NEWSFLASH: Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising’s development team is obsessed with war. “We got some good stuff out of the recent Georgian incursion,” says producer Sion Lenton. “The BBC shot some footage of an attack and everyone else was looking at it saying, ‘That’s terrible!’ We were looking at it saying, ‘Wow, that’s how dust is supposed to look.’”

In a highly realistic game where a single bullet can put you in the grave, the sensation of being shot at is instantly more unnerving. That’s important because Operation Flashpoint doesn’t have the instant drama of Call of Duty’s set pieces. But because it’s a sandbox world where anything can happen, there’s an undercurrent of constant danger.

“The enemies in the first game were omnipresent,” recalls Clive Lindop, senior games designer. “They could see you wherever you were hiding.” Now you can use the diverse terrain to stay out of view, throw smoke grenades, or even garrison any of the buildings on the island of Skirma.

With 220 square kilometers of soil to fight on and no restrictions on where you go or what you do, Skirma unfolds as a gigantic sandbox-style gameworld. Each mission has a time limit, but you’re free to complete it in any way you like. Frontal assaults, flanking, attacks by helicopter, stealth — it’s all at your disposal.

Every mission in the game has been created with four-player co-op in mind. Each member of your squad has a specialist skill, but the mission doesn’t instantly end if one of them is killed. “We won’t punish you for doing anything,” notes Lenton. “As a soldier, you tip the balance but you’re not the lynchpin.”

One of the joys of Operation Flashpoint is that missions rarely play out as expected. Even outside the confines of your mission, a huge battle still rages. Stray too far from the confines of your current objective and you’re likely to become involved in another unrelated skirmish elsewhere in the area.

Dragon Rising offers so many possibilities that it’s still quite a hardcore game on that basis alone. We found some of the controls a bit too complicated, particularly when getting in and out of vehicles. However, the overall action feels intuitive. We’re most impressed by the developer’s passion for realism and attention to detail. With a bit of fine-tuning, this war will be worth the near-decade-long wait (see sidebar).