GR.net's hands on at RSE!

[ZJJ]

Yesterday a few GR.net representatives were given an opportunity to visit RSE studios and get some hands on exposure to GRAW2! Needless to say, the hard core 360 gamers that went came away with their chins hanging to the floor!

The first thing you notice are the graphics. The way dynamic shadowing works gives a whole new perspective on using cover and finding enemies.

The maps are varied. You have some smaller maps and some large maps. We will be posting up some of the coop maps a bit later. The Locks (possibily the largest) map actually has three sections to it so that it can be used for SP play and MP play.

There are some new gameplay styles, as well. There is one called Team Battle, which the PC gamers may be interested to learn was an idea that was from the GR2 PC version that never got released. It's good to know that all the work isn't just sitting on a hard drive somewhere collecting dust.

More to come later, as well as an interview with Serellan.

[ReapeR eXe]

Yesterday a few GR.net representatives were given an opportunity to visit RSE studios and get some hands on exposure to GRAW2! Needless to say, the hard core 360 gamers that went came away with their chins hanging to the floor!

The first thing you notice are the graphics. The way dynamic shadowing works gives a whole new perspective on using cover and finding enemies.

The maps are varied. You have some smaller maps and some large maps. We will be posting up some of the coop maps a bit later. The Locks (possibily the largest) map actually has three sections to it so that it can be used for SP play and MP play.

There are some new gameplay styles, as well. There is one called Team Battle, which the PC gamers may be interested to learn was an idea that was from the GR2 PC version that never got released. It's good to know that all the work isn't just sitting on a hard drive somewhere collecting dust.

More to come later, as well as an interview with Serellan.

ummm....Team Battle.....I thought that we had that game mode in GRAW....?

[ZJJ]

I thought it was mentioned that it was new. So much information was received, I could have heard wrong.

[audiolab]

quick question did you lucky blighters get to play EMBASSY MAP? in multi

[W1ngsh0t]

quick question did you lucky blighters get to play EMBASSY MAP? in multi

Yes and life is good

It was a really great visit with tons of info shared. Many thanks to Derellan and Angeline for the time the spent with us (literally hours) as well as many other RSE folks who I am sure will get full mention as we get the information out.

Team Battle is an old gametype that has been included.

As for maps .... well the variety of terrain, size lighting etc is going to make a lot of peopel very happy I think .... myself included.

One other item that came up that I will get out of the way right now was that Serellan emphasized that they had gone back to the GRAW mechanics and verified (more than twice) that foot speed had not been increased in GRAW2 through some inadvertant code change or by product of a character model changes/physics.

[Payle Ryder]

There was so much information to digest, I think ZJJ may have been thinking of the new game-mode "Team Mission".

As per the latest blog entry by Prince Arrington posted on IGN -> HERE <- :

TEAM MISSION mode basically takes the mission objective driven gameplay of the coop campaign and turns it into a team adversarial game type. Here, one team will play as the Ghosts and the other team will play as an enemy force. The Ghost team must complete a series of mission objectives while the enemy team is given objectives that directly compete with the Ghosts’.

(The rest of the blog holds a lot of good info that many will find interetsting).

The visit with RSE was fantastic and eye-opening. Details of the visit will be posted soon, but I'm here to tell you that they have definitely listened to the concerns of fans from the GR series. You will not be disappointed.

-PR

[ReapeR eXe]

There was so much information to digest, I think ZJJ may have been thinking of the new game-mode "Team Mission".

As per the latest blog entry by Prince Arrington posted on IGN -> HERE <- :

TEAM MISSION mode basically takes the mission objective driven gameplay of the coop campaign and turns it into a team adversarial game type. Here, one team will play as the Ghosts and the other team will play as an enemy force. The Ghost team must complete a series of mission objectives while the enemy team is given objectives that directly compete with the Ghosts’.

(The rest of the blog holds a lot of good info that many will find interetsting).

The visit with RSE was fantastic and eye-opening. Details of the visit will be posted soon, but I'm here to tell you that they have definitely listened to the concerns of fans from the GR series. You will not be disappointed.

