Duck and Cover

I played the demo for Area 51, and I thought it was rather...average. The demo didn't include multiplayer though, and that aspect sounds pretty cool. If you play a large map with a small number of people, I guess the map shrinks down somehow to make it more suitable.

I've read a couple reviews for it, and they range from mediocre to very good.

I've witnessed an Area 51 demo. It was crazy: dual assault rifles on full auto and alien mutants jumping around all over the place. It's a very pretty game. However, my friend who was playing said that he played another demo of the same game that was boring and ungood, thus neutralizing the spectacle of the first.

The TS series is the only console FPS short of Goldeneye that I truly enjoy playing.

Halo is balls. Anything that plays like Quake/Unreal is automatically shite in my opinion, and anything that plays like Quake/Unreal and is on a console is a complete truckload of rotting bollocks.

Timesplitters 3 is suppose to be cool, it has co-op mode like Halo does and probably just as many multiplayer type things.

TS2 had co-op as well. I think TS1 did too. The timesplitters series predates Halo. TS2 I believe was not produced by EA, and TS3 is pretty much just like TS2 only better. I saw no taint of idiocy that's usually the hallmark of EA games. In my opinion, the greatest TS2 co-op was the first mission. It had atmosphere, action, stealth oriented gameplay. Operating the turret gun in the control room while the other guy goes into the room full of zombies was a good example of how they designed the missions with co-op in mind.

FPS games only work halfway decently on console because they make up for the shitty aim of the gamepad by giving you autoaim.

Too true, but I always forced people who played Goldeneye with me to not use autoaim on pain of being ridiculed and having "OH SHIT I HEAR THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!!!111!1111oneone" screamed in their ear whilst playing.

Yeah, I wouldn't like you to scream OH SHIT I HEAR THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!!!111!1111oneone at me, Burnov, it would be dramatic. You're so sexy.

Timesplitters 1 was totally gay.

The bad guys were ugly, it reminds me of Daikatana.

Ban the console fps genre, thats what they should do. But no, oh no.

And hey, Burnov, any thoughts about x-box ofp?

OFP for the Xbox? Can't say I'm terribly excited about the idea, it's taking development time from the anticipated OFP 2 (now known as GAME 2 since codpiecemasters holds the right to the name OPERATION FLASHPOINT, and they've gone their separate ways now. Basically it's BIS trying to make some dough. I can't begrudge them that. They deserve all the money they've made from the OFP series and then some.

I would think slightly more of OFP for the Xbox if they made it compatible out of the box (or dvd case as the case may be) with mouse+keyboard support. Furthermore along with absolutely no built in hosting restrictions to prevent mouse+keyboard players from challenging others on Xbox live.

... You know. Just to kick the true console FPS'ers down a notch or two. That would make me happy enough because I can see it now...


Homo: "fuk man stop using teh mous liek a OH SHIT I HEAR THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!!!111!1111oneone nub"

M+K guy: "Stop your bitching and take your slow, inaccurate gamepad reflexes and go play halo 2, bitch."

Seriously though, to an extent I fear OFP (the true BIS ofp series, not this Codemasters OFP garbage) making it into the mainstream, may adulterate the game by influence of a larger and more idiotic market than the niche market it fills right now.

As an aside. OFP 2 is going to fucking rock. Read the internet previews, one of the best features that I can think of off the top of my head is the ability to dynamically destroy structures. Similar to the method used in Soldner, only less gay and more detailed. Apparently you can blow apart walls and even collapse portions of buildings to reveal enemies within, assuming they're still alive. Which is just awesome. I predict true advancements in the area of ballistics and damage effects on players as well, given that little tidbit of info. Which is great.

OFP2 is the only game I will even consider buying a new PC for. Assuming it's half as good as the previews from E3 say it is.

Optimizing/coding ofp for x-box v.s Releasing another expansion? Or bugbreaking the original ofp? I'd pay them x2 times the x-box shit cost for that one.

