Does Operation Flashpoint: Red River deliver on the realism?

Red River is a realistic shooter like reality television is real life.  In many ways Red River reaches authenticity, but much like reality television, it still has to leave out much of the mundane stuff in order to not only keep the game fun and entertaining, but to simply sell copies; after all, they’re in it to make money.  It’s absolutely authentic in that the game play is driven around the proper employment of suppression: knowing how to do it, and what to do once you achieve an effective form of it.  One of the biggest learning points that I’ve instructed to young or new infantry Marines is that, “Suppression without maneuver is a waste, and maneuver without suppression is deadly”.  Red River, in the small amount of time I’ve experienced so far, has actually achieved that, and in quite impressive fashion.  The only other video game that brought that level of realism to a war game was the Full Spectrum Warrior series, which is hands down the closest similar title on the market (good luck finding a copy, however).

Speaking of the mundane stuff, the gaming community’s general cripes seem to be centered around your platoon sergeant, Staff Sergeant Knox, who tends to talk.  A lot.  Folks, that is pretty damn realistic.  Not necessarily from a platoon sergeant, but from Marines in general, because they all have off the wall, ridiculous stories that they love to tell.  Over and over again.  Another shot from the Internet’s gaming flank is the “unnecessary movements up hills/over long distances”, and sitting around in the back of Humvee’s waiting to reach the next objective.  Both of these complaints made me laugh, simply because you cannot get any more realistic than that.  The Onion’s “Modern Warfare 3” preview video can back me up here: as funny as that is to watch, they are dead on on the realism front.  In Red River’s second mission, your fire team is tasked with establishing an overwatch position 500m away, and on top of a giant-ass hill.  Your platoon sergeant, SSgt Knox, will bitch at you until you get your team up the hill and overwatch is established, just like real life.  I enjoyed the fact that as you push your fire team up the hill, you slow way down, likely to simulate the fact that you’ve got around 75lbs of fun strapped to your chest.  That is real, folks.

What isn’t real however, are little things like running out of a screaming CH-53D helicopter after a helo-insert, only to look around and see not one blade of grass moving, nor any trees moving at all.  Seriously?  Or how about how a Marine in your fire team for whatever reason, likely for the “CDI (Chicks Dig It) Factor”, isn’t wearing his Kevlar helmet.  Yeah, this ain’t ‘Nam.  That shit doesn’t fly.  Or how you can throw a suppressor on your M4, that one made me laugh too.  The only grunts that get to play with suppressors are scout snipers and Recon/MARSOC; if you see one in an infantry battalion, it was “acquired” – not issued.

Maybe the biggest tactical oops I’ve seen so far is the obstacle vaulting system, or lack thereof.  Red River’s second mission culminates with the task of clearing a children’s two-story school.  I have to tell you, it was awesome telling your fire team to suppress the first floor while I ran up intending to breach through the window, only realizing that the game won’t let you.  No, they make you either go through the front door, or up the fire escape stairs, both equaling suicide missions.  Are they deal breakers?  The visual stuff no, but the vaulting thing comes close.

So is Red River actually fun to play, or should I stick to CoD?

If you expect this game to be a Modern Warfare clone, you will be sorely disappointed.  And by disappointed, I mean severely pissed off.  Operation Flashpoint: Red River is not Call of Duty; it is not even close.  Operation Flashpoint: Red River is fun to play though, and I’m only about a third of the way through the game.  Is it worth $60?  I can’t quite answer that question, but right now I’m leaning towards yes.

To shed even more positive light on this title, Red River was clearly designed with co-operative play in mind.  I have only played through on my own, and I’m having a blast, so I can only imagine how much more enjoyable Red River would be with three friends, a case of beer, and some headsets.

The game’s presentation is awesome, especially with the intro movie which really set the tone and makes this game fun.  Oh, and this might be the first game to actually use a legit name by saying “Al Qaeda”; how that got around the Medal of Honor “Taliban” fiasco is beyond me, but it just adds another dose of realism to an already very realistic, and fun game.

