There's a New Flashpoint on the Radar

Codemasters has signaled, using smoke signals and a two-key randomly generated code, that the Operation Flashpoint franchise is going to get a new installment sometime in winter. A spokesperson for Codemasters went on to say that "launch timing is to be revealed as a countdown over next couple of months."

The first game was released in 2001 and went on to receive very positive reviews that especially praised the concern for realism that the developers had. The game portrayed a fictional Cold War Conflict between Soviet forces and US Army forces on a fictional island. There's also a Resistance movement on the islands that acts as a third force. The game features a large array of weapons and vehicles and an innovative, for the moment it was launched, open world environment where players can choose their own path to an objective. Most of the in-game missions were designed to favor a more subtle approach than the gung-ho approach usually present in the military shooters.

The first game in the series was developed by Bohemia Interactive and only published by Codemasters. Bohemia was to also develop the sequel to Operation Flashpoint, but creative differences made them go independent and create a "spiritual successor" called Armed Assault, which was published in 2007. It remained true to the original game in trying to recreate real world combat scenarios using a very life-like approach.

Codemasters is the owner of the name Operation Flashpoint, so it set out to create a true sequel. An internal studio is currently developing Operation Flashpoint 2. The name is now styled Dragon Rising and will depict a fictional conflict which features the United States, Russia and China. Codemasters hasn't revealed anything about the level of realism it aims to bring to the game, but presumably it will try and create a more accessible shooter than Operation Flashpoint was.