Q: Why can't I engage enemies with my sniper rifle from as far away as I did in DF and DF2?

A: On most maps, we added a haze effect at very long range. This is similar to the real-world haze you often see at very long distances. DFLW still provides much longer viewing distances and engagement ranges than any other game of its type, and the effective ranges of the sniper rifles are unchanged. We are looking into the possibility of creating some online games with no haze at all.

At any rate, DF military savants may find this version too tempting to pass up. The true-to-life weaponry and all the esoteric military jargon could pull in many wannabe soldiers. But frankly, Novalogic's familiar temptress in a new dress isn't as eye-catching as some of the more sophisticated and popular companions available to gamers today (ie: Rainbow Six, Counter Strike or the upcoming Team Fortress 2). The hardcore FPS players who value depth and pretty graphics won't want to drop their anchors and become Land Warriors.

What's more relevant, however, is the ballistics - put simply, there are some substances bullets will pass through and some substances they won't. At first it isn't clear what this means, but the more you play, the more you can see it adds a whole new dimension to gameplay. For a start you think about your cover a lot more. Watch towers are made largely from wood, and while this means it's easy to dispatch snipers (you can just shoot through the wood and if the shot's on target it'll hit the guard) it's also easy for other bad guys to hit you. If you open a door and someone opens fire on you then ducking back behind a thin plaster wall won't help as millions of little shotguns pellets rip through your supposed cover and into you. It's not just structures either, bullets can just as easily rip through people and if you're lucky you can take two people down with one shot.

You may have noticed that we've begun bringing the stats servers online. If you log in to NovaWorld, you should see a choice of regular, non-stats games and stats-enabled games. These stats-enabled games are live; if you choose to play in them, statistics will be recorded for the player name you're using. We'll be adding more stats-enabled games in the near future, and eventually all our games will be stats games.

Also, there seems to be some confusion about how login names and player names work, so I'd like to clear that up: When you first log in to NovaWorld, you'll create a login name. By default, this login name will be your player name, but you can still go into your player options screen and create as many as four more player names you can choose from at any time. Like your login name, each of these must be one-of-a-kind, so that we can accurately track your stats.

The weapons are modeled fairly well. Ballistics are decent, and at long range you can see bullet drop. Scoped weapons typically include a variable-strength scope that you can adjust magnification settings for, and they also come with an adjustable crosshair, which you set to the distance indicated by the included rangefinder on these weapons. Two new gun features also add to gameplay realism...a variable crosshair and very noticeable "barrel jump." The cross hair expands as you move, which means that shooting accurately on the run is less accurate. Similarly, many of the weapons now have decent recoil properties, so don't expect to be able to hold your SAW rock-steady as it goes off in full auto.

1) Improvements for TNT2, NVidia GeForce2 GTS, Voodoo3, and ATI Rage pro, video problems
2) fix a few minor bugs and provide greater stability
3) add brightness control

Operation Flashpoint takes you right into the most brilliantly dodgy period in the 20th Century, and from the look of these shots it's going to be a stonker. Following in the tradition of the critically acclaimed Hidden and Dangerous from Illusion Softworks, squad-based action will be key to kicking pinko ass. Please remember to bring along your communist-burning kit and your "I love McCarthy" badge.

All this long-range fighting makes DF3 a bit of a sniper’s game. While there is a certain thrill to lining the enemy up in your crosshairs and knocking him off, there are also costs in terms of gameplay. Using stealthy approaches is quite unnecessary on most missions, and close-quarters combat is rare unless you specifically go for that kind of thing. In most missions you can simply set up shop on the biggest hill and systematically take out all the patrolling enemies. Then you close in with your SMG or pistol and clear out the buildings. This is often enough to win, since the enemy never shoots the hostages, when it has any, and does not coordinate its response to you.

The game comprises of one non-linear military campaign, together with training and multiplayer options. Players either work alone or take charge of a hand-picked squad of up to 12 men. The force is selected from an artillery of around 30 tasty soldiers - this may be Russia but your infantry are certainly no cabbages. Combatants have their own individual strengths, weaknesses and winter woollies. You can pick anyone from medic to mine soldier.

Project IGI: (I'm Going In) not only looks and sounds like a console title, but it plays as one as well. The demo level is a train yard that is quite large and offers several routes to success and it looks as though it could have come directly out of 007.

There will be a lot of opportunities for some great skirmishes at sea," Persson enthuses, adding, "With the inclusion of Destroyers, Submarines, Battleships and Aircraft Carriers you can expect them to be massive and immensely enjoyable battling it out. Just imagine a player in his sub sneaking up on an unsuspecting Battleship. Just as he’s about to fire 2 planes scouting the area discover him. The planes immediately report to a destroyer nearby who sets out for a sub hunt.

