The game's graphics are very detailed, stunning at times, with many noteworthy environments and buildings; though nothing ground-breaking. The characters are highly-detailed too, marking one of Ghost Recon's most significant improvements. The sound and music find itself in a similar position too, being more than mediocre but less than brilliant.

During the demonstration, we were shown a mission, in which David Jones--the same James Bond-like special agent from the original Project IGI--is placed on the top of a sand dune, overlooking an enemy base with a small heliport. Naturally, there are also guards patrolling the outer walls and interior area. While stealth would normally be the preferred tactic for this mission, Jones' sniper rifle is used to pick off a few guards marching out in the open to demonstrate how the other enemy soldiers will immediately go on alert when they see a fallen comrade.

Still, amazingly enough, all of these inconsistencies and aggravations don't completely hamper an otherwise enjoyable game. Because of Deadly Dozen's confounding ability to replicate and exhibit the atmosphere of the era in the shadow of its faults, cautiously romping through burnt out villages and a rain soaked countryside is still actually fun. Playability never brightly shines or screams for attention and merit, but it comes passable, just enough so that it can comfortably rest on its highpoints and let the game's other facets supplement what remains lacking.

Demo for H&D2 will be released in the same time (maybe little bit after) of the full release H&D2. Simply, It can't be done sooner because we don't to publish anything what is not 100% complete and 100% functional. Hope the readers will be able to be patient after all those slips we already did before. Please try to use your editors skills and write this information wisely. Maybe we'll provide a multiplayer demo sooner but it's not information which I can warrant.

Q: Will there be a demo, and if so, when can we expect it?

A: Yes, there will be two demos. One single player demo that you can get from the February issue of Computer Gaming World or pre-order at Electronics Boutique, Software Etc. and Babbage's stores just after the 1st of the year. There will also be an internet multiplayer demo available through GameSpy around 14-December.

For a stand alone game you get something you can learn the ropes on but at a cost that is just a bit too high for my liking. I wouldn’t recommend this product at $30 but when it falls to the $15 dollar range you will get your moneys' worth out of it. I beat all of the maps in a single night's play without much difficulty, but I will continue to play it in multiplay since I am enjoying the quality of the new maps. Overall yet another (and hopefully the last) mediocre add-on for Rogue Spear...it is time to move on to the new game engine.

Fans of the R6 series will undoubtedly notice many tried and proved game design techniques that have made Red Storm's previous games so popular. Namely, I'm talking about the great gameplay dynamics, some very detailed recreations of world's hot spots, and of course detailed environments and player models. It seems as though Red Storm has taken all the best features from their previous titles and crammed them into Ghost Recon, giving the game a familiar, yet refreshing look and gameplay feel. Besides applying all the known tricks of the trade, Red Storm worked very hard on making the interface as non-intrusive as possible, and luckily, they did one hell of a job at it.

In my eyes Operation Flashpoint isn't the perfect product many of us are looking for in a soldier sim but it is to the tactical shooter market what the original Rainbow Six was. It is a huge jump forward that every other shooter that follows will be compared to for a long time to come. This is a very well made and extremely well supported title from people who seem to care that we all get a great value from our money. I know I have.

The first mission that I get to see – incidentally, there are a total of 20 in the single player game - is one of the open area types of Project IGI fame. Anyone familiar with the first game will immediately feel at home, and even at this stage you can tell that developer Innerloop has done work on the engine. Gone is the stretched-look texture warping that could appear at times in landscapes, the environments are more tasty and everything just looks sharper.

There are many WWII era weapons with which to equip your squad (done at the start of each mission). Ammo conservation can play into things, but you can acquire enemy weapons and ammo so if your shooting is good you can have a healthy supply of ammo. There’s the old reliable combat knife but when you’re facing a Nazi tank a bazooka is your best bet.

You can pick up to four men to execute each mission and then outfit each of them with two weapons and three equipment items. The men are each rated in seven categories: small arms, heavy weapons, explosives, sniping, medical, sneaking, and toughness. The effects of most of these attributes are very clear--someone with a high sniping skill has a noticeably better chance of killing an enemy in one rifle shot, and health packs are more effective when administered by a squad member with a good medical rating. Any team member killed in action becomes unavailable for the rest of the game, which provides some continuity between missions and acts as an incentive to keep everyone alive.

1.00-1.03 (40 MB)
1.01-1.03 (6.52 MB)
And a patch that brings the DEMO to 1.03 as well.

Once you're on the field, you better organize your men the best that you can. You can switch between them at any time, and the ones that you are not leading directly will listen to your commands (which come down to: hold position, follow me, hold fire, fire at will, and attack my target and formation commands). I didn't do too well with organizing my team, and to be frank, I didn't have too much patience from the very start. I realized that wasting your time on formations can only get you a relatively high casualties count; so high, that I almost gave the game up on the first mission.

