Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising

[dk3dknight]

http://community.codemasters.com/for...2&postcount=89
The 5 trophies that were missing descriptions have now been identified.

• Unbloodied Hands - Complete a mission without directly killing anyone yourself
• Tide’s Out - Successfully hold the beachhead
• Keep ‘em Rolling - Ensure all of the Abrams reach the supporting fire position in Trumpet's Sound
• Shock and Awe - Call in your first air strike
• Low Blow - Kill an enemy vehicle with an AT mine

Also Tim Browne (Senior Designer on OFP: DR) has revealed concerns over some of the guesses made by the community..

http://community.codemasters.com/for...6&postcount=85

Hi all,
Some great guesses from a lot of you. Helios will be announcing the winners shortly I believe.

There are some I’m a little concerned about

ChocolateRain “Low Blow - X number of groin hits”
DrToker “Keep ‘em Rolling - Push a fat guy down a hill”
Sir. Polaris “Low Blow - Tape C4 to some ones groin - detonate. “
The Hebrew Hammer – “It’s Nothing Serious – Take a round to the head and survive” (Great suggestion)

They did however make me laugh and consider for future achievements

I’d like to thank Helios for organising this competition and to all of you for having a go. Who knows we might do something similar in the weeks to come.

Cheers

Tim

[dk3dknight]

The kotaku preview post has been removed from kotaku's site due to a embargo.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/07/the...-flashpoint-2/

Embargoes eh?


The way they normally work is that we’re told when we get code that coverage can’t be published until a certain future date. When we receive preview code without an embargo date, we tend to publish our write-up immediately.


Thus it came as a surprise to be contacted by Codemasters this morning and informed that there was an embargo on Operation Flashpoint 2. It was the first we’d heard of it.


We’re nice guys though, here at Kotaku. So we’re postponing this preview until August 10, in line with the embargo we were never told about. If you haven’t already read this post, you can check back then.
But if you did read it in the close to 24 hours it’s been up, feel free to continue leaving your comments and questions below. I’ll endeavour to play some more and respond to your queries when this post is updated on August 10.

Thankfully I scoped it up before it got removed so I apologize if linky does not take you to that content.

Thanks

[dk3dknight]

Something Cool I found...

[Wreck]

Thats bad ass!

[gilbertp]

Woah the graphics look amazing, definately a step forward from the original operation flashpoint game, which is to be expected since the game is what now? atleast 6 years old I would guess....The best thing about it was the editor in it, it was fun creating your own missions and generally fooling around with it, hope they have an editor in the new game too.

[dk3dknight]

Originally Posted by gilbertp

Woah the graphics look amazing, definately a step forward from the original operation flashpoint game, which is to be expected since the game is what now? atleast 6 years old I would guess....The best thing about it was the editor in it, it was fun creating your own missions and generally fooling around with it, hope they have an editor in the new game too.

It has been confirmed at this time that the editor will not be available to xbox 360 or ps3 users.

There have been rumors of perhaps a future release of the editor but those seem to be at best speculation.

Im deeply hoping they change there mind on that.

[Wreck]

That would be nice because Volition confirmed there wouldnt be any editor for RFG as its just not feasible this go-round. Well, atleast its not made ... the one they use cant be used in the same function for users.

[DonRSD]

any word on a demo/online beta?

im HOPING we can drive vehicles in this game ala Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

[dk3dknight]

Originally Posted by DonRSD

any word on a demo/online beta?

im HOPING we can drive vehicles in this game ala Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

Okay really we might need to build a FAQ list.. lol

Demo confirmed date not determined
No word on beta.

Yes you can drive vehicles and helicopters.

Most likely it will take 2-3 people to have a fully functional tank.
Driver, Gunner, Commander, the commander having the best view would
sight targets and tell the driver where to go, gunner would move the turret and fire switch round types, while the driver would only need to concern himself of where he is going.. lol

[dk3dknight]

Hardcore video to be made available Monday which is also the day the embargo ends.