Red River Final … Initial Thoughts

Realistic, a lot of fun, and so far a pleasant shooter that’s a nice shift from the typical Call of Duty run-and-gun.  Mid-game thoughts to follow.

Like when Tretton was asked how he feels about the Nintendo Wii U. A Forbes interviewer posed the question, and pushed him (slightly) by stating all the new glamour-rock tech specs the new console will boast.

Thus spoke Tretton, “Welcome to the party [Nintendo].”

We imagine Tretton never has to order at a restaurant. He probably has a high-end “usual” that’s not even on the menu.

Why is Obama saying this?
Because he needed something fatherly to say. Alright, I guess? But this seems too contrived. If we’re going to herald Obama as being a smart motherfucker – there has to be something more to this.

Is he posing video games as opposite of books to show them as contradictory?
This probably was his intention. Not in a Zoolander-esque “not books” mind you, but rather as a stark contrast to the enlightenment of books.

Then is he saying that video games are a waste?
Yes. He’s fucking telling American children to read instead of play video games. Now, maybe he didn’t mean to say all games are a waste, but that’s how it’s coming across.

Why do I think like this?
Because I’m a high school English teacher – and as much as I want children to read and gain greater literacy and strengthen their ability to decipher allusions, Obama just told the younger generation to stay away from arguably the largest media market for them.

What I’m taking away from this:
Obama just told an entire generation of kids to put down the controller and pick up a book. Going by the general rule that kids will do exactly the opposite of what they are told (you, me, and the kid down the street growing up were no different), he may have actually just pushed more kids into gaming.

Thanks President Obama. Free advertising is great.

Titles like Half-Life (and work on Counter-Strike), Brothers-In-Arms, and the insanely popular Borderlands wreaked havoc in market share. But Gearbox’s latest release, Duke Nukem: Forever, just doesn’t fit. Anywhere.

At first, I thought it was satirical: a subversive attack on the evolution of the FPS genre. Then after typing that last sentence, I realized I may be as full of bullshit as Duke Nukem: Forever ever was.

I’m not mad at playing a shitty game. It happens. I just feel like a trick was played on me. That or Gearbox severely underestimated the gaming IQ of it’s consumers. I’m really hoping it’s the latter.

Glitchoris BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)

Don’t shelve this one for a rainy day – pick it up and play right now.  It’s not redefining the FPS genre, but it’s just too damn good to pass up.

Apology

Playing through RFA a couple times changed the way I played the game – which isn’t to be confused with how I played the game.  The first playthrough found me walking into a new area, blasting everything to high hell (most probably with the singularity gun), and then figuring out what I was supposed to be doing.  But each successive hour during the second playthough I found myself walking into a new area, spending a brief second or two recording the placement of structures, and then blowing everything to high hell.  However, this time around, I was able to analyze the environment and gage where I needed to go according to the structures.

Part of me thinks this change isn’t any big deal; we all get better at games the more we play them.  I just think the larger part of me was impressed that Armageddon played this large of a role in my thought process.  I admit: I underestimated RFA from the beginning – and I’m extraordinarily pleased that I was wrong.

Smooth

Darius Mason, the protagonist, is not your typical shoot-first, foul-mouthed hero.  He doesn’t necessarily contain an absurd amount of depth, but he actually plays like a normal human being in his spot would: fairly realistic with a hint of sarcasm.  This was one of our concerns with Bulletstorm – the characters were so transparent that after the first few acts, when they started to mature, even the maturation was transparent.

While Armageddon is a departure from Guerrilla‘s open world mode, we don’t feel terribly boxed in by our environment; it’s actually quite the opposite.  We are able to obliterate and reconstruct with ease, and after a short few hours of gameplay, the entire process becomes second nature.

Final Thoughts

We hope that Volition doesn’t sit too long before offering either more content or another installment.  The story is definitely there, as most narrative arcs normally are, but we’d drop cash for more content, more guns, more forge nova talents, and more pure fun.

