Operation Flashpoint 2 officially announced

[Architeuthis 9]

It will be interesting to see how the cross platform release will play out. How will it affect us pc gamers. Can we expect our desire for (a) realistic game(play) to clash with the inherent limitations that consoles pose on realistic gameplay. I certainly hope not. Evidently Codemasters has put a lot of resources into this project and from what that 6 minute presentation tells us, it seems like money well spend.

I’ll be looking forward to see how the development on this game progresses. Some competition wouldn’t hurt this segment. Hopefully we as consumers of realistic wargames are in for some good times.

[froggyluv 2130]

I'm as excited as the next guy by the apparent progress of this game but don't start the BI funeral procession just yet. The bottem line here will be the actual gameplay as has been stated ad inifintum. This reminds me of the buildup to Crysis, man everything in those developer's clip's and blogs made it sound like the perfect game -with realism down to a blade of grass...  

Needless to say the game was a huge disappointment to a tac. gamer like me for obvious reasons.

Enter OFP2- whatever you think of it, they (CM) are definitely winning the PR/Marketing battle. Yeah, maybe E3 isn't all it's cracked to be but a certain buzz is created there along with CM's masterful ability to give the fans just a peek and keep that buzz cackling with anticipation for whats next.

[sparks50 0]

We havent seen any game footage with HUD etc yet, for all we know this could be bf2-light.

[Thunderbird 0]

Truthfully, If I was BIS leader then I would be kind of worried with what I have seen thus far and would have taken some serious measures in order to ensure that ArmA II will stay in competition.

But I guess that's already done or it is currently performed.

Not that the situation is already defined, but CM does seemingly pay attention to all BIS forgotten details/Ignored aspects.

And this will undoubtedly go against BIS as for the first time, I'm getting the slight impression that BIS has a serious competition.

Regards,

TB

[mr.g-c 6]

Hi Tarik, although i would second your post to a 100% i still keep in mind that the most-recent(a week old) information and screenshots about Arma2 are (according to Ohara) 6 month old.

So when thinking about that, in 6 month can happen A LOT of changes. Just think about how ultra-ugly Arma1 looked around 6-12 Months before release (especially the environment and soldier-models) and how it made up till release in this manner.

And to be perfectly honest the most Recent Arma2 screens, no matter if 6 months old or not, do look pretty pretty good in parts of model quality (especially the ultra-photo-realistic textures of tanks for instance) and Environment/Foliage/Woods.

So i do believe that those parts won't be some sort of down-part compared to OFP2 at all, rather the opposite is the case.

Also what i don't like about OFP2 is the already confirmed Multiplayer-Part....

Only 8 Player maximum in Coop and maximum of 32 players in Pvp.... come'on Armas possibility of having 140 ppl playing coops is somehow already some sort of "standard" to me and i don't want to miss that at all.

Isn't the MP-Part some Sort of Arma's "heart" ?

Anyway, if BIS do pay attention on the real keyparts in which Arma1 was (and is still) a disaster (Campaign feeling, Animations, Features, Love-For-Detail, Realism, no tank-interiors and countless more) then i think they could be able to stay competitive.

If not, then well...... we will see.....but large community-backed mods like ACE and Project 85' can't fix anything and make it properly, can't they?

However i'm eagerly awaiting any new from any side, and i really do want to stay with BIS, not to say becuase i just learning .sqf scripting and i don't want to learn any new one (if OFP2 will have that anyway).

A nice weekend to all people (and especially the hard working developers), Regards Christian

[W0lle 1046]

Victor

You're long enough around and active in the forums to know that posting images over 100kb isn't allowed.

[norsu 180]

Truthfully, If I was BIS leader then I would be kind of worried with what I have seen thus far and would have taken some serious measures in order to ensure that ArmA II will stay in competition.

Not that the situation is already defined, but CM does seemingly pay attention to all BIS forgotten details/Ignored aspects.

X2

In my opinion BIS should do some serious changes to game mechanics. After this video ArmA just feels very outdated, not graphically but feature wise. It's the small details and mechanics that make OFP2 stand out much more. Hopefully it won't be another Crysis.

[Guest Ti0n3r]

They seem to think about every detail that BIS seem to ignore

[Thunderbird 0]

mr.g-c,

Your points are accurate but in my judgment, the only way BIS can get through is to keep its current customers and obviously attempt to reach a larger area.

But this isn't going to be an easy task as a solid marketing is quite needed behind, and this requires a decent budget.