Hardcore is the "unassisted" mode.

http://community.codemasters.com/for...73&postcount=1

A small teaser has been uploaded for a taste of what is to come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPTR5gmn9FM

If linky no worky tell me and Ill correct.
Also you can watch the video by following the forum post from helios the community manager that has been posted above.

Cheers.

[dk3dknight]

http://community.codemasters.com/for...d.php?t=371438

Video has now been uploaded to the Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising official Codemasters playlist on Youtube, and should be available to view in HD at the below link once it has finished encoding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKAcjwln7Wk

The video featuring key members of the development team, marks the first in a series of developer videos that are going to take you behind the scenes of the development of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

Can you please try and keep all feedback and comments about the video restricted to this one sticky thread.

SD version embedded below (video still encoding, give it a minute )

Enjoy!

[Antony-Kwok]

Wow, great stuff. Argh two months left!

I want to play this now!

I think I'm going to play all of the campaign with my mates online rather than the AI squad.

[dk3dknight]

Originally Posted by Antony-Kwok

Wow, great stuff. Argh two months left!

I want to play this now!

I think I'm going to play all of the campaign with my mates online rather than the AI squad.

Remember to update the first post. :P
That is usually the first thing people see when they view this thread.

[dk3dknight]

Operation Flashpoint 2 'Blinding the Dragon'
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBxPGRBOxJA

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRD1F5w-dB4

Operation Flashpoint 2 'Take The Beach'
Part1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSd3H...eature=channel

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr-pVhRAUT4

Take note during the take the beach the player abandons his squad mates that were wounded.

[dk3dknight]

Linky

August 10, 2009 - We recently reviewed ArmA 2 for the PC, Bohemia Interactive's follow-up to its intensely realistic battlefield shooter, Operation Flashpoint, so we were especially curious to see what Codemasters, who know owns the OpFlash license, were planning with the game's official sequel, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

Codemasters dropped by the IGN office recently to show off a build and leave us with playable versions for both the PC and the Xbox 360. After spending a week playing through the two missions, it's clear that Codemasters has captured what made the first game so appealing in spite of the formidable obstacles that are common to games in this genre.

If you're getting to the party late, Operation Flashpoint is a hardcore military first-person shooter. It's rooted in realism, from the performance of the various vehicles on the battlefield, to the tactical cohesion of your squads, to the completely unforgiving combat model that can end your dreams of glory with a stray shot to the head. Though there are definite mission objectives, this is a largely unscripted game that puts the player down in the middle of a raging battle and leaves them to succeed or fail based on their own choices.


With realistic ballistics and solid tactics, this is a challenging game.

Though the story is entirely fictional, it's based on a plausible scenario that gives a little added gravity to the game. As the energy crisis escalates, oil is discovered on Skira Island off the coast of Japan. The Russians owned the island but in 2011 the Chinese People's Liberation Army moves in and takes control. The player is part of the US force called in to retake the island from the Chinese. Our build shows off a few of the early encounters in the game's eleven-mission story, just as the US forces are trying to neutralize the island's defenses and secure a beachhead.

The first mission, Dragon Rising, puts the player in charge of a small four-man squad tasked with taking out radar installations and SAM sites on the island. Starting on the coast, you'll have to trek up a large hill, evade enemy fire, and take out the enemy's early detection equipment. Once you knock out the first radar and the SAM site, you're free to call in some fleet support to take out an enemy garrison in a small seaside town. Of course, the enemy is dug in pretty hard, so you'll still need to go in and do some cleaning up yourself before reinforcements come in.

