The standoff began earlier in the night after police rammed the gates in a white van. Carrying military assault rifles, police jumped out of the vehicle and shouted at journalists to get out of the way. Two more vans followed, carrying more of the hooded police inside.

Concussion grenade flashes and gunfire enveloped the villa grounds. Smoke was seen rising into the air. Some of the special forces smashed through windows as riot police held Milosevic supporters outside the gates.

Conflict: Desert Storm places you right in the middle of the action. It makes you the star of your very own war movie as you lead your Special Forces team against the Iraqi Republican Guard. You have the whole Gulf War to live through. [All 101 hours of it?! - Rush] Jets roar overhead, tanks race past you, and helicopter gunships shoot up enemy positions.

The world of Conflict: Desert Storm is vibrant and real.

First of all, we would like to ensure you the Demo has revealed only very small fraction of the game. You have tasted some nifty things that will be present in Operation Flashpoint, but the full game is bringing you much, much more than the Demo could with any add-ons or user made missions.

Prepare yourselves for over forty high quality missions linked to create intriguing campaign from Cold War era with authentic storyline and strong characters and test your combat skills with additional ten instantly available single missions.

Becoming familiar with other actions can be crucial to survival in Operation Flashpoint. Many secondary actions are available through a small menu that lets you shoulder or switch between weapons, pick up items like extra ammunition, and enter various vehicles. For example, if you come across the dead body of a solider who was carrying a bazooka, you have the option to pick it up, but you can still hold on to your primary weapon and just place the bazooka on your back. Unfortunately, the same doesn't apply to rifles, so you have to decide whether you want to keep the weapon you have or pick up an AK-47 instead.

SE: What sets TF apart from other shooters like Counter-Strike is the RPG-element. Can you explain this a little bit more?

PS: Every specialization have its own setup and selection of skills to pick and cultivate. This may enable to build unique character perfectly fitting the players way of play and fight.

The Demo as released is in my opinion TOO feature rich. Its NOT a "Demo" in the normal sense, its nearly a "Late" full feature beta minus a few items.

This demo was Downloaded over 1 MILLION times so far.. That is incredible for a military sim..

Releasing a MP version of this demo will do nothing more that cause some potential buyers who are not the hard core shooter types to simply continue to play the demo (which we all know can be edited to keep it fresh with new missions) and not buy the boxed game. The true game nuts are going to buy it, (like me) but, with the number of Demo DLs so high, a statistially SIGNIFIGANT number of those borderline buyers will be lost. Thats lost revenue that would otherwise help insure future development and more succes for this development team..and thats someting Id like to see happen.

The game isnt too far off...people have pety to keep them bz working themselves into a lather. [eh?! - Rush] Dont give us multiplyer support...make us buy it

As for the multiplayer mode, the general assumption is that there should be about eight game mods (classic death-match, ctf, king of the hill, escort…), and that the players will be able to set a large number of parameters on their own. The multiplayer mode should feature five exclusively multiplayer maps, plus all single-player maps. The programmers are trying to make the game support up to 20 players per game, and they are currently considering a possibility to introduce multi-person campaigns.

The most enjoyable (and challenging) are the sniper sequences. You've got to stay zoomed out so you can see where the targets pop up, and then zoom in again to see if they've got a weapon (some of the criminal and civilian targets deliberately look a lot a like). Then you shoot, or not. You have five rounds in that rifle, so you need to quickly reload while a friendly target is up. It's nerve-wracking, which is probably what a real police exam feels like. Later exams add extra frills, like using night vision.

Live long enough, and you'll get to command your own group of men willing to live and die by your orders -- a heavy responsibility, to be sure. Faced with this kind of task, it's important that you learn to properly manage your men, carefully balancing the necessities of your present situation against your newfound strategic capabilities. Your orders reflect this tactical flexibility, as you're given a broad swath of control over your crew; while you're capable of ordering them to move to target locations or to attack something or someone of your choice, there's much more to it. For instance, you'll soon discover that formations can play a crucial role within a given mission: whether it's a column, staggered column, wedge, vee, line, or echelon, each has its place in the field. You're also able to set your soldiers' ready states, telling them to hold fire, to engage at will, and so forth; you can even request that they keep an eye open for hostiles, or to report on their exact coordinates.

