Dragon Rising has been released

[froggyluv 2133]

Guys don't apologize for the long winded reviews -they're very informative as well as fun to read!

Really the only thing that looks at all fun is the death animations and yes gore, as it just looks more satisfying to kill guys. Forget everything else, for me the 63 entity limit and the spawning (gosh no :eek:) looks like the dealbreaker that won't be fixed thru patches as it appears to be an engine limitation. Guess we now know why ragdoll and such just can't make it into such a grand scale game as Arma 2.

[Smee 10]

tried it didn't like it, don't take that a reason not to try it. Just not for me.

[space 10]

Ive played for quite alot of hours on it now, and the 63 entity limit and the spawning really isn't apparent. I've seen other small minor bugs - but not those.

FLIR works fine too, it looks realistic and is a great feature. ( IRL a FLIR image from 200m and from FLIR 5000m in the sky, looks different - that is represented well in OFP : DR )

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

Not really, it isn't FLIR.

Because nothing else than people and vehicles emit heat it's more of a wallhack lite edition ;)

Well yes and no. Only vehicles and people EMIT heat. But other things pick and then radiate heat. You're right though, the engines and people would be big blobs on black/white (inversed). But as it is now, everything is pretty clear.

Excellent point.

[Madus_Maximus 0]

Ive played for quite alot of hours on it now, and the 63 entity limit and the spawning really isn't apparent. I've seen other small minor bugs - but not those.

FLIR works fine too, it looks realistic and is a great feature. ( IRL a FLIR image from 200m and from FLIR 5000m in the sky, looks different - that is represented well in OFP : DR )

The current IR looks more like the way they implemented it back in Rainbow Six: Raven Shield, only I think they did a better job in that game lol. It just looks like greyscale with people and vehicles in white. Real IR doesn't look like that, everything has some level of IR radiation from its surroundings, but obviously people and engines will create more of it than say a tree. Check some videos out on YouTube of it, it's not all that different even close in than when you see it from a nice distance up in the air from aircraft.

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

Just thought of this...

To give you an idea just how big the Video Game conventions are:

Back in the day, Nintendo and Sega were the big boyz. Their "booths" would take up HALF A COLISEUM by themselves! Nintendo on one side, Sega on the other.

Fondest funny memory.... Sony was introducing the Playstation for the first time at CES...(yeah it's been a while)....

At the kick off conference, the napkins said "Sony Welcomes Nintendo and Sega to the CES". I nearly blew water out my nose seeing that.

[Deadfast 43]

Luhgnut;1457999']Well yes and no. Only vehicles and people EMIT heat. But other things pick and then radiate heat. You're right though' date=' the engines and people would be big blobs on black/white (inversed). But as it is now, everything is pretty clear.

Excellent point.[/quote']

Indeed, sorry. Radiate was the word I was looking for :)

[dm 9]

FLIR works fine too, it looks realistic and is a great feature.

Having had my hands on it myself, I can confirm that the FLIR isn DR is neither realistic nor great. Its a simple (and crappy) shader that turns men and vehicles bright white and everything else dark grey. Not realistic at ALL

IRL a FLIR image from 200m and from FLIR 5000m in the sky, looks different - that is represented well in OFP : DR )

Hah, no, really it doesnt.

[bangtail 0]

Having had my hands on it myself, I can confirm that the FLIR isn DR is neither realistic nor great. Its a simple (and crappy) shader that turns men and vehicles bright white and everything else dark grey. Not realistic at ALL

Hah, no, really it doesnt.

The FLIR in DR is about as unrealistic as it gets.

Eth

[Pathy 0]

I haven't played it, but one phrase that keeps repeating through my head as I read through comments is "Does everything OFP did, worse."

I mean, I know full well they didn't make OFP, but if you're going to make the sequel to a highly successful game from scratch, then surely the first thing you do is make sure the minimum anything within the game gets to is "equal" to the previous game, with "better" being highly preferred? Just seems odd to actually regress in terms of numbers of units, multiplayer numbers etc

Guess not..

Edited October 8, 2009 by Pathy

[Reverend Crast 10]

Played a couple of missions.

I wish ArmA II could achieve the same performance (FPS wise) as DR - it would be perfect game then.

[von_paulus 0]

Played a couple of missions.

I wish ArmA II could achieve the same performance (FPS wise) as DR - it would be perfect game then.

Sure.

If ARMA cut down on graphics and used the same crappy Ego engine, probably it would have the same performance. But then it wouldn't be ARMA II, right?!

