Preview
Codemasters Goes For Shock And Awe-Yeah With Operation Flashpoint 2
July 18, 2008
Andrew Wafer, brand manager at Codemasters, and Clive Lindop, lead AI designer, were on hand at E3 to demo their new tactical shooter Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising at E3. One of Lindop’s comments sum up the experience of watching the trailer, “We wanted to portray warfare from the ground up and capture the sheer scale of modern ordinance.” In other words, you’re going to blow shit up. Wafer showed off models of vehicles before and after a missile strike to demonstrate the progressive deformation of objects. Also, when a vehicle goes down it won’t simply disappear. “When you blow stuff up,” said Wafer, “It stays blown up.”
The developers are doing their best to deliver the shock and awe-fuck-yeah within the constraints of real-world authenticity. Codemasters is throwing in more than 70 weapons used by the Marines from SAM-R sniper rifles to shoulder mounted FGM-148 Javelin missile system. According to Wafer, each weapon mimics the ballistics of its real-world counterpart. Gamers will have to operate the weapons like actual soldiers, “There’s no magic pocket,” said Lindop, “If you want to fire the Javelin you will have to follow the same procedure any soldier employs to operate a particular weapon.” Codemasters gave the same treatment to the 50 vehicles in the game. “You have no idea how hard it is to accurately reproduce the cockpit instrumentation on a Chinese helicopter.”
Gamers will have the ability to control squads and issue tactical orders but Lindop stated that you can simply play through the game without taking command as the AI is smart enough to push the NPCs in the right direction and adopt the proper tactics for any situation. Wafer mentioned 32 man multiplayer matches with each man commanding squads of NPCs. When you throw that many troops on a 220-square kilometer island, things are going to get messy.
If you want some backstory, Russia calls on America for help when ultra left-wing communist Chinese invaders take over Skira, a small island situated off the coast of Japan. Wafer contended that it’s a real spot but I can’t find it on any map. Anyhow, America sends in the marines and thus gives you a reason to start lobbing grenades.
Codemasters delivered one hell of a trailer and talked about a lot of amazing features in Flashpoint at E3. Now all they have to do is live up to their own hype. If they come close they’ll have a game of the year candidate on their hands. Check the trailer below.
