"henri Arsenault" wrote in message news: ... I just bought the US version of Operation Flashpoint a couple of days ago. There are those who question whether or not this is an appropriate game for this newsgroup. At the risk of starting a flame war, it is my opinion that a game that fairly accurately describes warfare in 1985 is a historical wargame, and the fact that it is single-person does not change that. Anyway, I initially found the game very tough due in part to the "tunnel vision" factor and due to the unrealistic long time it took to set up the gunsight for accurate aim. I eventually discovered that this can be considerably alleviated by setting up the rifle to fire bursts instead of single shots, which makes it much more likely to hit an opponent with a snap shot. The first night, I played the initial mission (steal the car) all evening without success, usually getting fragged before I even spotted the car. But last night, using the "snap-shooting" technique in conjunction with fast moving, I managed to surprise two of the three enemies and to shoot them down, then steal the car and race opout of town with bullets whizzing around my ears. In the campaign, I am stuck alone in the woods surrounded by enemies, but I found a forum where it is explained how to survive (there is more than one strategy), although I haven't made it yet. Last night, I downloaded a package of three new missions including one introducing the Apache helicopter where one has to ambush an enemy convoy. Initially I forgot that the Apache has Hellfire missiles and I fought only with the machinegun, with disastrous results. After discovering the hellfires, I am doing a lot better, blasting the BMP and the T72, but still getting shot down while hovering by the darn AA vehicle that arrives while I am busy shooting up the trucks. I guess I should try to be more mobile and zip in and out of view shooting up a couple of vehicles each time, but this requires some coordination, and I don't have any to spare. So far I have tried moving up to an intercept point and setting the chopper to hover low, then picking off the enemy vehicles as they appear coming down a hill. I suppose that being stationary gives an edge to that AA unit when it appears, because I have never had a chance so far of getting off a shot at it before it shoots me down. When the chopper is shot down, one is ejected and falls to his death along with the gunner. I did survive the fall once or twice when I was very low, but the T72 finished me off before I had time to do anything on the ground. Anyway that heavy rifle is probably not much good against a tank. This is a great nail-biting game, but I wish that the tunnel vision were compensated by labels pointing to enemy units, that are labeled (in easy mode) only when one's gunsight is over them. Quite often my officer is yelling at me to engage an enemy sooldier at 1 o'clock or something, and I can't spot the bugger to save my life (literally). Sometimes there is a yhellow square over the enemy soldier, but not always. Henri