The current financial differences between the 2 gaming firms is comparable to David and Goliath and this is pretty noticeable, specifically in terms of advertising.

But of course, BIS still has chances to survive/compete thanks to a loyal and robust community which supports it since already many years.

In return, BIS dedication towards its community is quite appreciated but I'm afraid this might not be enough within the next incoming months.

Unless we will get a decent campaign with a skillful AI.

Regards,

TB

[W0lle 1046]

Some E3 infos:

Quote[/b] ]You also probably weren't aware that if you went online, you'd be able to play eight-player coop with friends, or 32-player matches against them. And the best part is that even in an online match, you'll still have non-player character squadmates to command and fight alongside of. When the game launches in 2009 for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, it's possible that you'll enter a 32-player match with 256 combatants (between real players and their NPC minions).

Source

8 player coops or 32 player PvP and 256 AI units in total as I understand this.

That's breathtaking and never seen before for sure, how many players we had back in good ol' OFP?

As much as I look forward to see what we'll get in OFP2 but... lol wut?

[Stryder 0]

That was quoted in an article on OFP2 in a console section of Gamespot so it's very possible that's a limit for consoles only.

I find it hard to believe that with all the pioneering Codemasters is doing in other areas they wouldn't have a much higher limit.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Looks good. I'm still curious about the modability of it all.

I'll probably end up with both games and be torn as to which one I should mod.

[Pulverizer 1]

8 player coops or 32 player PvP and 256 AI units in total as I understand this.

That's breathtaking and never seen before for sure, how many players we had back in good ol' OFP?

As much as I look forward to see what we'll get in OFP2 but... lol wut?

Those are rather obviously the numbers for consoles so spare us your witty sarcasm. Happens a lot with cross-platform games.

It's not difficult to understand that a monstrous dedicated server PC on a 100Mbit line can deal with a lot more clients than some crappy low-tech game console on some random guy's home connection.

[BLSmith2112 0]

Victor

You're long enough around and active in the forums to know that posting images over 100kb isn't allowed.

Woops. I didn't realize at the time, I saw the first picture under 100kb and just assumed the second one (using the same compression and resolution) it was roughly the same, so I didn't bother to look

Fixed.

[whisper 0]

That was quoted in an article on OFP2 in a console section of Gamespot so it's very possible that's a limit for consoles only.

I find it hard to believe that with all the pioneering Codemasters is doing in other areas they wouldn't have a much higher limit.

"pioneering"... lol? What pionnering?

I'm quite baffled at all the people completely amazed by some animations, bashing BI in the process, and blindly (because quite frankly this is being totally blind) following CM because they've shown... what? pretty anims?

Look here :

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=dUaR1xywNyE

This video has been made only with stock ArmA/QG animations. Quite hollywood style and decent, isn't it?

Wait, wait wait... Have you ever, once, played ArmA with these anims?

Answer : NEVER!

Pretty anims for sceneries mean nothing. No-thing.

Decent infos are the MP parts one we had. It's probably only for consoles unfortunately, so we'll still have to wait for official statements for PCs.

This is the kind of information I'm waiting for. Not pretty models and anims (well, not only, it's comforting to know the environement will look good).

Mission editor preview. Technical details about MP possibilities, damage model, flight model.

In-game, 1st person point of view, videos. From soldier, from vehicles.

Show of AI behavior during fighting (apparently some1 external from CM saw it and was pretty amazed, why not show us that?), not plain statement saying "our AI is unbelievable". I don't care, in fact, I want to believe

This is for OFP2, and for ArmA2 as well. Before having some of these infos, I won't drop on the floor in a prayer for either CM or BI.

Instead of chanting the death of one studio and the glory of an other, hope both will survive and compete, this is all the best for us customers.

[Stryder 0]

That was quoted in an article on OFP2 in a console section of Gamespot so it's very possible that's a limit for consoles only.

I find it hard to believe that with all the pioneering Codemasters is doing in other areas they wouldn't have a much higher limit.

"pioneering"... lol? What pionnering?

I'm quite baffled at all the people completely amazed by some animations, bashing BI in the process, and blindly (because quite frankly this is being totally blind) following CM because they've shown... what? pretty anims?

Look here :

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=dUaR1xywNyE

This video has been made only with stock ArmA/QG animations. Quite hollywood style and decent, isn't it?

Wait, wait wait... Have you ever, once, played ArmA with these anims?

Answer : NEVER!

