14 DAY TRIAL // There's nothing like being home alone for the weekend. I'm really glad my entire family is at a memorial, as there's nothing like a little drama to spice things up a bit. It also gives me some alone time with the entire house and grants the necessary time to invest it into Risen.I previously stated that the game was challenging, not hard. Scratch that – the game is hard. Following the same character development as Gothic, you end up leveling up in hops. Sure, you're level 5, but without the money or the trainer to give it to, you're still just Raggedy Anne fighting a pack of wolves with a sword you don't know how to handle.
Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising is pretty much in the past for me now. I ended the single player campaign and even went through some of the unlockable bonus missions. The game proved to be incredibly fun for me, even though the checkpoint saves did prove nerve wrecking. It's not that I don't like being told what to do and where to go in a sand-box game, it's just that whoever organized those missions must be some pencil pusher, four-eyed sadist. All the checkpoints are placed in the middle of an enemy camp that has nothing to do with the mission. What do these people think I am, a mass murderer with an unsatisfied urge? Thanks, but no thanks, I like the Chinese people and my ROE doesn't involve asking for trouble.
Over to you now, my esteemed colleague.
Andrei Dumitrescu:
This weekend I plan to escape from the oppressive grasp under which Hearts of Iron 3 has been keeping me since it was released and move to a different kind of wargame, playing as much as I can of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. The military shooter aims to simulate a potential conflict between the Marines of the United States of America and the People's Liberation Army of China over a small island that has massive reserves of oil. From the first few missions it seems to be a solid squad combat experience, where the player can die quickly but also perform some impressive flanking maneuvers.
Of course I will also continue to re-fight World War II and will be eagerly waiting for Paradox to release the long anticipated 1.3 patch for the game, which is supposed to unlock its full potential and eliminate all of the bugs that remained. At the moment I am trying to win the war in Asia as Imperial Japan and gearing up for the inevitable showdown with the Western Allies (my dirty little secret is that I plan to keep the United States out of the war until I can consolidate my empire).