Two years on, how have your feeling evolved?

[EBass 0]

It seems but an instant ago when I first laid eyes on this game. Codemasters had sent me a promotional booklet showing me all their up and coming releases, me of course being a dedicated TOCA fan. I flipped through and the one that gave me most to pause about was a game I had not heard of before, Operation Flashpoint. It looked pretty sweet, but I reasoned the nearest thing to this was Delta Force and that really wasent great. They cant possibly take the leap they are claiming, it'll be good but overambitious and nothing special.

About 3 Months later I was suprised to see a demo of the game on a PC gamer coverdisk. Looking at the screenshots, I wondered how my 600 would ever be able to run this game even though it claimed a 400 would do it. I installed it and never looked back. Nearly 2 years, 2 addon packs and 2 million addons later I was wondering how have all the old die hards opinions of this game evolved and what u do for enjoyment nowerdays. OFP Is the ONLY game (apart from Half life , In DoD form) that still holds my attention after 2 years of CONTINOUS play. OFP holds the record for the longest period of install on my PC.

Personally when I got the game I loved only the infantry sections and HATED tank air spec ops etc. Now though I begin to appreciate the beauty of how they were done. I still see OFP as an infantry game and would hate it to become vehcile emphasised but I see the occasional mission as a treat rather than a hinderance. Nothing quite like your armoured column all pointing their guns at a far ridge and annihilating it or popping up from behind a forest in a HIND to hover above a tank and wipe it from existance. I enjoy the thrill of small firefights and well placed scripting far more than the huge battles I used to create. An old mission of mine would be a huge battle with some cutscenes thrown in. Now I prefer them to be "short and sweet" Say a spec ops team coming in on a blackhawk at 5 feet with stingers zipping past and landing On top of their base to take it from above or something similar.

I also will ask EVERYONE to play both resistance and 1985 through again using only first person view and no accelerate time. It really does make the experiance MUCH BETTER and also if u play 1985 after a long abscene and some mission editing urself u really appriciate how much work has gone into it.

[Franz_Schall -SWAF- 0]

Yeah, as you said </span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">OFP Is the ONLY game (apart from Half life , In DoD form) that still holds my attention after 2 years of CONTINOUS play. OFP holds the record for the longest period of install on my PC.<span id='postcolor'>

For me personaly, since I have first seen a movie about OFP in a german games magazine - I had to buy this game. The amazing freedom of doing all things as you like, ties my mind even two years after its realease.

As soon as I walked through the Singleplayer campaign and began to load custom mission and addons there came the only anticlimax during that period - the multiplayer part. I swered that I won't play that game online till Resistance hit the store shelves which would introduce an easy to use ingame serverbrowser.

Since these warm days in August 2002 - I play this game actively in my Squad, and haven't seen a game yet which could top it.

[hovmand 0]

Damn has it been that long? Seems like yesterday. I cant even remember how i first heard about it, but i managed to download the demo the first day it came out. And together with halflife (also in DOD form ) it has never left my hardrive. To me it has evolved from beyond being a mere game, to something that has become a big part of my (nonexistent) life.

And i´ve gotten hooked on OFP news, im gonna have to take a cold turkey when i leave for the army this august, the only major gripe (is that a word?) i have about leaving is leaving OFP behind  

It will be like loosing a dear friend the day OFP is not with me anymore.

EDIT: I need to get out more

[Mister Frag 0]

I waited for OFP to be released in the US for more than a year, from the day I first read about it online. I saw screenshots from the game in progress, some MPEGs and eventually some Shakycam video of a press demo being played.

I preordered the game from a Canadian company that was importing the game from Europe, since the US release date was months behind the EU/ROW release date because of improvements to the MP code that were expected to be required for the fairly common broadband users here.

I had OFP two days after it was released in Europe, and quite a long time before it showed up on the shelves here. I hassled a couple of my friends that I used to play tactical shooters with, and hyped it up to them more than Codemasters ever could have. Once we all had the game, we stopped playing all the other games altogether, and OFP is the only game on my system at this point.

When Resistance was announced, I made frequent trips to the mall to see if it would show up as promised by the staff at the stores, and the dates kept getting pushed back. I finally met RalphWiggum on one of those trips.

