Project Reality 2 announced, turns the military FPS mod into a standalone game

The Project Reality mod for Battlefield 2/Arma 2 finally hit version 1.0 earlier this year , after eight years of development time. During that time, the game series it was modifying have moved on to bigger and more explodey instalments - several times, when it comes to Battlefield. Now, the PR Team have announced the mod's follow-up - and, excitingly, you won't need to rely on any other games to play it. Project Reality 2 is being built using CryEngine 3 to be "completely standalone", in contrast to the distinctly semi-detached nature of the original.

Like the original mod, the aim with PR2 is to be one of the more realistic multiplayer shooters out there. As the announcement post reveals, "Initially, Project Reality 2 will be a small scale, infantry based FPS with a comprehensive weapon handling system that will aim to be as realistic as possible. Map sizes will be 1km and 2km with an Advance and Secure (or "AAS") style game mode, similar to that seen in the Project Reality: BF2 and Project Reality: ARMA 2 modifications." The team are currently working on the alpha - development began in mid-2012 - although a public release "is still away off" as there's obviously a lot more work involved with making a standalone release.

Interestingly, Project Reality 2 will also be "free to play", and thanks to the lack of hyphens there I'm going to assume that means the good kind of free, rather than the wallet-tickling kind often favoured by many of today's online-FPS developers. For the full details, be sure to read that announcement post - in the meantime, here's how PR1 was looking just a few months ago:

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.

Latest in FPS
FragPunk codes - A close-up shot of a mercenary wearing a mask with glowing eyes.
All FragPunk codes and how to redeem them
An evil-looking demon with red eyes and horns
You can theoretically beat Doom: The Dark Ages without using a gun, but 'You'd have a hard time, that's for sure,' says the game's director
Official Doom Guy art superimposed over Vault 666 Fallout-themed background.
Fallout-themed Doom mod Vault 666 has multiple endings, an OP Dogmeat companion, and a Ron Perlman-impersonating narrator so good, I was worried it was AI-generated at first
The Doomslayer in armor
Doom: The Dark Ages won't end with the Slayer in a coffin waiting for the start of Doom 2016: 'That would mean that we couldn't tell any more medieval stories'
Doom: The Dark Ages art
'I think only the shotguns are the same,' says Doom: The Dark Ages director, otherwise the guns are brand-new or significantly transformed
zoomed in concept art of the Agadon Hunter, a new enemy appearing in Doom: The Dark Ages.
Doom: The Dark Ages already sneakily revealed its 'new Marauder,' and the devs hope he'll be just as challenging, but a little less frustrating
Latest in News
Swen Vincke
Swen Vincke stamps seal of approval on Stardew Valley mod that yoinks the Baldur's Gate 3 cast out of D&D and into a cosy pastoral life
Nvidia RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card from different angles
Nvidia says it really has sorted RTX 50-series black screen issues this time around as yet another driver fix finds its way to release
A collection of upturned CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays on a carpeted floor
Warner Bros says it will replace certain DVDs damaged by 'disc rot', but you might not get the same movie you sent in for replacement
Maximillian from Evil Genius 2
Rebellion CEO says Evil Genius 3 could happen but wonders 'what else could we do with it other than a base-building game?'
Skytech Shadow gaming PC on a blue background
Screw waiting for GPU restocks, with an AMD RX 9070 gaming PC going for as cheap as this I'd hop on the pre-built bandwagon
A screenshot from a YouTube video showing a sticker being pulled from the front of a fake 9800X3D CPU
This Amazon-bought fake AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is actually a 14-year-old Bulldozer chip with a cheap sticker on it