Codemasters officially announced today that its highly anticipated military action/simulation game, Operation Flashpoint, will ship to North American retail outlets the first few days in September of this year.

The European version of Operation Flashpoint will be shipping in mid-June of this year, but Codemasters has opted to postpone the release in the U.S. in order to add new features for the North American market. The U.S. version will differ slightly from the version that ships in Europe, the primary difference being additional multiplayer capabilities, including dedicated server functionality and enhanced network code. With multiplayer gameplay being such a huge factor in the States, due to greater access to high-speed, broadband Internet connections, Codemasters has decided to take full advantage of these features in the initial U.S. release of the game.

A free upgrade which will enable the European version of the game to utilize the additional multiplayer functionality will be available around the time the U.S. version ships.

This scene is complete with pre-battle back and forth conversation between the NPCs, calling out orders and such, as the squad prepares for landing. Once on the beach, the real fight begins, as the player attempts to make his way up to the Nazi encampments. One of the more impressive aspects of this part of the mission is seeing just how much NPC action is going on all around. Machinegun fire and mortars decimate friendly soldiers as they attempt to breach the barbed wire fences, medics radio for help as they attend the wounded, and officers bark out orders, directing the attack. It certainly does a good job of conveying the magnitude and scale of such a historic battle.

This is Red Storm's follow-up to the Rainbow Six/Rogue Spear series, which focused on small anti-terrorism squads. But Ghost Recon is about military actions, most of which take place outdoors and with hhardware like tanks prowling around. You lead three teams of up to eight men, but unlike the Rainbow Six games, there's no pre-planning phase. Instead, you give orders on the fly using an overhead map to assign waypoints to your different teams. Between missions, you allocate combat points among your soldiers to increase their skills. Red Storm is building Ghost Recon from a completely new engine geared to longer-range outdoor encounters.

Ghost Recon does do the best job of portraying Night Vision Goggles, in the opinions of both Chunx and myself. The coloring is just right, light sources flare brightly, and dark/shadowed areas are harder to see as they blend into each other. Plus, the display shows that grainy look that is just perfect for NVGs.

Yes, Project IGI had its problems - mainly the lack of a save game option (although, now that I'm playing the game, I kinda like the fact I can't save), and some very unintelligent artificial intelligence. Of course, one other thing worth a mention here is the lack of MP features… God almighty, this would've been one fun MP game. But I'm not writing this as a re-review of the game. What I wanted to say instead is that technically -- in terms of the code, physics (bar the silly jumping), and the eye-candy, Project IGI actually ranks very high amongst the similar type of shooters.

Walking through one ice-covered level in Northern Russia all that was missing was the crunch of the snow underfoot (which will doubtless be added at a later date). Dynamic lighting and shadowing all added to the realism however the icing on the cake was the single most realistic snowstorm in gaming history. Flakes fell sideways, down, back and forth, swirling around and about in a mad dance of precipitation. It may not sound like too much, but it's touches like this that help to drag the player from the real world and immerse him in that of the game.

Something that takes us totally by surprise is that the developer has decided to completely remove the pre-planning stage of the game! What?! Isn't that like, integral? "There'll be no pre-game planning," says Jonathan, "We found that a lot of people considered the pre-game planning too laborious to do and so we streamlined it." Indeed. All commands issued to team members are now given in-game or "on the fly" as we're told. It operates in a similar way to the systems found in SWAT 3 and Hidden & Dangerous: pressing the space bar brings up a command HUD that allows you to issue orders directly to other team members who are only too happy to follow them to the letter. Everything now happens in real-time giving the game a more interactive and hands-on feel.

When we were offered the chance to work on CS we were already designing a multiplayer FPS so we had a long list of things we were interested in achieving in a multiplayer game. It took a lot of restraint to realize what made CS strong and what we could add to build on those strengths without trying to remake it into our vision. We tried to focus on relaying information to the players with help messages, clearing up mission objectives, reworking code to make it more stable for the future and adding some solid new content to extend the interest in the game.

Each section has a cone that it shoots out to detect things. It has no concept of range or # of threats in that area. There could be 10 bad guys or 1, it doesn't know or care. Also the threat may be 10 meters or 300 meters away and it could be on one edge of that cone or the other. Obviously at 300 meters that could be a discrepancy of more than 30 meters and depending on the terrain that could be quite a bit.

