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Humble Weekly Codemasters sale: Overlord, Operation Flashpoint
The Humble Weekly Sale is Codemasters crazy, offering four games (and one piece of DLC) from the studio's backlog for any price you want, plus three more games for $6 or more. The "pay anything" games are Overlord (and the Raising Hell DLC), Operation Flashpoint: Red River, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Rise of the Argonauts. The $6 or more games are Dirt Showdown, Dirt 3 and Overlord 2. All games are PC and on Steam. The charity that you can send all your money to this time around is Special Effect, a UK organization that helps people with all kinds of disabilities play video games. Keep in mind that some of these games use Games for Windows Live, a service that is quickly becoming extinct. Dirt 3's GFWL systems are replaced with Steamworks, but Codemasters has no comment about its plans for both Operation Flashpoint games in this week's bundle.
Steam Summer Sale, final day: BioShock, Bastion, Double Fine bundle
This is it. Dig around your couch cushions, look under the rug and peek between the seats in your car (if you haven't sold it, that is) for any extra change. The final day of the Steam Summer Sale is here.The last day is going out with a whimper, offering the BioShock franchise for $9.98, Bastion for $3.74, a Double Fine bundle including Costume Quest, Psychonauts and Stacking for $7.49, and Splinter Cell: Conviction seeing a range of deals, starting with the game itself for $4.99. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is $9.99, Operation Flashpoint Complete (Dragon Rising and Red River) runs $13.74, Football Manager 2012 is $7.50, and Space Pirates and Zombies is $2.49.Indie Bundle XI includes Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Orion: Dino Beatdown, Star Ruler, Waveform and World of Goo for $9.99.And that's that, everyone. Summer's over. Now get back to work; you have to pay off all those games you bought somehow, and it's certainly not going to happen if you take the time to play them.
THQ takes on distribution of four Codemasters releases this year
THQ announced today that, through its THQ Partners unit, it would be handling the North American distribution of four of Codemasters 2011 releases. In fact, THQ Partners actually began its task today, with the release of Dirt 3 into the retail channel. The deal also encompasses distribution of Operation Flashpoint: Red River, Bodycount and F1 2011. The new Operation Flashpoint hits June 7, with Bodycount set for "later this summer." Financial details of the deal weren't disclosed, but it has been confirmed that Codies will continue to handle the marketing of all four titles in-house.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River developer diary makes radical radial changes
Fans of previous installments in the Operation Flashpoint franchise are likely familiar with the radial command menu used to control teammates. In the latest dev diary for Operation Flashpoint: Red River, the creators give a look at how this once cumbersome system's been tightened up.
Portal 2 dominates UK charts; Mortal Kombat maintains second place
Valve's Portal 2 and Warner Bros. Interactive's Mortal Kombat stayed locked in kombat for a second week at the top of the UK software sales chart. Portal 2 maintained its dominance for a second round, but opted not to perform a fatality on Mortal Kombat. Spectators of the tournament included Zumba Fitness, Operation Flashpoint: Red River and Call of Duty: Black Ops in spots three through five, respectively. The holiday double-whammy in the UK last week (Easter Monday and the Royal Wedding) caused a disturbance in sales. The top ten consisted only of previously released titles, with Just Dance 2 doing the cha-cha back up the charts to re-enter in the 10 spot. Chart-Track notes that Sega launched two new titles last week, with Virtua Tennis 4 charting at number 23 and Thor: God of Thunder missing the Top 40 entirely. Check out the usual suspects of chart toppers after the break.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River multiplayer footage breezes through a 'Fireteam Engagement'
This new Operation Flashpoint: Red River multiplayer footage offers a disciplined run-and-gunthrough of a four-player co-op mission.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River floats downriver to US release in June
IGN reports that Codemasters' deadly serious military shooter, Operation Flashpoint: Red River, has been delayed in the US. The release has moved by two months, with a new planned launch date of June 7. The European release remains slated for April 26.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River trailer is deadly serious
We have no idea what it's like to be a Marine -- our flabby, unattractive mass you'd call "a body" is hardly built to, like, run and stuff. Thankfully for us, we can sit back and play" as the Marines depicted in this Operation Flashpoint: Red River media assault.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River preview: With a little help from my friends
The first time we saw Operation Flashpoint: Red River in action, it was clear that the game was trying to expand the appeal of this traditionally "realistic" military shooter series. Played alone, as we did in December, the game still requires a fair amount of tactical squad micromanagement, but Codemasters encourages players to experience the ten-stage campaign, along with the separate co-op mode called "Fireteam Engagements," with a group of three friends. During a recent press event, I did just that (with a trio of Codemasters reps in place of my best buds), playing through the eighth stage of the campaign; a convoy mission where your squad is tasked with clearing out various checkpoints across a vast field leading up to a hillside castle assault. Once I got my settings in order (no inverted look, aim assist off, crosshairs on, thank you very much), I found the real draw of Red River: just going into battle with your buddies. %Gallery-118917%