This is not just a shoot-em-up. Unlike the majority of action games on the market, Renegade doesn't have one set path to follow in order to complete a mission. In order to complete mission objectives you can hi-jack a tank and jump right in to the action with blazing guns and fight until the bitter end, or you can stealthily creep around the map, avoiding confrontation, and covertly accomplish your task. Either way can be just as effective, it is purely the players option.

Pivotal Games specializes in fast, action strategy games. The company is currently working on Desert Storm: Special Ops (work in progress title), a third-person action game featuring a team of four special forces soldiers operating behind Iraqi lines during the Gulf War.

One thing you’ll notice right away after installing Elite Edition is how much better the weapons sound. In the original game the weapons just didn’t have much gumption behind them. It’s a subtle difference, but they all sound more realistic now than they did before. The M4 makes an appropriately loud pop and even the suppressed MP5SD is a lot more believable.

Speaking of enemies.... Well... lets put it this way; they are a few cans short of a six-pack. While its definitely true you can't just walk into the bases and installations you're attacking, the response of some of the enemies just doesn't seem logical. It is entirely possible to take out rooms full of men, very noisily (as opposed to doing it quiet like), without them firing a single shot. Often when they (the bad guys) do fire bullets (or whatever it is they put in their hand cannons), they seem to regard aiming an totally un-necessary, preferring to scare their victims into submission with lots of loud noise instead... Perhaps good if the people you intend to scare are unarmed peasant villagers... But not so good when a Delta Force operative has a PSG-1 trained on your neck.

Battle-Fields.com are hosting a LAN party at Nottingham’s (UK) LAN Arena December 2nd and 3rd.

This will be a small and informal affair with games ranging from Land Warrior to football. For £28 for the two days you will get 13 hours of gaming on AMD Athlon 800mghz machines. If you are interested contact bonehead@battle-fields.com.

We are taking along some goodies to give away and it will give you a chance to have a chat with the guys from the Battle-Fields.com network.

To find out more go to : http://www.battle-fields.com/lan.shtml

You will also find discussions about this on our forums:
http://www.battle-fields.com/commscentre/index.php

But all the game options and extra goodies mean exactly jack squat without good gameplay. While Land Warrior does stumble a little bit in this department at times, the total package successfully hits the ground running. The single player missions are diverse and well designed, but where the real problems start is with the laughable computer AI. On the missions where you're unfortunate enough to have one of the computer controlled team members on your side, they run off and get themselves killed 9 out of 10 times. The good news is that I only found one mission where you have to rely on them to do anything, and the rest of the time there's no penalty if (when) they get killed.

The first sets of missions start out with basic objectives but increase in difficulty as the game progresses. For example, one of the early missions requires players to be the lone soldier, who must infiltrate an enmy-controlled city to steal a jeep, while another puts players in a full squad that must engage the enemy head-on inside of a city.

But there are many cool graphic touches tho, such as bullet holes, ejecting clips, a great re-load animation, blood sprays on walls, and breakable glass to name a few. The zoom-able binocs and the PDA were done well also. All good stuff here, but ya have to wonder if they spent too much time on the eye candy, and not the core engine functions. As this is only a demo review, I'm not too concerned, and can only hope the final product will have these glitches polished up. 

It appears the zip-file has a packaging problem as the SETUP.EXE installer can't find the data files in the location it expects them.

If you're experiencing that problem, here's how to remedy it: create a new folder called 'PC' in the folder you unzipped the demo in, and move all folders and files into that 'PC' folder EXCEPT SETUP.EXE; now SETUP.EXE should run ok.

Using an enhanced version of the original SWAT3:CQB engine, the EE version maintains the same high quality graphics, sound and play action. The new levels are a great addition to the game and enhance the career-mode plotline. And to go along with the new version, Sierra has posted a number of new character skins and new world scenarios on their website.

If you enjoyed the earlier Delta Force games and want a much better multiplayer experience, this looks like a sure bet. Single player missions are lacking in challenge, and the menu system can be confusing at times. Overall, this is a step forward for the DF series, but stiff competition from other military themed games (and multiplayer modifications) says you should check the demo before you spend any money.

As far as the single player gameplay goes, SWAT3 certainly gives the Rainbow Six series a run for its money in the anti-terrorist gaming arena. Even the co-op play offers a truly impressive and enthralling experience but the game certainly won't be the end-all for multiplayer gaming.

