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If you think back to the classic games of the 90s,\h\h

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many stand out. If you think back\h
to the classic FPS games of the 90s,\h\h

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many stand out. If you think back to the classic\h
war based FPS games of the 90s, many stand out.\h\h

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If you think back to the classic war based FPS\h
tactical shooter games of the 90s, MANY stand out.

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Oh sod it. This video is about Delta Force. ONE\h
of the iconic war based FPS games from the 90s,\h\h

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and probably the seminal game to\h
define the tactical shooter genre.\h\h

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Now war games are a bit of a grey area for me,\h
given their divisive topic, but Delta Force was\h\h

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a crucial and important stepping stone in the\h
world of gaming, and we’re going to explore why.

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I should probably tell you at this point, that\h
this video is actually sponsored by Delta Force,\h\h

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but not these old games; the new game, which we’ll\h
get to later. BUT Let’s start from the beginning.

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In 1985, Novalogic was formed by John A.\h
Garcia. Based in Calabasas, California.\h\h

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Garcia had already amassed a wealth\h
of knowledge from working at Datasoft,\h\h

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who produced a wave of titles\h
for the computers of that era.

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Their early titles stuck to the\h
formula that Datalogic had binged on;\h\h

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porting games to home computers and between\h
formats, mainly Taito’s titles. If a game\h\h

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had already proved to be popular, then\h
it was a safe bet to port it elsewhere.\h\h

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However, with Novalogic, Garcia wanted\h
to ultimately do something different,\h\h

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something more impressive, and that’s\h
where the VoxelSpace Engine came into play.

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In 1995 Kyle Freeman was a developer at\h
Novalogic, and he had an idea. It was an\h\h

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idea based upon the MRI and CT medical imaging\h
scanners he had been working with previously.\h\h

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You see, scanners like these use voxels to\h
produce their images. It’s quite clever.

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A voxel represents a value\h
on a three dimensional grid.\h\h

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This is a bit like a pixel on a two dimensional\h
bitmap image, just with an extra value.\h\h

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Now, the computer doesn’t need to map\h
the location of every individual voxel,\h\h

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mainly because it can infer the position of many\h
based on their position relative to other voxels.

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Comanche was Novalogic’s first game to\h
use the VoxelSpace engine, and indeed,\h\h

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it was the first commercial flight simulation\h
based on voxel technology at all. This allowed\h\h

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for an incredibly detailed terrain compared\h
to the vector graphics at the time. Remember,\h\h

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this came out in 1992, it\h
was really incredible stuff.,

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I remember playing it, and it absolutely\h
blowing my tiny mind, especially as it\h\h

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was doing all this on a 486DX2/50,\h
seemingly without breaking a sweat.\h\h

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Sure, things were a bit\h
jagged in places, but come on,\h\h

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these voxels needed to be fairly chunky to\h
even stand a chance of rendering back then.

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By 1998 VoxelSpace had been refined and\h
improved, to the point where it could\h\h

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take on an FPS. But not any old FPS, this\h
was an FPS that required precision, and it\h\h

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required distance, and therefore, it required\h
much smaller voxels than we’d been used to.

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This was also an FPS game breaking into a\h
world that was ripe with ground breaking\h\h

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games. The year prior, we’d had titles such\h
as Turok, Doom64, Blood, GoldenEye, Hexen II,\h\h

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Dark Forces II, Quake 2. And in 1998, even\h
more impressive games such as Tom Clancy’s\h\h

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Rainbow 6 and Half Life were emerging, but Delta\h
Force differed, and it differed in many ways.

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**Overview of DeltaForce**

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So, here’s the DeltaForce box. Big box version\h
of course, and other than looking intensely WAR,\h\h

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the blurb tells you exactly what\h
this is about in a nutshell….

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“Target. 2 Clicks Out. Lock N’\h
Load. Let’s Look Alive Gentlemen”

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Distance. It’s about distance,\h
and this was imperative,\h\h

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especially when you look into the\h
features that made Delta Force unique.

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If you look at games like Doom, and\h
pretty much anything previously,\h\h

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most of the weapons utilise raycasting, or\h
hitscan bullets. That means that when you aim\h\h

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and fire. The bullet hits the opponent\h
instantly. There is no actual bullet.\h\h

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All that registers is if you hit or\h
miss. Of course, there are exceptions,\h\h

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even in Doom, the rockets for example are real\h
projectiles and take time to hit your opponent.

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What Delta Force did, was take this a\h
step further and actually simulated the\h\h

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weapon ballistics. This included the drop\h
and time for bullets to reach targets,\h\h

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meaning that when you’re sniping\h
someone, you need to account for that.

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The arcade game Sniper Scope, developed by\h
Konami and released in 1999, would take this\h\h

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a step further, implementing a whole sniper\h
gun setup. I bloody loved this game as a kid.

