Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (PS3)

I was a big fan of the original PC operation flashpoint and it's add on packs. With tht in mind I was on the pre order list long before the game arrived on the shelves on the 9th October. I picked it up early on friday afternoon and started playing around 4pm. I didn't stop playing until around 1am. It is addictive. But it must also be said that it isn't without problems. You cannot compare this game to other forst person shooters. Call of duty (at least as far as COD 5 or modern warfare) are more of an arcade experience. Flashpoint is trying to be more than that. One or 2 of the levels reminded me of project IGI. In fact, some could draw a few comparisons without much effort.

The good points. In 1080p, the graphics are very good. The game for the most part displaying graphics for miles. Some of the long range views from a hilltop are visually astounding. Those using none HD displays though will see the graphics as very disappointing. This game needs hi def. Enemy soldiers are ruthlessly accurate at times and sudden death is something you will see a lot. Despite thinking sudden death would be a game killer, it doesn't take long to realise that it works well in this game.

The bad points:- The game is far too short. Eleven levels and I saw the credits roll by tonight. It is sunday night/monday morning as I write this and I am feeling a little cheated. Admittedly I can now play the game on harder levels, but I still feel 11 levels falls way short of what I expected. It has the odd graphical glitches, a flickering bush or tree, a graphics tear that looks like tracer fire but is actually an error in the graphics, occasional delay in adding the overlay to weapons, so they have a half second plain colour before the textures catch up, but none of these graphics glitches are intrusive enough to ruin the game when it happens.

Things that are a let down though are enemy soldiers who stand like statues when viewed through binoculars or scopes. No movement whatsoever. It would have made a massive difference to see them move just a little, but for the majority of the time they are rock solid in the distance. It is almost like the game doesn't think you can see them so isn't bothering to animate them. Worse still, you can start shooting at them while they are stood like this and they still don't move. Even as they are getting hit by bullets they can stand rock solid until the kill shot drops them. Bodies disappear after a short time (always a realism killer). It wouldn't be so bad if they left their equipment behind, but they don't. You will fin at times you want or need another weapon or ammunition. Knowing the soldier you killed a few hundred yards back had the weapon you will want shortly but will disappear if you don't get it now is irritating. Remember that codemasters are touting this as a war simulation more than a game, so disappearing bodies and equipment is a big failing point.

You can't review this game without passing comment on the AI of your own team. Does anybody remember benny from crossroads? I am not joking when I say that the rest of your fireteam are complete idiots for a lot of the time. Sam Dingle is a rocket scientist compared to these guys. Get in a HumVee, you drive and have the rest in the vehicle with you. You will have a guy always take control of the 50 calibre on top. Half the time you have to wonder why he has bothered. I have died on so many occasions where a soldier has been stood 50 yards in front and the gunner on top is doing nothing. It happens repeatedly. Soldiers shoot you while your men seem to be doing nothing. I would rather not have them with me at times (some levels I actually left them behind).

Admittedly, you can have friends online take the places of the fireteam and this would make for a far more enjoyable experience.

Weapon changeovers are often too slow. Worse still is the fact that if you select a weapon, you cannot change it until the game has gone through the motions of showing the changeover and returning control back to you. If for example you accidentally picked the rocket launcher, you are then stuck with a 10 second animation of the weapon being put on the ground and the rocket fitted before it is raised to your shoulder. It is too long, and the fact you cant select a different weapon until it has finished the setup makes for yet more annoying deaths.

Grenades and binoculars are another bugbear, taking to long to select and use to make them worth the risk. The time needed to switch back to a weapon after using binoculars and grenades is again too long.

The method of controlling your troops is a little convoluted. after holding the r1 button, it is all done from th direction pad. each press opening another set of options. It is a real shame that codeys didn't take a leaf from endwar and make the system voice controlled. This game was screaming out for voice control, instead it got an old fashioned interface that ruins the command structure rather than make it a decent control method.

You would think from this review that I hate the game, but the fact is, it is still a brilliant game despite the irritations. It is just a shame it was too short and has lousy AI on the part of your fireteam.

I haven't played the game much online as yet. Mainly as the servers apear to be overloaded. Trying to get on at civilised hours was proving almost impossible, but at 3 am the game became an online game. The single shot kills come into their own online. The COD method of running at a sniper and hitting them with an AK47 from the same extreme distance is something that doesn't work here, the sniper will win. Unfortunately though, the busy servers have meant I only achieved a couple of games out of the dozens of attempts to get online. No doubt they will sort it out eventually, but if you bought it solely for it's online capabilities, you would have been severely disappointed over the first few days after launch. There is nothing worse with an online game than not being able to get on the servers to play it.

The game itself has 3 levels of difficulty. These do not affect anything with regards how the AI reacts or bullet hits and damage are represented. What it does do is remove various help tags and waypoints fromt the screen.

Normal (easyish) mode has indicators for your troops health, a compass at the top of the screen, a waypoint indicator for the current mission, along with a recommended route waypoint to get you there. Higher difficulty levels remove hese and give an uncluttered screen, but do require you to check your map regularly to make sure you are going in the right direction.

I can safely say that OFDR is the best first person shooter on the PS3. But it could still be a lot better with a few tweaks from codemasters.