Operation Flashpoint: Red River

Operation Flashpoint: Red River had me from the moment the intro video started playing. It gives a brief history lesson of the events that leads to your mission as a U.S. Marine in Tajikistan. This video is funny, witty, and informing. With this as an introduction, Codemasters takes the player to 2013 to participate in missions that feel real. That is the point of Red River: realism.

The game is classified as a tactical shooter. It has more realism than Call of Duty but less action-packed moments. That’s not to say the game isn’t exciting. It’s just different. Consider this game a hybrid of SOCOM and Call of Duty, using squad-based gameplay and thriving off strategy. 

Positioning is everything in Operation Flashpoint. You can direct your squad members to follow you or take cover behind a wall and lay down suppressing fire on a building, allowing you to move. These decisions can determine the success of your mission. 

Unlike CoD, you won’t be running around a map, spraying bullets and resting behind walls while you wait for your health status to return to normal. In this game, if you get shot then you will continue to bleed. You need to patch the wound immediately. The same goes for your teammates. You don’t want them bleeding out; otherwise you are down a man. 

One shot can be deadly in this game. Sometimes you’ll learn that the hard way, like when you attempt to sprint to a building 80 yards away just to get shot and have to reload from the last checkpoint. The realism of this game will frustrate some, but it will also fill a niche role for others looking for more strategy to their shooter.

None of this means that the squad mechanics won’t frustrate you. Sometimes you need to direct your AI friendlies to get into a truck or hide behind a wall instead of standing in the open getting shot. It feels like you’re trying to direct a group of 10 year-olds at times. This game is an entirely different experience when playing with AI, as opposed to playing with three others in a drop-in, drop-out four-player campaign. 

The game also features an RPG-type element to it. Each player fills one of four Marine roles: rifleman, grenadier, scout and automatic rifleman, each with their own weapons and abilities. Players also gain experience for whatever roles they are playing as. The experience is used to unlock new weapons, attachments, and perks for each class, and players also get to upgrade the core abilities of those roles by assigning points into areas that let you sprint longer, give you more accuracy with a certain weapon, or switch weapons more quickly. It’s a good feature that lets you feel like you are working toward something other than finishing the story.

The language that is used by the characters can rub some people the wrong way. They don’t curse like sailors; they curse like Marines. Every line of dialogue takes me to new heights of profanity that I didn’t know existed. Curse words are used to describe everything, and each sentence is laden with them. However, it is authentic. My cousin, who was in the Marines, told me so. 

The game isn’t without its faults. The HUD is cluttered and hard to understand, the waypoints aren’t always clear on where to go, there’s a lot of cut scenes and long buffering times, and it can get really annoying having to patch anytime you or a teammate get shot. Also, while the game looks fine, it isn’t kicked up to the Call of Duty level.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River isn’t your typical shooter. You’re not going to be a gunslinger, running into a compound to take out a horde of enemies like a one-man wolf pack. It’s a slower, more tactical, squad-based shooter that relies on teamwork, strategy, and finesse. With a good upgrade system for each role and a smart co-op experience, this game offers a realistic and authentic experience of what a United States Marine might experience in combat. Semper Fi!

F.E.A.R. 3

f you’re like me, you preordered F.E.A.R. 3 sometime around January and had to wait, only for it to be pushed back month after month. Needless to say, when June 23rd came around, I was more than eager.
F.E.A.R. 3 is a first-person shooter and the third installment of the paranormal series that follows the spectral girl/woman Alma. After the, um, shocking and graphic ending to F.E.A.R. 2, Alma is expecting. What else can bring a murderous family together like a bouncing bundle of hate? Point Man, the protagonist from the original F.E.A.R., is back. This time he has an uneasy alliance with his psychotic and spectral brother Paxton Fettel. When boiled down, this game is about two brothers who hate each other attempting to work together, settle some family drama, and reach their mother in time to meet their new sibling. In this sense, it sounds like a heartwarming TV movie. Add guns, wraiths, cannibalism, and an abusive father figure and you got yourself a game.
You play F.E.A.R. 3 as Point Man—-the familiar nameless, gun-hoarding, bullet-time wielding mute. Do not fret! He still has the slow-mo power (reflex-time) that has been getting you easy head shots since 2005. This slow-mo power is similar to Max Payne and the soldier from Mass Effect 2. Point Man can also melee attack, baseball slide (as I call it), and jump kick. As a side note, I played F.E.A.R. 3 on Xbox and the default input for the kick is A + R.stick. Who thought that was easy? After you finish each level, you unlock play as Fettel.

