Give Me Back My Old Ghost Recon, Rejuvenated! That's All!

[[NCA]Metatron]

Just to cite myself:

"Just take Ghost Recon 1 including both Addons Desert Siege and Island Thunder.

Update the graphics and physics to the state of the art and add a good anti-cheat programm!

Same content (especially for multiplayer), interface and control as in GR1 and there is finally the new Ghost Recon game I always wished to have as successor!

A re-release of a remastered GR1/DS/IT Bundle would be the best for me and some others of the old school Ghost Recon community.

Finished my wish"

Add also some new extras and you will finally make a game with the same atmosphere and suspense like in GR1.

So I fully agree with the TO!

Edited September 2, 2009 by [NCA]Metatron

[APEX]

wow! i got a bit of a twitch GR4? sad to see its still only a discussion, ubi lost control of gr1 to the people that bought and played the game(not good for profit margins im sure) it unlocked a lot of talent within the gaming community and set a benchmark that has yet to be matched in its genre.....simplistic to say rejuvinate the game

but if the format works and theres potential for profit to be made then it makes sense? or are the big game companies left with creative drones who can only play checkers(draughts) and not chess? still life being cyclic

maybe some forward thinker at head office will realise that its ok to look to the past to stimulate the future and give

us what we want ......GR

ApeX 8-)

Hey Rocky good to see your still keeping the ship afloat gj m8!

[Lightspeed]

living in the past folks - come and play some tactical domination at Sparta servers and you'll soon find your new GR.

vggz there and good ppl.

c u there

[Rocky]

living in the past folks - come and play some tactical domination at Sparta servers and you'll soon find your new GR.

vggz there and good ppl.

c u there

I have Arma2 but seeing you banging on about it at every half opportunity is kinda putting me off And we are not living in the past we are looking forward to the future

[ApexMods]

I have Arma2 but seeing you banging on about it at every half opportunity is kinda putting me off And we are not living in the past we are looking forward to the future

Seconded!

Gave Arma2 a try some time ago and while the visuals are very nice and the overall concept is extremely appealing (realism/freedom) IIRC I was first of all put off by the controls which still felt slightly awkward to me (although better than its predecessors) and less-than-stellar enemy AI, but I tested an early version and want to give it another shot once I find the time.

Then there are all the vehicles and aircrafts which some people may see as a good thing, but I consider them a bit of a nuisance as their sheer numbers tend to spoil the infantry simulation for me. I prefer the small-special-forces-infantry-team approach of Ghost Recon, as Arma at times feels much more like an all-out-war game than a tactical shooter.

Having said that, Arma2 certainly comes closer to being a tactical shooter in the true sense of the word than most of the other 'modern' options out there today (rail action shooters), and Ubisoft/RSE would probably be wise to at the very least keep an eye on Bohemia's overall game philosophy when making design decisions for GR4.

[funk]

Sorry, I just had to start a new topic, because I feel very strongly about this, and I think some of you may feel the same way! It is all well and good to talk about every single feature that may or may not make it into the latest family member, but my main concern is this: Will the bloodline of the King be revived? Will there be a direct descendant?

Will he, who was once great and started all of this - this web site, this community - be the biological father of the child, or will we see just another adopted son? I do not know the details of what has been announced by the obstetricians Red Storm and Ubi, I only heard the rumors of the EndWar family line being involved, of a potential mixup regarding the parenthood. But maybe all of these are just tell-tales, and once the truth is revealed the land can finally reunite under one common rule.

I, for one, am desperate for a new ruler truly deserving to bear the name of our King. I will swear my allegiance in an instant, I will bend my knee to the new Lord - but only if I will be able to see the unmistakably bright eyes of the father in the son's face, only if there can be no doubt about the child's ancestry!