"...keep in mind, that while we are including dedicated servers, you will still be able to just host a game like you did in Rogue or Rainbow6. The inclusion of dedicated servers does not mean we will not include a more traditional hosting system."

* Black Thorn is a stand-alone product and does not require a copy of the original Rogue Spear.
* The story line focuses on a group of terrorists that are recreating terrorist actions from the past half century. Black Thorn allows you to face these scenarios with current tactics and weapons.
* Ten new missions
* Six multiplayer dedicated maps
* New weapons

The gun bob is the best I’ve see in a first-person shooter. CO runs on yesterdays hardware, which means you don’t need a colossal gaming rig to run it. It’s a budget title for the casual gamer. The sound and music is all right – nothing too annoying. Best barrel explosions ever! Pop a barrel marked as explosive and a shockwave (just like that of the Death Star blowing up in the Special Editions of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi) blasts out, crumpling any nearby bad guys.

What are the plans for BF's "mod" capability? Will users be able to create their own vehicles, buildings, soldiers, weapons, scripts, etc?

Ola: Right now, end users are going to be able to create their own levels from scratch, helped by tools and instructions included in the game. Even though we can’t promise the ability to create your own vehicles, we will do everything in our power to bring you that option, too.

The storyline focuses on a group of tangos that is performing "copycat" terrorist acts, that is, trying to recreate terrorist actions from the past 50 years. Black Thorn will allow you to conquer these missions using current day tactics and weapons.

Speaking of weapons, Black Thorn will add 14 new weapons to Rogue Spear, two of which will be "terrorist guns," or multiplayer only.

Probably the biggest change is that players can now change their plans on the fly," he said. "In the other games, you had to do all your planning in advance and couldn't change it. Now, you can modify your tactics any time you want or even begin the mission with no planning at all."

Some nice touches demonstrated in this level included the rain effects, the ability to demolish entire buildings in the "highly destructible interactive environment," and ladder climbing being represented realistically for the first time ever in a FPS game (instead of sliding up, your view jerks as you ascend and hands grab at the rungs).

Apart from this it mostly resembles Soldier of Fortune; as you first have to purge a subway station, and then move on to Russia, Bogotá and Iraq. The levels are full of civilians and there is a level where you are on a truck and being shot at which also reminded me of SoF, but you will hardly see as much violence and blood as you saw there.

Realism is what draws many players to games of this sort and the developers are working hard to get all the details right for Global Operations. There are lots of real-world weapons to try out, and they're all customizable in the pre-game menu. Depending on the weapon, it's possible to add a scope, laser sight, silencer, under-the-barrel shotguns, or even grenade launchers.

The full story, features over 50 missions on 4 different islands. You start out on a training island, you have to bust your ass to your commanding officer's orders and do it quickly. Very nice immersion here, gives a nice idea on how the game is going to be played out. As the story progresses, you find your way onto other islands, doing different things. You may have to guard a small town, or rescue your commander who was trapped in an ambush.. only to be ambushed yourself.

Don't get your hopes up for a DF4, at least not this year. Things are looking down for Novalogic. According to sources, NovaLogic Systems is dead, Kerry Allan was released last Tuesday. The general feeling is that if Necrocide doesn't succeed it could kill off the company. There is some work starting on Commanche 4, it may save the company if the AI and gameplay are solid and smart. No mention of Delta Force 4, Landwarrior is beginning to be explained as "a separate product line".

Low level development continues on a PS2 version of DF. The company is slowly switching over to poly-based engines and may drop voxels in the next few years, a couple of people mentioned actually licensing engines from other companies. They have lost over 50 people in the last year and morale is not good. So don't hold your breath for a DF4, it looks like we're in for a long wait, if the survive past 'Necorcide'.

As a German shell blows up the landing craft next to you, your own boat comes to a halt and the ramp falls down. Within a second the guys standing at the front are blown away and you see the chaos ahead of you - dozens of bullet tracers sweep past you and an artillery barrage will scare you witless as you try to use the tank traps set into the beach as cover from the relentless hail of fire. The noise is simply unbelievable - this is Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the Gates in computer game form, make no mistake.

The game is built on the skeleton of the Rogue Spear engine but a ton of improvements have been made. The environments (most missions are located outside this time around) are fantastic. Lots of hills and trees characterized the levels we saw. The character models and effects are also slightly improved over the previous titles. We love the series and we're very curious as to how this new direction will work out for the team. We'll bring you more information between now and the game's Fall release.