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Delta Force’s simulation also\h
ported across to the game’s AI,\h\h

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in that, on the lower difficulty levels,\h\h

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the worse their aim. The higher, the better\h
they aim, and indeed lock onto your position.

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So, how do the voxels play into\h
this? Well, because voxels are\h\h

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used to visualise the terrain, whilst\h
polygons are used to render characters,\h\h

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buildings and anything else which essentially\h
sticks out, it allowed for draw distances and\h\h

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detailed terrain unlike any seen in other\h
first person shooters at the time. This\h\h

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is what allowed for such satisfying and\h
impressive sniper simulation, and general\h\h

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combat as a whole. By this point Voxel Space\h
was up to version 3 and it hadn’t stopped yet.

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Interestingly, one thing that made\h
Delta Force popular at this point,\h\h

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in 1998, was it didn’t actually support 3D\h
Accelerator cards. Anyone who had a PC back then,\h\h

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will remember the bitter wars between\h
manufacturers like Matrox and 3DFX,\h\h

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which meant there wasn’t a lot of standardisation\h
at this point. Plus, despite competition, 3D\h\h

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Accelerator cards were bloomin’ expensive. So, if\h
you had your Pentium Pro, and a bog standard card,\h\h

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with Delta Force, it didn’t matter. Voxel\h
Space would serve you well regardless.

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The game also included the ability\h
to customise your in-game avatar,\h\h

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and choose from a male or female operator.\h
Gameplay, your objective was typically to\h\h

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eliminate hostile presences in various regions,\h
or taking down a high profile target. Much like\h\h

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later games including Left 4 Dead, all\h
campaigns are available from the start.

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**Overview of DeltaForce 2**

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Which takes us to Delta Force 2.\h
By which point it’s clear that\h\h

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NovaLogic have coined the\h
tag-line “The Art of War”,\h\h

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which really does sum up what they’re trying\h
to achieve. Whether you like that or not.

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“You’re a member of the US\h
Army’s best-kept secret;\h\h

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The elite special operations\h
unit, also known as Delta Force”

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I mean, it’s clearly not\h
that much of a secret lads.

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By this point Voxel Space is\h
Now Voxel Space 32. Quite a\h\h

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leap in less than a year. But it’s kinda expected.\h\h

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Voxel Space 32 featured 32 bit rendering,\h
16 million colour support and 360 degrees\h\h

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of transformation. It’s not that\h
much further on than Voxel Space 3,\h\h

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but it sounds better so let’s go with it. Although\h
not a requirement, it is designed specifically\h\h

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for 32 bit graphics cards, which you’ll almost\h
certainly need, otherwise it’ll run like this.\h\h

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Yup, my Intel Celeron is really struggling\h
here with those smaller voxels. Necessarily,\h\h

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this is also the first point at which hardware\h
acceleration was utilised and indeed this game\h\h

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supports Direct3D, and featured stretched\h
voxels, allowing the simulation of taller\h\h

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landscape features, such as grass and shrubbery.\h
Allowing you, or your opponents to hide.

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Thanks to their online gaming platform NovaWorld\h
with “Push to talk voice-over-net technology”,\h\h

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it also sported a snazzy new multiplayer mode,\h
allowing up to 50 players across modes like\h\h

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Deathmatch and King of the Hill. There’s also a\h
co-op mode which allowed four players to complete\h\h

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the single player campaign. Which honestly, is my\h
jam. That’s why I loved Aliens: Colonial Marines,\h\h

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despite the bad rap it initially got. Honestly,\h
go back and play it in co-op mode. It’s great.

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Delta Force 2 also incorporated a mission editor,\h\h

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which allows you to place objects all over\h
these vast landscapes. Now this was fun.

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**Overview of DeltaForce 3**

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Now, at this point, you’re probably expecting\h
DeltaForce 3. Which is what we have,\h\h

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except that it’s called Delta\h
Force Land Warrior. I have no\h\h

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idea why. The previous games were\h
also on land. But here were are.

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Land Warrior packed in 30 missions,\h\h

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whilst removing the mission select screen.\h
This is a much more linear approach.

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Now, Land Warrior arrived in November 2000\h
for North America, and NovaLogic already\h\h

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understood the world was changing. Whereas 3D\h
acceleration was an expensive luxury before,\h\h

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it was now everywhere, in part thanks to nVidia’s\h
TNT2 chipset and the expansion of DirectX. This\h\h

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pretty much superseded the market that 3DFX,\h
Matrox and S3 were squabbling over. To that\h\h

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end Land Warrior incorporated a hybrid engine that\h
allowed these chipsets to accelerate the polygonal\h\h

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aspects of the game, such as buildings,\h
people and vehicles. Even in the hills,\h\h

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you can see here, that those blocky elements\h
have made way for triangles. Always with the\h\h

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triangles. This new engine looked a lot\h
better than its predecessor but still\h\h

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allowed for impressive draw distances on the\h
terrain, for that all important sniping. It\h\h

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also allowed for more advanced levels, based\h
underground and in expansive tunnel complexes.

