Operation Flashpoint: Red River • Eurogamer.net

Codemasters announces Codemasters Racing label

Operation Flashpoint KIA as publisher focuses exclusively on racing games.

UPDATE: Codemasters has been in touch to clarify its Codemasters Racing announcement.

Codemasters remains the name of the company. Codemasters Racing is a new label, which launches alongside DiRT Showdown, and will be the home of Codies' racing brands: DiRT, F1 and GRID.

ORIGINAL STORY: Codemasters is no more: meet Codemasters Racing.

Rhythm Heaven Wii retains software lead.

Japanese sales of the 3DS have fallen off a cliff following the announcement that the struggling portable will get a hefty price cut next week.

VideoOp Flashpoint: Red River DLC footage

Welcome to the Valley of Death.

Op Flashpoint: Valley of Death DLC pics

Red River DLC detailed in new shots.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River

Crimson tidings.

Call of Duty and its ilk are fairground-ride approximations of modern warfare. Their designers carefully arrange buildings, beams of sunlight and terrain to turn the head and draw the eye as you move along the rails. Explosions blast and enemies pop up as you pass through invisible triggers, only to be reset by the SFX team as soon as you're done, ready for the next tourist to gawp at.

These games are often exhilarating and absolutely deserve their place front-and-centre of mainstream gaming for their visceral, immediate thrills. But they are, nevertheless, a Disneyland rendering of contemporary combat. The primary emotion you feel travelling through the mechanical string of set-pieces is one of puff-chested power, rarely fear.

It would be senseless to imply that Operation Flashpoint, console gaming's only military sim series, is anything like real war. But the emotions the game elicits are undoubtedly more nuanced and realistic than those of its corridor-shooter cousins. There are still the invisible trigger points that cause enemies to burst out of buildings on cue. But in this world, ammo is scarce, bullets drop height the longer they are asked to fly, and there's no precision-engineered path through these wide-open desert spaces to bustle you mindlessly along to your next objective.

VideoOp Flash: Red River launch footage

Codemasters' shooter deploys tomorrow.

Out This Week - 22/04/11

Portal 2! Mortal Kombat! Op Flash!

It's a hard time to be a gamer. Marvellous temperatures outside and a small flotilla of incoming bank holidays call you away from your gaming device(s) of choice. What else could herald one of the busiest weeks of game releases so far this year?

VideoOp Flash: Red River co-op footage

Water lovely war.

Operation Flashpoint PC system specs

Codemasters FPS reveals barriers for entry.

The minimum system requirements needed to run forthcoming FPS Operation Flashpoint: Red River are in the wild.

VideoLatest Op Flash: Red River footage

Marine with envy.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River shots

The latest trickle of screens from Codies.

VideoOp Flashpoint: Red River footage

Meet Sgt. Kirby.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River

Streamlined.

London, 1800 hours. Following confirmed and reconfirmed reports of an Operation Flashpoint: Red River co-op event, I've been parachuted into West London to infiltrate Samarqand, a central Asian restaurant. Here I must blend in with the locals to gain access to the code.

VideoOp Flashpoint: Red River gameplay

And some backstory? Why not.

VideoOpFlash: Red River trailer calls airstrike

Kaboom! Splish!

OpFlash: Red River shows multiplayer

Infrared all about it.

VideoOperation Flashpoint: Red River trailer

Codies offer up a glimpse of gameplay.

A single Operation Flashpoint screen

From the last act of Red River's campaign.

VideoOperation Flashpoint: Red River

It's wine, officer, wine.

OpFlash: Red River release date

Forecasting April showers.

Gritty PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 shooter Operation Flashpoint: Red River will launch in Europe and Australia on Thursday 21st April, Codemasters has announced.

It'll release in the US on 26th April. Oh look, we're getting it first!

Red River promises to deliver an "authentic and intensely personal US Marine Corps infantryman experience" and builds upon predecessor Dragon Rising by "taking on board feedback from the community".

Latest Red River footage deployed.

VideoFirst Op Flash: Red River dev diary

Features! Enhancements! Airstrikes!

Op Flash: Red River graphics polished

In-engine snaps game's latest build.

VideoOperation Flashpoint: Red River

Lengthy, scene-setting footage.

Codies: real world FPS are not "tasteful"

"There are British soldiers dying."

First person shooters based on real world conflicts are neither "tasteful" or "appropriate", so says a Codemasters developer.

Op Flash: Red River screens storm in

A trio of new shots from Codemasters.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River

VideoOp Flash: Red River gets first trailer

"Feast on the fury of battle". Om nom.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River

Sim as last time?

Operation Flashpoint is one of those shooters in which getting shot actually matters. It could be said that's true of every shooter, but not to this extent. In many modern FPS games, each bullet you take merely drains a little colour from your world until you finally keel over. It's no worse, in a sense, than being told Fred Astaire has died.

VideoOperation Flashpoint: Red River teaser

Marines invade Tajikistan, 2013 style.

First Op: Flashpoint Red River shots

Get a peek at these in-game screens.

OpFlash, GRID 2 and DiRT 3 mapped out

Release windows revealed.

The next Operation Flashpoint game, Red River, will be released at some point between 1st April and the end of June 2011, Eurogamer can exclusively reveal.

Next OpFlash "takes on board feedback"

"Target visuals" arrive.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River will deliver an "authentic and intensely personal US Marine Corps infantryman experience" and builds upon predecessor Dragon Rising by "taking on board feedback from the community", Codemasters has said.

First OpFlash: Red River screens

Or "concept/target visuals".

Next Operation Flashpoint named

Simulation shooter series continues.

Codemasters has named the next game in the Operation Flashpoint series.