Operation Flashpoint 2 officially announced

[scubaman3D 0]

Personally, after ArmA I have no confidence in BIS and am happy to see someone else giving this type of game a shake.

Then why are you here?

ArmA plays better than OFP does. Yeah, the release and patch schedule was screwy and the expansion maybe left something to be desired but overall I like it better.

A core game gets tired after a while but its the mods that keep it going, I think. There are some pretty cool mods out and others coming soon.

[TheReddog 0]

Personally, after ArmA I have no confidence in BIS and am happy to see someone else giving this type of game a shake.

Then why are you here?

ArmA plays better than OFP does. Yeah, the release and patch schedule was screwy and the expansion maybe left something to be desired but overall I like it better.

A core game gets tired after a while but its the mods that keep it going, I think. There are some pretty cool mods out and others coming soon.

I'm here because I have the right to be here, and I like to scope out what mods there are in the works.

Honestly I am far and away not the only person who feels let down by ArmA. Also if Arma 2 is 'game 2' and looking how it is looking, eg. same shit different setting, I am not really interested in it. That said I'll reserve judgement for now.

At the very least I think some competition can only be good, maybe it'll spur BIS on to make something as great as they have in the past. I doubt it though, mainly because my heart is a little dried up prune of skepticism.

[scubaman3D 0]

^ Oh, don't get me wrong, I'll try OFP2 and I'm not a BIS fanboy by any means.

I just though it was funny that you felt strongly enough to post about it in the BIS forum and I'm of the opinion that modified content is usually cooler than the core game.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

You can now get the Race Driver: Grid demo on GamersHell and elsewhere. It uses the same engine as Operation Flashpoint 2 for those who don't know, so give it a whirl and see if you like the performance and optimisation.

[NeMeSiS 11]

see if you like the performance and optimisation.

Compared to what?

[Johnnie_Walker 0]

Downloading, let's see what's new since DIRT.

[Sennacherib 0]

see if you like the performance and optimisation.

Compared to what?

the BIS engine. Arma2 will use the same engine as Arma1.?

[Johnnie_Walker 0]

D@nte (and others), you may want to take a look at this.

[Steeler 0]

Hi.

I don't personally have high-hopes op2,bad feeling about it.

Bis have still my trust,atleast I know lil'bit what I can

expect from Arma2.(patches )

Op2 might just be vaporware,even though I hope not.

some competition allways good for consumer

[SHWiiNG 0]

Its a shame that many developers Still like to contain any released media.

I mean BIS have showed us un textured models, WIP features, Alpha videos etc. And yet we have Zip from Codemasters.

What are they afraid of, if anything i like to see a game 'in the making' And Seeing an untextured Model of a weapon or a tank is a great way to see the effort thats goind into making just the model.

[ArchangelSKT 0]

I think there are at least a few reasons they haven`t released so much info yet.

- They are not fully content with what they have to show, not because it looks bad, but because they want to improve on it before they release anything. Releasing material that is WIP may put some people off.

- Another reason is that they might want to avoid throwing out information as the game is a long way of yet. I higly doubt the 2008 release hinted at earlier.

- Grid is coming out very soon so they don`t want to market two titles at the same time, so they maintain the focus on one.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

I agree with Archangel.

The reasons are definitely marketing-based. It's about the psychology of it all. GTA IV, for instance was announced ages ago, but media only came out once the graphics engine at least was almost complete. Then there was a long time after this for adverts, previews, etc. and generally increasing the prominence of the game in the mass market. That's at least one of the reasons it broke sales records.

[NoRailgunner 0]

You can say this "could be" the reason but you dont know it for sure. Hypothetical - OFP2 could also be delayed or canceled for some reasons.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

Granted, yes. I do doubt this is the case, however. The fact that they have already had multiple iterations of the game then trashed them tells me they thought very hard before they announced the current one.

[ArchangelSKT 0]

You can say this "could be" the reason but you dont know it for sure. Hypothetical - OFP2 could also be delayed or canceled for some reasons.  

They have confirmed that they have scrapped the project only to start it over again. Remember OFP2 was talked about years ago.

I think they got of to a bad start and re-started the project and was comfortable enough to go public with it in August last year.

Remember they have already said they have the biggest team on this that they have had on ANY game, I have no doubt they will do their best.

