The decision to take terrain editing out of the player's hands is one that may have contributed to the ease of design here. Instead of having to design levels (which generally tends to be where many would-be designers fail) this allows players to focus on content. With four giant islands that are already created, teeming with strategic opportunity, and ready for action, all designers have to do is set up a battle and let gamers have a whack at it. Not only can players design their own single player missions, but both competitive and cooperative multiplayer missions as well.

HomeLAN - What can you tell us about the settings and battles that Battlefield: 1942 will have?

Lars Gustavsson - You will fight the war in the major theatres. Each of them will deliver a new feeling with the most common vehicles of that area. Fighting the war in the Pacific? Why don’t you get out on your aircraft Carrier, run down to one of the AA-guns to fight of the fierce attack of the Japanese bombers. Then when the attack is slowing down, get into your fighter, take off and let them know that YOU are the master of the skies!

Other noticeable enhancements include the ability to shoot through different surfaces with different weapons, and realistic-looking foliage in some of the maps. "The jungle level was real challenging", says Hughes. "In the beginning, we did a lot of experimenting to see what would work, and how we could sell it better."

Gameplay revolves around a two-man team of heavily armed Special Forces soldiers with you at the helm. You can play as either soldier at the click of a button, with the other following simple orders, but otherwise operating independently. Before a mission begins you can equip each one with a different combination of weapons and armour, up to a pre-set load restriction. Your job is to mow down the alien scum, find their hidden base and nuke it. Simple enough then... Yeah right.

The physics of the game are very real, and so is the game play. In most cases you are playing in vast open area so you have to take your time, find the enemy and dodge incoming fire. Its not a simple case of the enemy just jumping out in front of you shooting, just waiting for you to blast them away. At first it was annoying as I would be running along only to hear a “Ziiiiiiiiip” and find myself dying in a pool of my own blood. The enemy conceal themselves, and indeed act like what a real person would do in war zone, stay concealed, alert and at a distance. You soon get used to it, and learn to navigate around the maps without drawing too much attention to yourself.

Operation Flashpoint comes as one of the first FPSs where you start out playing a foot soldier. You'll be thrust into the thick of things under the command of computer run AI. You'll need to listen to your group leader until you prove yourself enough to graduate to your own command. Eventually you'll be giving the orders to your troops instead of the other way around. But that isn't where the fun stops... every vehicle that you see in the game can be used by you, providing the enemy isn't already using it of course. So you need to make a getaway? See that Yugo over there just waiting to be used? Skip that and get the jeep. Sure you could use the Yugo... but its a Yugo. Anyway, you get the picture...

SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year delivers one totally new mission, five missions previously available only on the Web, and the original 21 missions. New weapons, skins, and MODs are also contained on the CD. The 27 missions feature hostage rescues, high risk warrants, and barricaded suspects set in familiar Los Angeles locations, including Chang's Theater, the L.A. subway, Whitman Airport, Hollywood Hills, the City of Angels Hospital. As well, this edition includes all of the community building tools needed to create one's own version of SWAT, including the newly enhanced Scenario Editor with career editing functionality, and the Worldcraft Level Editor.

In addition, Sierra will be releasing a SWAT 3 version 2.0 update that will give owners of Close Quarters Battle and Elite Edition all of the features of the new Tactical Game of the Year Edition (except for the materials contained on the Advanced Tactics CD). The 2.0 update includes 10-man multiplayer game play, enhanced AI, the option to play as an element leader or be commanded by an AI element leader, and the newly enhanced Scenario Editor. Version 2.0 will also be available in late September.

Miss-Match
The improved Multiplayer net code is a big topic, how much has this been improved on in the newest patch, and will we still have to use Gamespy, or will Operation Flashpoint have its own built in Game finder?

Marek Spanel
We focused mainly on net code optimizations and we believe the results are quite good. It’s notable esp. in missions with more AI troops being involved. Other big step is possibility to create remote dedicated server hosting games. We don’t plan to have any own game finder in the game. Gamespy is a good choice but there are already many other options around to finding Flashpoint multiplayer games.

As much as Mullins enjoys taking on the bad guys all by himself, Soldier of Fortune II leans more to a group effort then solo-driven procedures to get jobs done. The games intent is to advance beyond the action-shooter genre and shift towards the tactical-shooter genre along the way of its development. Despite most peoples’ speculation about tactical-shooters, I’ve been a fan of them for many years now ever since the early days of Delta Force where you’d work with your team step-by-step, inch-by-inch to proceed onward to completing the mission. The same goes for Mullins role in Soldier of Fortune II. You’ll now have more tactical abilities than you did in the original such as hiding, crawling, the use of stealth and communication with teammates.