What's the best way to get an idea of the problems associated with each task?

Don't be in too much of a hurry. Make full use of your equipment (satellite map and binoculars). You will need to develop a feel for how much time you have e.g. to get from point A to point B before patrolling guards or a camera spots you and sets off an alarm.

CVG: You've described this as a "WWII experience". What does this mean? Is there a storyline as such, or are you simply offering people the chance to play as a variety of different combatants from different sides?

Ola Holmdahl: "The game places the player into the heart of WWII action. You can fight as an American, German, Russian, Japanese or British soldier. It'll feature many of the weapons and vehicles used in the war, all of which are player operable, as well as most of the historical battles in the European, Asian and African theatres. The game will see the player through the expanse of the war, from its absolute peak to the bitter end."

* Create a shortcut of the demo to the desktop or anywhere you want it to be.
* Right click on the shortcut and select Properties
* Add this line to the end of the Target box "-nosplash"

Kled'12 : Which games gives you inspiration in Venom creation ?

Sergey : There are so many games, movies and books which influenced our artworks and code that I am in a difficulty to answer these questions. Probably Duke, Counter-Strike, Delta Force, Hidden & Dangerous, Rainbow Six, Half Life have been more of influence on Venom than other games.

We tried to follow the best technical and scenario decisions existing nowadays and introduce something new.

First rule during an infantry charge is to stay low, and keep a respectable distance from your squadmates, so that a hand grenade doesn't take out half of the unit. Advancing your position is all about spotting "him" before he spots you, and praying to god that some stray bullet doesn't have your name written all over it. Infantry charges are usually like that -- you have to keep communicating all the time (Bohemia did a great job there with introducing the radio messages you receive during action - they'll tell you the enemies' position, status of your soldiers), and doing the ol' prone and sprint to the next appropriate cover exercise. Oh, and spotting an enemy from a 150m away is a bitch in real life, so don't expect it to be any easier in Op. Flashpoint. The game makes you rely heavily on radio coms. and instructions from your squad leader. Some people might find that irritating, but this is actually in the spirit of the general 'realism happy' design.

Communication and teamwork are the only ways to stay alive and kicking during a mission. Members of your squad will report in everything that happens to them, from a close encounter with a enemy to their exact location when they are in need of support. With up to a 12 man platoon, their is never any radio silence.

Project: IGI fits into the same vein as the Delta Force games except that it takes them a step further. The first thing anyone will notice about this game is the incredible realism of it. One shot to the head will kill any enemy in most games, but in IGI, a headshot will kill you too. Bullets will rip through most walls as if they weren’t even there causing devastating damage to anyone on the other side. Ricochets can and will come straight back at you causing injury and even death. Grenades, rockets, and other explosions create huge damage zones meaning that if you want to live you had best be far away when they go off.

London-based publisher SCi Entertainment Group has announced that it will publish a tactical-action game based on the Gulf War sometime next year. The game is titled Conflict: Desert Storm, and it will give players the chance to take part in the 1991 war against Iraq. It is currently in development at Pivotal Games, a UK-based developer formerly known as Pumpkin Studios, which developed the 1999 3D strategy game Warzone 2100.

Though little is known about Conflict: Desert Storm at this time, the screenshots that have been released show off some detailed character models in several 3D environments. The game will also feature several types of equipment and vehicles, including helicopters, fighter jets, and SAM sites. We'll have more information about the game as it becomes available.

Conflict: Desert Storm is scheduled for release sometime in 2002.

Notice that this mission has "Sniper Support". Which means that you can select a separate entry port to place the blue team in a sniper-position. In this mission it's in a helicopter outside the building.

