Just Remember...

[Dick Splash]

Before you all get giddy about this game, this is what was said five years ago when Ubi promoted GR:FS at E3.;

It's all about the Ghosts, and everything that made the Ghosts what they were in GRAW and GRAW 2, it's the third but just better.

Yes...we have very demanding fans...and we have pushed back the date so that we can get in all the features...that we really want to make this the game that Ghost Recon fans will be talking about for a decade.....yeah...so a lot of feedback definitely. We listen to our fans and we're trying to keep it the authentic Tom Clancy universe...so...almost a documentary approach.

Gabrielle Shrager - Associate Producer on GR:FS

Does anyone else get mad when they listen to this rubbish about making the best Ghost Recon ever. I doubt most of them have even played a Ghost Recon game before GRAW.

BS PALADIN - GR.net

I don't get mad, but do have to just shake my head. Everything in the Ghost Recon franchise, from Island Thunder on, has been complete and utter rubbish. Gabrielle and co. need to go back and play the [Ghost Recon], sans mods again. Capture the essence of that game. Enough of this futuristic BS already!

Parabellum - GR.net

It tends to get a bit more colourful around these times.

Rocky - GR.net

Soon after, you may recall GR.net admin working hard to revamp the website to give it a new and fresh look, inspired by, and along the lines of the GR:FS imagery at the time.

...and this at E3 four years ago, when Ms Shrager is asked why it's taking so long to develop GR:FS;

You guys are so fricking demanding. We're trying to make this the best Ghost ever so we're taking our time about it. The franchise is one of our favourites, so we want to make the best it is. We keep honing the features and trying to make them the best we can.

...we really, really want to make sure that it's top notch, and that's our main concern.

Gabrielle Shrager - Writer on GR:FS

The game was released two years after it's first E3 appearance, so, I'd say it's still early days for GR:W

TBH Ubi spent money making a 23 minute short film called Ghost Recon Alpha. Perhaps that would have been better spent giving it to John Sonedecker instead. We might then have got the game most of us have wanted since 2002.

Onwards and upwards.

DS

[Blame]

Well, they've been working on Wildlands for 3 years now, only pre-alpha footage and 18 months of development to go, Ubisoft everyone

[Rocky]

Great post DS, you can take the rest off the week, you won't top that one

[Jeza]

Great post. These days I tend to remove the name from the game, especially in the cases of Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six, that way I can look at them as another shooter that might be fun to play now and again, and not expect them to turn into something I'm playing 10-15 years down the line I.e OGR and Rogue Spear ect.

I hold out a bit more hope for Rainbow as Rocky said terror hunt might be something worth looking at, but I'll take both as they are not as what they were.....because that ship has long sailed off into the sunset.

[Burner]

Great post. These days I tend to remove the name from the game, especially in the cases of Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six, that way I can look at them as another shooter that might be fun to play now and again, and not expect them to turn into something I'm playing 10-15 years down the line I.e OGR and Rogue Spear ect.

I hold out a bit more hope for Rainbow as Rocky said terror hunt might be something worth looking at, but I'll take both as they are not as what they were.....because that ship has long sailed off into the sunset.

Agreed Well Said. I guess the difference between then and now is the Rocky was flown to Paris to actually consult on the game. That is a miraculous and epic event....even if the game doesn't return to its classic origins, at lease the Ghost Recon community voice was heard....so that there is no excuse in the future for a departure from the essence of greatness. Having people that actually care about tactical shooters in Ubisoft consciousnesses gives me some hope.

[Hammer]

Didn't 2 member of this community do this when GRAW came out , ZeroAlpha and Collin were taken to see the Dev's before the game came out. They were given a lot of info about the game, some of which never happened.

Edited June 20, 2015 by Hammer

[twcrash]

I have faith in Rocky and his judgement. I think of it was looking like another Ubi misleading the community he would say something. I don't tend to think of anything as "Ghost Recon" anymore. It is another Ubisoft game to me. I liked GRAW and GRAW2 because I came from that direction of the name doesn't mean its the same. Same with Vegas. We spent MANY hours having a blast on those titles and not getting caught up in the name game. But not to stray off course but If it's a great or well playing game I will play it. And the title won't sway that factor. And I know Rocky will be upfront on it.

[Evilducky]

Im more excited for Ubisofts Anno series, but I will be watching this one and seeing how it goes. I hope we get some good actual game play videos by the end of the year.

[Rocky]

I have faith in Rocky and his judgement. I think of it was looking like another Ubi misleading the community he would say something. I don't tend to think of anything as "Ghost Recon" anymore. It is another Ubisoft game to me. I liked GRAW and GRAW2 because I came from that direction of the name doesn't mean its the same. Same with Vegas. We spent MANY hours having a blast on those titles and not getting caught up in the name game. But not to stray off course but If it's a great or well playing game I will play it. And the title won't sway that factor. And I know Rocky will be upfront on it.

