Poita

Been playing Tarkov for a few weeks now and it is haaaaard core. It really is the first time I get the kind of experience I got playing GR1 on PC in its heyday. And I would say the experience is an order of magnitude greater and more intense. I can't count the number of games that I thought could be a proper/spiritual successor to GR1 only for them to fall far short in one way or another. I thought there would never be a game that rekindled the GR spirit but this game is so atmospheric, tactical and intense that I often feel traumatised after doing a raid (especially if I lose quality gear). I'm looking forward to upping my skills and doing some team play.

I have never been satisfied with any version/sequel of Ghost Recon on any platform beyond GR1 ( and DS & IT) on PC. Every iteration on every platform has been a huge disappointment with things going the flashy yet shallow console route on the (spurious) grounds that it made more money. There have been a few games that people claimed to be the spiritual successor to OGR such as the Arma series but just never quite made it for various reasons. But I have to say that after well over a decade and a half of searching and hoping (and longing), and after following Escape from Tarkov and now finally playing it, there is finally a game that gives the true team tactical shooter experience in a deeply atmospheric setting. There are some great players on Youtube but they tend to go solo. I enjoy watching Pestily on Twitch as he leads and trains squads of five where some great team tactical play goes down. Here's a link to his Twitch:

I've reinstalled GR, DS & IT via Steam and giving GR a playthrough again. I'm playing the first mission and on Elite and don't remember being restricted in weapon selection. All I can choose as a Rifleman are the four M4 kit load outs. I can't remember if that was normal from back in the day or the last several times I re-played through. Any thoughts?

Naturally I would love for UBI to break with tradition and produce a good GR game. It will take an awful lot to convince me though and the flashy trailer did not do that. I bought GR: FS on a Steam sale and I swear I felt nauseous playing it. I mean, with anger and frustration and just plain disappointment that bordered on PTS grief for the continued abortions that have been sequels to OGR. I was quite hard on the GRAWS when they first came out but they actually had some great aspects. I got as far as the balcony shoot out in one of the early missions in GR: FS and un-installed it. I think right at the most intense point of a firefight the game suddenly wrested control away from me to go into a cut scene. That and the constant silhouetting of all my enemy made me want to vomit. The joy of identifying targets was taken away from me and replaced by hand holding. Honestly, I think GR: FS is probably one of he worst game play expereinces I have ever had in my life. It felt like I was back in an arcade playing Time Crisis. I've noticed that trailers for games can often make them look far, far, far more awesome than they really are. Wild lands doen't even look that good. I mean, who cares about sleazy drug runners in crap hole South American countries. I miss the Russians. But, as I said, I'd love to be surprised.

This is kind of weird but I'm back playing OGR. I usually re install it on my Steam and refresh ever year or so. I do missions by launching a public server just in case anyone came across it and dropped in. Anyway, as I play the missions in GR and DS (I never liked IT, perhaps because I dislike tropical environments), I'm constantly struck by how I still like the graphic. I mean, I even like them more than 'any' modern day PC of console game. I like them more than Arma or Isurgency or any other game close to OGR and I like them more than any flashy console or PC game such as Far Cry 4. I guess it's not about technology but design aesthetic. Almost every other modern game seems to be obsessed with garish, cartoonish colours. The muted colours in OGR lend a realism that ads to the feeling of being in the maps. In other games I might feel something is cool looking, pretty or interesting but I almost never feel like the artist put love into them and worked on detail. I've been watching Youtube footage of Rainbow Six Siege and although the gameplay looks like a step in the right direction, I'm shocked at how lumpy and basic the graphics are for many of the objects. Here we are, almost fifteen years after the release of OGR and I still think the graphics are better than any other game I've played. I still love the fact that (apart from grass) larger tufts of grass and bushes are consistent no matter how distant you are from them. I've never played a game where I gave careful consideration about which side a bit of foliage has shaddow or which tuft of grass to lay in as a player in the distance is less likely to see me. In other games I just assume their PC will strip that distant environmental feature away so their processor can dedicate more power to fancy stuff in their immediate surroundings. Of course, OGR is lower res and simple in the graphics but the design asthetic is spot on. How long will it be before another game has such graphical nuance and realism? Rocky's idea for a re mastered OGR is cool but I'm hoping the appeal of R6 Siege will be so great that it will lead to a proper sequel to OGR just as the original R6 did (I have zero confidence in Wildlands.

