State of the Squad Tactical Shooter (STS) Page 4

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Full Spectrum Warrior. Full Spectrum Warrior is based on a game commissioned by the U.S. Army to train light Infantry troops in urban combat situations. The design combines squad-based combat with real-time tactical strategy allowing you to experience the intensity and gritty realism of urban warfare. Instead of being one character, you control a squad of soldiers and use your training and experience to issue the proper orders and watch the action from a top down angled view. As Squad Leader, you take command and coordinate the actions of two infantry teams, leading them through a hostile urban war zone. An intuitive control scheme allows you to control up to eight soldiers in real-time as you out-think, out-maneuver and out-gun enemies through 13 levels of combat. Learn and implement authentic combat tactics, battling enemies with an explosive arsenal of authentic weaponry and equipment. It will also contain two extra missions that didn’t make it in the Xbox version. Available now.

Close Combat: First to Fight. Not to be outdone by the US Army, the US Marines have gotten into the PC gaming gig with First to Fight. In F2F you’ll be in charge of a four man Marine unit, deployed in hot spots like Beirut. This is a squad tactical shooter but you’ll have off-map access to combined arms assets like calling down for mortar fire to assist in your objective, or calling for a cobra attack helicopter for some aerial assistance. This game is said to be highly realistic and gritty looking. I’m not sure, but there was no hint whatsoever if multiplayer will be part of this game. This game was first developed for the Marines and they currently use it for squad tactics training. Scheduled for January 2005.

SWAT 4. As a police officer, I really enjoyed SWAT 3 and the tactics used in that game. I was very disappointed when SWAT 4: Urban Justice was announced and said to be made more unrealistic to attract more players/buyers. Well thankfully I wasn’t the only unhappy camper on that topic, and Vivendi eventually saw the light, cancelled Urban Justice and is back to developing SWAT 4 the way it should be. SWAT 4 moves away from Los Angeles to the Northeastern area of the US. There should be about 16 authentic environments. You’ll have the typical team controls for the AI officers, and the goal is to arrest the bad guys, not to kill at your leisure. Multiplayer will contain at least three competitive modes and a campaign co-op mode. There will be new weapons and gadgets, and SWAT 4 will be darker, and contain more of a mature tone. Release is sometime next year.

Operation Flashpoint 2. There is no new information on this title, at Codemasters web site or the one page intro site to OFP2. I loved the original and its add-ons. Last date heard for release is Spring 2006.

NOTE: The information in the article was compiled from various web sites, magazine articles and press releases from certain companies. This information is subject to change and unable to be confirmed. Check the latest information available here on the SimHQ New Releases page.

Download a pdf of this article here (341 kb).

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