Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Outside of proper flight sims, chopper flight models tend to be either soggy or silly. Here they're neither. Within minutes of clambering into a Seahawk for the first time I was darting around in much the same happy way I do in FSX. I wonder if the flat roofs of sangers and sheds are landable? Oh, lovely, they are. I wonder if I can activate auto-hover, then switch to a door-mounted minigun or scamper off and explore on foot? Ah, splendid, I can. Does it matter if wander too close to the tail rotor while exiting? Ouch! Yes it does. The default keyboard control scheme and handling feel so natural I still haven't bothered to plug in a joystick.

A few more wheeled or winged interludes would have added spangle to what is a consistently enjoyable but rather imagination-bereft campaign. There's no real plot to speak of. Once the initial load screens have supplied their speedy potted history of Skira - a history that ends with oil-hungry China invading and a Russia/US alliance responding - it's bog-standard military ops all the way. Seize this hamlet, destroy those SAM sites, infiltrate this oil storage depot... it's a testament to the game's visceral, unpredictable combat that familiar tasks like these never feel tiresome.

Will I want to replay the story segment? Yes, I'm sure I will. Various unachieved secondary objectives and unexplored tactical approaches will see to that. When I do restart, I'll certainly be activating 'hardcore' mode. At the default difficulty level all spotted threats are marked on a strip-compass which does undermine immersion after a while.

A small disincentive to revisit the campaign is the nasty checkpoint save system. Auto-save points are scarce and sometimes poorly positioned. One of the more exasperating scenarios involves nailing a couple of heavily-defended AAA vehicles before friendly helos arrive. After about six attempts, I succeeded only to be sniped by a distant marksman while strolling out to greet the landing Seahawks. Not a problem, I thought. The game is bound to have surreptitiously saved my progress immediately after the AFV's brewed-up. Oh, the naivety.

It may well be possible - I haven't got round to checking - to add extra save checkpoints to default missions using the bundled editor. My cursory fumblings suggest a powerful tool with a few hopefully-patchable teething troubles. Without consulting the help file, I managed to set up a simple infantry skirmish, and build the sort of firing range that should have been provided by the devs themselves. Things started to go awry when I attempted to stress-test the engine by fabricating a massive pitched battle involving hundreds of individual units and much of Skira's surface area. On jabbing the 'test scenario' button, I found myself staring at a grey, irretrievably frozen screen. Hmmm.