Pretty anims for sceneries mean nothing. No-thing.

Decent infos are the MP parts one we had. It's probably only for consoles unfortunately, so we'll still have to wait for official statements for PCs.

This is the kind of information I'm waiting for. Not pretty models and anims (well, not only, it's comforting to know the environement will look good).

Mission editor preview. Technical details about MP possibilities, damage model, flight model.

In-game, 1st person point of view, videos. From soldier, from vehicles.

Show of AI behavior during fighting (apparently some1 external from CM saw it and was pretty amazed, why not show us that?), not plain statement saying "our AI is unbelievable". I don't care, in fact, I want to believe

This is for OFP2, and for ArmA2 as well. Before having some of these infos, I won't drop on the floor in a prayer for either CM or BI.

Instead of chanting the death of one studio and the glory of an other, hope both will survive and compete, this is all the best for us customers.

So where the fuck was I chanting for the death of BIS?

What pioneering? Well how about the fact that we now have decent anims which may not matter to you but they sure as hell matter to me. This was one of OFP's biggest flaws. The fact that they are implementing realistic ballistics, down to how bullets will penetrate and dismember soldiers. The fact that guns now show wear and tear. The fact that (apparentally) the AI is shaping up to be incredible. <<<Single biggest change that needed to be made to this series

All I know is Codies appear to basically be taking OFP, and fixing all the irritating little problems about it, which BIS failed to do with ArmA.

What Codies HAVE shown, has so far been incredible... and yes my faith is a little rattled in BIS since the atrocity that ArmA was at release, not to mention the failure to fix things that have plagued the series since 2001.

Sure it might all be BS on the part of Codies, maybe it's all a giant lie to deceive us and they're in fact making a uber pretty arcade shooter CoD clone but for some strange reason pretending to be making the most realistic shooter ever to cater to the naive grognard crowd, who will buy the game just because it has OFP on it.

[whisper 0]

Did you read what I said about anims? Did you watch the vid to see that even ArmA, known for its shitty anim system, has animations of the same quality for making up nice sceneries exactly like what CM is showing us atm?

Pretty anims for destroying doors, jumping over walls, etc... if not what will be used in-game, are useless to the game, for me. Exactly why I wait for 1st person point of view show of the game bevore going over it.

"the AI is shaping up to be incredible". HOW? BI also said ArmA AI was going to rip apart OFP's one, with their new system for it.

Did it in the end? not really. Now they prefer to show us some specifics, too few, but they show us specifics (AI using lean, etc...) From CM atm : "our AI will be incredible". Useless to me until they show it to me in action. So I'm waiting (mind you, not bashing or saying OFP2 will be crap, just waiting)

Quote[/b] ]All I know is Codies appear to basically be taking OFP, and fixing all the irritating little problems about it, which BIS failed to do with ArmA.

That is all but pioneering. That is taking already existing concepts and capitalizing on them by making them better than how implemented elsewhere. Nothing pioneer here.

[Stryder 0]

Did you read what I said about anims? Did you watch the vid to see that even ArmA, known for its shitty anim system, has animations of the same quality for making up nice sceneries exactly like what CM is showing us atm?

Pretty anims for destroying doors, jumping over walls, etc... if not what will be used in-game, are useless to the game, for me. Exactly why I wait for 1st person point of view show of the game bevore going over it.

"the AI is shaping up to be incredible". HOW? BI also said ArmA AI was going to rip apart OFP's one, with their new system for it.

Did it in the end? not really. Now they prefer to show us some specifics, too few, but they show us specifics (AI using lean, etc...) From CM atm : "our AI will be incredible". Useless to me until they show it to me in action. So I'm waiting (mind you, not bashing or saying OFP2 will be crap, just waiting)

Quote[/b] ]All I know is Codies appear to basically be taking OFP, and fixing all the irritating little problems about it, which BIS failed to do with ArmA.

That is all but pioneering. That is taking already existing concepts and capitalizing on them by making them better than how implemented elsewhere. Nothing pioneer here.

You're comparing two entirely different companies. Just because BIS screwed up doesn't mean Codies will

Just the sheer size and budget Codies have behind this project makes me confident they'll put in anims and such.

And yes it WILL be groundbreaking if we have a truly polished ultra realistic shooter, 7 years after OFP.

If the AI is as good as the third party (so yes someone outside CM) said that alone is groundbreaking.