-PR

The new 'Team Mission' mode sounds great....sign me up!!!!!

I am living on the MP Demo...shame its only sharpshooter or takedown.....both these game modes eliminate any stealth.....respawns or the flashing officer drives me crazy....lol.....the co-op campaign was fun (for all of 10 minutes)....I wonder if they have taken the time limit OFF from missions......they had NO time limit in GR2 and me likey!!!

[W1ngsh0t]

The options for time looked to bethe same as in GRAW - 5, 10, 30, 60 minutes ... not sure about unlimited.

And there are still only 3 Custom slots and you can not rename them. Serellan explained that that was due to that information being associated with a the profile and not saved to the hard drive (since not every 360 has a hard drive).

[BSATNCSU]

I would like to thank ZJJ for the tremendous experience of being able to meet these top notch folks in person. The guys and Angeline at RSE truly are top notch. In what I kind of expected may turn out be a brief meet and greet with Serellan and then us handed off to some lowly tour guide, before hand, could not have been further from the actual visit. Serellan and Angeline basically dedicated the larger part of their day to giving us an extraordinary visit. Thanks to all the folks that took some time out of their day for us.

Now on to my first impressions of the game as I know that what the GR.net fans are really looking for. The graphics are above and beyond any seen on the 360 so far. The details included in this game are amazing

The biggest thing I took away from the meeting was a true feeling that the RSE folks really took a hard look at the feedback from GRAW and implemented as much of your suggestions or recommendations as possible. This shows their dedication and commitment to the fans.

The Team Mission game type that you have seen sounds incredible. One thing I remember because it stood out in my mind was that in some situations in the game type there are objectives that must be completed together to prevent reinforcements or helicopter support for the enemy team. For instance coordinating and taking out two communication towers on a map at the same time to prevent one or the other from announcing the attack of the first site.

Well more to come later but I can't see any true GR fans being disappointed with GRAW 2. The RSE team definitely has a game to be proud of here!

-BSAT

[ZJJ]

The biggest thing I took away from the meeting was a true feeling that the RSE folks really took a hard look at the feedback from GRAW and implemented as much of your suggestions or recommendations as possible. This shows their dedication and commitment to the fans.

To add on to this. They scoured the internet looking at the comments made by the community on what was wanted in GRAW2. It was mentioned that about 80-90% of what was asked for was incorporated into the game. However, they did admit that some things were scrapped for various reasons. One reason was the fun factor. If it turned out that the idea turned out not be a fun element of the game, it was removed.

[Hockeystick]

TEAM MISSION mode basically takes the mission objective driven gameplay of the coop campaign and turns it into a team adversarial game type. Here, one team will play as the Ghosts and the other team will play as an enemy force. The Ghost team must complete a series of mission objectives while the enemy team is given objectives that directly compete with the Ghosts’.

Team Mission sounds almost like Recon vs Assault on the PC, which is good

Is it fun? If so I think I'll like Recon vs Assault.

[audiolab]

did you get any screenshots of play or videos?

[W1ngsh0t]

No we did not.

[OSPerry]

One obvious suggestion, they took that should have been in GRAW, was a compass.

Nice addition, but basically stupid for it to have been omitted in the first place.

Tactical Team shooter without a compass, come on. Nice that we finally have one.

[W1ngsh0t]

So one of the many things we looked at were the Coop missions. Again it looks like people will be very happy with the changes.

The missions look to be much more in depth in terms of storyline - in fact Serellan mentioned that they tie into the SP at various points and have much more than just the voice over.

The secondary objectives are much more integral to the missions than they were in GRAW. For example - In one mission taking out 2 radio towers are secondary objectives. If you take one out and then the other the second tower alerts the enemies and reinforcements are sent in. However if you mange to take out both towers simultaneously no alert issounded and no reinforcements arrive. Of course coordinating a simultaneous attacktakes a lot of team work.

[naib]

Thanks for the "recon" work folks.

It's going to be a long couple of days.

[W1ngsh0t]

I am really looking forward to the TEAM MISSION gametype.

Playing that on some of these maps is going to be an intense game. Locks seemed like it may be a very intense map to play. Very large and a real interesting layout with what looked like a multiple routes and intersting terrain.