One aspect of the game that we wish would have been included, however, is a dual player co-op story mode.  The multiplayer scenarios are definitely fun, but to run through the tunnels and magma pools with a good friend would add hours (I’m talking back from the bars at 2 am hours) of fun.  We may not remember playing the hours, but if we did, we’re sure they would have been hilarious.

Gears of War did this back in 2005. Dead Island‘s trailer emulated the success and even brought Giles Lamb some coin from iTunes in the process.

So here are the trailers of 2011′s E3 (the ones we liked the most):

Skyrim

The level of detail is remarkable. Gameplay footage shows all of the wandering glory of Oblivion with upgrades worthy enough to reach the Playboy mansion. We’re looking forward to exploring the constellar talent trees as much as we are the free-flying, roaming dragons. Skyrim releases on November 11, 2011.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Ezio is back, and from the looks of it, he’s going to murder everybody. He’s also seeing Altair walking in his midst, so that means we have a man in an animus living through a man in his memory who is seeing someone who isn’t really there. Wonder if this game comes with a free hit of ecstasy. AC: Revelations will be released November 15, 2011.

Tomb Raider (We know…)

It’s been years since Tomb Raider was a relevant game. But this trailer shows something afoot in the world of Lara Croft. We think it’s attitude. Gritty fucking attitude. We hope it plays that way at least. Tomb Raider hits shelves Fall 2012.

Mass Effect 3

Commander Shepard will probably blow up the whole fucking universe, but it’s a fair trade as long as we get to hear more one-liners and snarky comments. And Garrus. Lots of hype on this game; we need a heavy payoff. ME3 will be released on March 6, 2012.

Dead Island

We love the follow-up trailer to quite possibly the best trailer of the year. Now that a good chunk of gameplay footage has been released, we are excited to start another zombie massacre. Dead Island releases on September 6, 2011.

For your viewing pleasure:

Now, did you see that big fucking spider thing pop up like three times? You get to drive that thing! And shoot people. It’s great. We also are pretty sure you saw the protagonist rebuilding a walkway with his left arm “forge nova.” You get to do that too!

Here’s how the game started out for us.  You know when you have just one thing to do? It happens about once or twice a year. Everything else is already done or can’t be started, and that leaves you with one measly little chore for the day. These are the days where you only have to put on pants for like, maybe, fifteen minutes? Then you go back to your pajamas and t-shirt as if annoyed that being dressed like a grown-up is more contagiously shitty than the black plague.

Well, that was yesterday for me. And my one thing was to put in some game time for RFA. And for the record, I didn’t start playing until about 4pm. I’m a lazy sloth at times.

I honestly think Volition coded crack into the game. I couldn’t put the controller down. Seriously, I completely forgot the Mavericks were playing the Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Championships. I’m a moderate NBA fan, but only because I like to watch theatrics of professional sports.  Then I didn’t even watch the end of the game where apparently Lebron James pulled a Chris Angel and vanished in the fourth quarter.

Now that the introduction is through, here’s the rest of my neural firings.

More Playtime
Creative deaths. Part of me wishes we could transplant the environmental deaths of Bulletstorm with absolutely everything else from Armageddon. Then we’d be all set. I hammered a guy into a twenty-foot gas tank only to watch him bounce off. I would have enjoyed the explosion.

Epic battles. One of the pleasant surprises of Armageddon is the sheer amount of killing that takes place in a short amount of time. Headshots are fun – but erasing twenty people from God’s red Mars in under five seconds dwarfts that.

Secrets. I know I sound like a fucking five year old just discovering the joys of bombable walls in the original Legend of Zelda, but I can’t deny I would spend hours blasting shit up that doesn’t make sense just for one minute of ecstasy of finding something buried.

Less Playtime
Asshole CO’s. Every CO in the game is a stereotypical Patton. Nobody can be right going against the commanding officer. It’s more than played out, and this seems to be the norm for FPS’s these days. Oh well, can’t have it all, can we?

Fatality sans blood. Armageddon doesn’t really employ blood, and that’s something we definitely want to see. It doesn’t need to be spurting out of every orifice…ok, it needs to be spurting out of every orifice.