And now, to be clear:

Give me Ghost Recon or give me nothing! Give me all that it was, nothing more, nothing less - just pull it out of the past and push it into the present! Give me up-to-date 3D models and graphics, a new physics engine, modern sound, the latest AI routines, cutting-edge scripting capabilities - and use it all to simulate reality to the highest degree possible on contemporary hardware! And don't forget the most important thing: Give me all the tools necessary to mod the game in any way I see fit!

Well said, there has to be a new revolution of multi-player games, this should be the start!

[NurFACE]

living in the past folks - come and play some tactical domination at Sparta servers and you'll soon find your new GR.

vggz there and good ppl.

c u there

Don't make me come to Sparta and open up a can of _____ .

I would like to see Ghost Recon as others but UBI has pulled the rugged from under me one to many times. I will check here when ubi gets it right then buy there games.

[Lightspeed]

I bang on about it bcoz ppl are sitting here waiting for a game - and if you come n play at Sparta you will find that Arma2 can be the game you're hoping for or at least a damn good game while you wait for this one.

I still think you're still all holding out for the next fail.

[Rocky]

But I have tried it and it is not the game I am waiting for, however I don't feel the urge to go to a ARMA2 forum and post about it continuosly, if you catch my drift.

About your sig, did you get my PM about releasing the missions you have competed, even as a pack, rather than leaving them gathering dust? It'd be a shame for all that work to go unreleased.

[Lightspeed]

still would liek to host them - at some point i will mate - maybe the 10th anniversary of GR

[ApexMods]

Maybe you could change your sig to a slightly less negative tone, then? It is of course your own choice, but if you look back at the years and years of fun Ghost Recon and this community have given you, don't you think a more respectful approach would be a little more appropriate?

I gather from your recent posts around here that you may have moved on to ArmA2 and lost interest in Ghost Recon. It saddens me to see that happening to you, but it saddens me even more that your new found enthusiasm for ArmA2 seems to result in antagonism towards Ghost Recon - the game this web site is named after and focusses on. And while constructive criticism is certainly always welcome here, the constant pushing for ArmA2 support among Ghost Recon fans is a bit out of place. Admittedly, your nagging has renewed my curiosity to give ArmA2 another try - which I did today, and although this may be moving more and more off-topic, I want to share some of my impressions.

Let's start with the most important question: Can ArmA2 be the next Ghost Recon? The short answer is: Absolutely not. And before you hit me with a tirade of counter-arguments I will try to explain my reasoning in more detail.

Bohemia Interactive's approach to the tactical shooter genre is completely different from the one Red Storm chose for the one true Ghost Recon (it should be obvious by now that I consider only ONE Ghost Recon game worthy to deserve this name). While both games share the common premises of realism, non-linearity, and a strong focus on tactical gameplay, they diverge considerably when it comes to overall game philosophy.

First of all, Ghost Recon concentrates on the individual soldier as being part of a small SF squad pretty much all alone behind enemy lines. Your team is all you have and you bond with its members the instant you hit the battlefield together. The only thing you have to worry about is your men - and you can focus all your attention and tactical efforts on this small group of people.

ArmA2 puts you in the driving seat of an all-out-war simulation, with an entire army of infantry, a full set of land and air vehicle support, all controllable through an intricate command structure from Fireteam up to High Command. As a result, in many ways ArmA2 feels like an RTS game - especially with the option to construct your own bases and expand them into formidable fortresses.

While you could - in theory - try to play the game "Ghost Recon style" and try to focus on a small fireteam of infantry (you will have to play on 'Expert' difficulty to get rid of all those GRAW-tesque on-screen diamonds and other symbols), the huge overhead resulting from all of the other options ArmA2 provides is still there and invades the game experience everywhere, from the clumsy wants-to-do-it-all interface that has every key on the keyboard mapped to - often quite cryptic - game functions, to the constant reminder that to be successful in ArmA2 you really need vehicles, even if just to move to that next battle zone a hundred miles away.

