprisingly hard to tell friendly from enemy when squinting through the noonday sun. And if you're playing Operation Flashpoint: Red River on 'hardcore', with the HUD rubbed out, no respawns or checkpoints, and nothing but your eyes and radios to count on for information, Red River introduces a sense of white-hot tension that is actually very rare in video games.

Likewise, when one of your squad mates screams "Sniper, 200 metres East" as a bullet wheezes unseen past your helmet, your immediate reaction is to dive behind a nearby wall, not to scan the rooftops in search of a vainglorious headshot. If you take a bullet, in this game your head will lunge violently to one side, incapacitating you for a few seconds before you can steady your aim again.

You'll also start bleeding out, a drain of strength that can only be stemmed by ducking into safety to apply bandages before mending your wounds, a two-stage healing process that takes you out of the fight for a full 15 seconds. In game terms, these are weighty punishments for a lack of due care and attention, and they make Infinity Ward's vision-clouding strawberry jam filter seem faintly ridiculous.

So realism is built into the Red River's code, but now – far more than in its predecessor Dragon Rising – it's written into its script too. It's clear Codemasters has feasted on a diet of contemporary war TV and cinema in arranging what turns out to be one of the strongest battle stories in gaming. There are echoes of HBO and David Simon's Generation Kill in the reams of dialogue that couch each fire team encounter here, while providing cover for an explosive ordnance disposal team attempting to disarm an IED in a car is lifted straight from The Hurt Locker. Missions are introduced by exquisitely produced motion-comic cut-scenes, but it's in-game where story and interaction meld with rare effectiveness.

It's a game of long, meandering walk and talks, not least since you play as a four-man infantry unit whose job is often to run ahead of Humvee convoys clearing roads. The constant radio chatter and banter back and forth between fireteams and the steadying voice of the staff sergeant have a keen authenticity.

Although you are constantly receiving orders and directions, this is still a game with wide-open play options. As well as controlling your own character, you can direct the other members of your fireteam, composed of a Rifleman, Auto-Rifleman, Grenadier and Scout.

Holding down the right bumper brings up a radial menu with a host of options, allowing to you order your team to suppress targets, clear buildings or even provide overwatch support all within a couple of simple clicks. The d-pad allows you to select individual members of your fireteam or you can give a group command. It's simple and, once you've got to grips with the system, effective, and you come to feel a sense of responsibility and affection for your three compatriots that builds quickly through the campaign.

Part of the reason for this is that each mission is long and arduous, some taking up to an hour to complete. 60 minutes of concentrated effort and tension brings men together, even if they are virtual soldier men. So when you dive into the campaign with three real friends, playing co-operatively online, the result is mesmerising.

It's the kind of playpen designed to create personal memories: the time one of your friends took a miracle shot on a helicopter pilot and brought the bird down, or when you managed to retreat from the Chinese PLA against overwhelming odds without anyone losing a life. Some of these memories are scripted, but they often feel like your own. Find three competent friends to play through the game with and you will have one of the best shooter experiences currently available. No question.

The overarching design of the game has been tightened up since Dragon Rising, too. Now you earn experience points for making kills and completing objectives, levelling up your class of choice and, in doing so, gaining points that can be allocated to improve stamina, reload rates or the ability to pick out targets. Each mission is graded Bronze, Silver or Gold, with more class points won the better the medal.

Once the campaign is spent, a series of Fireteam Engagement missions are available to play through across four different types, asking you to defend fixed positions, rescue downed pilots, protect convoys or sweep an area to eliminate enemy forces, in a series of scored challenges complete with leaderboards.

It's not quite all good news. Animations are jumpy, with enemies occasionally shifting three paces to the right, or flicking between crouching and standing positions without grace. Lines of dialogue sometimes repeat, breaking the sense of authenticity that the game works so hard to create.

The vehicle sections aren't Codemasters' best work, and the engine in general, while excellent at huge draw distances, veers between beautiful and scrappy. This lack of polish only slightly detracts from the experience but while there is much less of the roughness that defined Red River's predecessor, it is noticeable nonetheless.

The game is also going to disappoint PC military sim veterans expecting a rival to ArmA II. This is more tactical shooter than true military sim, and the lack of a mission editor or CTI mode, together with the relatively prescribed mission orders, will no doubt grate.

While the AI is certainly improved from Dragon Rising, you'll still need to pay close attention not to direct teammates into dangerous situations as they'll follow orders without question and often pay the ultimate price for it. The removal of tight time limits removes much of the irritation of the first game but even so, players approaching Red River as a tactical shooter couched in an engaging story will get the most from it.

