Found by danthom a few moments ago is a change by CM to the forums. They have now added a “Picture Album Tab“. I presume this is the work of Satine as she already has a flickr account, and seems to be a person that likes to bridge the gap of Corporation and Community – as noted also by the blog. I don’t know if it’s her or her job. Regardless, Two of the new pictures found are relevant to us.

First found is a Picture of 1st1 - French Community Manager for OFP2 (or at least was, don’t know if still is).

Second is of Sun God Helios working hard – or at the very least staring intensely at a screen. This is how he get’s the big bucks. Look stressed and make it look like your going all out. For all I know he might be reading the fourms or dealing with one of my (Sir. Polaris) ‘Kind IM conversations’. Both is enough to give some one a early retirement.

Show your support to Helios!
That being noted I am sending out a general call for fans of OFP2 to share some love for Helios by filling his photo with random comments and or spam – What ever you do best. Show your love by making him the be dev in the office with the biggest fanbase. It’s the least we can do for all the dedication he gives us.

Make it happen Community Heroes! Post a comment on Helios’ Page. Lets push it to 20 at least.

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Posted a few hours ago (5am EST). Helios has announced information from Tim Browne (Lead Designer on OFP: DR) regarding a a list of 5 achievement/trophy names that you’ll be able to attain in OFP: DR. They are:

• Unbloodied Hands
• Tide’s Out
• Keep ‘em Rolling
• Shock and Awe
• Low Blow

As these are only the titles to the achievement. A competition has been created around what you need to do for each particular achievement/trophy.

If you have any guess to what the above are, head over to the source link and make a post. First person to guess a any of the titles correctly, gets a custom avatar. Thats makes five that are going out soon, so don’t delay.

Heres some source code to help you make a clean post.

[quote=MyName's Guesses]

[List=1]

[*]Unbloodied Hands

[List]

[*] Guess

[*] Part two if you think there is multiple requirements

[/List]

[*]Tide’s Out

[List]

[*] Guess

[*] Part two if you think there is multiple requirements

[/List]

[*]Keep ‘em Rolling

[List]

[*] Guess

[*] Part two if you think there is multiple requirements

[/List]

[*]Shock and Awe

[List]

[*] Guess

[*] Part two if you think there is multiple requirements

[/List]

[*]Low Blow

[List]

[*] Guess

[*] Part two if you think there is multiple requirements

[/List]

[/List]

[/quote]

Source

A post by helios recently has suggested an update on this front later today, once posted this post will be updated.

Here

Helios just announced that the official release date (Yes, A date, not a period) will be announced on the upcoming Friday, in the early morning, to be precise. Helios also told us there’ll be a new video, showing the Armoury of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Helios also promised us a brand new set of screenshots. To “Get a whet appetite” Helios also posted 2 new screenshots.

PLA – Type95 self propelled anti-aircraft gun, viewed through binoculars

US – Abrams M1A2 main battle tank, with AH1Z Super Cobra attack helicopter in air

Full size screenshots can (of course) be found on Flickr.

Source

Shortly after the announcement on Operation Flashpoint’s Twitter page, the new screenshots where published.

Helios also made us aware about an upcoming video, Coming at the 3rd of July called “Fear and Anticipation”

Thanks to Heroes member adireflex for making us aware about the new screenshots. They have been archived in the OFP2 Flickr account and are viewable full size there.

Source

From Helios,

——–

First of all, my apologies for the confusion this may have caused.

After speaking to the dev team, I’ve had something clarified to me that invalidates what I said earlier about the definitive no freelook and no TrackIR statement.

It turns out that whilst there is no freelook and no TrackIR for infantry, these features will be available for vehicles.

So to summarize:

• Infantry – No Freelook for all platforms, No TrackIR
• Vehicles – Freelook supported for all platforms for pilot, driver, commander, passenger etc, TrackIR supported

Source

Some Unfortunate news from Helios.

Sorry to disappoint some of you, but OFP: DR will not include leaning or support TrackIR.

In fairness OFP1 did not have leaning either. However this poor news for the tactical realism crowd. This means there will be no leaning around trees, walls, defences. All combat will require you to be exposed at the very least your upper body. While this will not be a game killer, it will surly change the dynamics of combat and most likely alienate some of OFP2’s more diehard fans.

It is unfortunate to see such changes to the OFP1 formula. All signs however point to a more engaging FPS experience. However it is the belief of this writer, that OFP1’s greatness stemmed by it’s functionally and the little features.

Little features took what was a open world FPS and turned into a rich killing ground. It’s unfortunate to see, that many of OFP1’s great features will not be in OFP2. We can only presume that there is a issue holding back, leaning and freelook. I would presume texture tearing and perhaps the difficulty of teaching the AI how/where to lean from around cover. I don’t really know. All I do know is APC rides and Helicopter rides are going to be far less enjoyable.

Source

*Freelook refers to Free movement of the players players head from the body, not a spectator camera. I understand there can be some confusion with this term*

Regarding the complains about the E3 video, Helios made a new news post where he writes:

- AI
- Bullet hit damage to player
- Number of hits enemy soldiers can take before dying
- Recoil on the weapons
- Camera shake when sprinting

These aspects of the game are still WIP, and work is being done over the summer to refine and balance these.

Helios also writes about the graphical aspect of the game:

- Muzzle flash maybe too large
- Smoke from large explosions doesn’t seem to linger for that long (~5 seconds)

Particle effects are not finalised yet, visually and optimisation wise

Helios also notes the game will be optimized through this summer.

You can find Helios’ original post here

Codemasters Soundteam has yet made more progress. They’re now recording one of the most interesting sound parts in Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising; Weapon sounds.

The records where made on a normally quiet farm in Nashville, Tennessee back in November 2008. The Microphones for the recording where placed on 3 differend places, in order to record the sound at a certain distance.

Helios’ news thread about it also includes some pictures of the weapons that where recorded, This is Steven Austin, one of the weapon recorders:

Besides the pictures in Helios’ news thread, it also also includes information about which kind of weapons where recorded:

The collection covered all sorts of pistols, assault rifles, sub machineguns, Sniper Rifles and some other exotic weapons that whilst not suitable for OFP are certainly great to have in our library just in case.

Indoor recording is also covered by the news post. According to Helios, the indoor recording will make the game sound even more realistic.

Helios closes his post mentioning the game will have great benefits from the weapon recording.