Rock, Paper, Shotgun

And it’s ArmA2. This is fascinating. The situation where a developer keeps the technology and the publisher gets the name is common enough. There’s always obvious competition between the keeper of the flame and the keeper of the name (e.g. Football Manager versus Championship Manager, Far Cry 2 versus Crysis, etc). But Bohemia, in a recent press-release, have made that incredibly explicit. To quote the opening: “Is the upcoming Codemasters game really ‘the much anticipated return of the genre-defining military conflict simulator’ Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis? Is it really ‘the official sequel to the multi-award winning Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis’? Bohemia Interactive says: ‘No! What matters is the game, not the name.’” Seeing Bohemia’s fury at Flashpoint 2 being described by Codemasters as the “return of” or “official sequel to” is without precedent in recent gaming history. Read the whole thing for more. Crikey.

We took the opportunity to chat to Bohemia CEO Marek Spanel about the whole situation…

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One of RPS’ best chums has been working on iconoclastic soldier sequel ArmA 2 and he told us that stuff happens in it because of clever AI. Sounds amazing, we reckon. Obviously a trailer can’t get across the nuances of stuff happening because of AI, clever or otherwise, it just shows off helicopters and trees. There’s a story too, that our chum is helping write. It’s a love story between helicopters and trees whose parents do not approve. Sigh. Trailer!
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Vehicular-mothership game Carrier Command was tungsten-plated awesome. So it’s splendid that a new Carrier Command game is in the proverbial pipeline. It’s being overseen by none other than Bohemia “ArmA” Interactive in conjunction developers Black Element Software [They made Shade: Wrath of Angels? Hmm]. It’s to be based on the original 1988 Carrier Command and is set in the Gaea Universe, in which human awfulness causes war and stuff.

Gritty sci-fi ahoy! Full release below the jump.

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PCGames.de has a bunch of new screenshots from ArmA 2, the sequel to the non-sequel to Operation Flashpoint, by original developers Bohemia Interactive. They sure do look like some kind of excellent war game. But will they hold a candle to Codemasters Operation Flashpoint 2, which has been unveiled in astonishing detail in this month’s PC Gamer UK? Honestly, get hold of a copy of that magazine and suck in the images with your eyes. The words too. The game left Tim from PC Gamer feeling a bit flabbergasted – and with good reason: the Codemasters wargame is setting its sights on some high ground indeed.

Yet I can’t for the life of me figure out who will come out victor in the war of the wargames? Place your bets…

Some new OpFlash 2 images have turned up over on the Czech Tiscali Games’ gallery, which is odd, if you think about it, because OpFlash 2 isn’t being developed by Bohemia Interactive, who are Czech, and made the original game. Anyway, these look a bit more like concept mock ups than in-game images to me, but I’ve been wrong before. (But only once, whilst drunk, fifteen years ago, in the dark…)

In related news Codemasters have confirmed that the game will be out in PC and console this winter. Fans of the hardcore soldier experience of original game, however, should probably stick to ArmA, which is due an expansion pack a sequel soon.