At its best, Red River surpasses Ubisoft's original Ghost Recons for squad-based tactical play. But it's the presentation of the story – not the broad-canvas story, but the story of four marines and their staff sergeant – that marks it out as something new. We still may be some way from the bite and nuance of Generation Kill, but in communicating the camaraderie, banter, fear and glory of modern warfare in the Middle East, nothing can touch this.
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Operation Flashpoint: Red River Review - Xbox 360 - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

i want!! :drool:
 
It's just NOT Operation Flashpoint though.

Sure, the name is there, but that's all. Codies are still riding coat-tails and are trying to re-create the original Bohemia Interactive Studios game of 10 years ago and are, based on the last abomination, failing hard.

The original was truly an open world, play as you please, military simulation with massive replayability value, astronomical modding potential and support and a Game Of The Year winning single player campaign.

If a developer could come up with a console based shooter that delivered an experience even fairly similar to BIS's game then I'd be shoving my cash down their throat.

Unfortunately, I'd be willing to bet my gran that this will just be another un-finished, linear FPS with shiny visuals, clunky controls, terrible AI and a paper-thin plot.

I'll definitely be trying before buying.
 
Brocky In Black said:
It's just NOT Operation Flashpoint though.

Sure, the name is there, but that's all. Codies are still riding coat-tails and are trying to re-create the original Bohemia Interactive Studios game of 10 years ago and are, based on the last abomination, failing hard.

The original was truly an open world, play as you please, military simulation with massive replayability value, astronomical modding potential and support and a Game Of The Year winning single player campaign.

If a developer could come up with a shooter that delivered an experience even fairly similar to BIS's game then I'd be shoving my cash down their throat.

Unfortunately, I'd be willing to bet my gran that this will just be another un-finished, linear FPS with shiny visuals, clunky controls, terrible AI and a paper-thin plot.

I'll definitely be trying before buying.
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I've not played it but isn't Arma 2 meant to be like that?
 
I bought Dragon Rising (along with a bunch of gaming mates) with the hope that it would go on to be a multiplayer staple for us. While the set up was there (32 players, different customisable classes, vehicles) there were no dedicated servers for multiplayer so we got though co op a few times and gave it up.

I'll get this if it drops below $15 on Steam.
 
i changed my mind and decided to get this today, will play it in a bit and see how it goes but what does annoy me is the fact that i really like these kind of games and we have a few now loosely based on the iraq war yet still "6 days in fallujah" comes under heavy criticism and they cant release it! i really want to play that game too! however, this looks good, i enjoyed the last one after i got into it a bit
 
Might try this, first one bored the shit out of me. I came from MOH:AA online, the original CoD's, BF1942 and the Unreal Tournament series so lots of action, I remember the first one being a case of running around online for 10 minutes not seeing anyone and then being sniped and having to start again 5 miles away.
 
Zarlak said:
Might try this, first one bored the shit out of me. I came from MOH:AA online, the original CoD's, BF1942 and the Unreal Tournament series so lots of action, I remember the first one being a case of running around online for 10 minutes not seeing anyone and then being sniped and having to start again 5 miles away.
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yeah that was a problem with the first one, from what i have seen they have kept the realism yet made this one more fun to play than the last one which should make it a good game
 
so far initial impressions are good, the environment is great, feels fantastic to play it. your teams AI seems good and solid, they follow the commands you give no questions asked, if you tell them to go somewhere then they go there nice and easy, it is definitely more fun to play than dragon rising, no magical healing system you need to patch yourself up and apply first aid to heal which i like. its a good start.
 
so have played a few missions and i have to say its a massive improvement on dragon rising, its much more fun to play, i think in the previous title they tried to go for 100% realism but that kinda sucked all of the fun out of it, this game is much better, its much more playable than the last game, looks great, feels good. there is aids to help you if you want them, a system that shows you optimal routes through missions rather than just running around like a lunatic looking for the best route not having a clue where you should really be going. the story line seems to be half decent too, the AI is pretty good imo however for many i think this could be rent before purchase, just to make sure if lives up to the hopes people may have, much much better though, i enjoy it a lot more than dragon rising
 
I love that it's completely co-op, I am going to grab this I think.

Look at a few Youtube videos and the gameplay looks very nice, however one ridiculous thing I noticed is the range on throwing grenades, you seem to be able to throw them the length of a pitch.
 
First impressions, pretty good, graphics aren't near what I expected, much worse than the impressions you get from the gameplay videos. The voice acting isn't very good in some places as I am constantly getting bombarded with 'This is Alpha, we're taking heavy fire.' over and over and over, they could have recorded more phrases and mixed them up a bit, the aimer itself seems to go slowly while scoped and tracking your target and then all of a sudden zip past the guy you want to shoot, and my NPCs sometimes get stuck behind a rock or a tank and stop following and I have to leg it back to unfree them whilst getting shot at otherwise they won't follow me.