You can try to play it in traditional run-and-gun style, but you won't get very far. To survive on this battlefield, you'll have to play it much more like you'd play Brothers in Arms. Here you'll have to fix your enemy with a genuine threat, using suppressive fire to keep his head down while you or other members of the squad move around to assault them from the flank. It's a simple concept but it plays out in a variety of ways. We've had our flanking element come under fire and had to lay low while our suppressing element moved in on a new flank. We've had the enemy decide to move to a new defensive position that covered the positions of our whole squad, forcing us to retreat and make a new approach.


The world is wide open. How you move through it is up to you.

Making these choices is relatively easy thanks to the straightforward command system. It takes a while to get used to the radial menus (accessed by Q on the keyboard or right bumper on the 360 pad) but once you know what you're looking for, it's no big deal to issue move and fire orders, change the rules of engagement, get soldiers into and out of vehicles, and even call up flank orders. The tricky part is that you'll be using your movement controls to navigate the menu, so you'll have a brief second where your completely paralyzed when issuing orders.

It's a bit tough that you can't issue orders for something you can't see (like telling your soldiers to assault a position on the other side of a hill) but if you want that fine control, you can issue wider-ranging orders on the overhead map.

The other controls are pretty standard for a game of this type. You can switch through various pieces of kit -- from medic kits to binoculars to explosives -- change stances, sprint, hold your breath and so on. The game seems to work particularly well with the game pad, but it doesn't seem as if they've had to compromise the controls at all. It just takes a bit of time to figure out where the most useful commands are. Luckily the first level is a bit of a tutorial and it walks you through the basic controls as you move from encounter to encounter.

Players who are still a bit intimidated by the whole idea can play the game in assisted mode, which shows all your objectives as yellow and gray markers in the world. That way, you'll never be at a loss as to where to go or what to do. Additionally, you'll see red blips on your compass that show you the direction of known enemies. You'll also get handy checkpoint saves so you don't have to start all over again if you get killed. If you're playing in hardcore mode, you don't get any of this stuff. Your only clue that enemies are near will be the clods of dirt that are kicked up once they start shooting at you. And your only direction to your objectives will be the map you pull up during the course of the mission. Fortunately, there's a Normal mode in between those two that offers a nice compromise.


It's always good to have a little backup when things get hot.

All that sounds fun enough but what's got us really excited is the opportunity for full four-player cooperative play through the entire campaign. Having the chance to take on the challenge with three other human players is definitely one of the big selling points here, but even if you're not up to the task of taking on the missions themselves, the game will offer a variety of other multiplayer modes. The Xbox 360 version will be limited to eight players, either in two competing squads of four players each, or two squads of four players each playing cooperatively against six AI squads of PLA soldiers. The PC will open things up a bit with the possibility of 32 player battles.

Of course, one of the main criticisms of the original Operation Flashpoint (and Bohemia's own ArmA franchise) is that there's far too much to model and far too many systems interacting with each other for the seams not to show. Trying to build a game that gives players control of everything from knives to helicopters naturally requires some flexibility. The game's artificial intelligence also has to be able to maintain awareness of a rapidly changing battlefield and their various support roles within each squad. The original Operation Flashpoint and the ArmA games have definitely struggled in those areas. While some of those issues are obviously present in the beta version's we've been playing, Codemasters has made the bold claim that "all AI issues will be fixed" before the game is released in October.

Gamers who'd like to try the game out for themselves can either break into our offices or wait until the game launches on October 6. There are currently no plans for a pre-release demo, but the team at Codemasters is planning to release a multiplayer-only demo on October 26.

The command system is flexible and functional.

[Wreck]

Originally Posted by dk3dknight

http://community.codemasters.com/for...2&postcount=89
The 5 trophies that were missing descriptions have now been identified.

• Unbloodied Hands - Complete a mission without directly killing anyone yourself
• Tide’s Out - Successfully hold the beachhead
• Keep ‘em Rolling - Ensure all of the Abrams reach the supporting fire position in Trumpet's Sound
• Shock and Awe - Call in your first air strike
• Low Blow - Kill an enemy vehicle with an AT mine

Also Tim Browne (Senior Designer on OFP: DR) has revealed concerns over some of the guesses made by the community..

http://community.codemasters.com/for...6&postcount=85

Slightly off topic, on the RFG forums before the game release they had a contest where the winner's trophy became in the game ... the winner was the one where you have to stick a remote on someone in MP and kill them in mid air.