And here's what sums ArmA2 up quite nicely, for me: It is the jack of all trades, master of none (thanks, Krise). It tries to be too many things, and - for my taste - fails! If I wanted to fly around in a jet I'd play a flight sim for that, because what ArmA2 offers in this regard is mediocre at best. If I wanted to build bases I'd go for an RTS, because ArmA2 cannot quench my base-building thirst. And most importantly - if I want to play a tactical shooter, I still play Ghost Recon, because ArmA2 fails to give me that intimate edge-of-your-seat experience of "really being there", maybe just due to the fact that I have to spend too much time wading through on-screen menus to really be immersed by the - admittedly impressive - visuals.

This is of course a subjective statement, but the interaction with my in-game persona simply doesn't 'click' in ArmA2. Everything feels clumsy and indirect, and this 'laggy' feeling is certainly not caused by my hardware as graphics don't lag at all - even on maxed-out 'very high' detail settings at 1440x900.

You have to believe me - I really really WANT to like ArmA2, as it offers so many essential things completely absent from the scarce crop of modern-day tactical shooters, but what I was looking for is simply not there!

Just for direct comparison, right after my little excursion into ArmA2 territory, I set my NVidia drivers to force 16x anisotropic filtering, 16xQ antialiasing, transparency antialiasing supersampling, trilinear mipmaps, no anisotropic sample texture filtering optimization, no trilinear texture filtering optimization, triple buffering, and vertical sync... and fired up Ghost Recon on max graphics settings. Sure, all this still won't give you the visual splendor of a modern state-of-the-art graphics engine like the third-generation 'Real Virtuality' engine used in ArmA2, but the result is still not too shabby to look at, especially for an eight year old game veteran.

Even at the above mentioned insanely high graphics settings Ghost Recon will run at the absolute maximum v-sync-enabled frame rate of 60 fps throughout (100+ fps without v-sync) on most modern hardware setups, so you can experience this game in all its visual glory without any restrictions in responsiveness. And what a difference in responsiveness it is! You can - quite literally - feel the rifle in your hands as you aim for that first enemy. You can switch to your sidearm without fuzz, gain instant control of your Bravo team with the push of a single button, coordinate your teams on the command map with ease - and all that with absolute real-time responsiveness and in a completely non-cluttered UI.

As a result, I just HAD to play through the entire mission in Ghost Recon again. Even after all these years and even after having played every single mission probably hundreds of times, this game has not lost its magic touch. It drags you into the action with a force of immersion that I have NEVER ever experienced in ANY other computer game. Dated graphics? I do not even notice them after just a few seconds out there with my squad.

[Rocky]

Top post. Wish I coulda found those words.

[NoQuarter]

I gather from your recent posts around here that you may have moved on to ArmA2 and lost interest in Ghost Recon.

Life is cyclical...this seems to be another example of history repeating itself and/or premature conclusions.

Nevertheless, I love ArmA - as soon as I get my GR SP Tourney done I'm jumping back into ArmA...never to return.

He'll come back, he has in the past.

While you could - in theory - try to play the game "Ghost Recon style" and try to focus on a small fireteam of infantry (you will have to play on 'Expert' difficulty to get rid of all those GRAW-esque on-screen diamonds and other symbols

Or simply disabling those offending sprites within the given Difficulty rating on the Options page, but I guess that would require even more of that annoying key input you love to nag about.

Conversely, just because a certain feature or option is available within a certain title does not necessitate its use.

____

Long story short. To compare GR to ArmA/ArmA II would be wrong...not to mention being besides the point.

The End.

[krise madsen]

You have to believe me - I really really WANT to like ArmA2, as it offers so many essential things completely absent from the scarce crop of modern-day tactical shooters, but what I was looking for is simply not there!

This.

I'm gagging for a game to completely relegate Ghost Recon to the history books. And though ArmA2 has an awful lot of interesting features (and BIS are way ahead of most developers in terms of pursuing their ideas rather than chasing CoD4 sale levels), I simply can't see it doing that. It's a very different kind of game. ArmA is the jack of all trades, master of none. And for anyone who wants an FPS-meets-flight-/tanksim-meets-strategy-game with lots of realism there is nothing even close.

