IGTV: Operation Flashpoint 2 Interview Page 3

26 Aug 2009 at 10:34:59 by

Obviously it's now four-player co-op, which is brilliant. Is it drop-in drop-out?

It's not drop-in drop-out. Unfortunately we're not doing drop-in drop-out, but to allay some of the fears of “Oh, what happens if my mate gets disconnected, or someone has to go for the tea,” or that kind of thing, if they drop out, AI will take over and it will be using the exact same advanced AI that's in single-player, in multiplayer. So you don't have to worry that you'll just suddenly lose one guy or two guys or however many people leave; you'll still be able to play it all the way through.

Are there any limits on the vehicles that you can use?

No, there's – well, there are a few limits, but this is more in the single-player than in the multiplayer, but that's more from a balancing point of view. So certain vehicles we don't expect the player to just be able to run up to and get in and use; or, say, a vehicle you've destroyed, obviously you can't just magically repair it and use it, but that's not to say that in the editor you're going to be able to do whatever you want with all the vehicles available.

That said, the player is always able to attack objectives and complete missions in totally new ways. We give the player an idea of what they may want to do, we sometimes give them tools for the job so they might get the Javelin, but there may be two tanks and they've only got one Javelin.

I know you said it's not necessarily a kind of training game, as such -

*laughs* Yep.

- which I find quite hard to believe, since your trailer is effectively “Be the best” - the army adverts!

Yeah, I think it's safe to say this is the most realistic shooter you're ever going to play – oh, sorry, not ever going to play. The most realistic shooter on console this year, and almost certainly next year. I'm very confident to say that. I think it's a very authentic game to be playing on PC. Obviously there are competitors out there that are also military simulator-type games, and that's why I describe it as a tactical sandbox game, because we're not the same as Armed Assault II. It's a different game. People seem to think that there's a big fight between Codemasters and Bohemia Interactive. I disagree. We haven't had a chance, because we've been too busy on this game, to look at Armed Assault II yet but I'm looking forward to it once this game's finally out.

There must be something that you like especially about Operation Flashpoint 2.

There are, yeah, lots of things I like. If I had to choose one it would probably be the artillery and airstrikes and stuff. We've spent a lot of time on that, looking at the video footage from Afghanistan and Iraq, getting it looking just right, and it's still fun to call it in. Unlike the E3 demo we've now fixed it so that there is a simulated delay between the shells coming in for artillery, or when you call in an airstrike it doesn't happen instantly. You have to wait some time for the plane to come in, and then you'll hear it fly over, and then you'll see the missile coming in, and that's added a massive amount of anticipation in the game, and it's great. It's very satisfying to call in an airstrike on a target and then you wait, and then it comes in. Very cool.

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