The first thing that strikes you is that SWAT3 is a great looking game, far surpassing anything we've seen from the Red Storm (Rainbow Six) team to date. Not beautiful in the rolling hills and green pastures kind of way, but in the intricately detailed gritty suburban realism kind of way, with wonderfully modelled rooms and buildings of supreme quality... The level designers and texture artists have gone to town beyond anything I've seen before.

SWAT3: Elite Edition is an incredible game made even better by the addition of solid multiplayer. Mod tools should encourage an active community to keep this game on your hard drive for a long time to come. The fact that this massive upgrade is free to those who bought the original is a rare gift in the age of worthless "gold" editions that throw a couple of half-assed levels at you and call it new. If you already have the original game, the Elite Edition download is a must. If you haven't picked it up yet, buy it.

The worst part about LandWarrior is its single-player game. You have the option of playing each mission (twenty campaign, ten quick) as one of five characters, each with his or her own specialties. It doesn't really matter, though, as you'll be equally effective regardless of your choice. On most missions, one of the characters you didn't choose will accompany you anyway, apparently to give the enemy more things to shoot at. Usually your teammate dies stupidly; on the few occasions that they survive, it's because they didn't do anything and thus weren't exposed to fire.

While the long-awaited addition of multiplayer capability is obviously the primary feature that SWAT 3: Elite Edition has to offer, the new missions along with the added features and refinements also provide the game with so much to recommend it. The whole resulting from the sum of all of these new parts is a polished, highly gripping, and challenging tactical simulation that builds wonderfully on the original release. While multiplayer SWAT 3 is smooth and headache free, and heck of a lot of fun, the single-player game has also been vastly improved.

*Kills the bug that allows players to disable weapon effects like recoil, crosshair spread, etc., regardless of the settings the host chose.

*For players with slower, dial-up connections, we hope you will see improved online performance as we adjust the way DFLW uses bandwidth.

*Improves accuracy of scope adjustments and keeps magnification from returning to default level when you switch weapons.

*Increases burst rates for OICW and M4 carbine.

We're addressing a lot of other key issues, too, including these:

*We know the company that packaged DFLW for us mistakenly put Delta Force 2 keyboard templates in some boxes. Sorry about that -- we'll mail the correct template to customers who call or E-mail our tech support department. We've also posted color and black and white versions of the template on our web site, so you can download and print it.

*Perhaps most importantly, we're working to increase the number of games we're hosting on NovaWorld 2. You may actually see fewer DFLW games through the coming weekend as we transition players from the current servers to the updated ones, but more games are on the way. In the meantime, you can help us with this by letting us know here in the forum what game types you'd most like us to add. We've seen requests for Team Deathmatch and no-tracers games; let us know what else you would like to see.

We'd like to thank everyone for their support of the game and their patience as we work to improve it. We've worked very hard to release a game people are really enjoying -- and we're quickly addressing open issues. You can play a vital role in that by keeping the feedback coming.

We're working long hours to get our login and stat-tracking servers up and running. We appreciate your patience, feedback, and support as we test and tune the system. Simply put, systems that worked well during extended pre-release testing encountered issues when hit with an unexpectedly high load of players in the game's first week of sales. But these issues are being corrected.

We'll be running tests on the NovaWorld 2 system continuously over the next several days. Players will still be able to get into NovaWorld games without logging in -- and stats will not be tracked during these testing periods, so players who log in will not have a head-start on those who do not. But now would be a good time to create your login character names while we finalize the testing, and we'd appreciate it if everyone would help us fine-tune the system by exercising the login function when available.

Thanks again. Bear with us, and we believe you'll find the results worth the wait.
_________________
Dan Bennett
NovaLogic, Inc.

TS: What locales are you going to represent in the game (ie: Normandy, Omaha Beach, French landscape, the Rhineland, Russia, Poland, Africa?)

OH: We have yet to make the whole list public. For now, it should suffice to say that we have a great variation in climate, flavor, tactical challenge and visual appeal.

This is where LW excels without a doubt. In many cases this area will be what convinces people to buy LW. There are many choices in which you can play a game. In singleplayer you can choose campaign mode, which has a story line and relatively longer missions, or quick mission mode, where you choose a mission from a list and complete it. Multiplayer is where the main selections are made: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, cooperative, the variety of play was incredible. Whether I was in multiplayer or singleplayer, I had a blast. Not only was there great variety in game modes, but also, you could choose from a multitude of weapons including explosives, sniper rifles, and heavy automatics.

