As the Battlefield and Call of Duty series continue to grow more and more popular, it seems like tactical first-person shooters are falling by the wayside. Operation Flashpoint: Red River attempts a revival of sorts, moving the focus from high-octane action to squad commands and sound tactics.

Squad-based gameplay results in a satisfying level of realism; The co-op campaign and missions are a lot of fun

Unreliable ally AI nearly ruins the single player experience; Obnoxious and unnecessary amount of swearing

UK REVIEW--The challenge of creating a truly realistic battlefield is rarely attempted in video games, but Operation Flashpoint: Red River takes it on and comes very close to succeeding.

Tactical missions with challenging objectives; Assists let you tailor the game to your abilities; Cooperative campaign is great fun

Poor AI often spoils the game's realism; Lackluster visuals

This realistic military shooter boasts tense firefights and lengthy missions, but wonky A.I. and occasional bugs keep it from greatness.

Tense firefights; lengthy missions; good weapon variety; co-op gameplay is good fun

Simulation. It seems to be a bit of a sticky subject for the guys over at Codemasters (for reasons I can guess but won't go into here) and it was a word that apparently was banned from the development. Still, it seemed to creep in just enough so that we have to walk everywhere...

Operation Flashpoint: Red River is a console rarity. Though it looks like any other war-based shooter, it aspires to something much different. Rather than presenting the action-packed "war porn" found in other console shooters, Red River presents a more realistic look at war.

told the tale of a fictional mid-80's conflict taking place on some fictional islands that covered a good bit of territory. Vehicles of all types were put at your disposal, so you might find yourself cruising in a jeep or flying in a chopper making your way from one hotspot to the next.

Few contemporary games attempt to recreate the experience of real-world military combat quite like Operation Flashpoint, and the heavy emphasis on tactical play, teamwork, and unforgiving realism found in the series' latest installment, Red River, provides a welcome alternative to today's glut of...

As the "thinking man's" action FPS, the AI and presentation fail it. I will commend Codemaster's for trying to mesh aspects of more tactical shooters with easier "pick up and play" accessible gameplay.

for playing games: if you have fond memories of a specific game from your past, then do not revisit said game as it will probably suck if you play it again. This proved true for me when I popped Operation Flashpoint in my PC in anticipation for the 3rd game in the series, Red River.

For all the hoo-ha about switching Operation Flashpoint to a more action-orientated position in its third iteration - the looming spectre of Modern Warfare's success perhaps a little bit too much for Codemasters to resist - I still found myself face-down in a puddle of my own blood within six...