Final review up by the end of the week – probably Saturday morning.

An article on Computer and Videogames’ website discusses these new weird and quirky names more in depth with an astute industry analyst.  However, it’s commenter rbt2 who really made the mark:

“I don’t think it’s that silly a name.  The Wankel Engine.  Now that’s a silly name.”

Thanks for keeping everything in perspective rbt2!

At first, we didn’t think Nintendo knew their ass from their B Button on this one. But after watching the trailer, everything made more sense.

Considering the new controller looks like a cross between a Sega Dreamcast controller and an Olympic bodybuilder on steroids, we’re thinking that fucker must be a bear to handle. But that stands with the assumption that it’s supposed to be used like controllers of old. It’s clear that’s not the case anymore.

So if this thing is to coordinate flawlessly with the TV one second and then itself the next, it seems Nintendo is trying to erase the singular center of gravity that is the home entertainment center. Or broke-ass TV if that’s all you have.

Two questions arise from this destabilization of gravity. One, why look at a small screen when we all have wall mounted flat screens the size of small countries? And two, is this Nintendo’s back door into the tablet industry?

While the above trailer for the Wii U shows a man swapping from TV to controller to play Luigi’s Day Off, I can’t imagine too many times where that would actually happen. Maybe for children – but definitely not for adults. I will concede that I may be underestimating this function, but only if you’ll stipulate that in no point in the past calendar year would you have used the controller that way. If I actually got into that scenario, I’d probably shut off the game and grab my iPad. Or a beer.

As for the tablet industry, I think that concept is a stretch. Really, I do. But this could be one slick move by Nintendo to grab a piece of a very large pie. Sure, nobody associates Nintendo with the words PC, laptop, or tablet, but mobile gaming? Definitely. And what better way to jump into mobile gaming than already having the 3DS on shelves and generating something more tablet like?

You could comment that I’m out of my mind, and I may say you’re right. But I think Nintendo is finding bigger growth by entering into other markets over continued share of just one: the console industry.

Ultimately, I can’t imagine why this console wouldn’t succeed. The Wii kicked the shit out of 360 and PS3 sales, and that was when everybody was knocking the Wii for having shitty graphics. Now, imagine that same scenario in 2012, but with spectacular graphics.

Tell me how this console isn’t going to take off?

Make It TerRain
Red Faction broke the FPS genre years ago when they coded into the game the ability to actually destroy physical terrain. Don’t want to work to unlock the door? Just blast around it. There is a wholly organic and naturalistic reasoning to that process. One that we love.

With Armageddon, we can now repair what we’ve destroyed, up to a point. Enough so that we can progress through the level. (We’ve already repaired a pile of crates to shockwave them into an alien.) Some of the structures are already in disrepair, and a keen eye can repair them for salvage. And accomplishment.

Guns Don’t Kill People; Really Big Explosives Do
An FPS without fun weapons is like sex with vaginal dryness.

However, with Armageddon, we get to pick from a mixture of explosive weapons to make happy fun murder time.

Melee fans get a two-handed hammer that’s large but not oversized. It’s fun to swing, and while we don’t get a generous area of effect, this can be averted with upgrades. People who love large explosions will be impressed by having their choice of two early weapons. If you’re down with the run-and-gun, then dos pistolas may prove just as fun.

Oh Yeah There’s A Story In The Game
About an hour into the game, I was so enthralled with the mechanics of the combat system that I really didn’t pay that much attention to the story. Saying that, I guess I’m pleasantly surprised that I have been able to ignore the storyline. Later on, I’m confident I’ll get more into it, but for now, I’m happy not caring – and even happier that the story isn’t getting in the way of having fun. Like Final Fantasy XIII did at every fucking chance.

The narrative arc follows the typical mold: we’re an ordinary man, tossed in an extraordinary situation, who somehow manages to make it out alive. Along in the process we are duped, tricked, and set-up to fail, but we survive and are looking for payback. Nothing new as this is about every Hollywood revenge story and nobody has been able to outperform Alexander Dumas.

Mid-Game thoughts coming when they pop into my head.