Operation Flashpoint: Red River begins in April
Flashpoint newsflash: Codemasters has announced the release dates for its next big shooter, Operation Flashpoint: Red River. Virtual troops will begin hitting the e-ground on April 21 in EMEA territories, and April 26 in North America. Despite CEO Rod Cousens' intent to keep Codies' games away from other "big shooters," that date sets Red River right between Portal 2 and Duke Nukem Forever. After the break, watch a new trailer that presents the game from the perspective of one "auto-rifleman" whose accent, unfortunately, does little to sell the realism of the game.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River preview
The Operation Flashpoint franchise has, for better and for worse, never been a fully "accessible" series. Its focus on realism is both what has earned its fanbase, and arguably what has prevented it from reaching Call of Duty or Medal of Honor notoriety. Codemasters' latest iteration, Red River, attempts the difficult task of continuing to offer "realistic" gameplay, whilst wooing the casual Modern Warfare gamer. It's a balancing act that forerunner Dragon Rising didn't quite realize. That hasn't stopped Codemasters from trying. Red River's new stylized visuals make an immediate and effective statement: this is not the same Operation Flashpoint of yesteryear. As with Codemasters' other FPS, Bodycount, the team is going for a "J.J. Abrams-inspired" feel. The team wants you to feel like you're viewing the world from a helmet cam and, as such, bright lights will blind you, colors will be slightly distorted, and should you get hit you'll experience Kane & Lynch 2-style visual glitching. The tactical military genre doesn't really lend itself well to such an artistic decision, and it was hard for me to decide if it made the game memorable, tacky, or both. The balance between realism and entertainment is further evident in the narrative crafted for Red River. This new tale sends you into Tajikistan, a (real) country that borders Afghanistan and China. In the "it could happen" fiction of this world, the military has chased insurgents out of Afghanistan into Tajikistan, and the army must do its best not only to stop these forces, but maintain goodwill in a newly destabilized country. China's PLA, focused on ensuring the war does not seep into its borders, joins the assault, creating a conflict that quickly gets messy. Having the American military go directly against the Chinese army, whilst fighting guerrilla insurgents, is at once absurd, terrifying and exciting.%Gallery-98981%
Dirt 3, Operation Flashpoint: Red River due in Q2 2011
"I don't think it does any good to publish in a congested period when everyone's putting out their shooters," Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens told Eurogamer. Instead, you'll see the European publisher's biggest upcoming games, off-road racer Dirt 3 and serious-face shooter Operation Flashpoint: Red River, in the second quarter of 2011. Provided next year's congested first-quarter schedule remains untouched by delays, that puts Codemasters' pair safely outside the commercial blast radius of Killzone 3, Dead Space 2, and Bulletstorm*, and likely a few months before the next Call of Duty. Whilst avoiding it on retail shelves, Cousens is taking a couple of pages from Call of Duty's book -- fluttering in the wind, having been blown up in the library level. "We're not difficult to predict," Cousens said. "If DiRT comes out next year, GRID will come out the following year, and then DiRT will be out the year after that. So you can map us out." As Dirt and Grid alternate, Codemasters aims to have a new F1 racing game out every year, and a new Operation Flashpoint every other year. The publisher hopes to provide "a new IP that sits in opposite years to each other," but as far as racing and action games go, you now know the general strategy for the next five years. By next year, we might also see where, exactly, over-the-top FPS Bodycount fits in. * Actual video game titles.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River takes the fight to Tajikistan
Codemasters has officially unveiled Operation Flashpoint: Red River, the followup to 2009's Dragon Rising, for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. While "Red River" doesn't sound nearly as exciting as "Dragon Rising," perhaps the very fact that there's more Flashpoint on the way is exciting to those disappointed by the end of Dragon Rising DLC. There's also the promise of new cooperative modes and new classes. The press release also details the setting for the new shooter: "a deadly new battlefield set in the remote yet beautiful country of Tajikistan along the Vakhsh River." Guess we're going to have to make that military shooter about the escalation of the OU/Texas football rivalry ourselves. To see more Red River, check out GameSpot's interview and impressions, and see concept art in our gallery.%Gallery-98981%
Operation Flashpoint: Red River revealed in upcoming OXM
It appears that we'll see another addition to the Operation Flashpoint series in the coming year, with Operation Flashpoint: Red River being outed recently by OXM UK (via CVG). Other than revealing the title, OXM UK editor John Hicks also noted that the game is a sequel to last year's Dragon Rising and feels "tighter, more focused" than the last game. Presumably, Red River is being developed by Codemasters' Southam studio, as revealed by Codies VP Gavin Cheshire just last week. Unfortunately, no other details are known on the title -- other than a wide open "2011" intended release window -- so we'll have to assume the "Red River" name is in reference to a secret war fought on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, near the Red River of the North. No? Perhaps a shadow insurgency on the Red River Cereal plant? Fine -- we give up then! If you want to know more about the game for real real, the upcoming issue of OXM UK will have all the details.
