Armed Assault and OFP2 preview

[retsudo]

PC Gamer's Keiron Gillen has written a short preview (http://operationflashpoint.filefront.com/news/Bohemia_Interactives_Sequals_PC_Gamers_First_Look; 19992) of Armed Assault, and some new information on Operation Flashpoint 2. (Which is sounding like one of the most ambitious games ever.)Bohemia's battleplans aren't simple. They're positively complicated. They're working on two Flashpoint sequals, for a start. The first pressing on the boundaries of the original, critically-acclaimed Operation Flashpoint. The second game, as the [magazine pages] hint, pressing on boundaries full stop.

Operation Flashpoint was a tactical shooter like no other. Set during a hypothetical Soviet invasion of the West, its vast scale made you feel like a small cog caught in the wheel of a very large war. The lulls between engagements felt genuinely melancholic and the action was a rare blend of excitement and fear. We've longed for a sequel ever since.The rest of the text is well worth the read.

Info originally from Filefront (http://operationflashpoint.filefront.com/).

[Hizawky]

CONSIDER MY PANTS SOILED.

WHAT THE FUCK? WELCOME TO THE FUTURE.

'In fact, you'll be given missions that are generated by the circumstances you find yourself in. If the movement of troops means a group has been ambushed in your locale, your commanders may order you to take a look. Incredibly, even this technology isn't centred on you, but simply on following the logic of the situation. You're the nearest soldier? You go and see. A computer-controlled patrol is nearer? They get the order.'

[snubber]

F'IN SWEET!

I'm incredibly excited by this news. OFP was one of my favorite games of all time, especially if you count the number of hours spent on it. It just captured the feeling of a combat better than most other games, especially arcade-y FPS games. For one, I thought the Xbox game was cancelled, so I'm glad to hear it's still coming out. Sure, by then 360 will be right around the corner, but a good game is a good game, and it's cool to hear there are lots of news features (forests with individual trees, inland lakes, etc). Now THIS should be a fun Live game.

And the news about OFP2 is VERY exciting. The more open-ended the game, the better. I love dynamically created missions, AI making intelligent decisions based on changing information, etc...anything that makes the world feel more alive. In fact, that's one of the reasons I loved OFP...my friends and I would co-op the same missions over and over, and because of the good AI, we'd see different things every time, often being completely surprised ("where the hell did that BMP come from?!").

This group has shown that the can make a good war game with great AI, etc, so I have high hopes for this one. Yeah, I hope they make OFP2 with all the graphical power nextgen will offer, but I'm glad to see focus is great gameplay and creating something a bit different.

[snubber]

Dug up some more news. Apparently Bohemia Interactive (developers, company started by two brothers who remain quite loyal to the OFP community) severed ties with their former publisher, Codemasters. Codemasters owned the name Operation Flashpoint, which is why OFP for Xbox is now names "Armed Assault" and OFP2 will also be called something different.

armed assault screenies:
http://www.armedassault.com/

ofp2 screenies:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/operationflashpoint2/screenindex.html

The OFP2 engine is looking good, although these are obviously early, and the player models are dopey looking....I'm sure they'll get better looking in time, and again, the gameplay sounds so promising, a lot can be forgiving in the gfx department.

[TacRod]

Excellent. I would settle for OFP 1 graphics with the stated gameplay. When I upgraded last month, the first game I installed was OFP. I hope that existing OFP mods/missions are easily ported to Armed Assault.

[Eon]

Very excited by the idea of this game. Can't wait to see a demo.

[retsudo]

Dug up some more news. Apparently Bohemia Interactive (developers, company started by two brothers who remain quite loyal to the OFP community) severed ties with their former publisher, Codemasters. Codemasters owned the name Operation Flashpoint, which is why OFP for Xbox is now names "Armed Assault" and OFP2 will also be called something different.

armed assault screenies:
http://www.armedassault.com/

ofp2 screenies:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/operationflashpoint2/screenindex.html

The OFP2 engine is looking good, although these are obviously early, and the player models are dopey looking....I'm sure they'll get better looking in time, and again, the gameplay sounds so promising, a lot can be forgiving in the gfx department.

Slightly wrong: the XBox version of OFP is called Operation Flashpoint: somehting or other ( I don't know or care past that, because I don't feel a console can work with an OFP style game.) Armed Assault is sort of an expansion pack for OFP with the VBS (military Training tool) stuff and more in, due to be released this autumn. For PC.