As we sat down to test our skills with the game's first mission, we immediately noticed a change in the "threat indicator," a small circle at the bottom of the display that gives you an idea of where enemies are located. Previously, the threat indicator simply displayed in which direction you should head to find an enemy by making one of the circle's eight sections yellow. When you draw to within 40 meters of a threat, though, the directional indicator disappears, and the center of the circle turns red (this also happens when you take fire). This ensures that you'll be able to locate enemies without wandering for long stretches of time, but it doesn't lead you directly to their position--and the game's excellent AI routines for enemies mean that negotiating those last 40 meters can be a heart-pounding experience.

Team Factor is a stand-alone multi-player action game designed with team play in mind. The game's mission, environment and objective is inspired by the "shadow" military operations - whether real or fiction style.

PCG: Why the switch in focus to the military?

BU: When we first started talking about what we wanted to do after Rogue Spear we kicked around a lot of ideas. One of them was just to do Rainbow Six 3 - we could have used the same team, used the same planning interface, and done everything the same way - but the team was sick of it and we were worried about the Tomb Raider syndrome: doing the same game over and over again winds up getting stale. We wanted to take the franchise in a new direction for our own benefit and for the benefit of the fans.

PCG: What does Ghost Recon mean?
RE: It's a group of Special Forces, an entirely fictional group that we created.

PCG: Like Delta Force?
RE: Well, Delta Force is a Novalogic game and we want to be a Tom Clancy game in a Tom Clancy universe. We're trying very hard not to be what Delta Force was, where you're shooting this little thing that you can see running off into the distance and you have a hundred shots. That's not what we're about. We're not Quake, we're not Unreal Tournament. We're Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear, just in the Army. You're part of the US Army.

You'll command six soldiers at once, giving orders on the fly with a real-time map-no more pre-mission planning-plus, you'll be able to jump inside anyone, anytime. Of course, your weapons will be highly realistic, as will the 16 missions, which will include rescuing downed air men, evacuating the American embassy, and blowing up bridges. For fans of R6 and military shooters in general, Ghost Recon looks to be a must-have title.

Explosions look great as well. Several times during some missions, especially those set in the evening, I stop, turn and watch the sun set over a hill and I reach for my night vision goggles as it gets too dark to see well. This brings me to something I like very much about this game: The attention to details. As you may know, NVG’s (night vision goggles) “collect” light from all available sources, and adds it up so that the wearer can see better. Therefore, as you go into a wood at night in Opflash with NVG’s on, you’ll notice the NVG image becoming grainier and darker, because of less light from the stars. Another thing showing Bohemia’s meticulous attention to the little things shows up very well in one of the campaign missions. You’re sitting on top of a cliff, a mile or so away from a village where some of your fellow soldiers have planted explosives. When you give the order to detonate, you’ll first see a flash of light from the explosion, then a few seconds later, hear the sound.

PCG: Will the Ghillie suit give you effective camouflage?

DC: It depends on where you are. If you're in more of a city environment, we're going to give you areas we believe make good camouflage. If you're out in the woods and he's in a prone position, you won't even know he's there - he'll really blend in. But although we wanted the sniper to have one shot, one kill, we didn't want him to have too much of an advantage. So, bearing in mind the size of the maps, we've had to alter how far a sniper can shoot because, realistically, a sniper can shoot a 50-caliber sniper rifle more than a mile. You don't want it to be a situation where in each game the sniper wins.

PCShooter: What kind of enemies can we expect in this game? Can you explain a little about the AI and their relationship to what you call the LICH?

KH: The enemies in the game will be, for the most part, human. There might be attack dogs or something of that nature, but I'd say it's about 95% human and 5% "other." (Dogs/Vehicles etc.)

The LICH AI system in Soldier of Fortune 2 is going to be far more advanced than the AI of the original game. We've re-written the AI entirely from scratch without using any code from Quake III: Arena or from the original SoF.

PCG: How do you feel about the competition - Operation Flashpoint, for instance?

SR: We set a very specific target for what we want to do and that's what we go for. We don't look at the bells and whistles that some of the different games out there are leveraging, because we want to be very honest and true to what we're trying to get done. Other games can influence you and lead you off track. We do look at them, but we try not to be influenced by what they use as their special features.