[froggyluv 2133]

Ive played for quite alot of hours on it now, and the 63 entity limit and the spawning really isn't apparent. I've seen other small minor bugs - but not those.

)

Well thats good. So your saying that you haven't encountered any enemies spawning in your area letting you play in a tactical fashion?

Another major issue I have with the entity count is disappearing dead enemies - What a let down that after a memorable firefight you can't survey the aftermath as they are gone... and how about grabbing the dead man's loot? Does it stay on the ground?

[bangtail 0]

Well thats good. So your saying that you haven't encountered any enemies spawning in your area letting you play in a tactical fashion?

Another major issue I have with the entity count is disappearing dead enemies - What a let down that after a memorable firefight you can't survey the aftermath as they are gone... and how about grabbing the dead man's loot? Does it stay on the ground?

I've encountered the spawning and more than once. I've moved through a totally clear area only to be shot in the back by a PLA soldier(s) that most definitely WAS NOT there seconds before.

This game reminds me alot of Project:IGI in terms of the respawns. At least in that game, when the bodies disappeared, the guns and ammo stayed.

Eth

Edited October 8, 2009 by BangTail

[Fortran 1]

Ok had a chance to play this myself, here are my own brief thoughts about it.

1: For starters this is NOT a mil-sim, and its NOT OFP, its a well constructed FPS with some tactical elements.

2: Graphics are obviously console port and the resolution of the sheets used reflect this, saying that the over-all environment presentation gels well and it has a good visual style, somewhere near to COD4 in many ways. To its testament this results in a VERY smooth performance at all times, I could max out everything running at 1440x900 and get a very stable 40fps, something I just cannot get with Arma2 unfortunately.

3: Sound, in my opinion is one of the areas the game excels, they are sharp, clear, realistic and do give you a nice sense of the battlefield when you crank up the volume.

4: As has been said before the entire campaign game is scripted, I don't really understand CM's boasts of a total free-roam 250x250km map when failure to follow the narrow, channelling of the checkpoint system either results in you missing vital AI triggers, death from TOTALLY random mortar bombardments or save-points (which are also run on the waypoint/checkpoint system). This results in the same kind of narrow choices as any other FPS game and although you can choose to assault a position from several angles, moving between areas really limits your choices. Also as each mission is its own unique "act" it feels very disjointed as you leave the island between every mission before starting the next, this kind of destroys the continuity and the point of having a massive island to play on.

5: Although the game utilizes several vehicles, getting a chance to use them in the campaign is non-existent, from material I read before buying the game it suggested that you would be put in the role of a pilot, tank commander, spec-ops and infantry unit, suggesting maybe that there would be missions that utilized these roles. However the reality is that aside from the spec-ops and infantry missions the use of vehicles is really just down to driving the HMMWV or a stolen Chinese version of the same vehicle between a couple of checkpoints and then getting out to continue on foot. Im sure the MP version of the game allows players to utilize the vehicles more fully but the SP element of the game does not. Also to add to the vehicles themselves, the handling is strange to say the least and it feels like the wheels of even your Abram's have had a liberal application of butter applied to them before you left camp.

6: Multiplayer element is just bound to die within a few weeks. No dedicated servers means your at the mercy of the ping-monster, resulting in most games acting like slide-shows. No CD key, No anti-cheat system in-place will have the cheaters tear this game a new-one as soon as a single hack has been developed. Saying that playing the campaign in co-op is alot of fun, but as the campaign itself is only 11 missions and as said before scripted, it gets old very quickly.

7: Models are fairly decent, low-poly for the consoles they were developed for but look ok, the gibbing system on the characters adds a nice little element but nothing spectacular. However the one horrendous thing is the LOD switching on the models which, considering they weren't exactly highpoly in the first place, means that moving about 10 feet away from a vehicle or model results in you looking at pretty much just a textured box. The LOD switches are not smooth and seems to consist of only 3-4 lod's maximum each of which steps down by a vast amount.

8: No modding capability and no promise of an SDK release means that OFP:DR will die fairly swiftly, as everybody who loved OFP knows its the one thing that has the game still being played and worked on by the community even today. However, the mission editor is very robust, featuring LUA scripting capability so im sure there will be many new user-missions created for the game, if anything the mission editor that ships with the game is pretty much the highlight.