How do you think it will look if they cancel the game in which they have the biggest team as of yet in the companies history, only for that reason alone they will fight it to the door I believe.

And as I have said before, for once we might see a whole bunch of information getting released not that far away from the actual release date.

In my opinion that would be clever marketing and I am surprised even if it does not happen in this case that we don`t see more of it.

Ask yourself what you would prefer :

- Having alot of WIP, screens, some render etc and to be told release is about 18-20 months of.

- Having in-game videos, screens etc released and to be told it is released in about 6 months.

I would for sure prefer the latter.

Remember OFP2 is NOT in my opinion that much dependent on a very solid PR campaign for the very reason that ARMA 2 at this moment is the only competitor, this genre is not riddled with titles that figth for the consumers $$.

In order to capture new players, yes, but on the name alone you get alot for free.

Believe me I really want to see some in-game stuff, and personally I think we will during the summer on the games convention (the one last year was in Leipzig, not sure if it is there this year as well, it was when the game was confirmed).

I have high hopes for the title, only by looking on the renders, which they have said are target-shots shows that they go after the right atmosphere at least.

We can already get visual hints on how the game might look, since GRID will use the same engine (EGO) as OFP2 will, only of course I expect the engine to be polished further towards the releae of OFP2.

[stakex 0]

You can say this "could be" the reason but you dont know it for sure. Hypothetical - OFP2 could also be delayed or canceled for some reasons.  

They have confirmed that they have scrapped the project only to start it over again. Remember OFP2 was talked about years ago.

I think they got of to a bad start and re-started the project and was comfortable enough to go public with it in August last year.

Remember they have already said they have the biggest team on this that they have had on ANY game, I have no doubt they will do their best.

How do you think it will look if they cancel the game in which they have the biggest team as of yet in the companies history, only for that reason alone they will fight it to the door I believe.

And as I have said before, for once we might see a whole bunch of information getting released not that far away from the actual release date.

In my opinion that would be clever marketing and I am surprised even if it does not happen in this case that we don`t see more of it.

Ask yourself what you would prefer :

- Having alot of WIP, screens, some render etc and to be told release is about 18-20 months of.

- Having in-game videos, screens etc released and to be told it is released in about 6 months.

I would for sure prefer the latter.

Remember OFP2 is NOT in my opinion that much dependent on a very solid PR campaign for the very reason that ARMA 2 at this moment is the only competitor, this genre is not riddled with titles that figth for the consumers $$.

In order to capture new players, yes, but on the name alone you get alot for free.

Believe me I really want to see some in-game stuff, and personally I think we will during the summer on the games convention (the one last year was in Leipzig, not sure if it is there this year as well, it was when the game was confirmed).

I have high hopes for the title, only by looking on the renders, which they have said are target-shots shows that they go after the right atmosphere at least.

We can already get visual hints on how the game might look, since GRID will use the same engine (EGO) as OFP2 will, only of course I expect the engine to be polished further towards the releae of OFP2.

Well Ive been following OFP2 since it was a BIS project, and I never heard anything about the Codemaster team restarting the OFP2 project. Your likely confuseing the fact that ArmA2 was originally suppose to be OFP2 untill Codemaster and BIS split... at which point the official OFP2 project was, per say scrapped and restarted with an internal Codemasters team.

But the rest of your post I agree 100%.... first of all Codemasters is NOT going to cancel OFP2. With its large dev team, and Codemasters obvious commitment to the project, the odds of the game being scrapped are virtually zero.

When it comes to info... perhaps Codemasters learned lessons from watching BIS's media strategy? BIS went out in 2005 and told us about a great game that was suppose to be the true OFP sequal (game2), then turned around last year and basiclly told us they dropped everything that made Game2 sound great. BIS also is not very carefull when it comes to releaseing early videos and screenshots.... becuase while some people might understand they are WIP, your average gamer will just think the game is going to suck and keep on walking. These are things Im sure CM's want to avoid...

I really think OFP2 is going to kill ArmA2 in sales. Not to say its going to be a better game, personally I have low expectations for both games... but CM's will likely have a much better media strategy, and thats what really sells games.

[ArchangelSKT 0]

Yeah you might be right about that maybe it was the BIS-Codemasters relationship that made them restart the project.