Helza: Will it be possible to Cycle trough the mission if a mission ends when your hosting a Multiplayer game.

Ohara: Yes this is possible if you have a dedicated server, that is why we’re working at the moment on creating such a feature.

(Side note: According to BI Studio the Dedicated Server option will not be in the UK (European) release, but it should be available in the USA Release (which is release a month later). People with the UK (European) Version will be able to download this as a patch.)

While the single player is definitely appealing, by far the most interesting aspect of this game for me is the multiplayer. Of course, like any good FPS game, deathmatch and capture the flag will be involved in some form or another. As I mentioned last year, and I'm sure many of you are aware, there is a much more interesting multiplayer aspect to be included. There is a actual Command and Conquer mode. The AI plays C&C against itself, using the buildings in the map you are in. Buildings function just like they did in the C&C RTS game (as they do in single player of Renegade), but players will fight as single soldiers in a greater battle against each other.

The best example we saw was an enemy engineer running back and forth to repair two turrets on a nearby beach. The turrets were blasting away at a ship just offshore. Once Mike took out the engineer, he laid some C4 at the base of the two turrets. The turrets blew up and the ship was allowed to come in closer to shore. There the ship unloaded a tank. Mike climbed into the tank and took off to wreak more havoc on the Nod base.

Combat in Soldier of Fortune 2 will stress more squad-based tactics than the previous game. Although it's still a pure action game, there will be several operations where you'll go in as a team with other AI controlled mercenaries. Instead of barking orders and giving away your position, your companions will give you silent hand signals to let you know what their next move is.

Ghost Recon on the other hand is a brand new game for Red Storm, featuring an impressive looking new graphics engine, a new interface, heads-up display and team control system, and an entirely new task force for you to serve in - the eponymous Ghosts.

This time round the focus is on military rather than counter-terrorist ops, as you lead a group of elite special forces types on daring missions behind enemy lines to carry out covert strikes, rescue downed American pilots, blow up bridges and hostile air-bases, and bail out bungled peacekeeping missions. As a result the kind of weaponry which you will be using has also changed, with the army giving you its latest equipment to field-test, from an M-16 assault rifle with integral grenade launcher to the M-136 anti-tank rocket system. Expect less flash and more bangs.

The title, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, is a 3D, first-person game of near-future special forces operations.

The title, in the same vein as NovaLogic's Delta Force games or Zombie's Spec Ops offerings, puts you in command of a small team of highly trained commandos. In this case, the group is the Ghosts, a US Army unit designed for covert military operations. While the game plays out much like a 3D shooter, you can jump from team member to team member, or just give orders and set certain AI parameters like rules of engagment and arcs of covering fire.

One of the things about Ghost Recon that Ubi Soft is emphasizing is the game's modeling of near-future weaponry, including advanced infantry weapons, sensors, and communications equipment. The game is more combat focused than the Rainbow Six/Rogue Spear games, which featured counter-terrorist and police-like actions primarily. Ghost Recon includes tanks and aircraft to bedevil or assist your team, and correctly using antitank weaponry will be essential to success in some cases.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is slated for a late 2001 release for the PC.

The ballistics model in the game is very, very complex, with physics programmed in for the various types of materials that bullets will hit in the game. Not only that, but it takes into account the speed at which the bullet is going when it hits the object, the type of gun that fired (of which there are 34), the type of ammunition that was in the gun, and the angle that the bullet entered the object.

Ghost Recon is still squad-based, but all of it is much more on-the-fly. There is no longer a planning phase in the single player games, and the current iteration uses a tactical map (switched from the standard view), allowing the user to create waypoints on-the-fly. Think of it as a more flexible system than in Tribes 2. By simply clicking on a units (either Alpha, Bravo, or Charlie), the player can direct squad movement through multiple waypoints. The waypoints allow for the same control elements as was found in the Rainbow Six planning phases. Each squad has two soldiers, for a total of six soldiers in a mission. A new in-game overlay display will pop-up which allows complete control of the individual soldiers - it even shows where they have been hit.

Myth II: Green Berets is a squad-based tactical strategy game set in the treacherous jungles of Southeast Asia. Carefully plan your surgical strike, blast your way through enemy camps, or covertly sneak deep behind enemy lines. Destroy radio towers, defend bases, or eliminate high-ranking VC officers! Your objectives are clear, but your path will be dark and dangerous!