I play OFP almost every day, and will continue to do so until I get bored (not likely) or OFP2 comes along.

[deathguy 0]

it was about in february 2001 that I first hear of the game, I saw a couple of screenshots and read the features and I was like, this is a dream come true!

so in august 2001 I had started a french site (one of the few, that is now down cause of lack of money) and I never stop waiting for new uptades on the game

when the demo got out, I download it right away and waited for the game to get out in Canada

finally I have been able to buy it on the 11 sept. 2001 (ya, the day when the terrorist attacks on New York happenbed), I was pretty lucky to be able to get it, just before the store close

I had just buy my PC, so it was the totally first game to get install on it

when Resistance got out, I have not waited long to get it and i'm still playing it today

it's the only game I have play so long and now i'm waiting for OFP 2 that will be the only game that will get me off of Resistance

[booradley60 0]

I know this thread is for vets and hardcore OFP gamers but I decided to post anyway, and see who all may laugh at my lack of expertise even though I've had the game since October 2001. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means. I found out this game by mere chance. I was browsing through the mall and finally found a game retailer and decided to browse to see if anything caught my eye. Our house had burned down and insurance paid for a new (faster) computer. I figured a game or two might be a good escape from the nothingness of my life. I saw the game on the shelf (games that have guys pointing M16s at my face on the cover usually catch my eye) and I decided to give it a look. Not the most graphically capable game I had ever seen, but I figured 'What the hell? I've never played a decent real-world military-based game." (Plus I had just finished 'Red Storm Rising' by Tom Clancy.) I played it once and now I'm hooked. I'm absolutely terrible at this game but I love it anyway. I'm very optimistic that OFP:2 will blow me away with all the little things that make games great.

[blackdog~ 0]

My friend had a copy of it and the first screenshot I saw I was like "Oh, that looks nice" so I just continued on my merry way until a week later I went to the computer store, saw it on the shelf, and I said "Oh what the hell, I'll get it" so I got it. Simple story. I am SOOOO glad I didn't know about it before it was released in the US, otherwise I would've gone insane. (Which I have, thanks to resistance and now, ofp2)

[Koolkid101 0]

When I first got it everything seemed soo weird to me, I played DF2 for such a long time I had to reajust, and then it took me 5 months to discover addons, now I can't even remember how to play DF2 the controls seem so weird!

[ale2999 0]

Ya it totally feels like yesterday, I heard of ofp in the message board of F22 Total Air War as every1 was screaming about the demo of ofp when it came out. I was like what is this unknown and they guided me here where I got the demo. Had to go dl the demo at a buddy house as then I didnt have broadband. I was in love, I was totally blow away, I waited all my life to play a game like this. then september came and ofp was due in canada, tried to hype it up to my rich friend who bought it the day it came out here, and found it dreadfull so I bought of him that same day. been a happy kid till now. now I am overjoyed with all this goodies of addons comin out to make me drool. I played every big game out in the last years and the only one installed is OFP and expansions. God bless Bis, modmakers and all of us

[dave8 0]

i heard about flashpoint wayy back then... back before the Veterans were forming up... back when flashpoint was a designated a WWIII game where you first play as a sniper, then you fly a A10.... Back when flashpoint was called: Flashpoint Status Quo... Back when flashpoint underwent some major website changes.... Back when www.coldwarflashpoint.com was at www.suppresivefire.com/coldwar (or something like that)...

You ask: "Two years on, how have your feelings evolved?" Well,the first time I saw flashpoint was on a PCgamer article. I think it was like the September edition, but i forgot what year it was. They didn't seem to care about it since it was only... what... 3-4 paragraphs long? With only a tiny picture of a dude with a sniper rifle, in the desert, and a battleship right behind him. I thought: wow, this could be a pretty cool game. A year+ later, i download the demo and I was freaking suprised and confused once that first bullet flys by, then that BMP starts heading towards your town. When i actually got the game, it was great. It ran perfectly smooth and barely any bugs were encountered (unlike other reports from other people). Now it's 2003. I can't possibly play flashpoint without BAS's Addons, the Chain of Command System, Oxygen, Wrpedit, or any of the missions i have made. I think this community really has changed since the beginning. Back then, skinning a gun was special. Now it's nothing. Back then, making a mission for the Demo was considered PRO. Now it's nothing. Back then, people who have even heard of flashpoint were rare. We stuck with each other, never fired a bad comment to one another. We backed each other up... Now fights are constant. etc.. etc.. The past two years i have never deleted flashpoint from my computer... once... Great Job BIS (hopefully you guys recieved my m60 pic from AndOne)... i hope flashpoint 2 will be as great of a memory as the 1st one.