Q: I saw on the Voodooextreme forum that you can only play co-op on 2 levels, and I think that's pretty stupid. Why not make the WHOLE game co-op-able or at least more than 2 levels? Your thoughts on this one if you will.

elmagoo: As for co-oping the whole game, that's not as easy as it sounds. There's a lot of care that has to go into making a game fully co-opable (in all aspects from level design to code). There are many issues that have to get thought out and solved (such as if one player dies, do you just let them infinately respawn like in Quake 1 so there's no real meaning to trying to stay alive, or do you give them some kind of harsh penalty so there's more value on trying to stay alive). Plus the gameplay and level flow have to be designed from the ground up with co-op in mind. There are certain styles of levels in the game that just won't work well for co-op (such as when you infiltrate under the guise of a German uniform, you can't really have several players all walking around in disguise).

Helza: Can you tell us anything about the different types of Multiplayer Games that will be available?

Marek: It's depending on the mission. Any multiplayer game is mission based and possible types of missions covers almost every type of multiplayer: starting from co-operative missions to larger and more tactical combat of larger squad. Some people like capture the flag variants as well and sure you can play simple death match games. You can use built in mission editor to create your own multiplayer missions as well.

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of Project IGI, is the AI or artificial intelligence. Since the game has no multi-player component, the AI is crucial to the success of the campaign missions and thus the game. And although the AI is not bad enough to ruin play, it does a good job of dragging the game through the mud.

To put it bluntly, the AI in this game is unimpressive. As long as guards are not aware of Jones' presence, they'll keep to themselves, walking along their programmed route. Once they do become aware of the trespasser, they'll either drop to their knees and start firing or more likely make a mad dash for Jones. And like other games with poor AI, their accuracy is ridiculously good. While the AI is a step above the original Spec Ops and Delta Force, that's not much accolade when one considers those games are nearly three years old. Recent tactical shooters have made significant steps in their AI, with SWAT 3 leading the pack.

- export of Total Kills stats
- possibility of using filters on the export (by using these filters you can export just your own personal stats or your squad's stats by simply typing in part of your name or tag)

-This MOD adds 17 primary weapons, 7 secondary weapons, and 6 special items to NATO 3 (or an additional 61 primary, 24 secondary, and 6 special weapons if you are starting with UO).
-Sounds, Bitmaps, Textures, and 3D Models have been improved.
-Gameplay mechanics have been tweaked regarding armor protection, ammo loadouts, and weapon characteristics.
-As a bonus, multi-player missions have been included (ala NATO 2).
-NATO 3.5 is stand alone, and does not require the installation of NATO 3.0. If you already have NATO 3.0 installed, NATO 3.5 will overwrite it.
-The installer will automatically detect where RS/UO is installed without your intervention. Thus, there should be no problems if your game is not installed in the default directory.
-The online NATO 3 Manual has been updated for NATO 3.5. The manual is a great resource, including full weapon and item descriptions, as well as tips and hints.

MSXbox: Will the game contain multiplayer capabilities on the Xbox, or will it be primarily a single player game? If multiplayer is planned, will gamers playing on the Xbox version be able to compete with players on the PC?

2015: We are focusing on making an excellent single player experience. We're also including a multiplayer component, and we think everyone will be quite pleased with the plans we have. At this time, there are no plans to support competition between the versions.

Stormbringer: Is the focus of the game on the single player experience or is it balanced between single and multiplayer.

Vince Zampella: The main focus is to make an awesome single player experience and we are spending a great deal of time to polish the game. We want players to feel like they are part of the world they are interacting with, and come away with a better understanding of what the war might have been like. We are also including a multiplayer component, and we think some of the plans we have will be quite enjoyable.

Drunk: How long did it take you to develop and test Nakatomi/Nakasaki?

Grandmas7er: Hmm.. so many people have asked this from me, but it is really hard to give any exact numbers. I started Nakatomi sometime during spring 2000 and it was ment for Soldier of Fortune. It was very early stage and I got bored with it and left it alone for months until I downloaded Swat3 Development Tools and found out that hey, I can load good ol' Nakatomi to WorldCraft.