Pretty cool.

btw, good read above. And I checekd out that one video last night and will check these out today. The graphics didnt impress me though on that one ... just so long as they are better then Fuel's

[dk3dknight]

Originally Posted by Wreck

Slightly off topic, on the RFG forums before the game release they had a contest where the winner's trophy became in the game ... the winner was the one where you have to stick a remote on someone in MP and kill them in mid air.

Pretty cool.

btw, good read above. And I checekd out that one video last night and will check these out today. The graphics didnt impress me though on that one ... just so long as they are better then Fuel's

Just remeber the land mass is about 220sqkm aka about 85 sq miles which if im right is about 7,225 miles of landmass, remeber this is a persistent world. And a very large one...

[dk3dknight]

Linky

Here’s a quick rundown of the options you can choose after bringing up the radial menu with the Right Bumper button:

Move
Follow me
Orders—This selection on the first radial menu will open a second one with the following sub-menus: Offense, Defense, Fire and Movement. They break down as so:

Offense: Assault, Flank Left, Flank Right and Halt.
Defense: Follow Me, Fall Back, Defend and Halt.
Fire: Suppress, Engage and Hold Fire.
Movement: Move, Move Fast, Halt and Exit.

Tactical—The other main selection on the main rotary command menu covers ROE (Rules of Engagement), Spread, Formations and Medic.

ROE: Fire at Will, Fire on My Lead, Return Fire and Hold Fire.
Spread: Tight Spread, Normal Spread and Combat Spread.
Formation: Wedge, Column, Line and Vee.

The article makes notice there are also context sensitive orders such as assault building...

[dk3dknight]

Linky

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising
Submitted on: 11 August, 2009

Last Friday I headed into London after Codemasters invited Console Monster to check out two of their biggest titles that are due out at the end of the year. Personally I was quite excited, as Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising was one of the titles being showcased and it’s been on my game radar for a few months.

After a brief presentation of the game we got a short hands-on with the co-op. Sadly this was very limited for everyone as there were more people than units to play on, I did wriggle myself in and also watched a lot of people to get a general idea.

The market is already saturated with modern day FPS titles, so what makes OFR so special? Well, how about the 220 sq km of open terrain, that takes over 9 hours on foot to cross? Or maybe a real-time day and night cycle, as well as a weather system, and a large variety of vehicles that might tickle your fancy. Hailed as the biggest military toy box ever seen in a console FPS, Operation Flashpoint 2 certainly does offer something amazing for the more tactical gamer.

I never played the original Operation Flashpoint, and from the looks of a rather dedicated following still online today, I am quite envious. OPR is a sequel to the critically acclaimed PC title OF: Cold War Crisis, which was well received by media and its community. In fact the game provided such a rich and realistic military experience, it was later adapted for combat training for a number of defence forces under the name VBS1.

Visually, the game impresses, especially on the console where the map's sheer size did not hinder gameplay performance. Character and weapon models are top notch and climbing up to a high area can even display the whole span of the island, which is some pretty impressive draw distance. Lighting in particular was spectacular, and a personal highlight was being shown some night-time footage, the whole mood turns blue and the atmosphere really changed.

The sniper rifle attached with a thermal scope at night just looked so real and I was honestly jealous watching the developer play as he checked out the surroundings with it equipped. The attention to detail was something that really got me, from your AI team whispering at night and shouting during heated battles, to reload times depending on the weapon you are using.