9: The actual command interface utilizes the como-rose as seen in BF2, but unfortunately somebody on the design team seemed to think that it would work better if you couldn't move while issuing commands and had to use the WSAD keys to navigate the rose, this is a bit of a pain in the backside to be honest, it slows you down and instead of being able to move into a tactical position while issuing flanking or suppresion orders for your team you have to sit and do it first then move, which destroyed it a little for me. As well as this chaining "like" orders together is not possible, for example to issue a new formation for your team, followed by an ROE order followed by a "spread" order means you have to jump in and out of the commo-rose three times, when you really would have liked to been able to chain these orders together once while the rose is open. Also as a completley unrelated note, this same person thought that we prefer to have to HOLD down the scope/optics key when we want the scope or ironsights up instead of allowing it to be toggled, which means you spend 99% of your combat time holding the right mouse button down. Do that for 5 hours and you do tend to get a bit peeved about it.

10: Another small point is the ammo, with the hit-detection seemingly a little bit "pot-luck" occasionally you tend to expend rounds quicker than you might have thought. There are no allied pickup areas in each mission meaning that once your rounds are out your issued weapon is useless. This leaves you with the option of picking up from a Chinese ammo crate (which seem thin on the ground to say the least) or looting a body, however the bodies only stay on the ground for 30 seconds so unless you sprint into the area you just cleared from a resonable engagement distance the chance of picking up the ammo or weapons will be lost before you get there. Another thing that got on my nerves a little was the lack of choice when it came to weaponry. It would have been nice to get a chance to pick your squads load-out or even just your own, but this is not possible, you are issued with a rifle and equipment for the mission and that is that, I know that is "realistic" in some-ways but this is not a mil-sim as I said before so I think the kind of people who will love this game would have liked that ability there.

All in all I really enjoyed playing Dragon Rising campaign, its was a short (about 5 or less hours) but fun experience, however it has ZERO lastability and very little replay value due to the scripted nature of the campaign. Once the MP game gets destroyed by hackers it will all be over. Was sad to see this game so hyped and anticipated, the material that was released by CM seemed to promise (or leave room for speculation) more than it delivered but with the console systems being prioritized by the developers this was inevitable.

I suggest you play it for yourself, those who are not looking for a die-hard mil-sim experience but want something more than COD4 should enjoy it. I recommend grabbing a copy once it goes in the bargain basket of your local gamestore.

Edited October 8, 2009 by Fortran

[SD_BOB 10]

I have to admit, that after playing some more of the single missions (not done the campaign yet as im waiting to do it coop). The actuall gameplay isnt that bad, enemy AI do seem pretty switched on. For instance if you dont keep them supressed, they will get their act together and begin to manouver against you.

Good point so far then are the sound and AI.

More testing me thinks.....

Edited October 8, 2009 by Shadow.D. ^BOB^

[da12thMonkey 1943]

I've read a load of positive user reviews of DR... from console players.

I think I'll avoid it: the only games I really enjoy on my 360 are 3rd-person action-adventure games and the odd sports one. Shooters are strictly PC-only for me, and no PC user review I've read has said made me want to buy it given that the details of its multiplayer put me off majorly before the game was even released.

The most positive comment I've seen it receive from a PC player is that it reminded him of the original Ghost Recon games; but personally, I was never really a GR fan to begin with.

[GunGraveTZA 10]

I recommend grabbing a copy once it goes in the bargain basket of your local gamestore.

Don't you think that's a bit on the cruel side? Just because it isn't a die-hard mil-sim doesn't mean it becomes only suggestible to buy when it becomes bargin bin price.

You made some good points though, so maybe get the game in about 2 months when the price is a little cheaper.

[bangtail 0]

Don't you think that's a bit on the cruel side? Just because it isn't a die-hard mil-sim doesn't mean it becomes only suggestible to buy when it becomes bargin bin price.

You made some good points though, so maybe get the game in about 2 months when the price is a little cheaper.

No, it's not on the cruel side at all.

It simply depends on your point of view. I certainly wouldn't pay full price for it. I base this on over 5 hours of playing it at a friends.

Like many here have said, it's not a bad game but it's not good enough to warrant the $40.00 (IMO). And, to be fair, there are many average games that fall into this category.

Eth

[King Haggis 0]

My expectations for Operation Flashpoint 2 were already very low to begin with so I can't say I was very disappointed when I "played" it this afternoon. I knew Flashpoint 2 wasn't really Flashpoint 2 to begin with. ArmA 2 is really Flashpoint 2. That doesn't mean I didn't want Flashpoint 2 to be good. Of course, I had high hopes but very low expectations and, unfortunately, those expectations proved true.

