Re: The demise of the Ghost Recon Series.

Fester_Silently

Okay - I'll admit: I'm not a gaming fanatic (tho' I come close); I'm not a military buff/strategist (tho' I *did* do a stint as a Marine for a while); nor am I much of an expert in any one subject.

However, being a fan of the original Ghost Recon and after having seen the trailers for Ghost Recon 3 and seeing it (somewhat) in action at E3, I've gotta ask:

What the FUCK is UbiSoft doing?

I mean...is it me, or does this game look like "Ghost Recon 2: The Console Abortion", but in Mexico City? I thought the whole reason that UbiSoft pulled the plug on the second one (for PC) was because it was a donkey-sucking console port that shared NOTHING with the original "Ghost Recon" outside of the bloody name. This thing (GR3) looks like the exact same thing I'd watched in dozens of trailers for GR2!

Where's the tactics? Where's the hours of creeping/stealthing (almost) around to jockey for strategic position to gain the upper hand on the bad guys? And what the FUCK is it with that floaty damned reticule?! I got seasick just watching that guy trying to sight in on an enemy for ten seconds!

Whatever. I'll just reinstall my copy of the original (now FIVE-year-old) game and enjoy a *true* military action/strategy game, dated graphics be-damned.

Meh.

Yours Always,
Fester

P.S.

Of course, I'll reinstall GR1 right after someone pries my crack-addled, addicted ass away from Guild Wars. Goddammit.

micron

I havent read up on this latest installment, but I hope you're wrong.

Fester_Silently

"Ghost SOCOM" Nicely done.

Anyway.

Yah - I haven't played the second game on XBox (or anywhere else, for that matter), so I cannot and WILL NOT dare to give any "definitive" opinions on the game.

However.

Having watched other people play it (ad nauseum) and having them rock out on it and regale me with how much better it is than the first GR (XBox version, that is) makes me wanna womit! I'm sure unto DEATH that it is a near sight better than its PC-ported brother on the XBox. I'm also sure that GR2 is a much better XBox game all-around. But it is not Ghost Recon in any sense of the name.

[An aside: yes, I *am* deriding their choice of categorizing this game because of the name they've given it. And, no, I most likely would not be nearly so concerned had they indeed blessed it with a different (read: *not* GR) name. Ghost Recon has, through dint of its slow-paced, strategic, tense gameplay (and, yes, "camping" is part of the game, my friends - this isn't Counter-Strike or UT or any other run and gun game. This is as close to real-life as one might expect to get and still posess a modicum of military verisimilitude AND fun! So it's not "camping", it's called cover and concealment and waiting out the other guy and not getting your ass killed because you thought you were playing an arcade game.) has created a genre unto itself. And GR2 DOES NOT fit that mold. So, yeah - call it Tom Clancy's SOCOM and I might not be griping so loudly and annoyingly.]

I did, in fact, throw GR1+both expansions+a few excellent mods (Harntrox 5; Free Lybia; Frostbite 1.3 and Preacher's maps) and, MAN - I'd forgotten how good and TENSE this game really was/is! I (unwittingly) tried playing as if I was playing Far Cry or Call of Duty or somesuch, but I was getting my ass handed to me on a regular basis all night long. After walking away for a bit and soaking my sorrows in C&C:Generals and Guild Wars for a bit, I came back in a much more open and calmed state of mind and I'll be DAMNED if I wasn't enjoying this game all over again.

This is most assuredly one of those "genre-defining" and/or "ground-breaking" games that we all remember with a wry grin of pleasure (Starcraft; Half life; Baldur's Gate; Thief 1 or 2), not deserving of being sullied by console-marketable look-alikes that share little but the name (Deus Ex 2, anyone?).

*sigh*

Okay. I gotta go back in my hole to finish churning out some English papers by tomorrow morning. I think I oughtta uninstall all my games tonight...just to be safe...

Yours Always,
Fester

MSX

The PC version would have been different, jsut like Raven sheild. They did so well with Raven Sheild... (ya know, aside from the damned ladder bug)

The real leason I think they capped the PC version of 2 was the addon for Raven sheild. The studio kept pushing it back and by the time it was out (12 months later) casual fanbase had moved on. The expansion was, in all essense: a money pit. It was a few new maps and a few guns. Nothing that needed a year of wanking time over.

So Ubi thought they would save some money and cash in on the console crowd. Seems to be the thing nowadays.