Codemasters attended the E3 this year with a number of games on display. They've also enthusiastically announced their next project, Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. Now, in the past few weeks, Codemasters began to promote its new tactical military shooter by announcing a variety of features that are supposedly going to make for a completely different slice of modern-day military themed gaming.

Stay down!

The main sales pitch here is that they're not trying to create another generic action game, but rather focus on developing a believable "hardcore military sim" with open-world sandbox gameplay on offer. The game puts players right smack in the middle of a conflict between the US and China. You'll be fighting on a fictional island in the Pacific Ocean and from what we've learned it's going to have plenty of wide, open spaces for combat. The developers are, above all, devoted to creating a down-to-earth combat sim and that relates to nearly every aspect of the game, from weapons and vehicles to the environment and characters that traverse through it. They've specified that the game contains 70 different weapons, 50 highly detailed vehicles, while the island itself stretches across 130 square miles of dynamic and meticulously created landscape.

Operation Flashpoint 2 is allows you to take part in online 8-player co-op matches with friends (or 32-player matches should you play against them). NPC teammates also enter the fray, which means you'll be experiencing battles with up to 256 participants (both AI-controlled and player-controlled).

Surprisingly, Codemasters haven't brought a playable version of the game with them to the show this year. They did, however, present a pre-visualization of the project, showing what their ultimate goal is and how they mean to achieve it. From what they kept saying, their aim is to produce the most "realistic battlefield ever seen in a video game." It's almost a kind of interactive "war documentary."

Nearing the end of the presentation, Codemasters illustrated a specific battle situation, in which players use their binoculars, identify a target and call in air strike or artillery strike. Exciting firefights were also a topic, as well as additional gameplay elements including issuing commands to your squad, going into action with in a powerful tank and so on.

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising is in very early stages of development, so what was showcased during the event didn't involve gameplay footage or any tangible evidence of what the game is actually going to look like. For now, all we have is the developer's word and a promise of a spectacular game and the best and most realistic military sim ever created. Of course, there's not much we can add further to back up such a bold claim, but we'll be waiting for more info and media on this in the coming months, you can be sure of that.

Expect OF 2 to launch some time in 2009 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.