Playing as Fettlel is a completely new and enjoyable experience. The ghostly brother of Point Man is completely self-efficient. This means there’s no need for guns or other pick-ups. His abilities include firing an energy bolt, picking up enemies and suspending them in air, picking up explosive environmental objects and tossing them, melee fighting, and possessing enemies. The possession ability makes the controls the same as Point Man minus the slow-mo ability; he can pick up ammo, throw grenades, etc. At any time, Fettel can burst though the body he is occupying and kill it, reverting to his natural state. One combo suspends an enemy in air and melees it for an instant kill.
F.E.A.R. 3 has a coop mode so two players, either via split screen on internet, can play as both the brothers at the same time. Fettel enters slow-mo whenever Point Man uses it and Fettel can give Point Man a damage-resistant shield. My suggestion is to raise the difficulty if you go coop since the game doesn’t compensate much for two characters at once. A coop mode is not something I would have expected from a title like F.E.A.R., but I had a blast playing it.
Gameplay is pretty standard for the other F.E.A.R. games besides what has been previously mentioned. As usual, there are opportunities to combat and control mechs. There are new Armacham challenges, as well. The Phase Casters create replica soldiers around them until you kill the Caster and Phase Commanders, who walk through walls and teleport around the environment. F.E.A.R. 3 also adds a cover system for combat. This makes for more exciting gun fights and allows you to volley over certain terrain. F.E.A.R. 3 no longer uses heath bars or armor bars. Instead it has adapted the popular FPS health system of regeneration if you stay clear of combat for a short while (like CoD).

The AI highly increases per difficulty level. On Insane, the replica soldiers become sharpshooters with sub-machineguns. The AI are entertaining in their speech during gunfights. They yell out to their squad mates so you know when they have a visual of you, and they like to mention what you are hiding behind. One even told me I was hiding behind a vending machine.
The graphics and environments are delightful for a horror setting—-jails, sewers, cult homes, meat freezers, post-apocalyptic bridges, and my favorite, a whole goods store. While the environments are set, F.E.A.R. 3 fails at scares. The backbone of the F.E.A.R. experience is, well, fear. While Alma had a few appearances, I felt disappointed by the lack of cheap scares. F.E.A.R. 2 was such an improvement over the original in this department, and F.E.A.R. 3 did not continue the trend. If you play through the game for the first time in coop, you are going to miss many of the scares since they only happen once and for whoever triggered the event.

Besides the story mode, there are also four multiplayer modes, each with a few levels. My favorites of the four are Contractions and F***ing Run!  Contractions is very similar to Call of Duty’s popular Nazi Zombies. You and your teammates are bunkered down in a multi-floored structure, where you can put up barriers to the outside to stop enemies from entering. Each wave gets more difficult. Alma wanders around the map laughing and playing hopscotch during the action. If you look at her for too long or shoot her, your screen goes dark and your movement is slowed, often resulting in death. Alma adds an extra element that can cause an instant lose or at least block an exit for a period of time.
F***ing Run is exactly what it sounds like. You have to keep moving or you are going to be consumed by a soul wall. You and your squad need to battle though enemies on your way to checkpoints to rearm and take a breather. If one squad mate is killed by the wall, you lose. While this might not sound difficult, it is heart-pounding. The later you get in the maps, the harder it gets. More difficult enemies, harder terrain, ladders, paths that make you run perpendicular to the wall, etc.

In conclusion, F.E.A.R. 3 is a good shooter with unique elements that make the FPS stand out. The coop mode is an experience I definitely suggest. While the story mode is not particularly long, the multiplayer adds more game time. F.E.A.R. 3 has replay potential. Since there are two characters you can play as, that is at least two play-throughs and one more for a coop play-though. The game on Insanity proposes a challenge but is very beatable if you take your time. While the “fear” element decreased, the gameplay increased greatly with the third game of the series.

