Just DL'd the game tonight (Direct2Drive.com) and I must say - this game is
stunning. Thanks to Shafik for showing me the ropes tonight... I had a blast.
After getting my video settings tweaked (curiously turning things UP - like resolution - actually INCREASED my frame rate...

anyway - no arguments there!) myself shafik and farman (?) headed out by jeep on a mission to retrieve a downed pilot. The crash site was just over the top of a large ridge... we parked a ways back and made our way on foot to the crash site. Once we got there we were ambushed! Huge exposions rocked the area and within seconds shafik and farman were dead! I was all alone on my very first mission!! And me without my trusty minimap and blinking red dots! Talk about intense!!
Fortunately I was lagging behind my SL and squadmate a bit and was spared from the initial explosions. As I lied prone behind a tree, I was able to put my Silenced M4 on target and takeout the gunner of a jeep - apparently he had some mounted grenade launcher thing? My First Kill!! I was pumped! I then even managed to take down the driver and the two other OpFor soldiers that drove to the crash site in the jeep!!
Here it is 4 hours later... it's a good thing I took tomorrow off from work!
Anyway, yeah... this game is crazy... best $40 I've spent in quite some time!