I only can be upfront because if I am less than totally honest, I know I'll have a forum full of haters, right here in my own home, which is not a nice prospect.

Here's a quote from my dev interview which will be published in full shorty, I hope it gives you some faith.

Senior Producer Nouredine Abboud

for me the most important thing, is that everybody understands that what we are doing right now is to work on the core of what Ghost Recon is, which is tactical, tactics

[Dick Splash]

Didn't 2 member of this community do this when GRAW came out , ZeroAlpha and Collin were taken to see the Dev's before the game came out. They were given a lot of info about the game, some of which never happened.

Colin was very commited at the time and very passionate about GRAW and GRIN. I remember GRIN getting a holiday in Mexico paid for by Ubisoft when the game was completed.

You may also remember there was a live online Q&A with dev's and Ubi during GRAW's development [not that anything was achieved], and uniquely for GR.net, there was some fan/developer interaction and even a developer presence on GR.net. They clearly saw the importance of GR fans, but obviously still had to follow Ubi's direction. I doubt we'll have such privilege again

DS

[squad_e]

Giddy giddy giddy ..

[AI BLUEFOX]

Add this one in

http://aibluefox.tumblr.com/post/122272916475/breakfast-with-yves-and-his-team-talking-ghost

We're not just talking to the producer, we're talking to the CEO!

As for Nouredine Abboud the producer, he totally gets the original GR feel and what it meant. I just watched an E3 interview where he even used a line we fed him in Paris, about this game being the one they'd have made if they'd had the technology back then.

[Rocky]

You are too modest, that was one of your lines Blue, great to hear them repeating some of the stuff we said.

[Dick Splash]

As for Nouredine Abboud the producer, he totally gets the original GR feel and what it meant.

Brilliant! So he 'gets' and 'feels' that the original GR was a tactical and stealthy FPS, set in the near future, that had years of game in it, where the SP mode inspired the gamer to complete it and play it again and again until all of the Ghosts survived, before venturing into the MP arena, making friends along the way and where they, even now, still talk about THAT gane?

Is that what he 'gets' and 'feels'?

If so, where was he when GR2 was being developed?

DS

[Rocky]

Tsk Tsk, sarcasm mate, really?

Somebody get me the sarcasm gun.

[Dick Splash]

Tsk Tsk, sarcasm mate, really?

Ha, just takin' the Mick'. Remember, you know we've been here before, and unlike Ms Shrager's above quote about GR:FS, the only game a lot of GR fans have talked about and have continued to talk about for more than a decade, is GR and its two expansion packs, and nothing else.

As I said, let's not get giddy about GR:W just yet, and instead wait to see what Ubi eventually releases. Like every other trailer since 2002, this trailer still looks as though the game won't be a better GR with better graphics. But if it's a game worth playing, then that's fine by me.

DS

[Rocky]

Sorry too late mate, I am already Giddy. I've watched 4 devs play it co-op and co-ordinate a complicated kidnap, and I've played it, and I can't help but feel giddy.

[Parabellum]

Didn't 2 member of this community do this when GRAW came out , ZeroAlpha and Collin were taken to see the Dev's before the game came out. They were given a lot of info about the game, some of which never happened.

I don't know about ZeroAlpha and Collin, but Hatchetforce, ZJJ, GordoViper and myself all visited RedStorm in '05 while they were working on GRAW. What we saw was pretty impressive, IMO, as were the attitudes of Red Storm's developers toward the community. Of course, no matter how passionate the individual developers themselves are about making a game that will truly satisfy players, it's not up to those devs how the game turns out.

Tsk Tsk, sarcasm mate, really?

Ha, just takin' the Mick'. Remember, you know we've been here before, and unlike Ms Shrager's above quote about GR:FS, the only game a lot of GR fans have talked about and have continued to talk about for more than a decade, is GR and its two expansion packs, and nothing else.

As I said, let's not get giddy about GR:W just yet, and instead wait to see what Ubi eventually releases. Like every other trailer since 2002, this trailer still looks as though the game won't be a better GR with better graphics. But if it's a game worth playing, then that's fine by me.

DS

Agreed, DS. Until I can run through a playable demo and actually try out the game mechanics and immersion for myself, I have to rely on Ubi's track record, which is less than stellar.

[AI BLUEFOX]

As for Nouredine Abboud the producer, he totally gets the original GR feel and what it meant.

Brilliant! So he 'gets' and 'feels' that the original GR was a tactical and stealthy FPS, set in the near future, that had years of game in it, where the SP mode inspired the gamer to complete it and play it again and again until all of the Ghosts survived, before venturing into the MP arena, making friends along the way and where they, even now, still talk about THAT gane?