Other than that, it's cracking. I love the attitude of the staff sgt, I love the big battles;

I've just had to defend a line and fall back 4 times as the Chinese were invading and overrunning us, now I have to defend Charlie team while they try and fix some humvees because the Chinese keep blowing up our extraction helicopters.

and it keeps sucking me back in for more, with AI it can get a bit boring after a while of hearing the same voice work constantly but I'm betting as soon as PSN comes back up and having 4 people with the mics would be in for some pretty epic missions.
 
Just picked this up for £30 and confirmed that my local trade-in shop will give me £27 for it....so I'll give it a go for a couple of days. Hopefully PSN will be back up soon so I can give MP a bash too.
 
Aaaahhhhh!! Mission 5 is frustratingly awesome!

I have got back to defending the last defensive line, was stuck on the first one a bit, kept getting shot in the head, everytime I was told to fall back to the next line I was relieved a bit I must admit. I have been told this one could become even more frustrating yet! Love unleashing bullets on the waves of PLA though
 
iSparky said:
Aaaahhhhh!! Mission 5 is frustratingly awesome!

I have got back to defending the last defensive line, was stuck on the first one a bit, kept getting shot in the head, everytime I was told to fall back to the next line I was relieved a bit I must admit. I have been told this one could become even more frustrating yet! Love unleashing bullets on the waves of PLA though
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It's a great level that, one of my AI got stuck on something bugged whilst we were falling back to the last line and ended up running on the spot stuck, I didn't realise until I was almost there, I turned around and ran towards him to stop him from dying and I saw all these Chinese guys come running out of the smoke, I unfreed him and started running backwards firing, we just made it! Wait until a bit later in that mission, it's cracking one.
 
iSparky said:
Aaaahhhhh!! Mission 5 is frustratingly awesome!

I have got back to defending the last defensive line, was stuck on the first one a bit, kept getting shot in the head, everytime I was told to fall back to the next line I was relieved a bit I must admit. I have been told this one could become even more frustrating yet! Love unleashing bullets on the waves of PLA though
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I was slightly underwhelmed with the first few missions but this one really impressed me. So much so that I immediately replayed it because i got such a buzz the first time round.

What class and setup you guys using? I only realised you could change your (and your squad-mates') class after three missions playing rifleman. Since then though I've been using the M14DMR. It's such an awesome weapon! It was perfect for the aforementioned skirmish.
 
Brocky In Black said:
I was slightly underwhelmed with the first few missions but this one really impressed me. So much so that I immediately replayed it because i got such a buzz the first time round.

What class and setup you guys using? I only realised you could change your (and your squad-mates') class after three missions playing rifleman. Since then though I've been using the M14DMR. It's such an awesome weapon! It was perfect for the aforementioned skirmish.
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The upgraded sniper, thermal scope, silencer. My team mates, one has a heavy MG but I roll in stealth so I have him on hold fire orders unless I need suppressive fire, the rest have silenced assault rifles and silenced pistols.
 
Zarlak said:
The upgraded sniper, thermal scope, silencer. My team mates, one has a heavy MG but I roll in stealth so I have him on hold fire orders unless I need suppressive fire, the rest have silenced assault rifles and silenced pistols.
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That's my kind of setup. I never thought about giving my squad supressors actually. I may be able to get a bit more action instead of organising medical attention every 30 seconds like that....cheers.

We'll have to get a squad together for a few games once Sony get their arses into gear. I tried out one of the 'Last Stand' engagements last night but they are difficult with an AI squad. Those should be good with 4 players and comms. Just bring plenty of med-packs if Solius joins....:smirk:

Edit:- What do you mean by "The upgraded sniper"? Do you unlock another rifle or do you just mean the original M14DMR with mods?
 
Brocky In Black said:
That's my kind of setup. I never thought about giving my squad supressors actually. I may be able to get a bit more action instead of organising medical attention every 30 seconds like that....cheers.

We'll have to get a squad together for a few games once Sony get their arses into gear. I tried out one of the 'Last Stand' engagements last night but they are difficult with an AI squad. Those should be good with 4 players and comms. Just bring plenty of med-packs if Solius joins....:smirk:

Edit:- What do you mean by "The upgraded sniper"? Do you unlock another rifle or do you just mean the original M14DMR with mods?
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When you go up some levels you can scroll down in your list of primary guns, at the bottom is an upgraded M14DMR with better accuracy and damage.
 
i feel inspired to play this all day today, no need to ask why...
 
I've played the first one for quite a long time... it's boring like hell if you like arcade stuffs like Call of Duty... it's real fight simulation... so beware...
 
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