All in all I am looking forward to the coop aspects of this game as much as the versus.

[Whisper_44]

I didn't get GRAW360 until recently, and can say that having played both the DEMO's for #2 I am very excited about this game. Very much looking forward to thumping the bad guys with the M32, and the ICQB.

How long do we have to wait for the interview?

[ZJJ]

How long do we have to wait for the interview?

Hopefully only a few days.

[W1ngsh0t]

Well - we may have a short version (answers to questiosn that we had in print) shortly. But a transcription and "full report" is not going to happen quickly. We are trying to get out information and insights through this and other threads prior to the release but the full report will not make it out until after release I suspect.

One area that I asked about was the incapacitating wound and how they incorporated it. At times in the demo it seemed a shot that might have been a kill in GRAW was just a knockdown in GRAW2.

In discussing this it turns out that no health was added to make more shots create incapacitating wounds and that the main difference is that in GRAW since they were still standing it made it easier for subsequent rounds to find there mark. In GRAW2 a knockdown often leaves the shooter without a second shot since thetarget is behind a rock/tree/or just a rise in the ground.

The incapacitating wound and th efirst aid mechanics are two changes to MP that I think were very well incorporated and will add a lot to various gameplay modes.

[Whisper_44]

Thanks Zjj & Wingshot.. looking forward to it all the way around.. moving this weekend will preclude any GRAW2 gaming that I'd planned. Maybe next week

[Ick]

Well - we may have a short version (answers to questiosn that we had in print) shortly. But a transcription and "full report" is not going to happen quickly. We are trying to get out information and insights through this and other threads prior to the release but the full report will not make it out until after release I suspect.

One area that I asked about was the incapacitating wound and how they incorporated it. At times in the demo it seemed a shot that might have been a kill in GRAW was just a knockdown in GRAW2.

In discussing this it turns out that no health was added to make more shots create incapacitating wounds and that the main difference is that in GRAW since they were still standing it made it easier for subsequent rounds to find there mark. In GRAW2 a knockdown often leaves the shooter without a second shot since thetarget is behind a rock/tree/or just a rise in the ground.

The incapacitating wound and th efirst aid mechanics are two changes to MP that I think were very well incorporated and will add a lot to various gameplay modes.

Wing,

Not sure I got exactly what you are saying.

Here is how the previous games seemed to work....below is a table of data gathered to try an analyze the number of hits to generate 100 kills.

http://www.ick.bz/pdfs/stopping_power_example.pdf

Overall in Ghost recon, it was clear that most situations resulted in an average of somewhere near 1.4 hits to kill. Suppressed and pistols obviously required more.

-------------------------------------------

Basically it was easy to conclude that Ghost Recon has a rather large damage variable. The damage variable could produce some wild results..........sometimes it takes 4 chest hits to kill a guy......sometimes a suppressed MP5 hit in the foot kills a guy. This makes a critical analysis of the mechanics difficult to say the least.

You can see the effects of this randomness in the table by looking at the M16 results taking an average of 1.61 hits to kill that particular test run.

So I am wondering how the incapacitation factor will be introduced. Are you saying that my guy will be incapacitated with the same probability as in past games....save that what, 20% of the time now I will be "reviveable" unless my enemy decides to hit me with another round?

[W1ngsh0t]

Ick- my understadning is that incapacitationoccurs when total damage gets to a certain point - say 80% (that is just a # I picked for discussion). So there is no randomness to incapacitation other than the damage done to your character - ie. a headshot is a kill since you go right to 100% damage.

Also you do bleedout - your heartrate is an indicator asto how close you are to dying.

[W1ngsh0t]

From our visit to Redstorm:

Payle - http://www.ghostrecon.net/html/graw2-1.htm

Wing - http://www.ghostrecon.net/html/graw2-2.htm

Enjoy - we sure did ;D

[dporter]

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse?!!

I only go there when the managing partner of the firm is footing the bill. You guys were gentlemen and paid for ZJJ's meal right??

Great read and thanks for putting this together for us. Beefed up coop missions sounds great.