requests from the Indonesian government, the Task Force was sent to the country as part of Operation Typhoon Rising, to stop the rebellion and re-establish government control over rebel-controlled territories. Rebels (Red Team) The Indonesian Separatist Movement grew out of the 1998 Indonesian Revolution which saw the downfall of Indonesian President Suharto. The rebels fight for varied reasons in their desire to attain independence of certain provinces, as well as to protect their people against the government. The instruction manual for the game states that the Rebels feel that they have been the victims of unfair and inhumane treatment at the hands of the Indonesian military and government. Joint Operations forces were sent to Indonesia to combat the rebel threat after three bombs were detonated by the Rebels, with one destroying part of a school, one destroying a government building in Jakarta, and one that nearly killed the Indonesian president. Recently, factions of the military started to join the movement resulting in the rebels taking control of several military bases and capturing large numbers of weapons and vehicles. Expansion pack On November 19, 2004, Novalogic released an expansion pack, Joint Operations: Escalation. The expansion pack was not a stand-alone release and required the original game be installed first prior to use. Escalation introduced new maps, weapons, and vehicles while focusing on an expansion of the conflict to other areas in Southeast Asia. Players had the option to use parachutes to jump out of helicopters or from elevated map locations. In October 2005, Novalogic released both Typhoon Rising and Escalation as a compilation set called Joint Operations: Combined Arms which made it possible to buy both games in a single boxed product. This was done as a marketing move by the game manufacturer and there is no difference in game play between a player who owns Joint Operations: Combined Arms and a player who owns separate copies of both Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising and Joint Operations: Escalation. On August 11, 2009 Navarre Corporation re-released the compilation as Joint Ops: Combined Arms Gold. Reception Typhoon Rising Typhoon Rising received "favorable" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. Joint Operations was a runner-up for Computer Games Magazines 2004 "Best Multiplayer" award, which ultimately went to Unreal Tournament 2004. Escalation The expansion pack Escalation also received "favorable" reviews (though not as much as the original Joint Operations) according to Metacritic. References External links