GameSpot: The original Hidden & Dangerous featured a wide variety of different settings for its missions. What are some of the new mission objectives in the sequel?

Thomas Pluharik: Some of the mission objectives are similar to Hidden & Dangerous, but there are many new objectives (recon and photography, stealth and sabotage, etc.). The missions are also more complex than in Hidden & Dangerous and can have more than two or three objectives per level.

This new batch of screens is of special interest for potential designers and mod makers as they show images of the engine that Bohemia uses to deploy units and build the missions which you'll experience in the game. Operation Flashpoint will ship with this editor, allowing you to create single and multiplayer missions with no real technical or programming knowledge and then enable you to share them across the net with fellow Op Flash players.

Hidden & Dangerous 2's Features include:
* Over 20 complex missions in nine campaigns.
* The ability to interact with the environment, including communication through the game with non-playing characters, etc.
* Enhanced character development that progresses through the game.
* Engrossing storyline that follows the lead characters and enhances the game's atmosphere.
* New and improved accessible controls including active cursor and scrollbar and automatic actions.
* Improved combat tactics and greater control over the entire unit.

We noticed that Hidden & Dangerous 2 seeks to improve a great deal on some aspects of the original title which gamers had been disappointed with. The most obvious of these is the multiplayer option, which many felt was weak in the original. This time around, online combat will include deathmatches, capture the flag, team games and new environments, which we are promised will be highly challenging. The multiplayer option also hopes to cater for up to nine gamers at a time, which should make for some very intense combat. We were told that the game controls have been improved as well, allowing for automatic actions and more easily managed combat tactics.

Now they have completed another Quake 1 engine game for publisher ValuSoft with a more adult theme called CIA Operative. Here is the description from the game's producer Grant Collier:

In CIA Operative the player is an elite government agent whose mission is to protect the USA's interests abroad. This Quake powered shooter takes the player to various hotspots around the world to assassinate drug lords, eliminate unsanctioned weapon stockpiles, and destroy staging points for illicit substances that if unchecked would poison the youth of America. All must be done without sullying the image of the world's only super power.

WOL: Can you confirm that Operation Flashpoint will be really in stores at the end of May?

Marek Spanel: Unfortunately, its already probable that Operation Flashpoint should be released in June. Initially, english version should have been released at the end of May and other versions about 3 weeks later, however we decided to release game at the same time all over the world. Above all for one's sake adverse effects to software piracy in the countries where the release date is later.

In total there are three vast islands to explore in the main campaign, with total freedom of movement to roam across them as you like. There are dozens of missions to complete, ranging from defending a radar installation against enemy saboteurs to ambushing enemy tanks and securing villages. Along the way you will hook up with the local resistance to rescue hostages, sneak through enemy lines in civilian clothes, and desperately try to hold off overwhelming Russian forces as they move in on your position.

Stomped: Since the game will give the player control over a four man squad what will the game's AI allow the squad to do?

Pluharik: It depends how you will set the AI of your men. There will be a couple of switches which can change AI of your men from agressive beast who is running all around the level and killing everybody within the range or to mindless servant who will obey only your orders. The old interface with voice orders to your soldiers has been simplified.

Stomped: The engine for Operation Flashpoint has a lot of features other games do not, such as large outdoor areas and drivable vehicles. How difficult was it to implement these features?

Spanel: We had to develop many new things and we have spent a lot of time in researching new things. Often we found the way we choose wasn’t right and we had to start some part of the game from the scratch. Sometimes it looked like never ending story but after four years of development we’re finally reaching the end. We wanted to offer the player enormous variety and freedom and we never expect it to be easy.

The movie ran in full screen and started up with the words Illusion Softworks. The music started and we saw these British soldiers running through a village, It nearly made me fall off my chair, I managed to keep my balance by grabbing fugues tongue which was now trailing on the floor. The animation was the best I have ever seen, we saw firefights, dogfighting, close-ups of troops, buildings, snipers and en excellent clip of a soldier firing the BAR. We both agreed that the competition had no chance of coming close to this, we have both played the Flashpoint demo, but to be perfectly honest, it is light years behind H&D2 for graphics, animation, atmosphere and effects.

Flashpoint comes alive with a host of tiny details that make it into a solid contender for the best solider sim/fps to date. The vehicles and landscapes are all gritty and rich in visual detail, inside and out. It's possible in Flashpoint to be the pilot, gunner, and passenger in any of the vehicles in the game. There's something about sitting in a M113 APC and watching your colleagues bumping around in the back with you.

In a bit of a surprise, Stomped has learned through a G.O.D. spokesperson that both of Illusion Softworks' upcoming action games, Hidden and Dangerous II and Mafia: The City of Lost Children, will both be on display at the Promised Lot this year.

The new game is called Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and is a team based action game but unlike the counter-terrorists of the Rainbow Six series, Ghost Recon deals with a secret Army special forces team. One part of the article describes Red Storm's plans for online multiplayer where it states both PC and Xbox players will get to play each other, suggesting that Ghost Recon will also be a PC game as well. The game is scheduled to be released this fall.

One of the major criticisms of other War games is the unrealistic player physics, especially running and jumping, people complained that its too fast, especially in multiplayer. Hidden and dangerous is still the most realistic in this department, have you made any improvements in H&D2, and will the game remain realistic?

[TP]: In this case we are balancing between realism and playability. But nothing revolutionary has changed and we have also added some features in movement possibilities (climbing over obstacles etc.)

Like other tactical shooters, you'll also have an AI partner to control as you take on the world at large. Think the AI of Rogue Spear with the intimacy of Daikatana and you'll get a feel for how you'll be working with your teammate. You'll have a variety of people to choose from, but you'll only be able to use one at a time in a mission, so select carefully. Each of them will have their own strengths and weaknesses, and just like you select weaponry in a tactical shooter for your battles, your partner may just be the important item you pack with you.

From publisher Codemasters and Prague-based Bohemia Interactive Studio, OF may herald a new kind of combat squad shooter. While the basic play is much like a Delta Force game, OF sets itself above other 11 Bravo (infantry) simulators by adding realistic touches that greatly aide in simulating the combat environment. The game features a well-defined command and control structure, a system for advancement in rank and responsibility, mission driven scenarios, "real-world" weapons modeling, and things like fatigue, aiming difficulties while on the run, and wounds. The intent is to place you squarely in the boots of a grunt—in both first and third person—as few other shooters have.

In battle the best tactic is to go prone when engaging the enemy. This will reduces your body target area (making it harder for the enemy to shoot you) and also making your aiming more accurate. Use trees and bushes as cover, thus making it harder for the enemy to see where you are. Never stay in an open area for a long time. This will make you a nice target for many enemy soldiers who might be hiding in that area. Become familure with the area by scanning the land searching for enemy targets and plan the best route to engage the enemy. Do not just run into enemy lines pretending to be Rambo, this will not work and you will be sent home in a box.

This section serves as an introduction to the basic concepts you will need to employ in Operation Flashpoint. Battlefield tactics require a good sense of situational awareness as well as knowing how to use your equipment to your greatest advantage. For now, this page will focus m