Mateo

A few weeks ago, I came to Apophis with the idea of a weekly round up of what is happening in the world of gaming, from the Tactical Gamer point of view.

Apophis handed me the keys and said something to the effect of, "Try not to break anything."

So, let's get started!

You're In the Army Now! America's Army 2.4.0

For those of you that have not been following America's Army, the latest version of the "free" game, 2.4.0, has been released.

AA 2.4.0 has been thoroughly updated with the latest Unreal Engine refinements, and it shows. The game is simply stunning graphically: all textures look like they should, and buildings and player models look appropriately realistic. Audio has also received a bunch of attention, with all the sounds appropriately realistic. This is something which many online shooters overlook, and really adds to the impressive experience.


Training on the SAW.

In addition to graphics and audio updates and some bug fixes, the other key element that has been added is the finalized version of the Special Operations Qualification Course (Q-Course). Once the Q-Course is completed, players will be able to enter Special Forces missions, and use weapons and tactics reserved for those teams. According to the forums, these training missions are very, very difficult, requiring precise application of timing and tactics to complete. I have yet to get that far, since I have neither enough training nor honor to apply. Yet.

That sentence brings up one of the truly interesting concept behind America's Army. Realizing that online games devolve into death matches, often with team killing, the Army has a way of dealing with that mentality: graft RPG elements onto the basic FPS game. Your ability to train, undertake missions, and modify or choose your weaponry is directly related to what you have already trained in, and your standing in the community (honor).

The process works like this: you can sign in, and jump on a server cold, but you won't get to choose weaponry, nor participate in many missions. The more training you elect to undergo, the more of the game opens up to you. You are required to follow orders and complete objectives, otherwise, your honor will start to slip. The more you train, the more missions you can participate in, and the more you get to select your kit. Successfully complete training, uphold the soldier's code and increase your honor, and advanced training unlocks (Sniper, Q-Course).



In some senses, you get to chose how you play the game. For example, early on, you can elect to go to Jump School at Fort Benning, and become a Ranger, or you can learn basic Medic skills. You can go back later and do the other course without impacting your honor or standing, although players may decide to opt for advanced weapons training instead once they are unlocked.

The effect of this is that 13 year olds that want to bunny hop and kill hunt their way to the Q-Course do not get very far. Team Kill or go off objective and the game becomes limited for you very, very quickly. Overall, this is a good thing. On the few public servers that I sampled, tactics were a little raw, but the objectives were followed. On the map above, the objective was to prevent the Opposition from crossing the bridge. To fulfill that objective, not one player went past the bridge midpoint; they simply picked a perch, and waited the Opposition out. Nice and clean.

What America's Army is designed to do is provide the most accurate, comprehensive, and immersive Army experience a game can have. It does succeed at that, although I wonder if the difficulty of the main feature of this release, the Q-Course, will turn away more players than it captures. Only the truly dedicated will try to make it through the training and unlock the game's true potential. From what I have seen, however, once they do, they will have a truly exemplary online shooter to play.

For free.


Hey, wait for me!

For download sites, and more information, check http://www.americasarmy.com/

The Things You See When You Haven't Got Your Gun: F.E.A.R. Preview


Look, I don't have any more candy!

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) was not a sleeper title coming into E3. Put VU/Sierra and Monolith into a partnership, and already the expectations start to rise. Not to Battlefield 2 levels, but still, ELEVATED expectations. Not much was known about the game prior to E3, and frankly, not too much more has been revealed since. Here is what we can definitively say about the title:

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) Stats:

Publisher : Sierra.

Developer : Monolith.

Genre : FPS Action/Horror.

What's all this then? You play a member of a crack military team sent in to sort out a hostage situation in an aerospace plant. Things rapidly go south from there.

Engine : Lithtech Engine heavily updated. Think Tron 2.0 looked good? Well, this looks better.

Single Player : It's definitely there, only there is nothing but rumor and speculation as to the storyline.

Multiplayer : A somewhat lackluster offering thus far. Only Basic MP has been shown in beta previews. If you like MP Death match, well, F.E.A.R. certainly has it. No news if there will be a COOP mode as well.

What's Special About It? Take elements of several existing games (Doom III, Raven Shield III), put them in the Lithtech blender, and puree. That is not a bad thing, given Monolith's track record. Other than that, F.E.A.R. has a genuinely creepy atmosphere, close quarters battle, and lots of destructible environments.

When is it out? : Fall 2005.

I call This One "Beware the Ravens".

With the relative dearth of big titles going into the end of the year, expect hype to continue to rise over this game. I am actually hoping that despite the relative paucity of apparent innovation in the title, Monolith and Sierra actually make a FPS horror title worth playing. Lord knows Id did not.

Check out the trailer at http://www.whatisfear.com


And Now for Plan B: Plan of Attack .21 Beta

There have been very few full conversion mods released for Half Life 2 thus far, despite the source code being made available quite early, even prior to the game's release in some cases. The first full conversion mod is Plan of Attack, a tactical FPS conversion, and it is quite good.


Which mod is this Again?

Plan of Attack is remarkably like Half Life mod Firearms 3.0. There are a series of objectives which each team has to achieve to successfully conquer the map, although in Plan of Attack, the objectives are random each round. That forces players to remember the map, and coordinate their movements in order to achieve the objective.

Each team must hold an objective for a predetermined period of time (usually 45 seconds) in order to win. This is actually quite difficult, as player movement can easily reset the timer. For example: if your objective is to capture and hold a room, opening the door, or moving onto stairs leading up to it, to get a better shot, resets the timer. Team coordination is therefore essential to successfully completing the objective.