Oh my... what a bad, bad game this is. Can't believe I'm actually taking the time to post some feedback cause I've spent less time on better games than OFP2. Anyway, there is no freelook? There are no 3D vehicle interiors? Even if the rest was good, how can the game ever be as interesting as ArmA 2 if it lacks freelook and 3D interiors? Where's TrackIR support? Am I doing something wrong?

Can't believe the hype about this game. It screws up in every department. Some people here say the sound is good but what's so good about it? ArmA 2 at least has environment sounds like birds, OFP 2 has very little of that. Also, what's the deal with the ugly landscape without forests? There are only about 1000 trees on the entire map and they all look the same. There is 1 main road going through the entire island with a very few sideroads. There are about 5 points of interest on the bland, empty island. Some factory, some fuelstation and that's about it. Everything is dead and empty here. No animals, very little environment sounds, no woods, nothing. An empty, boring world. I've seen Walmart value titles with better graphics and a more living environment. Ugly grass, ugly textures, ugly day/night transition, ugly everything. Well, at least gameplay beats graphics. Not with OFP2, unfortunately.

Where's the promised war realism? War as seen through the lens or something like that? All I saw were ridiculous low detail AI soldiers shouting weird things, shooting in all directions without hitting something, dying only after 5 direct hits and their bodies disappear??? What's the point of having an assault rifle if it shoots randomly at 1mm right of your (too big, too ugly) crosshair, then the next shot 1mm left of your crosshair simultaneously? It's like it was built to miss or something. What's the deal with hardcore gameplay when you can walk up to 4 enemy soldiers, stand in front of them, shooting them in the head 2 times with a pistol without them dying, then running away to lie down behind a stone wall 1 meter from where they stand while they're just shouting and shooting and take 1000 more bullets from my 3 squadmates who are also shouting and shooting and missing?

What's it with the ridiculous helicopter arcade controls? Or the buggy that will only blow up if you shoot it with an Abrams tank?

Glad I didn't buy it. I played at a friend of mine who had high hopes for it as well. Uninstall is OFP2's best feature. As for ArmA 2, call me a fanboy but I think it's the best game ever, as was the original Flashpoint in it's time. Glad you won this battle BIS, there's really no competition! Back to the warfare servers for me! :bounce3:

[mrcash2009 0]

Very interesting and not a shock.

Up to Monday I had this pre-ordered, but after some thought and a good look at reviews I canceled Tuesday and thought I would wait for the demo.

Im glad, because most of the cons seem to fit my fears which made me hover over the "cancel pre-order button" the other day. Will get the demo for fun but im not thinking this will be a keeper though.

[Guest]

In a purely calm, and un-biased review, i give it 3/10.

I do not like anything about it, and i feel the developers lied alot about the game. The draw distance is just a little bit over 4km. Stand on top of the volcano and you will see this what i mean.

AI can't aim at all, physics are pretty bad, car driving makes Arma 2's look beautiful, and the animations very much like bf2. The pc version runs very well, but not in comparison to how weak the graphics are.

A waste of my money tbh.

[galzohar 31]

I have to say that although I already had very low expectations for the level of realism and gameplay, OFP2 still managed to disappoint me. All the lack-of-realism issues that were visible from videos/previews are not just there, but they're much greater game-breakers than they seemed to be. Plus there are issues that weren't expected at all, such as graphics not up to par with the preview videos and serious model clipping issues.

[Second 0]

Very interesting and not a shock.

Up to Monday I had this pre-ordered, but after some thought and a good look at reviews I canceled Tuesday and thought I would wait for the demo.

Im glad, because most of the cons seem to fit my fears which made me hover over the "cancel pre-order button" the other day. Will get the demo for fun but im not thinking this will be a keeper though.

Yeah. Me too, seems that OF:DR shares same main weaknesses as ArmA2, so it won't be anything different. Both have retarded terrain and not very bright AI. So i really don't expect OF:DR to serve any better small unit combat than ArmA2 would.

Meh. That was the only thing i hoped from it. + good mission editor, but now it doesn't matter.

[King Haggis 0]

What's retarded about the terrain in ArmA 2? I think it's great. Much better than OFP2 and definitely "different" than OFP2! Agreed about the not very bright AI, though. But it doesn't matter. Warfare is where ArmA 2 really shines and there your real enemies are players.