Just wishing to post your views on wether you think COD:MW2 will be as good or worse than Operational Flashpoint 2. What's your feelings?

I don't think they are really in direct oposition to each other. Sure, they are both war games with a first person perspective, but within that context they occupy two totally different genres. MW2 is an classic arcade style shooter, designed for fast exciting gameplay given more power through the use of cinematic plots and story progression. OF2 is a tactical squad based shooter, designed for slower more thoughtful gameplay, which draws it's strength through open ended non linear levels.

Comparing the two is like comparing something like a modern James Bond film to something like "Spy Game". They can both be the absolute best at what they do.

And really, that's where my feelings lie with these two games. I think they will both be the best at what they do (At least the best since their respective predecessors). I think The Call of Duty games in general have made a career out of perfecting the integration of movie excitement and the emotional impact of action scenes and have integrated them into games that let the player interact with and live these moments they used to only watch. Modern Warfare 1 pushed the limits of a first person action game by allowing the player to live out parts of the plot that were not necesarily a level of the game. I remember being shocked playing the first game when they set off the nuke and you are actually allowed to participate in your character dieing in the back of a helicopter. I want to say, it makes everything so much more "real", but it really doesn't. What it does is make everything so much more "sureal", which is really what people are wanting when they play an action game, or watch an action movie.

The original Operation Flashpoint on the other hand changed the whole idea of what a first person war game was. It has always been put forward as a war simulator more than anything else. The basic mechanics of a first person action game are there, but the open world and the effort to push the limits of realism means you draw excitement from a completely different source. It makes it more cereberal, and less instinctive. Active brainpower, as opposed to reactive. You have to plan your actions rather than trying to find the next script trigger. This leads to dead ends and lots of trial and error. But ultimately the rewards in what would be seen as a minor achievement in a classic action game (such as killing an enemy) are much greater, because the investment you put into it is so much greater.

Personally, both are on my wish list. but Call of Duty will probably stay there for a while, and I plan to pick up Operation Flashpoint 2 as soon as I can find a copy for a decent price.

quote:

Originally posted by Shadrach:

Personally, both are on my wish list. but Call of Duty will probably stay there for a while, and I plan to pick up Operation Flashpoint 2 as soon as I can find a copy for a decent price.

Shadrach an OF fan!? Is it your proximity to Russia? I was consumed by the first one for a brief period of my late teens, mostly because of the mission editor and my usually failed attempts to create said missions - took up more of my time than actually playing them. I thought this game was all but dismissed in the FPS community, considering that the PC platform was already overrun with Counter-Strike and other multilayer based shooters.

For me, the only real appeal to Call of Duty Modern Warfare was the online play, mostly because Halo had become stale. The campaign was fun to play through once, with only a few exceptional and, as you describe, 'surreal' game play experiences like the AC-130 gunship level (I actually felt remorse after I played that level) and the Sniper level (worth playing through once).

But, I'm not particularly into the arcade style shooters, where enemies (and your character) can take a supernatural amount of damage and you have to work through checkpoints with an infinite amount of respawning enemies. It's perfected in the series, but ultimately over done. I'd rather rot my brain playing a one shot kill, tactical approach game like Vegas 2. Nevertheless, I'll probably end up buying both. Hurray for virtual war!

quote:

hand changed the whole idea of what a first person war game was. It has always been put forward as a war simulator more than anything else. The basic mechanics of a first person action game are there, but the open world and the effort to push the limits of realism means you draw excitement from a completely different source. It makes it more cereberal, and less instinctive. Active brainpower, as opposed to reactive. You have to plan your actions rather than trying to find the next script trigger. This leads to dead ends and lots of trial and error. But ultimately the rewards in what would be seen as a minor achievement in a classic action game (such as killing an enemy) are much greater, because the investment you put into it is so much greater.

Personally, both are on my wish list. but Call of Duty will probably stay there for a while, and I plan to pick up Operation Flashpoint 2 as soon as I can find a copy for a decent price.

Well i'm hoping maybe I'll be able to pay for the games via carrots and tomatos from my vegetable garden (since that's all I have at the moment - pretty hard on the income at this stage). Yes I coudl pirate the game but really, I'd rather own the damn thing, less mucking around...