Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising EGO engine video

Mike Bantick
Friday, 20 February 2009 09:40

Your IT - Entertainment

Operation Flashpoint was a scary game, a first person shooter for sensible people that realised it takes only one bullet to kill.  It meant, some serious planning needed to go into your operations.  OFP was a fair way ahead of its time technically as well, and the follow-up Dragon Rising is being built with the same ideals.  Check out the enclosed developer diary video.

Whilst original developer Bohemia Interactive have moved on to the ultra-serious Armed Assault, Codemasters have picked up the responsibility for the follow-up.

And it is looking good – mainly due to the EGO Engine on show in the video embedded below.

According to publisher Atari : Operation Flashpoint™: Dragon Rising is being developed using an evolved variant of the EGO™ Engine, Codemasters Studios’ proprietary technology platform. A cross-format iterative technical project, developed with accreditation from platform holders, the EGO Engine has previously been used to great effect in the creation of award-winning titles Colin McRae: DiRT™ and Race Driver: GRID™. The EGO Engine video released today demonstrates how this technology powers everything from minute detail to grand landscapes; delivering the most immersive real world effects and environments ever seen in a FPS.

“The advantage of investing in our own technology is that we can custom-build major engine components specifically suited to each title; such as dynamically lit particle effects for gunfire and explosions, incredible vehicle detail and extensive worlds that you can literally get lost in” said Brant Nicholas, Senior Producer, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
      
“Everything that the EGO Engine does adds to the experience and tension of being in a serious conflict situation where one shot can kill. Using the engine’s rendering tech and customised audio systems, we can make players feel the danger and adrenaline rush of modern combat, immersing them in the battle as deeply as possible. The realism of the game and its artistic content goes along way towards that, but having tech driving the detail and effects will give players a real sense of what it’s like to have a 80mm mortar shell land 30ft away – it lifts the playing experience to a whole new level.”

A new high-impact visual identity was also unveiled with the reveal of the game’s logotype and pack design. “As a pillar title for Codemasters in 2009, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising benefits from a very stylish and focussed art direction that is reflected throughout the game, its front end and will be carried through to its on-shelf presence,” said Alex Bertie, VP Brand & Marketing, Codemasters. 
      
“The logo is a reinvention of the original with an updated contemporary design to reflect a news ticker style and ties to the gritty documentary style of the game’s visuals. Dropping the ‘2’ from the logo is a further nod to the original and tightens the game’s title itself. The packaging also echoes the game’s dramatic and powerful imagery, combining mono photography of an ‘unknown soldier’, in authentic USMC uniform, with a treated in-game background. It’s a high-impact direction befitting of the game’s intense combat experience.”

Pureists may bemoan the arrival of their beloved on the consoles platform, others will simply rejoice the opportunity to jump back into some Operation Flashpoint action once again.

Coming this [southern] Winter for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Games For Windows, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising will see players engaged in the lethality of a deadly conflict against the full force of the Chinese PLA on the huge open-world island of Skira.