Operation Flashpoint: Red River Message Board

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.

Does Red River's continued, single-minded focus on realism render it a hit or a misfire?

Operation Flashpoint: Red River is going to get an eight-mission DLC pack in “late June”. The DLC pack is called VALLEY OF DEATH. All eight missions support single-player and co-op modes of play, and cover all the various game modes. Codies say: “Two new Combat Sweep missions, two new CSAR missions, two new Last Stand missions and two new Rolling Thunder missions are set across stunning new locales.” The action will apparently take place in the factories of a former-Soviet city and an adobe village in a large valley. OF DEATH.

LOS ANGELES - Codemasters today announced that Operation Flashpoint: Red River, the all-new chapter in the multi-million selling tactical shooter series set to ship to North American stores on Tuesday June 7th for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and PC Games For Windows LIVE...

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.

There's a certain simplicity to being a sniper--but it can change the way you look at the world.

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.

So many different ways to shoot things and command others to shoot things!

Dive deep into the tactical infantry shooter with a new command radial interface.

Jim and Alec have been dipping their toes in the Red River. This second Operation Flashpoint from Codemasters’ internal studio once again returns to sprawling landscapes and manshooter action, but this time seems a little more refined. That said, critical responses to the game once again seem negative. Is that justified? Or is there some value in this desert manshoot? Read on for eludication.(more…)

It's a military shooter set in Tajikistan, but you know where it's really set. Red River's another one of those acutely modern combat games most of the games industry seems obsessed with right now, but importantly it's not one you can beat by running forward and spraying bullets everywhere. This is a game about caution and teamwork as much as it is personal accuracy, and in such melodramatic, ludicrous times for shooters its stern, unforgiving tactical violence is a breath of fresh air...

Oof! I was all set to make fun of Codemasters for releasing yet another Operation Flashpoint: Red River video from their curiously dilapidated offices, but I’ve just found out that Red River is coming out in Europe this very Thursday. Why would you want to buy it? First and foremost for its explosions, but also for its focus on four player co-op, and that’s what this latest developer diary covers. I had quite a bit of fun playing the very multiplayer modes they’re talking about.(more…)

This new Operation Flashpoint: Red River multiplayer footage offers a disciplined run-and-gunthrough of a four-player co-op mission.

Ah-ha! This is what we like to see: a trailer made of lots of game footage that details exactly how things will play out. It’s a glimpse of 4-player co-op mission from Operation Flashpoint: Red River in which the players perform a search and rescue operation for downed pilots in a river valley. It gives a good (although jumpily edited) impression of how the co-op will work, and how the missions might play out. Disappointingly, it appears to be 360 footage with a touch of auto-aim. Sigh/boo.(more…)

Operation Flashpoint: Red River is making a public appearance at this weekend's Kapow! Comic Con in London, and not only will attendees get to play Codemasters' tactical shooter for the first time, they'll also get to win prizes in the process. Teams will be going head to head throughout the weekend...

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.

A Codemasters representative confirmed to IGN that Operation Flashpoint: Red River has been delayed in North America...

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.

Resolve makes falling back a bitter choice, but wisdom makes it the right choice when it comes to the lives of the Marines in Operation Flashpoint: Red River.

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.

See Tajikistan through the eyes of Rifleman Sargeant William Kirby in this trailer for Red River.

While I enjoy a wide variety of shooters, one aspect that's been woefully underrepresented is cooperative campaign play. Sure, we get the occasional game like Gears of War, or some games thrown in their take on Hoard mode, but I've yet to blast my way through a Call of Duty or Battlefield title with my pals...

Here at RPS, we love the Chinese. Steam buns? Alright by us! The Great Wall? Heck of a wall, that. Mr. Miyagi? What a guy. But what if you hated the Chinese? Well, then I guess you’d get a kick out of the latest Operation Flashpoint: Red River trailer, which awaits you below and introduces the Chinese army as enemies. I want to go on the record as saying that while RPS will shoot the Chinese in Red River, we won’t enjoy it. No! Not one bit. (more…)

The stakes are raised to an all-new high as one of the most powerful forces in the World becomes an adversary.

Some story details from Codemasters' upcoming tactical shooter.

Morning sir! Alright, I think I’ve got everything. Here are your two eggs, done just how you like them. There’s the toast, buttered on both sides as you requested. Here’s the bacon, also buttered on both sides. There’s your coffee. There’s the coffee pot. There’s the second coffee pot. Your morning manshoots? But of course, sir. You’ll find them under that silverware dome. It’s Operation Flashpoint: Red River today, sir. And they feature an explosion which I’m sure you’ll agree is simply remarkable. (more…)

After an hour spent waiting around in belly of London’s only Tajik restaurant, a fifteen minute presentation on Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising’s refinement into Red River and a testosterone-powered 5 minute briefing video, I’m pumped hard and tight like a bicycle tire. Soldiers! Camaraderie! Death! All under an untrustworthy and powerfully foreign Eurasian sky. What followed was painful and awesome in equal measure, and you can read it below. (more…)

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.

Get your guns ready for April.