Game arrived - cheers Paddy! ;)
Will give it a bash. ;)
Might I suggest trying this mod, Paradigm?
http://soldieroffortune2.filefront.com/file/Functional_Iron_Sights;84749
I like my shooters on the realistic/immersive side, and the first thing that bothered me about SOF was the big, stupid floating crosshair taking up way too much of the screen. This mod gets rid of it, which means that you actually have to rely on ironsites if you want to survive. Makes the game harder and better IMO.
The mod comes in two parts: Gui2 and Models.
Gui2 removes the crosshair - that's the one I used. Models repositions the weapons, and I found that I actually liked the original position of the weapons better than the mod, so I didn't use Models ... You'll need to patch the game to use the mod, I think.
The sniper rifle will be your best friend if you play on hard. Switch to an assault rifle for short range and be sure to have a grenade launcher attached to it--very handy. The game is very linear--hit a trigger point, enemies spawn, etc. But your approach still makes a big difference, that is, the direction you chose to engage the enemies in. I found that if I just followed the directional markers I got killed a lot, but if I kind of circled around them before hitting them I could get the jump on enemies a lot better.