The basic storyline of Soldier of Fortune 2 is as follows: 'A new and insidious threat has arisen in the form of a bio-terrorist organization and their two-pronged Gemini Virus. Now, you're off on a transcontinental mission to stop the terrorists and destroy the virus before it's unleashed on humanity. Full frontal assaults, stealth and subterfuge are your tactics. Sub-machine guns, assault rifles and grenades are your tools.

HomeLAN - What other gameplay features are in the game that you would consider to be important?

Brian Upton - Well the biggest thing is that we've eliminated the upfront planning phase and now let the player have complete control over his teams on the fly. It makes the whole game feel much more fluid and interactive.

GS: How many types of vehicles will players be able to control in the game? How are you handling larger vehicles--like aircraft carriers--that require thousands of crewmen to operate?

LG: We still have to set the exact number of vehicles, but I can assure there will plenty of different ones for you to use. To control larger vessels, like battleships or bombers, and get full efficiency out of them, you need a crew. Depending on the vehicle, each person controls one specific station--that is, one driver, a couple of gunners, and so on. One player can control the entire vehicle, but when you don't have every stationed manned, you don't reach the vehicle's full potential.

FunXbox: We haven’t read this anywhere, so we are asking -- Will sniping be a feature in Battlefield: 1942?

Lars Gustavsson: YES! It will be, and with those large landscapes that we have, a sniper can really make a difference in the planning of your attacks. Better load up your teammates in an APC for basic cover than trying a commando styled on foot attack, since one single sniper hidden in a farmhouse can endanger the whole mission.

Will the missions be focused on reconnaissance and stealth, or more "shoot 'em up based" activity?

One of the great things about Renegade is that the player can decide for himself how best to complete the missions - go in guns a-blazin' or use the covert approach. Both have benefits and drawbacks, and each scenario will be different. The tactics also depend on any secondary objectives the player wishes to accomplish. For example, one secondary objective might call for Havoc to take out SAM Sites so GDI can bring in reinforcements. Havoc will get help that way, but the explosion will also alert the Nod base to his presence. Stealth can be quite important at times - in fact, Havoc's sniper scope is equipped with a special microphone that allows for him to overhear conversations being held a long distance away.

An orchestra of musicians drawn from the Seattle Symphony was assembled at the Bastyr Chapel, a church just outside Seattle, to record Giacchino's original score for "Medal of Honor." The Seattle Symphony was selected because of the impressive talent pool it draws from in the Pacific Northwest. Gianchinno put together a 64 piece orchestra to record his score for "Medal of Honor." The music composed for "Medal of Honor" was Gianchinno's most ambitious undertaking to date.

Gameplay is still team-based, with up to six men per team split into three separate groups. Interestingly, Red Storm has gone for as realistic a model as possible, and this adds a definite edge to the scenarios. Each member of your team is a specialist, and they'll stick stoutly by their chosen weapon - you'll be unable to pick up and use a downed comrade's gun, or the ammunition of an enemy, just the same as a real soldier wouldn't scavenge to continue a fight.

The game in general is very fast paced and decidedly action intensive. Bouts of fighting can be broken down into strafing runs from in and out of cover which will come in many forms (doorways, broken walls, trees, whatever). You'll need to make effective use of the "look before you leap" technique of strafing in and out of areas taking out baddies as the AI, thankfully, are not mental lepers present in most games. They too will cut in and out of cover, lay down suppressing fire for one another, and roll, duck and dive out of the way of dangers.

Multiplayer mode is getting new gadgets, including land mines, mine detectors, and trip mines. It’s also getting a new mode--a multiplayer version of Lone Wolf. Instead of one player versus AI enemies, it’s one player versus every other human player. The Lone Wolf gets to make the kit selection of his/her choice, but the others can only use handguns. Whoever nails the Lone Wolf gets play that role in the next round.

Been working on the demo, designing the cliff-hanger ending and Bohemia has been cutting code down to get it to a reasonable size. Originally created it with robot voices, but decided that we needed real voices. One of the programmers who lived in the US for a few years was asked to give it a go. Does not sound too bad, but I think we will get actors in. Finally released the demo, and bang, within two days, 3dfiles.com had 50,000 downloads and the same frenzy was seen in many other sites. It's creating quite a stir. I never realized it would be this popular.

Green Berets, powered by the Myth II engine, is a unique Vietnam-era mod developed by devoted fans of the Myth series games. The Myth II 3D engine provides the perfect setting for the lush tropical jungles and exotic scenery found in Green Berets. One should take caution, however, because this tactical title is insanely difficult even after playing the complete Myth series.

