Operation Flashpoint: Red River

This Series Is one that will always be forgiven its sins. Even though sticking your head in a box full of crickets on I'm A Celebrity is a less buggy experience than playing any OpFlash, we're prepared to let it slide because of the sheer scale and ambition they always demonstrate. Red River might be the first in the series to have attainable goals, a case in point being the abolition of competitive multiplayer in favour of a co-op focus.

The action shifts to a more contemporary warzone - Tajikistan, which has similar terrain to neighbouring Afghanistan, and is nestles next to China.

Needless to say, what starts off as a routine peacekeeping mission kicks off into a full-scale conflict that includes insurgents and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). During the game you'll find yourself traipsing along the titular tributary and trying to avoid getting headshot from four miles away.

Codies is promising there'll be more personality all round this time, with the aesthetic described as authentically cool. For a start, your gear won't be factory fresh any more -Rifles will be held together with bits of string, duct tape, chewing gum, uncooked spaghetti, human hair (body), violently unstable dark matter, sea sponges and EZ-Cheeze. Similarly the grunts themselves will have proper identities as well, meaning they'll be all the more unforgivable when they accidentally sprint across your line of fire. Something that Codies assures us they will no longer do.

If Red River is broadly bug-free it'll be a fascinating game but, we'll probably forgive it if things go strange again. Sort of like how you don't chastise an idiot toddler who does something stupid yet simultaneously hilarious because you're too busy creasing up with laughter.