[Guest Hitman[SWAF]]

Got the game when it came out and played the SP trough 4 times before moved to MP. Played about a week MP before I joined this squad. And from that on, I have been here.

Yes, OFP is old but with all these addons, it doesnt feel that old. Now just waiting for OFP2

[Antichrist 0]

Still the best game for me ever!! Keeps getting better and better!

[JAP 2]

I first read about OFP i think almost 1 year before the demo.

It was a little "news" item with a few screenshots in PC Gamer UK. ( i love that magazine btw.  As PC Gamer US sucks )

Waited for the game ever since, got demo, CWC, Gold, Resistance.

I dont play ofp every day anymore, but since the average lifespan of a game for me is about 2 weeks ofp sure has to be my favorite game of all time for me.

I still play about 2-3 times a week.

Being a gamer of the first hour - started gaming on ZX-81 then commodore 64, Amiga, 386, etc .... - in all my gaming years, i never had a game this fun, deep and well supported as Flashpoint.

Cheers.

/edit

Woow, i made a complete post without any smilie ....

.......

D'oh

[Antichrist 0]

I still play OFP every single day! My OFP folder is 3.5 Gb with all the addons, missions and additional material.

I bet that by the end of this year it is going to be as big as 10 Gb!

[john_mcclane 0]

A friend sent me a link to some screenshots when it was being called Status Quo. It seems like that was nearly a year before it was released in Europe. From then on, I was hooked and craved more info and updates about the expected release. I had never looked forward to any game as much as Flashpoint.

Ever since I played games like Airborne Ranger by Microprose on my screaming 8MHz 286, and then later, Seal Team on my "technologically advanced" 486 25MHz, this was the type game I dreamed that someone would create.

I remember hanging out in Flashpoint chat rooms trying to get the latest info on the demo release the night it was rumored to be coming out. When it finally came out, it was everything I had hoped for, and more. (Having to wait while downloading the demo over dial-up was just torture. lol)

Then I got my hands on an imported European version (Still love that clear DVD case). Playing through the 1985 campaign the first time was just an amazing gaming experience. As was Red Hammer, and Resistance.

So now, nearly 2 years later...

I check out the forums and addon/news sites daily. I'm constantly amazed by the excellent quality addons that are coming out. The BAS MH-47E is simply amazing. The high res sky pack was a very surprising little addon as well!

I'm not at all tired of OFP. I play the game every chance I can get. It's second to none in my book.

[quicksand 0]

OF...this is the game that changed everything for me and I still think that it has nice&original graphics....I first read a preview on my LEVEL magazine,I`m not very good with dates but it was a looong time ago...What got my attention was the "all in one game", idea...And I loved the huge islands....

The demo tooked by breath away...I was very impressed by the graphics,and the sound and when I finally got the full version it changed me forever..I loved the freedom and that you could make decisions that would actually affect the gameplay...Everytime one of my camarades died I restarted the mission...I felt that they were real persons and I coudn`t bare seeing them die....One of my favourite thing to do after I finished the campaign was to fire up the editor and put me in a jeep and just wonder arround geting lost and remembering great battles through the locations....Another thing that I liked in OF was the story...Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six are just not my type...I like to get into the character not to have just a damn briefing and nothing more..

Resistance was great also because it brought me to playing multiplayer..

I always liked that when playing on MP I usually get to play with serious persons on almost every server and not with team-killers type of bratz...

Of course now after so much time the thing that still keeps me going on playing the game are the addons...

[ZFGokuSSJ1 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (quicKsanD @ April 24 2003,15:10)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">OF...this is the game that changed everything for me and I still think that it has nice&original graphics....I first read a preview on my LEVEL magazine,I`m not very good with dates but it was a looong time ago...What got my attention was the "all in one game", idea...And I loved the huge islands....