Really, wow, I thought that was for subtitles or soemthing. I'll try it, thanks.

Well six years and a dearth of decent tactical shooters and a new PC have put my circa 2007 vitriol regarding GRAW 1/2 into perspective. I'm surprised how how many things it got right. I guess at the time I only focused on what it got wrong. Playing it now though it's shocking to realise just how very few games there are for the more serious tactical player. Arma is there but I feel it's obsessivness on being a simulation causes it to lose site of the true objective; which is - fun. So I'm giving the GRAW's a replay. I got GRAW 1 on Steam but had a massive headache getting it to work. I figured out that if I turn off Steam and go to the route and right click the game exe and choose to run as an admin it works every time. I also have GRAW 2 installed. I found it cheaper new on Amazon than on Steam (although GRAW 2 is more expensive than GR:FS on Steam which tells you alot about GR:FS). I made the mistake of buying two copies of GRAW 2 on Amazon as the first time I ordered it they sent a message saying they were sold out and my order was 'saved' which I thought meant 'cancelled' or 'frozen'. So I ordered it from another seller for around £5 and a few days later both copies arrived. Too much trouble to send one back. I'll just give it to a friend and maybe get some online game together. Anyway, as I'm going through GRAW 2 I get really annoyed by the constant chatter of the squad mates (especially the patronising back slap every time I get a kill). So I wanted to ask if there is any way I can disable their voices. Can I just remove their sound files from the route so that the instruction to play those samples may still happen but I just won't have to hear them. will that cause the game to crash?

Sigh, I deleted the game from my PC. I gave it one more chance. I hated it so much. Not only was I hemmed in, practically on rails but the game kept taking over and zooming to some animation and showing me the 'unfolding story' then giving it back to me for a bit of shooty then taking over again. What a dispicably patronising gameplay design. Have to say, I'm enjoying GRAW 1. It seems so hardcore compared to the likes of COD/BF3/GR:FS.

I figured it out. I just make sure steam isn't running then I go to the root of the game and right click on the GRAW exe and choose to run it as an administrator.

I've never heard it used on a retail game such as GRAW 2.

I just got a sealed copy of GRAW 2 which I bought on Amazon for £5.20. I was first surprised that it said there was a patch as it is the Focus bargain brand so figured it would be the latest edition. Well I clicked ok to download the auto patch and when it went to install it then played the kind of frenetic 8bit music that usually gets played on cracks etc? The image that was up while it patched from v.1.00 to v.1.05 looked normal but it was weird to hear that music playing.

Actually I've bought GRAW 1 on Steam and despite having to edit an xml file to get the cross com to work and having make sure steam is not running when I run it as admin via the root it is enjoyable to play it ona system that can run it well rather than the crappy one I had back in the day. I feel a bit bad as I play it because having played crap like GR:FS I now realise that although GRAW 1 & 2 wern't OGR they were actually bloody good in many ways (despite my biatching at them at the time).

I think he's saying, 'they should know better'. well the same thing is happening in movies too. Actually, by amazing coincidence I watched GI Joe 2 for the same amount of time before quitting it as I played GR:FS. The difference between GI Joe/transformers/battleship etc adn . . . Avengers/Aliens/Robocop is that the latter appeal to the younger 'and' more mature viewer. However, the former make more money, as does crap like COD & GR:FS; and to be honest I don't blame the devs as it's not they who call the shots but rather the money people and it is the job of the money people to take the easiest path to the most money. If a much larger number of people want to keep having crap shoveled at them then who are the money people to say 'no, we'd rather make less money for much harder work'. I just wonder that as well as all the dross there surely has to be a market for old school GR style games. I sure miss the early days of OGR when this site was buzzing.

Steam always auto updates when I start my pc. Also, I've tried every option to launch and it won't launch.

I was so disgusted with GR:FS that I just bought and downloaded GRAW1 on Steam. It won't launch though. I uninstalled it and downloaded it again and had the same problem. I searched and found that others have that problem. Shocking that games sometimes won't launch for a lot of people (RTW2 had the same problem). In the case of GRAW1 they must have had time to fix but but haven't yet still selling it knowing that it won't work. Does anyone know a fix for this?