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Once you reach the city, things get really interesting. Cresting the final ridge before the town, we're greeted with a really stunning view. The town stretches out before us in all its dingy, dirty glory. Makeshift houses and huts are clustered together in the middle of streets. Still other buildings survive only in skeleton form with walls, roofs and other features destroyed or otherwise missing. "Their towns aren't very well put together," they explain. "Mogadishu, the largest city, isn't even in good shape, so you can imagine what the outlying villages look like"

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IGNPC: Has the project carried any particular surprises for you?

B: I think it's a really exciting thing that they're doing here (even with my limited exposure to everything out there already) and to see the changes that have been made. This is our third month we've been involved and the changes that we're seeing from day one to now are quite impressive. We give them a little bit of info and the next time we come back, it looks like a whole different animal.

The single-player standalone missions, campaign, and multiplayer missions all take place in this rugged land. Sometimes it works well, and the outdoor missions are particularly pleasing with their sizable arenas. It's not a reach to believe Special Forces troops did some of the things the players do here, skulking about in the darkness, lying prone in mountain crevasses, and watching the enemy through night vision optics.

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I've seen a number of units mentioned as being featured in America's Army. Which were used and how were they chosen?

We showcased infantry first. To do that, we started with a unit that is first and foremost light infantry, and we chose the 10th Mountain Division. They were a natural; I believe they are the most heavily-deployed unit in the Army. Then we took that concept and expanded the infantry into other environments, and the units that serve in them. There is not a continuity of units throughout the game's missions. So, for instance, there will be a mission that deals with the Arctic. There we used the 172nd Infantry Brigade, the Snow Birds, as the model. Going from there, we looked at the infantry units that are more of the "forced entry" type, so the 82nd Airborne was included. They lead the Army in. We're going to focus on the 101st Airborne next, and players will see helicopters in the game, not flyable yet, but featured in the 101st missions. And lastly, at sort of the graduate level for infantry, are the Rangers.

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The sheer excitement engendered by the whole concept is still hard to extinguish after several days of play. To look at a warplane swooping towards you with the intention of strafing you with its guns, and to realise that it`s another player - in fact, your boss, chuckling away to himself in his office - that`s in the plane...to get into an armoured troop carrier, get someone to man the guns, a load of mates in the back and smash into the centre of a enemy`s camp...to feel the exhilaration of knowing that battleship out there is sinking because of your expertise at the helm of a massive gun emplacement on the shore. All in all the gameplay experience on offer here is completely uncharted.

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Resistance plays out a few years before the story of Operation Flashpoint, letting you assume the role of Victor Troska, a former Special Forces soldier. Having grown weary of fighting, Troska retires to the sleepy, provincial island of Nogova, a fictional area that readily calls to mind the Balkans. The sympathetic Troska's peace and quiet don't last long. A split between hard-line Communists and reformers causes Nogova's government to collapse, whereupon Soviet forces led by a brutal commander arrive to establish a puppet government. Only Troska is capable of organizing and leading a militia resistance.

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The new Gulf War tactical action game Conflict : Desert Storm isn't even out yet, but SCi are apparently so confident of its success that they have already signed up Pivotal Games to develop two more games in the series. First up will be Conflict : Desert Sabre, a direct sequel to the first game featuring SAS and Delta Force teams fighting deep inside Iraq during Operation Desert Shield. The game will apparently be loosely based on a book called Sabre Squadron, and is due out next autumn.

Following in the autumn of 2004 will be the catchily titled Conflict : Missing Presumed Dead, which shares little but its title with the previous two games. This one will be set during the Vietnam war in 1968, following four US soldiers caught behind rapidly expanding enemy lines during the notorious Tet Offensive.

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The Tom Clancy franchise is such a grand franchise in itself, that when you go ahead and add more realism to it, it just gets better. You can play other games but there's no basis in fact, and it's written by a bunch of people that have seen other games. It's different if you're playing a game where the programmers actually went to a school and practiced some of these things, so they got a feel for what it was really like.

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We didn't have to worry about making a good engine, so we put all our programmers on gameplay, on game features. Our first goal was to make Rainbow Six : Rogue Spear in Unreal, and once we had the look and the feel and the mood all set, then we started enhancing it. We went into a lot more detail on the weapons, in that we have more weapons and we also have attachments you can put onto the weapons. In Rainbow that's one of the really big realistic factors, playing around with the weapons.

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LONDON - UNITED KINGDOM (July 19th, 2002) - Entertainment software publisher NovaLogic Ltd. today announced plans to release an open multiplayer beta test for the eagerly awaited title Delta Force - Black Hawk Down. The beta test will be one multiplayer level and is scheduled for release at the beginning of August 2002.

“Multiplayer has always been one of the strongest facets of the Delta Force franchise,” commented John Garcia, CEO of NovaLogic Ltd. “We see this open beta test as an opportunity to test and improve our multiplayer options while also getting the feedback of the people who count, the gamers.”

More information concerning the multiplayer beta test will be announced shortly.

Delta Force – Black Hawk Down will ship on PC CD - ROM during October 2002.

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There's been a lot of fuss at the official forums about the first person weapon view. There really shouldn't be. It's very well done, looks good and adds to the game, I had my doubts, but it looks good, and I am now converted. You may well be too when you see your operative alter his grip on front of the gun as you peek round a corner, or see him flex his fingers when he has a moment to do so. Also, the reload animations are spectacular, absolutely accurate and nicely done.

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HomeLAN - What were the team's main goals when they decided to develop the sequel?

Birns, Zisk, And Vitiell - Our main goals were to address all the shortcomings with the original game as well as incorporate all the suggestion from the fans. I think we nailed most of them such as multiplayer, prone, and view distance issues. We've also implement many new features which I am sure will make the game much more enjoyable.

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The Washington Post also has an article on the game.

UPDATE: Well, the game is completely installed, but because the game is online-only and the soldier creation database online is either swamped or down, I am totally unable to enjoy any aspect of the game except for changing settings. I'm going back to bed! Hope these homelanextreme people acquire a little bit of foresight between now and the time that I wake up!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Well, I figured out that you can skip steps, so I tried out the marksmanship range, which seemed to be the only "map" I could access until I qualify with my M16. While the interface seems a bit clunky, the qualification range is about 95% a realistic simulation of an Army basic rifle marksmanship range, as I remember it. True to life, getting an expert badge (hitting 36 or more out of 40 targets) will not be easy, and you're going to need that to even qualify for Sniper School, later (with no guarantees you'll pass the school... Yes! No more snipers around every tree!).