The demo tooked by breath away...I was very impressed by the graphics,and the sound and when I finally got the full version it changed me forever..I loved the freedom and that you could make  decisions that would actually affect the gameplay...Everytime one of my camarades died I restarted the mission...I felt that they were real persons and I coudn`t bare seeing them die....One of my favourite thing to do after I finished the campaign was to fire up the editor and put me in a jeep and just wonder arround geting lost and remembering great battles through the locations....Another thing that I liked in OF was the story...Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six are just not my type...I like to get into the character not to have just a damn briefing and nothing more..

Resistance was great also because it brought me to playing multiplayer..

I always liked that when playing on MP I usually get to play with serious persons on almost every server and not with team-killers type of bratz...

Of course now after so much time the thing that still keeps me going on playing the game are the addons...<span id='postcolor'>

I did the same, Quicksand! Whenever one of my guys died in the squad I restarted. I got into the game seriously, I tried to make each scenario perfect; not being killed or injuries!

[toadlife 3]

Don't remember how I found out about OFP. I had heard inklings of it back when it was called status quo, but forgot about it.

Back in 1998 I got Hidden and Dangerous, and played it non-stop for ages. Hidden and Dangerous was by far my favorite game, but due to the bugs, crappy control interface and limitations, it only achieved a 'cult' following (I was in that cult).

After I finished Hidden and Dangerous, and the expansion to Hidden and Dangerous, I was searching for a replacement, but nothing at the time came close to what I wanted in a game. Hidden and Dangerous 2 was being delayed, delayed, delayed for ages (it's STILL not out), so one day I got word of the Operation Flashpoint Demo, and downloaded it.

Just the demo of OFP was 100 times better than hidden and dangerous.

The rest is history. I has the UK version imported a few days after it's release, and have never looked back.

What has surprised me is the scalability of OFP's graphics - I think the imperfect, but still amazing physics model of the game help this out.

With Resistance, and antialiasing / anthroscopic filtering turned up to 2x on my lowly Geforce3, OFP's graphics continue to please me to this day.

edit: fixed my horrid spelling errors

[hovmand 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (toadlife @ April 25 2003,01:26)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">With Resistance, and antialiasing/anthroscopic filtering turned up to 2x on my lowly Geforce3, OFP's graphics continue to please me to this day.<span id='postcolor'>

Yes me too!! Its some of the most realistisk graphics i have seen in any game so far.

Unfortunately alot of people cant see this and want Unreal2/BF1942 like graphics in every game, which to me look like a cartoon.

[EBass 0]

Its always puzzled me how people can call OFPs graphics horrible. But LOADS do. For me its one of the nicest graphical games ever. Sure if you get up close it doesent have UT2k3s

nice curves and shines on the models but stand on a hill or skim over any island in a helicopter and its beautiful. Each bush tree etc is individually modeled and even when u get up close, right into it it still looks ok. The vehicles and character models are amazingly detailed, seeing the creases in their kit.

I love it.

[Franz_Schall -SWAF- 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Its always puzzled me how people can call OFPs graphics horrible. But LOADS do.<span id='postcolor'>

I think a lot of people who think like that judge by what they see most of the time in OFP - trees, bushes, player animations, buildings and ground textures; and I have to admit that especially the bushes and trees looking weired and not very realistic.

These major critics gone away for me with Resistance where they improved all of my former mentioned points.

One thing where OFP has its unique advantage are the vehicles and their textures (in Resistance even all other textures on streets, buildings etc.) - I haven't found a game yet which got that nice and realistic looking "feeling".

[PitViper 0]

I like OFP's graphics because everything feels "grimy" or "dirty" similar to the way it is when out in field (while I was in the army).  Anyone else understand what I'm getting at?

[freddern 0]

What interested me was the nice screenshots on the back of the cover, and thats how I bought the game a little while after it came out.(notested it in a shop) Me and my computer has grown with the game. I started out and didn't knew how to take a screenshot and now I can make animations, scripting, modelling and more.

It's awesome.

[dave8 0]

I say this is the only game (Next up.... OPF 2) where things don't look cartoony, but real. And I like that.

[Diplomata 0]

I still remember how this forum was in the begining a "no man land", when some few were unfortunate enough to say the game wouldn't last a month. I remember the people cursing OFP just because they had not learned how to play. I still laugh when I remember the flying Jeeps. The game was a Bug's nest.