Last October, I wrote about the upcoming game, Crysis, which looked really cool with its fully destructible environments.  Crysis has apparently been picked up by Electronic Arts, but there’s still no release date set.  I hate vaporware.
     But, that’s okay… Crysis is probably a little too game-like for me anyway…

     A few years ago, I got hooked on Operation: Flashpoint.  What it lacked visually, it more than made up for with its gameplay and impressive artificial intelligence.  Check out the trailer…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujS4wJ0RUcY

     It was more of a “combat simulator” than a game, which caused a lot of people a lot of frustration.  One bad move, and a whole battallion of soldiers would come shooting.  And you didn’t die instantly — you’d get a crippled leg, or a weak arm that couldn’t hold a rifle sight steady.  Unsteady and slow to react, eventually you’d take a headshot and die.

     Bohemeia Interactive really did a great job on it.  But … what else would you expect, considering they’re the ones who brought Virtual Battlefield Systems 1 and VBS1 to the U.S. Military?
     They have a ton of press about the release of VBS2, as well…

     Last month, BI released Armed Assault in Europe, but didn’t have a U.S. distributor yet.  Fortunately, Atari picked it up, but the name is a little different.  ArmA: Combat Operations is due for release on May 1st (and available for pre-order at Amazon!)
     ArmA is based much of the the technology found in VBS2.  The demo, which features Capture the Flag, Cooperative and Capture the Island multiplayer scenarios, is pretty fun if you get in with some good players.  Cooperative is the best way to experience it, in my opinion, as it relies on teamwork and tactics to clear a town of enemy soldiers.
     Even though this thing is unofficially “Operation: Flashpoint 2” (they weren’t allowed to use the name, thanks to their last distributor), there’s been a ton of work on the graphics engine.  It’s pretty stunning, actually.  Check out the video Dslyecxi made to get an idea…