We had a demo of a night-time mission in hardcore mode from the developers. Hardcore mode is obviously the hardest difficulty in the game, but instead of notching up damage taken or given from enemy AI, it just removes the HUD. This means that simple indications about how much ammo you have left or the health of your squad is completely removed and you must keep yourself informed. Enemy locations spotted by your AI team mates will only be announced vocally, so it’s vital that you really concentrate and rely on your team wither its AI or human.

You can even play the game relying entirely on your AI team and not even engaging the enemy yourself. Bringing up a menu allows you to choose from a whole range of plays, such as flanking the enemy, storming a building or even moving around in a ‘vee’ formation. Opening the map and selecting located enemy targets allows you to concentrate fire onto particular groups of enemies, making sure you are in control at all times.

Unlike Call of Duty, or even Rainbow Six, OPR requires such a high degree of team work that I have never really experience before. Sure clan gamers could argue that tactics play a vital role in their play for those titles, but the single player doesn’t really require you to think or even care about your squad, watching them drop like helpless flies. This means the up to four player online co-op in OPR should be played with friends who are willing to dedicate time to some slow-paced and arduous missions; this is one title that is going to frustrate the hell out of you but feel so rewarding when the work is done.

It’s a shame our team of distracted journalists couldn’t hold a squad together, which really proves how difficult it is without the right concentration, or even leadership. It was a shame us jurnos couldn't hold it together, as I was looking forward to trying out the many modes of transport in the game.

It was brief but I really enjoyed my time with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. If you are looking for a slow paced, rewarding and hardcore FPS experience then take notice. This game, to be released 9th of October, is certainly one that will hold a dedicated following, and hopefully impress the already interested crowd.

Written by Lauren Wainwright
Content Monster

[dk3dknight]

Linky

Posted on 12/08/2009 by Darryl
Gaming Union was fortunate enough to attend an event hosted by Codemasters, where they were showing off the latest build of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. After watching a demonstration in a movie theatre, the opportunity arose to check out the game with some good hands-on time.

For those who aren't aware, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is the sequel to Operation Flashpoint, which was released way back in 2001 for the Xbox and PC. It is a first-person shooter (FPS) which has a largely tactical focus, and this is what separates it from the other military FPS titles out there. Gameplay isn't just a case of running through levels like Rambo, as the opposition will just mow everyone down. Instead, tactics must be used effectively to control the 4-man team. However, it's worth stressing that there is no "correct" way to complete a mission.

The game features an exceedingly large terrain, and it's possible to walk all around. It might take a while though, as it's all scaled accurately. Great strives have been taken to make the landscape as realistic as possible, and the draw distance is very impressive. There is also a fully operational time-cycle in place, so it's possible to see the sun setting during the middle of missions.

The level of depth may seem intimidating for novice players of the game, with there being over 60 different weapons, and an array of military tactics. This has been countered by offering players three difficulty levels. The "assisted" difficulty has a full user interface available and plentiful checkpoints, whereas "hardcore" is recommended for those that want a truly immersive experience. Checkpoints are taken away, and there is a very minimal user interface; to achieve success on hardcore will require a lot of patience and strategy.

During our play session, we had the opportunity to check out the co-operative gameplay. This allows four friends to undertake the same missions, as part of the same team. This can be done either online, or via system link and voice chat is definitely recommended. Team work is not essential for success, obviously, but it's definitely recommended. When things start to get tough, it's reassuring to know there are some buddies watching your back.

The campaign itself focuses on a conflict between the three major powers in military: the USA, Russia and China. The US forces are fighting against the Chinese military, in order to free a Russian island that's been taken over by PLAs. IT all sounds a bit confusing, but there are 11 missions which will hope to explain the situation. There will also be a lot of variety in the missions, with them taking place all over the island, and during different times of day. There will also be a certain amount of vehicular-based combat, just to keep things fresh.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is going to try and take the FPS genre by storm when it's released on the 9th of October, 2009 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Based on what we saw, it will definitely offer a cerebral experience and looks like it's definitely one to keep on the radar.