You can't complain CM or BIS isn't giving you enough information till you're wearing a press badge. The point is, in-game and AI has been shown to the press and what they've said has been VERY GOOD.

[EricM 0]

Where's the part about the AI ? didn't see anything about that... ?

Codemaster basicaly shown that they are pouring a lot of money into the game and that they have a lot of people working on it (hopefully talented ones). So far, so good. Any more precise statement is a bit risky.

What about the whole "matrix" meets "Saving Private Ryan look" ? aka Green-color-corrected-bleach-bypass : high contrast, low saturation, with dark green shadows... it's pretty for the cinematic, but I hope we can get more realistic color aswell. This is a bit "hollywood" war movie cliché now... (maybe, hence the "war documentary" feeling they're touting : they look for a cinematic feeling rather that a realistic one).

About the MP aspect, I'm puzzled : I rarely played good coordinated missions with more than 32 players anyway... it's often "each for his own" after that for lack of unified commanding. 8 players coop seems low however. If it's only for console, that means console and PC versions won't be compatible, right ?

2009 is a long way before we have answers...

[norsu 180]

Quote[/b] ]Instead of chanting the death of one studio and the glory of an other, hope both will survive and compete, this is all the best for us customers.

We are not declaring BIS dead. We are simply saying that in order to make ArmA2 more pleasing and more succesful they need to fix many little things that have been already fixed in OFP2. These include the animations.

Some examples:

-Soldiers load each weapon with a different animation

-Weapons are fully animated

-Detachable weapon parts with smooth animations e.g. Javelin

-Animated vehicle doors with full soldier animations

I know ArmA is cabable of doing some of those but if these features aren't included in the vanilla game then it's just lazyness. Sure mods can fix these things but I would like to see them already in vanilla Arma2.

[DVD 0]

The OFP2 developer walkthrough vid looks impressive.

And if ArmA2 doesn't have proper controles, better LODs and a better audio-simulation as now in ArmA1,

i am happy there is a alternatve in development, and i can forget ArmA2.

[lwlooz 0]

Hello there,

Sorry to offend there , but declaring BIS dead on the basis that Codemasters can make better graphics is a complete rubbish.

I know that for 90% of the people in the FPS community gameplay means things like animations,textures,particle effects and gore , but at the end of the day you ignore all those little tiny graphical details you all get so worked up about after 1 bloody week.

After that what makes a "tactical" game interesting is the tactical scenarios you can make and the tactical decisions you can make ingame.

It is just insane to now demand from BIS to come up with the same cinematic experience , which they will totally fail at.

They tried to go more FPS and graphics-centred in ArmA and see what that turned out to be.

No , at the end of the day what matters is how complex missions I can make with the mission editor , and how many tactical options I have with my own avatar,my vehicle and my AI.

All those graphical attention to detail then is just a bonus.

I do hope that both companies have some innovation in that sector,because if both games again only contain those things mentioned you people get orgasm about,after one week of gaming they will be as boring as any other bloody fps game.

On a different note to BIS vs CM competition, I guess there is a reason BIS wants to release their game before Codies

[Dwarden 1124]

not sure if it was discussed / posted / viewed

but i found this video especially from 5:40 very interesting (ingame footage of OFP2)

also informations about weapons sights, modifications are quite informative

link use &fmt=18 which is better quality for details than default flash (mov compression for ipod)

HD quality don't work (as usual)

i'm happy to see that there is big chance for good title in genre to appear ...

[MATRA 0]

On a different note to BIS vs CM competition, I guess there is a reason BIS wants to release their game before Codies  

They better do it... or all PR and merchandise around OFP2 will probably "eat" ArmA2 chances of a good comercial incoming, and we all known how PR are in BIS.

On the video, its preaty impressive, but as someone said, we need to see gameplay, I doubt it will be like COD ou BF2, but Brothers in Arms dont get out of my head, especialy with Cody experience on Overlord

[Thunderbird 0]

Who said that BIS is dead, please spend a couple of minutes to re-read the previous posts as a whole and in a detailed way.

What was stated thus far is that BIS will have a serious competition since CM seems to be fully centered on achieving all aspects which have been ignored by BIS during the last years and that were reported many times through these forums.

All the little details (Animated weapons and models parts, Javelin realistic behavior, Troops rationally shouting and all other features you can see in this

are what ArmA is seriously lacking now, so if ArmA II will provide them as well alongside with an entertaining campaign, then there would be no reason to be that worried.

The future will say it all.

Regards,

TB