Is that what he 'gets' and 'feels'?

If so, where was he when GR2 was being developed?

DS

I've no idea where he in particular was, but some of the Dev team have been on all the games. Maybe hindsight and the fallout and disappointment of Future Soldier has led to the soul searching and retrospection that does seem to be apparent in the current game design. That's what they get and feel, but I can think up some different words if they don't express it properly and annoy you.

As for GR2 and Summit Strike, they were favourites of mine for multiplayer (Xbox here), but the SP campaigns were nothing compared to the Original and Island Thunder, and as you say those you could play again and again. I won't even mention the campaigns of the "others", although I enjoyed GRAW2 because the clan scene for siege was so good. Don't expect an HD remake of OGR, it's 3rd person (currently) for a start, but with the right gameplay settings and squad controls it could surpass the original. Could.

That's all we have at the moment; nothing concrete except some pre alpha gameplay. There aren't specifics yet, so we can only go on the informal communications, the body language, the enthusiasm for some lines of questions over others, whether or not we have faith in the intent. As it stands I do have faith in the intent, based on spending time with these guys. It's a bit too early to be cynical.

[mattshotcha]

If I could just hop in here for a quickie. To be fair, assuming it's going to be a letdown is just as misguided as assuming it's going to be awesome. So we probably should all tone it down a bit till we see more. Some of us had hands on and loved it and think it's going somewhere great and some of us are a little more reserved. That's totally ok to feel either way. But let's keep it in perspective and so far, even those of us that did go hands on don't know what will come next. Assumptions and all, well we know that saying right?

[Rocky]

Welcome Matt!

[Dick Splash]

It's a bit too early to be cynical.

I would normally agree with with anyone making that statement, but we are talking about Ubi and GR post 2002 here.

To be fair, assuming it's going to be a letdown is just as misguided as assuming it's going to be awesome.

I wouldn't say misguided, but as I've said it's still early days for GR:W.

Going off the trailer, and in contrast to the giddy and hopeful out there, I'd say Ubi aren't developing a better GR, nor are they developing a GR with a wig on. Instead, it looks like another move towards a multi-platform AA/AAA title that they hope will make them money, and I don't doubt many of us reluctantly accept that after more than a decade. If it's at least a 'good' game that happens to have GR in the name, then I'm ok with that.

Whatever Ubi release though, I bet we won't be talking about it in ten years time, and to be fair, I'd say that applies to most games these days, no matter what platform they're on.

Ghost Recon was a bench mark title for a niche audience. It was a game changer...literally, and it should have set the bar higher for games that have followed since. But it hasn't.

DS

[Burner]

Ghost Recon was a bench mark title for a niche audience. It was a game changer...literally, and it should have set the bar higher for games that have followed since. But it hasn't.

DS

Agreed. Nicely said.

[twcrash]

I think if we say GRAW series and GRFS are direct descendants of OGR and expected them to be like it we were all misguided. I for one assumed by the look and videos of GRAW when it was coming out it was going to be COMPLETELY different. I mean it was alot of years between the 2 so technology changed as well. Again I always take the aspect that it's a brand new idea with an old name slapped on it. I loved GRAW and GRAW 2 actually. along with RB6 Vegas series (even lockdown) I spent money twice on all those titles even because I wanted them in Steam as well (along with the dvd's i never use anymore) Alot of great memories on all those titles. So I am looking forward to this new IP. If it has coop and the open world aspect of Far Cry i know imma love it.

Edited July 7, 2015 by twcrash

[AI BLUEFOX]

Unfortunately CoD MW came along and that was the game changer for shooters from the mass market perspective. All shooters started to ape CoD features, as we know, and Future Soldier was not a game faithful to the Ghost Recon ethos it was more a Ghost Recon themed CoD game.

I was gob smacked when the Beta came out and stunned into disbelief when the game itself was released and we couldn't turn off the CoD settings. I thought it couldn't get any worse ... and then had a game of siege ... Anyway eventually I reconciled myself to the multiplayer as it was way better than any other shooters except of course its predecessors, but the important thing to me was whether the franchise followed the same trajectory or back tracked for the next game.

Since then, CoD hasn't really offered anything new - not since MW2 really - and is starting to look very tired whilst Ghost Recon may have just realised that it can't compete with CoD by copying it. From what I've seen, what I have heard, my belief is that Ubisoft do recognise that FS was a turn up a blind alley and has abandoned that direction to return to what the franchise was best at. They had back tracked already, before our trip to Paris, and although we may be able to influence the icing on the cake, the fundamentals of the game are faithful to the original game.

The hope I have is that Ubisoft will allow the game to be played as it has been developed and don't chicken out and decide to lead the gamer by the hand and spoon feed a predetermined Wildlands experience. That would be such a waste.