The Wargamer: What is new? What will make your game stand out?

Niklas: The eternal question, what makes our games different from the others? In a sense, the game is unique in its blend of man sized to Battleship sized vehicles, the intensity of the battles that derives from the combination of air, land and sea units, all in one place. The diversity in the landscapes that range from rolling hills with towns to large deserts and tropical islands in the pacific. I believe we can capture the essence of World War II in all its horror and beauty combined.

The horror of being put through the perils of surviving artillery bombardment locked inside a bunker. Navigating your way beneath the waters in a submarine, outsmarting the destroyers that are determined to blow you away after your successful raid on their aircraft carrier. Sniping an unsuspecting victim from miles away or helping the wounded crying out in pain as a medic.

It's a massive undertaking but we're determined to achieve a game which will include all these aspects and truly make you feel that you're taking part in the great battles of World War II.

The graphics are a perfect blend of long and short range eye candy with the speed to play the game properly. Special mention to some of the fine extras in the graphics department. The sun flares like a real sun when you look into it. The shadows cast by objects are realistic and well done. And the long awaited bullet holes, shell casings and puffs of dust when things are hit are a great touch. Although the grass is gone from the landscape, there are bushes for snipers to hide behind.

Interestingly, the action flicks between first and third-person. When you perform a task such as climbing a ladder, sliding down a power cable or hacking a computer, the camera view switches to third-person with limited pan movement via the mouse, so you can observe yourself in the dastardly act of infiltration.

The Delta Force series is known for providing huge outdoor combat environments in which to use such long-range weapons, but in the previous two games, NovaLogic's voxel terrain technology had drawbacks, like sluggish frame rates, pixelated graphics, and compatibility issues with certain video cards. Land Warrior's new 3D-accelerated graphics engine now renders both expansive outdoor areas and tight building interiors quite effectively. Areas vary widely from high, snowy hills, to deserts spotted with huge cacti, to tropical lakeshores.

Battlefield: 1942 basically takes the best parts out of games like Quake, Counterstrike, H&D, and Delta Force. The amount of hits you can sustain depends on where the bullets hit as we have included a realistic damage model to the soldiers as well as all the vehicles. There’s a weak spot on most vehicles and you’ll have to learn where it is to deal with them in an effective manner.

One of the features of Delta Force 2 was it's use of a voxel engine to provide vast undulating landscapes where you could literally see for miles. The major drawback to this was that voxels are a software system for creating landscapes and are not suited to the polygon acceleration of 3D video hardware. Novalogic have addressed this in Land Warrior by levering the voxel engine into the 3D hardware as well as rewriting their polygon engine, meaning that everything is now accellerated and the game not only provides the vast landscapes of it's predeccessor, but also seamless movement from outdoors and the voxel engine to indoors and a polygon engine.

The terrains and new buildings look really smooth, and nicely done. There are a lot of new buildings which is definately good! Now undoubtably the best thing about LW being 3D accelerated has to be the forests you can have. They look absolutely amazing!!

3D GameForce: Talk a little about the specific damage zones on soldiers and vehicles.

Niklas Persson: Knowledge is power and in Battlefield: 1942 it's even truer. Knowing the weakness of your opponent's vehicle can be the difference between a glorious victory and an ugly defeat. Tanks for example have a weak spot in the flank and rear while a Battleship is vulnerable to hits on the deck. Damage zones on Soldiers were included to increase the realism in the game since we're not aiming to provide a playground for aspiring Rambo's. It's a team game and learning to take advantage of your enemy's weaknesses and at the same time providing for your teams protection is vital to the outcome of the game. For example, having fighters escort a bomber or soldiers supporting the tanks can give your team the edge to win.

"During the Cold War, the conventional military technology probably reached its peak", Marek explained. "We wanted to create a large war, but today's high tech wars don't seem to have as much potential for a good game as the conventional infantry / armour / aircraft war has. No other period offers such a huge selection of military equipment, although we had to come up with a fictional conflict because there wasn't a real conflict between the US and the Soviet army; and everyone is happy there wasn't, I think."

AI enemies not only THROW grenades, but also LAUNCH them if they are carrying grenade launchers. I can only assume that they will fire rockets at you, too, if they have them. Also, they will think nothing of firing through walls if they know you are behind them (though this might have been a result recoil-induced inaccuracy, the tango kept splintering the walls around me, even after I was dead). Some of the AI enemies are crack shots, too.