Each of the scenarios will offer a challenging mission, from storming Omaha beach to destroy all fixed major gun emplacements along the top of the bluff, to saving London from detonation by fireworks by infiltrating a German staging area and sabotaging its supply of V2 rockets. While many games would stop the mission after you did the dirty deed and then segue into the Cut Scene of Congratulations, Medal of Honor will concentrate as much on exfiltration as infiltration - i.e. in most cases, getting the hell out of there is the ultimate goal.

...if there's a game that's synonymous with the tactical shooter subgenre, it's Rainbow Six or its successor, Rogue Spear. With these games, developer Red Storm set an unprecedented standard for realistic gaming combat. One shot could kill, and stealth and planning were the order of the day. Now Red Storm is back with a new tactical shooter, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, which is big news for shooter fans. News on the game itself is mixed, though. Ghost Recon offers some excitingly tense moments, but problems often rear their ugly heads just when the game gets interesting.

This is one aspect of the game that is particularly good, the soldiers and dogs in Deadly Dozen are far from static and that alone makes them tough. You can sneak up behind unsuspecting guards with stealthy characters, but if they spot or hear you they shout, then all hell breaks loose. Officers can blow whistles to call reinforcements and can also direct other soldiers so picking them off early is a good idea.

As any veteran of the 3D-shooter wars can tell you, though, nifty guns are easy. Realistic, entertaining environments are the hard part, and it's here that Operation Flashpoint really delivers. Though the islands you fight over are fictional, the game world boasts some of the most realistic, satisfying, and downright lovely outdoor terrain ever seen in a shooter. Forests—actual forests, with huge numbers of trees—cover rolling hills, while roads and tracks crisscross the slopes and valleys. Small villages, looking like something out of a travel guide to Central Europe, dot the landscape, complete with churches and farmsteads. Little details like street signs, fences, and roadside shrines add the touch of verisimilitude missing in so many games.

All of which makes it really quite hard to recommend this pack to anybody at all. Hardcore Rainbow fans and newcomers to the series alike will both be waiting for Ghost Recon. Even those who live their lives through counter-terrorism will be knocked back by the price and those who just love the Rainbow experience can probably find better maps and mods for free on the Internet. When taken in isolation, Black Thorn is a competent, if somewhat uninspiring, add-on. When taken in context, it's overpriced, old-fashioned, and has been released with exquisitely bad timing. Save your dough for Ghost Recon.

IGNPC: So you see this as part of a new franchise?

Darren Chukitus: Oh, absolutely. With the Rainbow franchise, that was great but you had certain rules of engagement that you had to follow. We didn't have to follow close-quarters, SWAT action with the Recon series. We follow military rules of engagement. With that said I think there will be lots of different scenarios we'd play with in the future.

The missions take place in a variety of settings and environmental circumstances. The rain and fog are very realistic, and well done. That immensely enhances the mood of the game. The missions take place in countries such as Norway, France and Africa; each with their own unique weather and visual conditions. One mission will have you walking through a bright, sunny desert situation, while the next plunges you into a world so dreary it makes you want to put an umbrella over your PC. Your dangers come in many faces. From the rolling tanks to the ferocious German Shepard dogs that help alert their Masters that you are in the area. The dogs will kill you, if you do not kill them first.

However, the largest addition to the SWAT3 game with TGOTY is the addition of 10-person multiplayer, doubling the number previously allowed. This affects you even if you never play online, because it also gives the single-player SWAT3 gamer the ability to have a separate AI-controlled element operating with you on custom single-player missions and the new 10-man team custom campaign. While you can't give them orders in advance, through the viewing command (where you can pull up a small window that shows any team member's 'helmet-cam'), you can give them orders as the mission progresses, much like you can remotely order your own team's elements through their helmet-cams.

A nice feature of this game is that you don?t have to do things in a prescribed way to achieve success. You can wander the map in a haphazard way, and never run into certain traps, and yet still complete the mission. A lot of very expensive games could learn from this. One such mission I played 3 times, it wasn?t until the last time that I realized that a Tiger tank was prowling the area. I had not bumped into him the first two times, and doing so was clearly not a requirement for the success of the mission. That?s nice.

The most obvious nod to the real world comes in the game's arsenal, which is designed to emulate the weight, feel, and action of real-life counterparts. There's a dizzying array of machineguns, sniper rifles, pistols, and anti-tank weaponry at your disposal, but perhaps one of the best toys is the OICW -- the Objective Individual Combat Weapon, a monster that manages to piggyback a grenade launcher onto an assault rifle.