The gameworld is much more detailed than that found in the first Soldier of Fortune. Soldier of Fortune II is using texture resolutions of 1024x1024 and up to 3000 polygons for enemy characters. This gives the artists plenty of freedom to make the game look as lifelike as possible. For example, we saw some enemies with detailed tattoos of dragons spiraled across their arms. Since the game is using the Team Arena engine, the game's outdoor environments run very smoothly, too.

GP: The game appears to be "Mission based". Will the developers be providing new missions over time/will there be a level editing kit inside for fans to create their own missions?

Both ways - we plan to releasing more of new mission over the time and we also expect the mappers to come out with their own arts build in 3D Studio Max, or simmiliar software. No plan for immediate release of our own editor yet.

Those artists that are not working on the cut-scenes are busy refining the art side of the levels, building whatever scenery and objects the designers require and tweaking the animations. It is a process of constant refinement that gradually ups the quality level of the game.

Meanwhile the other programmers are working on features such as special effects (explosions, glass breaking, tracer, etc.), physics (vehicles and moving scenery), multiplayer and a full 3D sound system (you can now tell the direction a bullet is coming from by the sound it makes - a big improvement in gameplay).

Operation Flashpoint is a hugely ambitious game, however they’ve succeeded. The sense of immersion is superb, whilst the scope of what you can actually get up to is unparalleled. Thankfully this realism doesn’t come at the cost of the gameplay, as the controls are instinctive but comprehensive. Hats off to Bohemia Interactive for managing to bring such a project to realisation.

The game is unique in that it lets players control up to six soldiers at any given time. In fact, players will be able to choose from 12 (hence the name) squad members to help them put the German forces down. Deadly Dozen will have 10 mission-based levels that will involve everything from stealing a briefcase with top-secret documents to assassinating high-level Nazi leaders. Like in Rainbow Six, players can either issue basic orders to their squad members like "cover me" and "fall back," or they can just jump from one soldier to the next and take full control of their actions.

Each level is very distinct just to give you a good feeling of the game. There's a helicopter level, kind of like the SiN demo, you just fly around and shoot buildings/people. This is actually pretty fun. Another level takes place in a hospital. Not very exciting, but nice nonetheless. One of the cooler levels is still the Columbia junge level. You really feel like you are in a jungle with all kinds of plants and trees around you, hard to see where the enemy is shooting from. Cool stuff. This is also one of the levels where you have AI team mates helping you. The last level they are showing takes place in the streets of Hong Kong. There are NPCs walking around, cars are driving, and lots of bad guys shooting at you. Gotta love the sniper rifle and the assault shot gun for this one ;)

IGNPC: How many different locations are there going to be? Is it going to be a globe spanning game or will it be centered on Eastern Europe and Russia?

Brian Upton:It's all stuff on the periphery of Russia. The backstory is that it's a sort of fictional, low-grade war between the United States and Russia. So some of the missions are in the republic of Georgia in the south, with some in the Baltic states of Lithuania Latvia, and Estonia, and then we have a bunch of missions that are set in military bases around the margins of Russia. There will even be a couple of missions right at the end that are inside Russia itself.

Global Ops will take players to such real world hot spots as Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Beirut and the South China Seas. Each level seamlessly integrates building exteriors, interiors and terrain to create a realistic and palpable atmosphere that effectively recreates the location. Global Ops will feature over 25 elite fighting forces based on authentic special forces, peace keepers, rebel groups, guerilla forces and terrorist groups. The game will also feature a specialty class system for which players can choose from six customizable specialties including sniper, recon, medic and heavy gunner.

Unit add-ons:
- SU-25 "Frogfoot"
- M163 "Vulcan"
- Trabant
Weapon add-on:
- "Kozlice"
Single missions:
- A01Revenge
- A02Vulcan
Multi-player missions:
- 1-4_C_ShadowKiller
- 1-8_D_FlagFight2Small
- 2-8_T_CaptureTheFlag2
- 2-8_T_CityConflict

The combat is delightfully varied, and it's not quite as dry as that of some other tactical shooters, thanks in part to the different vehicles you'll commandeer, but also because of your constantly changing objectives. When each mission begins, you are given your initial objectives, along with a map that plots out your course. Once on the battlefield, the team leader will issue commands to each squad member, such as "target soldier" or "all proceed to tree." But just as in real combat, things don't always go according to plan, so you are often assigned new tasks on the battlefield. These include having to retreat completely, using a different route, or going to an entirely different location.

