Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

I love shooters of all kinds from Graw2 and UT3 to Cod4 and any other ganme with numbers in the title.
Graw was a personal favourite as you could think tactically about where and what you wanted your team to do.

Operation flashpoint is like that but on steroids. A real tactical shooter at last.

If you think your going to play this all guns blazing then you'll see the mission failed screen far too often. 1 shot kills you. Playing a mission requires patience and a tactical skill: are you going to take on the enemy face to face? How about flanking left? How about splitting your team, moving in stealthly and catching them in a cross fire?
All 3 options are available, using the easy acess radial menu, and many more.

This game is nails to play, but when you achieve your objective the elation felt can not be beaten by any other game. You earn each and every win.
There is no tutuorial as such, you are landed staright into the ( allbeit easy ) first mission.

Standout moments so far have been where you have to hold a village from advancing enemy lines, the taking of an airport.

Haven't tried the multiplayer modes yet, there are only a few on offer. CO-OP of the main mission and 2 PVP modes, infiltartion and deathmatch.

Graphics are smooth but do suffer from a few annoying popups, sound is great thporugh my 5.1 amp.

if you like your shooters arcade like, you may want to give this a miss. If you want to play at real war then this is the game for you.

10 years ago I only had one game for my PC Op Flashpoint, it was an incredible game and I wasted a lot of time on it , truly groundbreaking, exciting and challenging. When I heard the legend was returning to the PS3 I instantly went out and bought it on day of release, something I rarely ever do with a game, but I felt sure this had to be a winner. Well having only played three missions I am disappointed, I seem to remember on the original pc game the characters were introduced better, there was more of a story line and cut-scenes, this new game is a bit soulless, I have no attachment to the character I am playing or to the other squad members. Graphically it hasn't really evolved as far as it should have done in 10 years, again it is all a bit bland and unexciting. Controls are ok for the main character, but try and organise the rest of your squad and it get a bit annoying and they have zero personality! Also why couldn't the first couple of missions been played as a non-team leader where you could then get used to moving your own character without having the burden of worrying about the squad, after a couple of missions you could get promoted. I have also just read on the reviews here that none of the single player missions involve tanks?! In the old game that was some of the best missions, commanding a group of tanks rolling over the countryside!...If this is true I can see me swapping this game in very soon! On the positives, the weapons feel good, sound is good, apart from characters voices (lame!) and of course the fact you do have to work out your tactics rather than Rambo those PLA's mo-fos! As soon as Modern Warfare is out I don't think OP Flash will come out of its box again.

Edited Addition - One thing i forgot to mention was the map, it is horrendous, blocky and lacking any detail, why could they not have created a sattelite version google-map style?! Just not good enough in this new world of HD!

Having owned the original Operation Flashpoint and both expansion packs on the PC as well as ARMA, I had been looking forward to owning the new game on PS3 so that I wouldn't have to play games on PC anymore, that was until I bought it and found from playing it that the original developers - Bohemia Interactive, had nothing to do with this game.

Essentially you can't compare this game to any other war game on a console because it is a simulation.
If you want to run around along a set route, get shot 5 times but still live and be able to carry on killing people then dont buy this.
If you want a realistic war simulation with HUGE landscapes and a certain degree of 'go anywhere do anything' then this is the game for you.
Anyone suggesting that COD4 or Modern Warfare is a better game is probably 14 years old and hasn't even played this game.

This game however is no match for the original - which i still continue to play, nearly 10 years on.
Codemasters do not own the rights to the original game or any sequal and only own the rights to the name 'Operation Flashpoint', a disagreement between them and Bohemia Interactive has seen them release a game that is inferior to the original PC game which is now nearly 10 years old - however that game was one of the best ever made so that doesnt make this one terrible.

There are a large number of issues with this game that were some of the best things about the old game.
1. This game is quite short, I played on normal difficulty and completed it in 7 hours over 3 evenings, the original game took me around a month to complete each of the 3 parts.
2. Ordering your troops to do things is frustrating and time consuming, the original game allowed you 10 to 20 troops that you could split up and send to to different things, it is virtually impossible to get your troops to separate here.
3. Vehicles, the original game allowed you to jump into and drive ANYTHING, this game limits your vehicles to U.S. vehicles and the odd chinese one, i havent been able to drive any civilain vehicles or find any boats that i can drive.
4. During story mode there is limited movement across the island. Why make such a big landscape if you cant explore it. There was no tank involvement in the story mode and the one time i came into contact with a helicopter and managed to fly it, it was entirely unrealistic and totally unenjoyable.
5. Codemasters plan to release levels and missions via playstaion story but you will have to pay for each one - another rip off. the original game - and all subsequent Bohemia Interactive games, have had patches and extra levels and missions avaliable for download for free.
6. Yes getting out of a vehicle to find other troops get in and driving off was frustrating to say the least!
7. The storyline was a bad attempt to rip off of ARMA2, it had no flow or follow on and one mission seemed to have nothing to do with the next.
8. There is no way to explore the landscape. The original game allowed you to use boats, planes, motorbikes, bicycles, tanks, civilian cars, helicopters.... to go anywhere and do anything, and when completing the game you were able to do this without enemy troops to meet up with friends to go to the pub! It was good!!
9. the list goes on but i'll stop here....

Essentially this is a PS3 game not a PC game so it is still good but dont expect to buy this and have a game like the original, if you want that buy ARMA2. If you want the a good war simulation for a console system this is good.
However Codemasters should have let Bohemia Interactive develop the game, it would have been much better for it.
That said i'm still glad i bought it, it just wish it was better.

I have come to realise that the PC still has a place for gaming that consoles cant match.

Buy it?
If you dont have experience of the original PC version and want a realistic sim, then yes.
If you want a better version of the original PC version buy ARMA2
If you want to run round getting shot and not dying buy something else altogether.

A lazy attempt from codemasters but still an above average game.

UPDATE
Have just gone back to play again, the online mode doesn't work properly, there are no civilians anywhere in the game and worst of all, I went to replay the story and didn't want to!!
I can't change my rating but if i could it would be 3 at the most.