I`m not sure about it, I just remember reading something about it on the OFP2 forums.

It may have been restarted more then once though for all I know but I`m not sure.

[-Snafu- 79]

If you check out OFP2.info there are a couple news posts from the community managers explaining why there are no screenshots. They think it would have a negative impact and when the time comes they will releasde a lot of information.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Quote[/b] ]but CM's will likely have a much better media strategy, and thats what really sells games.

That's too simple.

A) OFP/ArmA are niche products targeting customers with very unique gaming preferences, thus it was Word of mouth that sold OFP in the beginning, definetly not the proper Marketing Campaign.

B) If OFP2 turns out to be a mainstream product, then Marketing becomes crucial indeed. But this would imply taking gameplay compromises that kick it out of the reality-genre.

-> no competitor

C) If Codemasters realy wants to make a game that competes with ArmA in all important areas, then quality will be crucial, not the advertising budget. Gamers have become much more emancipated and informed and use various channels to find the best product for themselves. So Marketing is only one element of the promotion mix, but definetly not the most important one. It might be different for mainstream games such as Call of duty and GTA, but not for the genre we are interested in.

BIS currently is occupying a very narrow niche. Too narrow for Publishers with great shareholder pressure and market share aspirations in the gaming industry.

[Pulverizer 1]

a) Since when was OFP a niche product. Didn't it sell over a million copies, win a whole bunch of awards and get great reviews in all the big magazines.

b) Do you think ArmA failed to reproduce OFP's sales because it was too realistic. Uh... it's exactly the same as OFP for the most part. So maybe they don't have to dumb OFP2 down in order to sell good Maybe it would be enough if it's fokkin awsum and innovative like the original. Instead of you know, being buggy, unplayable by most computers, badly received by the press and players and generally not being much more than a gfx upgrade for a six year old game.

c) If all the ArmA players would buy OFP2, I doubt Codies would even break even by that alone. So they're prooobably not even considering ArmA2 as some sort of significant competition, being in a different league, or rather a whole another sport.

Okay, maybe OFP2 will be awful. In any case it's exciting to see a new dev in the staling genre. Assuming it will actually be in the same genre.

[Call911-AGE- 0]

Not to burts any bubbles here butt if it aint made by BIS it just won't hold the same love an asperation an feeling for me that I'm sure all the other OFP gamers fell for when OFP came out. Just my 2 cents but BIS really got .... on this I think. Sure I'll probably buy it but it won't hold the same affection as OFP an ArmA. I don't think any developer out there can do what BIS did with OFP/ArmA Not goin for brownie pts here I've played alot of games an none even comes close.

[EDcase 87]

ARMA is unique at the moment and the only game I play.

I'm looking forward to ARMA2 because it looks better and has improved AI path finding which lets down ARMA currently.

OFP2 looks great if the screen shots are to be believed (I think they are representations of what Codemasters are aiming for)

BUT we have no idea of how the game will play and THAT is more important than fancy gfx.  I'm sure they will try and capture the feeling of OFP so they may pull it off.

One thing that is a BIG ADVANTAGE for ARMA2 is the modding and addon community. I'm sure everyone will agree this was a big factor that kept OFP alive for so long.

I read somewhere that OFP2 may be closed to modding which will damage it in the long run if true.

We'll have to wait and see...

Whatever happens between the two, its going to be a fun end of year for us    

[sim 0]

I'll most probably buy ofp 2 but I really can't see Codemasters giving us patches with extra addons and bug fixes very often like BIS does with ofp/arma.

[Call911-AGE- 0]

Yeah i like BIS approach to the community as a whole, i think other developers could learn a lil with what they did with OFP/ArmA, don't think Codemasters will. We will see it's a shame too cuz BIS reputation built around it an kinda got the shaft. Just my 2cents.

[gsleighter 0]

If anybody wants to try the OFP2 game engine out, the GRID demo uses the same Neon engine as OFP2 is going to. Just tried the demo on my computer, was able to max all the graphics settings and run at a solid 50-60 fps, with little dips when using the in-car cam, I think because all the extra polygons in the driver's seat. It seems like a really capable engine with impressive damage modeling, I can't wait to see what Military vehicles look like after they've taken some fire in this engine.

Arma2 and OFP2 in the same year, man, here goes another 7 years of my life.