From there you'll go into battle through 15 missions in the single player campaign (and all without the notoriously unwieldy planning interface from the Rainbow games -- more on this later). There's a pretty good range of objectives here (although let's be honest -- it's all about killing the other guys, right?). You'll have to investigate a crashed helicopter in crowded city streets. You'll have to blow up a bridge in an enemy occupied valley. You'll have to protect a column of tanks as they rumble through bombed out city streets. You'll have to raid rebel bases deep in the forests and fend off similar assaults on your own positions.

The story is based around a terrorist group led by a psychotic ex-member of the Rainbow team, who has taken it upon himself to re-enact famous terrorist activities of the past in order to lure Rainbow to its demise. Cue a cheery jaunt across the world for our stealthy chums to pop a cap in the ass of a few hundred dim-witted foot soldiers, in settings ranging from cruise ships to foreign embassies, and middle eastern villages to suburban train stations.

-Frees approximately 130 megs hard drive space.
-Game runs much smoother.
-Game loads faster.
-Your squad will not bunch up behind you as closely.
-Fixes the 2 'semi-rare' crash bugs.
-Fixed a rare 'save game' bug.
-Gets rid of the 'purple' boxes on mission 6.

There are six new excellent multiplayer maps. Most of the Rainbow Six community would really enjoy playing on these. Now you can connect to Ubi soft for some great multiplayer goodness. A new multiplayer mode is Lone Wolf. It's like a game of "it". You are "it", until someone hit's you, then they are it, and the game goes on. This is a lot of fun, and will be a worthy addition to your LAN parties. There are also some cool new weapons such as the FAMAS assault rifle, which will send any Rainbow fan into ecstasy.

Q: How do you give orders to specific men in the squad?

A: Press and hold down the Alt key, put your mouse over one of your squad members (so you can see his name under your cursor) then give the command (such as "Follow Me"). Only that squad member will follow that command.

Solo
-Hamburger Hill - whoever spends the most time in the central area of the map (designated with the rising smoke) wins
-Last Man Standing - The winner is the last one standing
-Sharpshooter - Whoever has the most kills wins

Co-Op
-Firefight - Randomly placed enemies are placed on the map
-Mission - The game plays out exactly like the single player mission
-Recon - Your goal is to make it from the insertion zone to the extraction zone

Team
-Hamburger Hill - same as above
-Search and Rescue - The winner is the team that finds the three hostages placed and escorts them to safety. The hostages are invulnerable
-Last Man Standing - The winner is the last team alive

Shooting while moving tends to be wildly inaccurate, and it pays to stop and drop to your knees at the first sign of trouble, firing off a couple of shots at a time instead of rattling through your entire clip. You can also go "prone" to get the best stability for sniping and to make it harder for your enemy to see you amongst the undegrowth. There is even a neat camouflage net which automatically appears over you when you lie down on the grass, making it even harder for anyone to spot you.

Being "value titles", companies usually give developers three to four months of time to slap a game together and get it out the door. Anymore time than that, and it's not worth making. Hard core gamers have some sort of an idea what it takes to make a game and to do it in such a short period of time is amazing. Well, I should say, to do it well in a short period of time is amazing (and rarely done) and N-Fusion has amazed me, for sure. As always, we'll hit the basics though...

From the very first mission, veteran Rainbow Six players will notice the amazing amount of freedom offered by the large Ghost Recon maps. No longer are players locked into one or two entry points and forced to assault along hallways to take down Tangos at sub-20m ranges. Instead, combat takes place in mountainous terrain using the maximum effective range of a variety of weapons to achieve strict mission goals. It requires a complete rethink in equipment loads and tasks, and a lot more reliance on the other team members to cover their arcs and aim true.

Yet, while it is completely different to Rainbow Six, it is also amazingly similar. Control of the soldiers and the operation of equipment is almost exactly the same. While weapon handling uses the familiar centre reticle as the aiming point, a threat sensor has replaced the heartbeat sensor, which is part of the Land Warrior suite, to assist in identifying and eliminating the enemy.

Codename: Outbreak is a mix of gameplay from traditional sci-fi first person shooters and the tactical shooters found in games like Rainbow: Six. Like traditional FPS games there are aliens to fight and big weapons to handle. Indeed, the main weapon of the game actually “morphs” into several weapons, including a shotgun, machine gun, sniper gun and laser gun.

However, this game mostly leans toward the tactical side of gameplay and nowhere is that more evident in the fact that you have an AI sidekick that you can take along throughout the single player game. You have a choice of which soldier you want to play as well as which sidekick you want. Each soldier has different strengths and weaknesses (some are better at sniping, for example). Codename: Outbreak even employs a type of RPG system where you and your sidekick can improve their abilities after accomplishing each mission.