But Ghost Recon is a very different beast. OK, I've seen some YouTube vids of a hardcore team-based co-op ArmA gaming that was very appealing and, for lack of a better word, GR-esque. But that completely fall apart in single player. Here, it's the careful and meticulous control of a small squad (even more so that the actual FPS action) that is the core. Actually, I'm one of those people who would actually like to see bigger maps with more vehicle involvement in Ghost Recon, but that's very different from ArmA's do-all approach.

Edited September 8, 2009 by krise madsen

[viiiper]

I don't know if anything will capture the feeling of >Ghost Recon< not even Groundbranch or >[OFP: DR]<, what I've found with so many developers is that they get 60-80% right and then loose 20% of the magic. To top things off they then always throw in a couple of curve balls that no one see's coming and really screws up the the title so that any chance of bringing back memories of yesteryear are made very very hard.

I remember the problems with hosting >Ghost Recon< and for all it's faults there was a piece of magic, will it come again? will it need some super modders & mission scriptwriters? I have so much hope and so much despair.....

[ApexMods]

ArmA is the jack of all trades, master of none.

Very well put. Exactly the words I was looking for!

Actually, I'm one of those people who would actually like to see bigger maps with more vehicle involvement in Ghost Recon

Please don't get me wrong, I'm all for bigger maps (more freedom) and wouldn't mind some extra vehicles (would prefer them non-playable, though).

I'm gagging for a game to completely relegate Ghost Recon to the history books.

I remember the problems with hosting >Ghost Recon< and for all it's faults there was a piece of magic, will it come again? will it need some super modders & mission scriptwriters? I have so much hope and so much despair.....

This is something that I really don't get! Why the 'gagging' and desperation?!? Ghost Recon is just as good today as it was years ago - actually better, with all the mods available now.

And if you have a look at Xfire's rankings for shooters (you have to click the 'Rank' tab to sort by ranking), you will notice that good old Ghost Recon still holds its own quite well even today, with only Counter Strike, Soldier Front, SWAT 4, WarRock, and UT2004 being more popular:

So while we wait for a worthy successor, what's stopping us from still playing and enjoying the reigning champion? I for one have just as much fun playing Ghost Recon today as I had when it first came out.

Oh, and before I forget - today I stumbled upon a older (April 2008) post of AI.BLUEFOX over at the Ubi forums that made me smile in appreciation and which I would like to quote here:

Mrs Bluefox likes to [...] tell people I'm a gamer. At my age! I just smile because I know I'm not. I'm a GR player - other games are just a diversion for amusement and get an hour or two a month. GR is a way of life.

[krise madsen]

So while we wait for a worthy successor, what's stopping us from still playing and enjoying the reigning champion?

Nothing. And GR is still my most played shooter, and by a considerable margin. And the main reason is the rather clever (and deadly accurate) AI and the NORG floating crosshairs. Aestethically, I don't like the floating crosshairs, but it still works brilliantly and better than most other attempts at simulating weapon weight and inertia.

But there is plenty features I would like to see in a Ghost Recon game. Like deploying via helicopter, boat or vehicle as an integral part of the mission rather than a cutscene. I could also use some bigger maps with longer draw distance, partly for stuff like long range sniping or air strike designation, partly to have the option of longer duration, sneaky-sneaky missions.

[Lightspeed]

Gee some ppl are way too sensitive about their GR. I'm not bashing GR at all - you should know that after all Ive put in to that game to keep it alive and I still have a Tourney under my belt which should see the light of day.

But.......and this is the key point.

While you are waiting for GR4 to show up if it ever does (and will it even be anything like Ghost Recon?) why don't you come and play some Arma2 with a bunch of players who like to keep it tactical and you will experience what is in fact a really enjoyable game - no it's not Ghost Recon.

THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER GR - simple!!

So why not give Arma2 a go all you old school tacsim lovers and trust me and jump in a Sparta server with me on the weekend. With the right group of people (4-8 in a squad) working together - picking interesting classes which give you interesting kits - come and have some non-GR but good tacsim FUN!

You won't be disappointed and anyone who thinks Arma2 is the clunky Arma feel of old is way off the mark...or you havent configured your settings properly and I can help you with that.

Trust Lighty - has he failed you before?

[Rocky]

I think we are getting a bit derailed from Apexs original post. ARMA2 recruitment can continue in the appropriate forum, this thread is for Ghost Recon.

[ApexMods]

[...]GR is still my most played shooter, and by a considerable margin. And the main reason is the rather clever (and deadly accurate) AI and the NORG floating crosshairs. Aestethically, I don't like the floating crosshairs, but it still works brilliantly and better than most other attempts at simulating weapon weight and inertia.

I absolutely agree. The superb quality of Ghost Recon's AI (if tuned correctly) is completely unparalleled to this day, and the floating crosshairs - while aesthetically unpleasant - really provide an amazingly simple yet effective feedback on weapon handling and control.

But there is plenty features I would like to see in a Ghost Recon game. Like deploying via helicopter, boat or vehicle as an integral part of the mission rather than a cutscene. I could also use some bigger maps with longer draw distance, partly for stuff like long range sniping or air strike designation, partly to have the option of longer duration, sneaky-sneaky missions.

Oh yes, longer 'sneaky-sneaky' missions is what I want, too - and much larger maps are an absolutely essential feature for a new Ghost Recon, which would also open the doors to proper windage/bullet drop simulation and other essential ballistics properties.

An expansion of vehicle deployment options would of course be a nice touch, but sticking to a basic setup here would not be a deal breaker for me, as insertion/extraction is usually just such a small part of the mission/gameplay. However, insertion and extraction should certainly play a larger role in so far as I don't want to see e.g. a Black Hawk insertion right next to the enemies without them noticing the 120+ dB spectacle. Until now, this could often not be avoided on the relatively small maps, so larger maps in a new GR would make this much less of a problem, too.

[NightCrawler]

After GR I tried a few FPS and then went to Driving games and then on to MMO's. Now here I am wasting away my time and dollars.

Just give me my Old GR updated!!

Sadly I've given up on Ubi and their vision of what GR is.

[Lightspeed]

In todays game I think a weapons view is a must - the floating cross hair is just a cop out now - no good reason why you wouldn't implement the weapons view and also accurate reload animations.

I also think the aim at the target and pull the trigger and dead is also completely unrealistic and there should be bullet drop - it adds a very real dimension to the firefight - it actually takes skill to drop targets.

I thin insertions should be real as well in this day and age - not just spawning on a map but choosing where to drive in/fly in and make the strike from - or make the strike from multiple positions. (not a dela breaker but a nice addition for realisim).

Intelligent ai of course is a must - both friendly and enemy.

Ground vehicles should be driveable - trucks, jeeps etc.

Maps should be large enough to accomodate real sniping and spotting.

There should be more classes available a la Arma2 which really get you to think about what you really need out in the field and what you will forgo by choosing one class over another.

These are some of the updates that should appear in GR-New

[Tinker]

It is really not that hard to stay on topic.

Give Me Back My Old Ghost Recon, Rejuvenated! That's All!, If you share this sentiment, come in and shout it out!

[eyn093]

Sometimes i shout !

But it's like shouting in a desert.....

GIVE US FXXX GR REDUX ###### !!

o well, got that from my chest

[NoQuarter]

Give Me Back My Old Ghost Recon, Rejuvenated! That's All!, If you share this sentiment, come in and shout it out!

A valiant as well as repetitive effort, to be sure, but in vain -and all for naught.

Ubisoft owns the rights, is calling the shots, and could care less what this bunch of holdouts wants.