Yeah, well. Those are two things that are never going to happen anyhow. Me buying an Xbox, or a game company actually updating a four year old game and fixing bugs after they've already made all the money they can on it.

I'm just a cynical sadistic cunt when it comes to seeing certain types of people get theirs. I'd never play OFP for xbox, but if by some means the typical xboxers who think they're elite because they play ghost recon with a controller get the almighty shit pounded out of them by some guy with a mouse and keyboard in OFP. I'd be happy.

They pretty much downgraded ofp to fit it on the xbox, from what I've seen. They also added queer radio voices, so thats really wooo for you fags out there. A couple of review sites also complained about aiming when you sidestep, which was fun.

So I'm thinking; the x-box thing can't be anything but a loss of money for them, why not make something where you'd actually get some money, like re-release res, licensing / coding a physics engine, releasing their pro editing tools for a buck, or something along those lines? "No hey, I've got a better idea. We'll release ofp for gameboy advance!"

Wrong market, wrong platform, wrong line of thought.

A couple of review sites also complained about aiming when you sidestep,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Fags.

That's what I'm talking about.

You're totally right. Wrong market. Period.

You can't market a game like that to attention deficit cockwrestlers.

To be honest. You might be right. A re-release would probably be more lucrative. I'd pay money for a re-release for sure. The time spent developing for the xbox may not pay off in the end.

Well, this is surprising. I only recently got wind of this information.

This is why BIS is one of the best game developers out there.

And now Armed Assault is due in autumn. Think of it as Flashpoint 1.5. It includes all the missions from the original, plus expansion pack Resistance, plus the technological advancements from the Xbox version and Bohemia's VBS1 military sim. It features a new campaign, a new boot-camp and their next-generation graphics engine.

So. They're smart enough to attempt a re-release after all.

But wait. There's more.

Technologically, the game has improved hugely. While most complain about games hampered by Xbox co-development, Bohemia have discovered that optimising their code for Mr Gates' ageing console has caused them to craft a game that hits PC hardware like a depleted uranium shell. An obvious bonus is the increased draw distance. Flashpoint played across realistically huge single-world maps; so the further you can see, the better it is. 2km of viewable terrain is Bohemia's current aim, thought they're simply planning on pushing it as far as the system will go. Sitting at the top of a hill, able to see the military ants of the opposition inch around a village while you play your approach, is an example of how the new technology rejuvinates Flashpoint.


Similarly, old limitations have been removed. Flashpoint was famous for its horrific collision detection inside buildings; but no more. Forests were originally created as single map objects, meaning they were strictly limited in terms of how you could interact. Now, they're made out of individual trees, which can be knocked down when you get in a suitably armoured vehicle. The improved engine means that Bohemia can also increase the density of the foliage, resulting in some surprisingly thick forests. They can also be integrated with buildings, so that you can have a cottage in the middle of the woods. Inland lakes are another welcome addition to the world, and hills now cast shadows.

I'm definitely looking forward to GAME 2 and Armed Assault (the re-release of OFP).

Caught the article at: http://ofp.gamezone.cz/forum/index.php?showtopic=21431

Me also. Hope they optimize it this time around.

Well. They are. That's the whole point of quoting portions of the article that illustrate that they are basically remaking it so it will take advantage of newer technology, since the old OFP really didn't get much improvement beyond memory and raw processing power.

By optimization if you mean they'll make it run on a 486...

Well. No. If anything they're trying to get the game to run as well as they can on the absolute best pc gaming hardware available currently, it seems. Which is fine by me. Neither of my two computers are even going to touch Armed Assault. I'm going to have to buy a brand new PC to enjoy it. I know that, and I expect it.

What chapps my ass is when two-bit addon community homos try to increase the system requirements of an existing game, even though the only thing one is accomplishing is lowering the overall capability of the game in favor of fancy high poly graphics, being as that you get very little from an engine that isn't optimized for modern hardware. Which kind of defeats the purpose, unless one is a shallow twit.

I like both PC and console FPS games. They are both fun for me.