To get a real taste of combat on the ground one of the missions involves flushing out the Soviet troops from what looks like a deserted village. The mission starts with the whole platoon driving through the countryside on the back of a truck and then being dropped off close the village. As the platoon disembarked everyone spread out and the AI squad leader issued commands to the rest of the platoon. It was at this point you realise how much work has been out into the game's AI. Every member of the platoon got on with their job in an intelligent fashion, in fact the only member that was running round like a headless chicken was me.

And now I go back to mentioning the maps, I’ve said they can be huge, and highly detailed. The aim of the developers being to simulate the battlefields in France, and to create the hilly islands of the pacific… Given the detail that is going into the shipping maps most people would assume that player constructed maps would be difficult. Fear not mappers of the world. The guys at DICE demonstrated the real time mapping tool they use to create their own levels, and told me that a shinier version of the same tool would ship with the final product.

Even the most basic aspects of the game have been made overly complicated for IGI. The developers have generously given you the ability to look around corners, a characteristic first introduced by Redstorm with Rogue Spear. However, the difference here is that you cannot peek AND fire at the same time. Not only that, but it’s a two-button combination used for you to peek so your finger must go off the trigger for a second. Needless to say, I never used this function at all while trying to complete my missions.

When you use DFOptiStat to run Delta Force Land Warrior, it will import the scores after each map into it's own database and you will be able to create HTML pages for:
- Ranking by number of total kills
- Ranking by number of total flags
- Ranking by seconds of total zonetime
- Ranking by total targets destroyed
- Ranking by best ratio in 1 game (kills per death)
- Top 10 for all the above

In Medal of Honor Allied Assault from Electronic Arts, players will assume the role of Lt. Mike Powell, member of the famed 1st Ranger Battalion who gets recruited by the OSS and battles through over 20 levels that are based on historical military campaigns of World War II.

Set during the most trying years of the war, 1942-1945, Medal of Honor Allied Assault gives players a sense of the courage it took to survive the landings at Normandy, the assault at Arzew, a rendezvous with the Resistance outside the village of St. Lo, and the push through the heavily defended border of Germany itself to take the bridge at Remagen.

The idea behind this new genre is to create the variety of roles and vehicles that participate in an entire battlefield. Instead of only flying the planes, the player can also drive the vehicles, or fight it out man-to-man and street-to-street.

BF1942 will have you playing as sniper, medic, or standard infantry, with a variety of special weapons, or occupying the pilot’s chair in a B17 or P51 or dive-bombing in a Ju87 Stuka.

However rewarding it may be to receive medals and certifications in the testing phase, it really doesn't encourage repetition of the tests. To me, the best application of the Officer's Candidate School would not be a classroom exercise, but rather a field operation. Covert Ops Essentials would have been a truly fascinating game if it had only included a way to practice what had just been presented in the training CD through tied-in mission CD operations. While there are certainly some technical hurdles to clear in order to implement such an idea, the current limitations in Covert Ops Essentials would have seemed so much more minor with such a revolutionary feature.

Never before seen were close-ups of actual troops from the game. The detail in the facial features and clothing is unsurpassed, unlike anything we've seen before in a PC game. You could actually see the sheen in the Nazi Officer's leather trench coat. It was pure eye candy -- and we loved every minute of it.

PCG: How much involvement did Spielberg have in this game?

LH: The whole MOH franchise was his concept, so he comes in periodically to check on progress, just because he's interested in it. On our side we like to get his input on the Omaha Beach situation, for example, because he was so immersed in that whole environment for Saving Private Ryan. We wanted to use his experience and knowledge background so we could make the length of the beach correct, the hedgehog (beach defences) placements correct, the bunker placements, where the machine guns were, and so on. We wanted to be as authentic as possible. Not to be a sim, but just to have a realistic overall feel.

The missions progressed in complexity, although there are a few other training missions thrown in, such as helicopter training and tank training. And that's what looks appealing about Operation Flashpoint: there's going to be plenty to keep your interest. In one mission you and your squad will surround a farmhouse on foot to eliminate resistance fighters, and in another you'll enter an enemy-held town, steal a truck containing important documents, and then drive like a bat out of hell for friendly territory.

