Bohemia Interactive has released a new press release announcing their fifth year anniversary, how they have grown as a company, and also released six new screenshots from the upcoming "Armed Assault".

"June 22nd 2001: A small Czech game developer with the name Bohemia Interactive Studio releases their debut military action PC title Operation Flashpoint, published by Codemasters. None of us could have predicted just where the story would lead. Five years later we find ourselves looking back at the incredible journey that the game and company have since embarked on.

"The dream and ambition we had for a deeply involving, large-scale, military combat simulation game, a game which offered freedom of choice, large numbers of forces and vehicles clearly struck a chord with hundreds of thousands of gamers which swiftly led to the game surpassing 1 million units sold."

"These last few years we've been busy working hard on our new PC technology, driven by our ongoing vision of an open and extremely large living virtual world that will find its latest incarnation in our new game Armed Assault."

Says Marek Spanel, Project Leader of Operation Flashpoint and Armed Assault and co-founder of Bohemia Interactive.

Military proven technology
The depth and scale of Operation Flashpoint led to the US Military approaching the company about the development of a military training simulator, this resulted in the creation of our Australian development studio BIA, and subsequently to the co-development with Coalescent Technologies of the military training simulate VBS. BIA has gone from strength to strength and VBS2 is expected to be available worldwide in Q1 2007.

New Project: Armed Assault
The long anticipated release of the Xbox version of Operation Flashpoint in 2005 which resulted in a number of favourable reviews was the closing chapter on Operation Flashpoint in our history. Our next project, announced at E3 2005, will be Armed Assault for PC.

In Armed Assault we want to give gamers a similar sense and feeling of size and scope of possibility that our previous title has given them, as well of course to bring our technology forward into the current generation. Richly featured and multi-faceted ArmA will include:

Engine/Game Features:

• Island approximately 400km2 in size. Richly populated with a wealth of landmarks and features.
• Simulated environmental factors and ambient wildlife
• Latest HDR lighting, normal maps & pixel shaders as well as enhanced aural simulation.
• Story driven single player campaign in an immersive and believable world.
• Intense large-scale multiplayer with 100 and more people online.
• Numerous MP modes with refined and optimised jump-into-play net code.
• Extensive editing and modding capability and community support.
  

New technologies, new possibilities
"Many things have changed since the release of Operation Flashpoint and PC technologies have moved a long way forward. In our new game Armed Assault we can utilize various modern technologies that we only dreamed about in the days of Operation Flashpoint, like graphic shaders, background data streaming. What has never changed is our passion to create unique and innovative games that go beyond the realm of disposable entertainment. With Armed Assault we move even further in terms of user customizability and user scripting."

Says Ondrej Spanel, Operation Flashpoint and Armed Assault Lead Programmer and co-founder of Bohemia Interactive."