Which Type of Solider Are You?

Another neat feature, also similar to Firearms, is class selection. Plan of Attack players can select a role (Ranger, Weapons Specialist, Sniper, etc.) which gives the player certain benefits and tradeoffs to weigh. For example: the Sniper is all but useless in close combat. For initial rounds, when the player cannot afford a sniper rifle (yes, the copied that from Counter Strike), they will get owned. Similarly, the Ranger gets increased damage with the knife, and greater accuracy while running, but is completely useless with long range weapons. You need to keep these limitations in mind as you play the game in order to be effective.


Getting the Job Done

Since the mod is in the early beta stages, you would expect some glitches, but over the course of 90 minutes of play, not a single dropped map, mesh exposure, or lag issue occurred. That's quite good for a beta.

There are some parts of the game that are not finished yet. Rangers are listed as Rangers Level 1, which hints at a possibility of increasing your Ranger skills as the game progresses, but this does not appear to have been fully implemented at this time. It should be interesting to see how this feature evolves.

Overall, this is a solid tactical FPS that can only get better as the code matures.

Find out more about Plan of Attack, at http://www.planofattackgame.com/.

For Reality Show Fans: Joint Operations Realism Mod .186


Out for a stroll in the Southeast Asian Jungle

Joint Operations inspires a love/hate reaction with many in the Tactical Gamer community. The game, while providing some serious entertainment initially, is prone to some fairly serious bugs, including random falls out of vehicles, mesh exposures, unbalanced weaponry, and barn sized hit boxes.

As if those issues were not enough, online play on public servers is largely an exercise in futility, as NovaLogic and Punkbuster apparently have no way to counteract the slew of cheats and hacks that are prevalent on many Joint Operations servers.

There is only one reason that I can see that those Joint Operations disks are not coasters at this point: Brutal Art's Realism Mod for Joint Operations.


A Moonlight Stroll through Hell.

The mod, currently in the .186 iteration, strips away everything that makes the game friendly in a ritual sacrifice to realism. Instead of barn sized hit boxes, the mod imposes strict accuracy requirements, and ups the ante with realistic weapon kickback. Unload a long burst with a SAW, and you'll hit nothing.

Weapon damage has been altered as well. Going into a long range firefight in the basic game with a MP5 was a legitimate option-the submachine gun was nearly as powerful at distance as it was in close(r) combat. Not anymore. Realism rebalances weapon damage so that the weapons behave more closely to their real world counterparts. The .50 cal sniper rifle has legitimate vehicle stopping power, much to many armor jockeys’ chagrin.

Other changes include a minimal HUD, which is less distracting, if only providing the basic information. Joint Operations tends to lead players by the nose to the next objective, providing direction cues to players via a variety of means in the HUD. In the Realism Mod, you have a compass, and a map. Figure it out.

Many of the Tactical Gamer community are aware of these basics of the Mod, and want to know is: what's new that makes .186 so special? Well, graphics and sound have received major tweaks, so now the Mod actually looks and sounds better than the game it is modifying.

In addition, player classes have been rebalanced. There are now 5 classes: Corpsman (Medic), Weapons Specialist (Gunner or Rifleman), Support (Engineer), Grenadier (M203 Jockey), and Sniper. This is a more rational class structure than that of Joint Operations, which resulted in servers populated by a slew of Snipers and Medics. The Realism rebalances results in more Weapons Specialists, as they can use the widest variety of weapons with the most flexibility. Snipers are deadly from afar, but can still carry the MP5 for close range combat, so they aren't entirely helpless up close. Support can carry Mortars, Stingers, but are nerfed in close combat. Interesting to note is that Medics still get significant bonuses for healing the fallen, but can no longer have the accuracy of Weapons Specialists.

Some things cannot be fixed, such as the vehicle movement and animations. There is less chance in the Realism Mod that some random vehicle glitch will have you falling from a helicopter, but the game engine appears to limit what changes Brutal Arts can make to the vehicles. Too bad. Some attention to vehicles is desperately needed.

Overall the changes in the Mod give the game an edgy realism that the basic game lacks, and probably appeals only to a select few of Joint Operations buyers. This is a good thing, as you probably wouldn't want to play with many of the buyers of Joint Operations.

One wonders, however, if Brutal Art's efforts are actually worth it. If providing an exemplary mod for a lackluster game is worth the effort, I hope they turn their attention to the Source engine, or use their talents to tweak Battlefield 2, where their efforts might be more recognized.

Find out more about Realism .186 at http://www.brutal-arts.com/ .

And It Comes with this Special Detachment

Special Detachment has upped the website for the latest Ghost Recon tournament at
http://specialdetachment.org/tourney2005/.

The basic page has a 17mb flash movie on it, and frankly, is not real informative, but is really cool.

A better source of information on the upcoming Tourney is the forums, where Marshall+SD lays out the rules. Check the forums at http://www.specialdetachment.org/for...forum.php?f=38.

Teams are playing for a free 2 month Standard Game Server from Hypernia.net, or $250 towards existing service. Runners up get a free domain and 3 months free hosting courtesy of SynergyBlue.com.

Keep in mind that once the portal opens, you have only 2 weeks to register your squad, so keep visting that page for updates.

A Final Note
That's alot of content for a first issue. If you have any suggestions, constructive criticism, or hate mail, contact Apophis. I'll be entering the witness relocation program.

Next week:

• What to Play Before Those Battlefield 1942 Disks Become Coasters

• A Look at the Area 51 Demo

• More Mod and Game Reviews

See you all next week!
Mateo