Well I just got to play the release version for nearly 4 hours straight......Verdict? It's great! What you want a "little" more info than that? oh ok, it's REALLY great!!
Only played single player so don't ask me about multiplayer as I didn't even bother, single player just sucks you in! Important stuff first, I played it at a friends who got his preorder copy early, unfortunatly he's on a SD TV but even so the graphics look very very good, not COD, KZ or DF2 good but it's a sandbox game and as such it's comparison would be the GTA games which it certainly beats hands down graphicly! No frame drop issues even when the screen is full of smoke and tracer fire and there's no evidence of pop up when looking off into the distance either. Sound wise.....your in for a treat working out which way the helicopter is coming in from to what cal of weapon is thuding bullets around you to the distance mortars are droping in on you is all crystal clear and not only adds to the enviroment and tension but also aids you in gameplay.
Oh and sonicly the explosions are as huge as the visuals.
Right the controls, they work very well, the comand wheel is extremly complex but after an hour you'll be whizzing through it without thinking about it but at first YOU WILL STRUGLE, as there is alot of button presses maped onto the pad, but thankfuly they all feel to be in the right place and work quickly.
Aiming, this isn't COD, you need to take aimed steady shots, there are times when full auto from the hip reactions gets you out of trouble if you stuble over an enemy, but this is the exception not the rule. most times your in single shot going for the one shot one kill headshot. not the easiest thing at 300+ yrds with a 2X voom red dot! most fire fights however take place at 100+ yards but still require a degree of acuracy.....scrub that you have to be very acurate at 100 yards LOL
OK AI, your team mates can sometimes be a little gungho but on the whole there prety good, the enemy AI on the other hand are stuning, covering fire flanking manouvers using smoke for cover over dead ground is the norm, ambushes from hell are the other norm, have to say it's the best AI I've seen from the enemys side of things, there a little too agresive at times but hey so would you be if you were being shot at and you had superiority of numbers!
Gameplay......engrosing stratergy which has a great sense of tension which will see you trying not to be spotted, hunted for miles, hiding from gunships, taking part in huge rolling battles, going it alone at the dead of night.....ect ect.
Weapons.....Yeah theres lots LOL there all rectreated graphicly and sonicly to a high standard, watching your guy reload one of the many anti tank guns will really show you how anal codemasters has gone into recreating the weapons. Now as for customizing your own personal weapon.....nope! you get what your given or what you can find on the dead or in amo cratres, there is alot of them though and all feel individual and are perfect for set tasks.
Quick overview, I played the game at a friend of mines who's ex forces as I am, we both competed in the recent national/european airsoft compertion (and won...go team bravo LOL) So were prety much well versed in military tactics, the game had us smitten with it. The open nature of it means if you want to attack a position in a certain way then you can, even the map view gives you terain details (gullys and ridges) to aid in this. The AI is clever enough to counter whatever you come up with in a realistic manner as well. We played in normal mode and found it hard........not imposibly so but certainly a tough challenge which has you constantly thinking and counter reacting to the AI. Didn't try it but co-op is going to be this games key point. we only had one copy and were playing single player but were both offering tactics as we palyed through the first couple of missions.
If your after a FPS similar to COD.....you may find this too tedious at times, if you want a celibral tactical shooter which has huge depth of gameplay then this is simply the only game to have. Goodby SOCOM, Operation Flashpoint has arived!
any questions I'll try and awnser them from my limited time with the game, sorry for the rambling post it's late and I've just got back. Oh yeah it was the PS3 version and I'm in the UK and the island..........HUGE, you know it's big when on the small island doing the training your near the end of the first mission and you can see a marker saying "secondary mission 2.6km" and yeah we grabed a car and went for a drive LOL
Quick update
stuff I forgot to mention. brick walls good, woden walls bad! it's not to the extent of COD4 where a 9mm round goes through a brick wall like it was made of crdboard, but hiding in a wooden barn from a suport gunner will see splinters flying everywhere followed by death! As it should be! And on the subject of dieing the system works thus, you get shot, you start to bleed, you have a "health meter" this will continue to go down till you patch up your wound. get it by a big enough round in a soft spot and your dead though! Right wounds, you can be hit in the groin, either legs or arms, chest or head. this is shown on a icon on the screen. say your hit in the leg. you heal it, then you'll find it's not all that easy to run....in fact you can't run at all LOL each area hit has an effect on your character.
Windows and buildings, every building you can enter, and if theres an upstairs then you can go up. right when your in there if you need to shoot out just shoot out the windows, simple, but be warned all buildings are destructable, and not in a good way like battle field. you can rarley toss a grenade to blow a hole to make a snipe spot, you can on heftier buildings but normaly you'll flatten most wooden buildings if you try this, and shooting repeatedly into it will put holes it it not bring it crashing down.
Finaly, fire suport........there are many many options, but nothing clears a vilage of enemy and buildings like a howitsre high explsive barage on wide spread.....FIRE FOR EFFECT!
So probably tomorrow... 👍 Anyone else get the game yet on a console?