The second difference is the role-playing mechanic that's been infused into Ghost Recon. Each character in the player's squad has four performance attributes--endurance, leadership, stealth, and weapon skills--that he or she can distribute combat points to with the successful completion of each mission. Additionally, players will be able to gain new characters at the end of some levels who excel in a field of expertise better than any of their squadmates.

Another aspect of Allied Assault that was also truly impressive was the use of sound in the game. "This is one area that we're particularly proud of," says Hirschmann, "all the weapon sounds are authentic and even the music will be dynamic." Everything from hearing the echo of our sniper rifle to hearing the "ping!" of an enemy's helmet flying off, it all gave us goosebumps.

The problem that I have with the extreme realism is the fact that one sometimes gets frustrated with it... For instance : you're running towards a certain point during nightfall and suddenly you're laying on the ground, bleeding to death... no idea where the sniper is located, no idea from where he shot you... No warning what so ever...

Of course, this is realism. In real life one does not see a sniper sitting in a barrack 3 miles ahead, but it does make the game a bit less enjoyable.

One of Operation Flashpoint's greatest features has to be its tremendously life-like gameplay--and the fact that the player isn't the most important character in the game. At the beginning, you're the lowest ranking officer in your squadron, simply one of the squad. You're nothing special; there are no special allowances for the player, every infantry unit on the battlefield has an even chance of survival.

The game is in some ways similar to the recent hit Operation Flashpoint in that the terrorists you encounter are very eagle eyed, and will quickly spot and fire on your party of soldiers if you don’t use the terrain well and approach a potential trouble spot cautiously. This shift from the short-range focus of Rogue Spear to a more long-range approach is quite significant and it will change how you play the game.

I just confirmed with a source who prefers to remain anonymous over at EA that their oh-so sweet Quake3 engine powered game, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault will not make it before Christmas (originally, a few had guessed it would be around October/Fall), and will more likely be seen out sometime in February or March.

To be pleased we may do us over the implementation of various new weapons, which are familiar perhaps or other Counter Strike veterans. In the new arsenal are: FAMAS G2, P90, P90SD, M249 SAW, HK 21E3, AW Covert, Steyr TMP, Beretta M12, FNC and M60 as well as various new handguns.

HomeLAN - How difficult has it been to duplicate how a weapon fires and affects both other players and the enviroment?

Chris Mair - Fairly difficult but our library of reference has made this a lot easier. We have gone to great lengths to reproduce the look and feel of the weapons. We have also done an extensive amount of work on weapon ballistics and accurate player and world damage models.

In the appearance and play feeling Codename resembles ... successful tactics Shooter such as Rogue Spear and SWAT 3. Although the emphasis is situated clearly on the Action and fewer on foot soldier simulation as with Operation Flashpoint brings, Codename a relatively realistic atmosphere ... on the monitor. The scenes of the mission are highly detailed: Close rain forests let jungle war tendency arise; Cities require skillful house fight. The engagements takes place both in external levels and within buildings as for example Military bases.

Even with a somewhat unpolished feel to the game, there is no denying that Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis is in the running for game-of-the-year honors.

No current or planned game comes close to delivering the experience that Bohemia Interactive has integrated into Flashpoint. From its open-ended architecture to unrelenting action and real-life squad tactics, Operation Flashpoint is everything shooter and military fans have been craving.

-New weapon model images today! These models and skins are the ones used in-game, and look more realistic than any other weapons in any other game out there!

-I even added a few new weapons to the list. ;)

HomeLAN - The game engine can handle both indoor and outdoor levels very well. What kinds of settings will the levels have in the full version of the game.

Sergey Zabaryansky - Most of the levels in the game are outdoor ones. Although, it would be more precise to call them mixed for they include quite complex buildings. The rest may be called classical indoor levels. Actions take place in different parts of the world and you will have to fight under various conditions, i.e. the tropics, desert, middle zone. You can go for every mission either in the daytime or at night and the gameplay drastically depends on this choice.

[trenches] Soldier of Fortune 2 was announced as a single-player based game, does this fact put more pressure on you?

[chris] Certainly, a single-player experience relies quite heavily on the dynamism of the characters, but it also places a heavy burden upon the game's designers to create an involving story and world. We're trying very hard to give the agents more a lot of life, from the civilians who are just walking around to the enemy and friendly soldiers in combat. It has been a heavy responsibility for the AI team, but at the same time it's very rewarding when the characters do things right and the game begins to come together.