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Who says PC Gaming is dead? Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad is the follow up to 2006’s Red Orchestra, which achieved critical acclaim for the level of realism in the game.  Its successor lives up to its impressive pedigree. It does so by using the Unreal 3 engine to render the game’s impressive graphic system – it’s certainly at least on par with current generation shooters like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Battlefield 2.
Realism and attention to detail are the name of the game here – the example that may seem small to some: the interiors of the tanks were painstakingly replicated, to the point where the developers only had time to include 2 in the game. Developer Tripwire not only recreated World War 2 Stalingrad, but they filled it with menace and foreboding, every step echoing off buildings, the crunch of snow under foot sending shivers up your spine.




This game is brutally real – there’s no health system to speak of and no ammo indicators, so you need to manually check your ammunition before each fight. One hit to a vital organ and you’re dead. Minor wounds can be bandaged, but leave those unchecked for too long and you’re done, as well. Even the simplest tasks require patience and attention to detail – this is no run and gun game like Call of Duty or even Battlefield. While this may sound slow and fussy to some – Red Orchestra 2 is immensely rewarding when you do your job correctly.
The game also emphasizes teamwork – from vehicles to out in the field. It is imperative that you work together with your team. They need to not only watch your back in every situation, but be your eyes and ears as well. Vehicles in particular take a massive amount of skill to pilot effectively, but doing so has a massive payoff, as they can very easily turn the tide in a battle. This is so true that various servers either emphasize tank combat or infantry with very little middle ground – so we recommend either getting proficient with the vehicles or steering clear altogether.




Character progression, unlike Call of Duty, feels largely irrelevant. New perks and gear have virtually no impact on the battle. While this does combat the feeling that long time players feel like super soldiers on the field, it’s not very satisfying that a newcomer to the game can pick it up and one shot a long time veteran. Though, many players may find this to be a plus – this is largely a judgment call you’re going to have to make for yourself.
All of that being said, Red Orchestra 2 is massively unforgiving to new players because of the level of realism in this game. Until you learn that, no, you can’t just go charging down a main choke point of a battlefield, you’re going to be eating dirt. A lot. Once you learn this vital lesson, you’ll be sniping newbies who decide to stick their head around the corner for a few extra seconds in no time.
The one shortcoming this game does have is the campaign. While there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, there’s just nothing here to write home about. If you’re new to the Red Orchestra series, the campaign is a great primer to the realism of the combat. Otherwise, assume the campaign showcases exactly how hard fought the battle for Stalingrad was, but stick to the rather intense multiplayer.




Overall Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, while having a steep learning curve, is a game that will have you on the edge of your seat every second that you play. It’s one of those games that gets you so absorbed in the action that you’ll find yourself straining your ears trying to hear approaching enemies, flinching at rounds flying overhead, and celebrating every minor, yet hard-earned victory in a match. If you ignore the rather forgettable campaign, this is one of the best shooters of 2011.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer debuts

Last week, Activision said it would debut the trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 during the NBA Western Conference Finals game, which airs nationally on ESPN. The tip-off for that game isn't set until 6 p.m. PDT tonight, but Activision decided to reveal the trailer (embedded below) a little bit early.

There goes the neighborhood.

Besides officially revealing the game's November 8 release date, the trailer also confirmed Modern Warfare 3 is being co-developed by Sledgehammer Games, Activision's recently formed San Francisco Bay Area studio. It also cements the fact hinted at by multiple teaser trailers before--that the game will depict the full-blown outbreak of World War III.

Beginning with shots of Russian helicopters assaulting downtown Manhattan, the trailer shows how the devastating Russo-American conflict that broke out in Modern Warfare 2 has now spread to Europe. Urban combat near the Parliament building in downtown London is shown, as is a group of vehicles attacking the city's famed underground subway system. Paris is also in trouble, with US commandos engaging in street-to-street fighting in the City of Lights. Germany, too, is a battlezone in the game.

The trailer concludes with a voice-over from series antagonist Vladimir Makarov, saying, "It doesn't take the most powerful nations on Earth to create the next global conflict, just the will of a single man." A logo then flashes on screen for "WW3" which quickly turns into "MW3."