We also got a look at some of the vehicles in the game, from a military jeep to a motorcycle and sidecar and a slew of tanks. While the only vehicle you'll be able to drive in the game is the Sherman tank, you'll be able to ride as a passenger in several of the vehicles. You'll take the "shotgun" position to its fullest literal level as you act as a mobile sniper in certain levels, picking off bad guys from the confines of the jeep and motorcycle.

[...] moreover an extensive communication menu is to the player at the disposal, with which one can give [detailed] statements to individual team members or the whole team. [...] In addition, this communication with the team is urgently necessary, because with operation Flashpoint is Teamwork in demand.

Closer in style to H&D than Wolfenstein - or indeed any Quake-powered game to date - Medal Of Honor places a lot of emphasis on stealth and sabotage rather than mindless shooting action. In fact, if you try to go for the gung-ho approach you'll be shot to pieces faster than you can say Project IGI.

Tension created by the ambient sound effects really completes the game. From the distant barking of dogs, to the chirping of grasshoppers and birds, it all feels so real. When you hear the ominous sound of squeaking tank tracks you know it's in your interest to hide. Quick. This brings us to the Artificial Intelligence utilised by both Computer controlled enemies and your squad mates. It behaves uncannily like a human.

All in all, Project: IGI will give you a great single player experience the first time through. With a combination of decent graphics, great sound, and passable AI, it proves to be one of the best games in its "Thinker Shooter" category. The biggest downfall tended to be the lack of multiplayer, and the unfortunate missing ability to save mid level (comming soon to a patch near you). If you have some time to spend on it, and you enjoy a challenge, IGI is for you, otherwise, stick to Counter-Stike.

Role of player: You are a Delta Force Elite Driver in the Gulf War. Your Fast Attack Vehicle is a stripped down - tooled up fighting machine used for rapid offensive missions to penetrate enemy territory at high speeds, destroy SCUD launchers before they fire, rescuing allied soldiers stuck behind enemy lines and recovering stolen gold. You'll either have to sneak into enemy territory or be dropped off by chopper under the cover of night.

Gameplay: You will be called into combat in a variety of different missions. Some are out in the desert, other are based in the cities All are along and behind enemy lines. As a driver you have to be skilled at not only controlling the vehicle, but using the frame mounted machine guns and grenade launchers, identifying hazards such as mine fields and working with your fellow drivers on team based missions.

Project IGI offers 14 single player missions, which generally entail infiltration of a guarded compound. Once inside these compounds you are expected to complete a variety of goals ranging from gathering information to destruction of key targets. Project IGI focuses more on stealth and cunning rather then on sheer firepower. Trying to blast your way through a mission will only bring down an endless parade of guards on some missions---which makes it close to impossible to complete your goals!

Q: Since this game uses the Q3 engine the specs should be roughly the same! Right guys?

Coriolis: We are doing more stuff than Q3 did and are coming out almost 2 years after it did, so our min specs will probably end up being higher than Q3's were. On the other hand, we are doing everything we can (short of sacrificing game play) to keep the minimum specs as low as possible.

PlanetXbox: With regards to single player gameplay, will it following a specific storyline or will it diverge based upon the players successes and failures?

DICE: The storyline is pretty fixed to the historical framework, but within each battle, the player will be given specific goals and opportunities. This doesn't always mean 'kill the enemy'. The Germans defending Berlin in 1945, for instance, fought to keep the Red Army at bay long enough for the Americans to arrive and liberate the city. In Battlefield 1942, you can fail or succeed in this: it's up to you.

While earning accolades may give you bragging rights with your friends, it's the objectives that are the meat of the game. You'll be ordered to make strategic assaults (both by yourself or as part of a crack military team), infiltrate enemy headquarters disguised as a Nazi, rescue POWs, drive tanks and other military vehicles, destroy enemy installations, and demolish historically accurate landmarks.

But an order of my leader took me back to "life". "1, Attack Officier at 2 o'clock". Then i saw my enemy and i shot at him. After a short round of bullets he didn't get up again. Suddenly two bullets hit the dirt right infront of me........ then a short pain and I saw my body from above with a big "YOU ARE DEAD".