. . . but for now it looks like Land Warrior should be welcomed by fans of the series. Gameplay is pretty much the same as always: the enemy ain't too smart, and there's an awful lot of killin' goin' on. At least you don't have to mess with brain-dead "teammates;" at worst, you have one of the game's named characters helping you out, and they're much, much better than the old Alpha and Charlie squaddies. You can't control them, but that's actually a benefit, as they seem to be scripted pretty well anyhow.

To open with, the single-player experience has been tweaked quite a bit. The inflexible controls and interface have been upgraded to allow users to re-map the keyboard and mouse controls. More importantly, you can allocate a single button or key in order to lean to the left or right, resulting in the ability to peek around corners without causing any commotion. The Elite Edition also sports a new helmet-mounted display providing all sorts of useful information pertaining to orders and commands assigned to various squads. Weapon effects weigh a little heavier in combat now. Each gun behaves a little differently depending upon their weight, making it more challenging to aim and change targets. Players can also now toggle the strength of throwing grenades and lightsticks, allowing for better placement.

The most fun I had was deathmatch or team deatch match with the paintball mod. Every one gets an Air soft gun instead of a real gun. And when you fire you shoot paintballs. After a few minutes the whole map is full with paint spots. And that’s quite funny to see.

Before we dip into the real gem of the Elite Edition, its multiplayer, a quick mention must be made about the vast improvements Sierra has done on the games AI. To put it simply, these guys are smart! Weaponless characters can quickly become foreboding as they pick up artillery from within the gaming environment and spray bullets at you. They will also chase and hunt you down, so be ready to rock and roll when SWAT3's enemies attack!

Kikko: What type of missions will we see in the singel player part?

JP: CE was quite linear in its mission structure. And it was basically an action/adventure game. BF will be much more open ended. You will feel more like part of a war, with squad mates and even other bots running/driving/flying around you with goals of their own. It will not be like Hidden & Dangerous, but an FPS where you can give simple commands if you want to your team mates. This should make for a terrific cooperative experience since the rest of your squad could consist of other players instead of other bots.

Overall the multiplayer experience is a much needed and impressive addition to SWAT 3, but the Elite Edition also adds a number of new tidbits to the single-player game. Most notably are the new missions. Elite Edition comes with five new maps: Chang's Theater, the LA Metro, a hospital, a house in the LA hills, and a small commuter airport.

The Operation Bravo mission pack is much the same as the other programs: it features three difficulty levels and a number of scenario locations. You can choose from alpine, desert, jungle, MOUT (mountain) and urban. Each setting features five missions. In the mission set-up menu, there are numerous weapons to choose from, and you can equip each member of the two-man team with various devices, from med kits to explosives.

Unlike the missions in the Ranger package, the missions in the Green Beret add-on are mostly recon or clear missions. Scout out enemy encampments or clear bunkers of enemy troops. However this program still provides on-your-toes action in a wide variety of settings.

What SWAT does better than most games is to create these intense and believable environments with excellent graphics, and then mate those visuals with a top-notch weapons model that includes penetration, meaning you can shoot through walls and other obstacles. The result is a harrowing experience, as you attempt to maneuver around the close quarters of a hospital or a movie theater while under fire. The hospital and theater are just two of the five new levels in the Elite Edition, the others being an airfield, a heavily fortified house (complete with underground complex), and an L.A. subway station. (You can also play the original SWAT 3 missions in multiplayer.)

Delta Force Land Warrior will hit stores in just 12 days, on November 8, 2000!

The game will have many new features, including unique characters with special abilities and a new fast 3D accelerated graphics engine with expansive indoor and vast outdoor environments. NovaLogic is also proud to announce the introduction of NovaWorld 2 which will accompany the premiere of Delta Force Land Warrior!

The new NW2 online gaming service will include:

Persistent Online Character Identities

Experience, Ranks and Promotions

Statistical Tracking of Combat Performance

Medals and Awards Earned in Battle

4 Unique Character Names per User

Unique character names will be available on a first come first serve basis. The sooner you get Delta Force Land Warrior and logon to NW2, the better shot you will have at getting the names you want.

The files are available from the following locations:

German: http://www.sierra.com/demos/allframesjump?2707
Spanish: http://www.sierra.com/demos/allframesjump?2708
French: http://www.sierra.com/demos/allframesjump?2709
Italian: http://www.sierra.com/demos/allframesjump?2710
United Kingdom: http://www.sierra.com/demos/allframesjump?2711

Mirrors have also been set up at the SWAT 3 fan site, 10-David.Com.

**IMPORTANT: These are patches are NOT the full-versioned localized patches (which include the appropriate voice overs), but rather simple patches to be used in coordination with the North American patches.