The action in most missions is intense. There is never a dull moment, and the excellent use of sounds can make a gamer go insane, constantly looking around for the enemy, with plenty of ambient noises, such as owls’ hoots, to trick the player into firing prematurely and giving away one’s location. There are also moments, in the heat of action, where one turns around only to see a tank slowly rolling along, its barrel aiming at none other than the player. Then, with a loud BLAM!, it explodes into tiny bits, as a soon-to-be promoted private fires a well-aimed anti-tank rocket to bail out his platoon mate just in the nick of time.

Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear: Black Thorn In-Stores Today!
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Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear: Black Thorn(tm) arrives in stores on Thursday, November 1!

$29.99 gets you a stand-alone Rogue Spear mission pack and a sneak peek at the hottest PC game of the year!

Rogue Spear: Black Thorn(tm) is an all-new, stand-alone mission pack for the popular Rogue Spear(tm) saga. Take on team RAINBOW's newest, deadliest enemy in 9 new single-player missions, and take on your friends in 6 new dedicated multiplayer spaces. Combined with 14 new weapons and a new "Lone Wolf" multiplayer mode, Rogue Spear: Black Thorn is a must-have addition to the game library of any Rogue Spear fan.

Included in Rogue Spear: Black Thorn is a bonus CD: The Making of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon(tm). This CD contains video interviews with the team working on the highly anticipated new game from Red Storm Entertainment, as well as gameplay video, exclusive screenshots, concept art, multiplayer hints and tips and exclusive hints and tips for the first mission of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon(tm). Learn all about the weapons you'll be using in-game, as well as the technology that went into building the most-anticipated tactical combat game this year!

Download and play the Rogue Spear: Black Thorn demo here:
http://www.infoyouaskedfor.com/redir.cgi?site=BlackThornDemo

Learn and see more about Rogue Spear: Black Thorn here:
http://www.infoyouaskedfor.com/redir.cgi?site=BlackThornInfo

Buy Rogue Spear: Black Thorn here:
http://www.infoyouaskedfor.com/redir.cgi?site=BuyBlackThorn

After seeing the incredible demos of Allied Assault at E3, a huge concern among the media was how realistic and intelligent our fellow units would be during gameplay. Watching the soldiers flank up and cover each other was almost a little too eerie for us. The AI controlled units would even take our kills away from us. At one point we had an enemy in our sights. Before we knew it, one of our guys managed to take him out right in front of us. Granted they stole a kill, but it was cool to see them take the initiative.

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis is certainly worthy of being considered a benchmark title, if not quite a classic one. For the most part, Bohemia Interactive has successfully combined vehicle, flight and infantry sims. This arguably results in the first true tactical combat simulator. The occasional awkwardness of the interface and unforgiving realism of combat may have the tendency to discourage some, but those who persevere will be rewarded with an experience unrivalled in current simulation-style titles. The games industry has never been slow to capitalize on new, successful concepts, so the arrival of Operation Flashpoint may lead to a great number of developers attempting to produce a title of a similar nature. If such turns out to be the case, it is a testament to the game's compelling uniqueness.

Setting:
While Codename Eagle was set in an alternate 1920s world where Russia was invading Europe, Battlefield 1942 is set in the familiar territory of WWII. The multiplayer game will base gameplay in a choice of 4 campaign theatres - the Pacific, North Africa, East and Western Europe.

Player Classes:
Players can be Soldiers, engineers, snipers, medics. There's also a commander class.

Vehicles:
If you thought the range of vehicles in Codename Eagle was the sure ingredient for fun then get set to have your smile permanently fixed to your face. Battlefield 1942 has 32 different land, air and sea going vehicles. Some examples include a fighter, a B-17 bomber, a dive bomber, a destroyer, an aircraft carrier, a submarine, a light tank, a heavy tank, a Jeep, an armoured car. a missile truck... the list goes on.

Me: How important is the MOD scene to Codemasters and Bohemia Interactive?

Jonathan Smith: We're extremely keen to support the incredibly lively and valuable Internet community for the game. The game?s continued success is entirely due to the commitment of its players, and we?re very grateful to them. In terms of concrete support, we do have plans to release free new development tools and additional documentation to help people create their own adventures in the Operation Flashpoint universe.

MGON: How much of a factor will the terrain be in planning and executing an operation?

The type of assault a player chooses will in part depend on the terrain. Military operations are very different compared to counter-terrorist operations, which primarily involve tight quarters combat. The terrain types in Ghost Recon include; wide-open spaces, with plenty of room for team and enemies to find solid assault positions.

Innerloop are promising "an enthralling story" and enhanced graphics with more water, weather effects and night time conditions. They have also pledged to fix one of the biggest shortcomings of the original game, the lacklustre AI. All-new artificial intelligence will apparently allow your opponents to work together more efficiently as a team, instead of standing scratching their heads as you pick their friends off one by one.

NOTE: This is public betaversion. If you don't want to participate on the public betatesting please wait for version 1.30.