Operation Flashpoint: Red River

[baronjohn]

Playing it right now, only on mission 2 so far.

There are no UI elements and no mid-mission saving (this actually sucks) on hardcore mode

Voice acting is great (lightyears ahead of ArmA)

Graphics are good and the game runs great. Shaders aren't as good as ArmA 2, but teh textures are arguably better because everything looks realistically used whereas in ArmA 1/2 everything looks brand new. There's a very pleasing haze in the distance that looks nice in motion

The shooting part is OK, but there's a popamole element because sometimes enemies keep respawning until you get to a point (I've only seen this in the first mission. I don't know if it's there only as that's kind of an intro). Still not as popamole as CoD or ArmA though.

The map is infinitely superior to ArmA 2's

There's lots of little neat things. For example, if you're pointing the gun and someone wants to move in front, he'll say "Hold your fire! Coming through", etc.

The narration is marvelous. Even though I am a pinko commie I enjoy it in an ironic way.

So yeah, pretty cool game. Too bad about it being a console game, basically. It's obvious that the developers have plenty of skill and could make an awesome game if they dropped the consoles and just went with the PC.

 

[baronjohn]

BTW can everyone see the six screenshots I laboriously uploaded?

 

[Markman]

Dont turn off your PC?? What? Isnt this a console game like Portal2?

EDIT- i see them

 

[GarfunkeL]

Looks pretty. Do units automagically appear on the map?

 

[MetalCraze]

What's wrong, baronjohn? Why are you so upset with ArmA? Can't your PC handle it?

 

[Deakul]

So, in other words, ARMA2 is superior in every single way conceivable?

 

[baronjohn]

Well, I take it back, this game sucks.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

http://i.min.us/ikGmjE.png

Yeah great graphics you have there

 

[Achilles]

Well, I take it back, this game sucks.

Why the change of heart?

 

[Metro]

Well, I take it back, this game sucks.

What did you expect? I often wonder if the fact you only seem to be interested in generic FPS games is part of your troll persona. If not then your trolling is the height of irony.

 

[poocolator]

OP: Flashpoint Red River?

Lololololol Red River

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Holding off waves and waves and fucking waves of chinks was pretty fun.

 

[baronjohn]

I often wonder if the fact you only seem to be interested in generic FPS games is part of your troll persona. If not then your trolling is the height of irony.

Explain please.

 

[Suchy]

So, in other words, ARMA2 is superior in every single way conceivable?

It is. Except for sound maybe, but there are mods fixing this.

 

[Suchy]

PC Gamer: Want to explore these hills? Tough, you can't.

PC Gamer: Get used to walking: most vehicles can't be driven.

PC Gamer - 45/100

The enemy AI is as wonky as its friendly counterpart. Early on in the game, I flanked an infested compound as three squads opened fire on the front gate. Peeking through windows like a terrorismpervert, I murdered a handful of oblivious insurgents. This first part is Red River’s best bit: I’d snuck behind a set of enemies as their attention was drawn away. But when I’d entered the compound, I found their equally dull-witted chums glued to their assigned windows.

The first one I spotted made me panic: despite the shift from military sim to linear shooter, Red River still runs with the tang of Operation Flashpoint’s blood, making one or two shots deadly. I popped a few bullets into his back as he stood unmoving. When I met the second one, he didn’t turn. I pulled out my pistol and fired over his shoulder, breaking the window in front of him. No reaction. Finally, I let loose a few shots at the dirt around his feet, trying to make him dance. Slowly, in three distinct movements, he turned to face me. I killed him before he raised his rifle, a full 50 seconds after I’d clomped into the room.

Dumb AI means traditional infantry battles are trivial shooting galleries: enemies distrust cover more than your own squad, and kneel in open fields, praying for death’s sweet relief. This is the same enemy force that, when presented with the freshly exploded carcass of an APC on a wide track road, can’t drive its convoy around it. The sight of an armoured vehicle gently humping its dead brother, in case you were wondering, is both hilarious and touching.

Applying vehicles to any of Red River’s situation seems to be a recipe for incalculable disaster. In one of the later missions, an empty Chinese transport helicopter landed on the rooftop I was standing on. Both pilots sat in the cockpit, facing directly ahead, making no motion to continue their flight and giving no reason for landing their multimillion pound charge less than spitting distance from their enemy.

Multiplayer sessions seemed to smoke out Red River’s bugs faster than singleplayer. Much of this is likely thanks to mankind’s innate curiosity when put in a room with someone else. Pootling around the countryside with a friend in a humvee, we managed to drive directly through several threefoot high walls, only for our ride to permanently sink a few feet into the Earth’s surface.

With the spirit of exploration in our hearts and a seemingly magic car at our grasp, we abandoned our convoy and pushed for the horizon. We didn’t get far. Don’t let the extensive environments mislead: go off the beaten track and you’re punished: your screen goes wibbly, and you’re ordered back into the combat area. It’s the diametric opposite of the freedom of the first Operation Flashpoint.

Red River takes all the things the Flashpoint name is associated with – creative, emergent destruction and go-anywhere realism – and lets them wash away. It tries to be a bombastic shooter, but dodgy AI, a warren of bugs and an unpleasant tone mean the few gulps of fun you could draw from its waters are to be taken in multiplayer only.

Yup, GOTY right there.

 

[Konjad]

Dragon Rising was at least playable, but Red River is not.

Even setting aside that it used Games For Windows Live which is down, and to start the game you have to download its files and install manually so the game can start, but nowadays even if you create a account (which is still possible) it won't let you log in, and without being online the game doesn't save your progress...

So, even setting that aside, the game throws any left military sim aspects out of the window. You can't even flank the objective because any time you leave the straight quest markered path the game insta-kills you! No more open world, you have a straight path you must follow and nothing else! You also have constant cutscenes, which are longer than gameplay itself, and are extremely dumb, i.e. you drive in a humvee in a convoy, it gets attacked, enemies shooting 2 meters away from it, but nobody dies and soldiers in the humvee converse
- We are under attack!
- Shut up, soldier, motherfucker, we are here to being shot at!
*Everybody laughts*

This isn't a joke, it's this silly.

Unlike all other games in OFP as well as Arma series, I haven't completed this one. The gameplay is too casual and feels more like Call of Duty than anything else, except perhaps that you can actually die here, but not too often anyway, so I played only two campaign missions, and two single missions, because the progress isn't saved I didn't bother to continue the campaign. I don't recommend it even if you managed to enjoy Dragon Rising for what it was. The fact that missions are a straight tunnel without being open world kills it entirely for me anyway.