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**Overview of Other DeltaForce Games**

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For me, these are the main DeltaForce games.\h
A slew of expansion packs and sequels would\h\h

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arrive, but none really achieved the same\h
breakthrough excitement of the original games.

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Wouldn’t it be nice if a new DeltaForce\h
game was developed, based on the original\h\h

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formula. The original foundations, but\h
modernised for our current hardware….?

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Which brings me to the latest instalment;\h
“Delta Force: Hawk Ops” is a cross platform,\h\h

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multiplayer online first-person shooter\h
game developed by Tencent TiMi Studios.\h\h

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The game’s worldview is based on the original\h
1998 game, with gameplay evolved from the popular\h\h

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“Escape from Tarkov” style of survival\h
and extraction mode. The game combines\h\h

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various gameplay elements, including tactical\h
operator shooting based on professional roles,\h\h

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PVEVP survival and extraction, and large-scale\h
player battles in open maps and battlegrounds.

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It was recently unveiled at Gamescom 2023 in\h
Cologne, which I sadly didn’t get to go to this\h\h

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year, but last year I went, and it was an amazing\h
experience. But in my opinion, it looks great.\h\h

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It’s going to be available on PC and mobile\h
first, followed by consoles at a later date.

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The\h\h

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story this time round is simple: A former Delta\h\h

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Force commander leads an elite task\h
force team to investigate a missing\h\h

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CEO and revolutionary group. Revealing the\h
scandal and conspiracy of tech extremists.

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There are 3 modes to play through. Extraction\h
mode is based around teamwork and strategy,\h\h

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including PvPvE missions. There’s also\h
Great Battlefield mode which puts players\h\h

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in an all out war, and there’s Black Hawk\h
Down mode; the single player experience,\h\h

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where you’ll be immersed in toe infamous\h
Mogadishu battle from the game’s movie namesake.

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Launching with at least four operator\h
classes, including Assault, Engineer,\h\h

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Support and Recon, there’s enough\h
to keep everyone enthralled here.

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**Overview of new gameplay based on trailer**

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**Similarities between earlier games mentioned**

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Check the link down below for the official website\h\h

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of this new Delta Force game\h
and pre-register right now!

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Frankly, the only thing I’m\h
disappointed about with the\h\h

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new game is that it doesn’t make use\h
of the Voxel Space engine anymore.\h\h

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No unfortunately Voxel Space is now a\h
relic of the past, and in many ways,\h\h

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the reason that the original Delta Force never\h
retained the lofty heights of the first few games.

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Remember, our discussion on 3D acceleration? Well,\h\h

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the early 00’s were a technologically swift\h
place to be. That’s why all this retro tech\h\h

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is so damn exciting. But let’s look at some of the\h
FPS games that actually came out in the year 2000;

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Deus Ex, Perfect Dark, Soldier of\h
Fortune, Daikatana. What do these\h\h

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games all have in common? Well, they all\h
utilise graphic accelerator cards. Now\h\h

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although Delta Force had started to do the same,\h
the fundamentals of the game were still based\h\h

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on Voxels. Something that accelerator cards\h
just weren’t geared up to handle. This meant\h\h

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that the fundamentals of Delta Force were\h
left in their wake, and really superseded.

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It’s probably why the last significant\h
Delta Force game was released in 2009,\h\h

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and it’s probably why there’s\h
been a 14 year gap to the new one.

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But what Novalogic brought to the table was\h
revolutionary. By adding tactical elements,\h\h

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expansive landscapes combing tunnels\h
and open space, sniper scope abilities,\h\h

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advanced mission scenarios and then bundling\h
it all up with multiplayer modes allowing huge\h\h

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battles, DeltaForce and indeed, the\h
Voxel Space engine ran it’s course,\h\h

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just in time for everyone else to catch up, both\h
in hardware and imagination and do the same.

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For those reasons the Delta Force games were a\h
true necessity for the evolution of FPS games,\h\h

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helping define the tactical shooter genre,\h\h

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and it’s great to see that\h
finally, they’re back with us.

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Oh, also, it’s worth checking out the\h
original Novalogic website, because boy,\h\h

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that thing is still up and it’s still running.\h
You can also revisit the original games on Steam\h\h

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for a bargain price, so you can get the full\h
backstory before launching into the new outing.

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Until next time, I’ve been\h
Nostalgia Nerd Toodleoo!