MisterMan

I really wanted to like this mod (thought HX4 was very good) but I have to say I was disappointed on the whole. The Good: Innovative use of vehicles and additional animation tricks to heighten sense of interaction. Adds a new dimension to the playing. A few nice extra weapons. The Bad: Mostly lackluster mission scripting with some really non-sensical elements thrown in. Too often haphazardly textured maps that had a terribly unifinished and rough look to them (the last map was by far the worst - the building textures made no sense at all, as did the mission itself) Squirrely behavior on saving/loading missions resulted in frequent CTD's throughout the game. Since I think the Frostbite mod 'raised the bar' for mission inventiveness, well-thought out plotline and excellent map design and earned a "10" here, I have to give HX5 a '5'

Thanks for the reply Harntrox, but just to be clear, are you saying that the quick save/load function cannot be used AT ANY POINT during the first mission? (BTW, can't access your support forum). Thanks

Just from the looks of the early part of mission one, this seems really promising. Unfortunately, I consistently get a CTD whenever I try to load ANY save at any point in the game (haven't gotten that far though). Then if I restart GR and try to load ANY saved game from that first mission, I am presented with sort of a "see-through" screen of a map as seen from below with the message, "all soldiers have been lost." I have restarted three different times now, saving at a different point in the game (all AFTER the chopper crash) , and I get the same result. Ike error message says: Loading map c:\program files\red storm entertainment\ghost recon\mods\hx5\map\hx_castle.map SimHuman: Actor 109[ AI_21 (21) ]: Could not find my room for location <-58.8338, 249.245, -9.84912> RSGameStateMgr::LoadGameFromStream( std::ifstream ) Could not read stream I have no other mods activated,. Any suggestions as to how to resolve would be appreciated. Thanks.

Sixpence- I'm sure creating mods is not at all an easy task. Creating anything and doing it well is always difficult. But so what? I have no ambitions at making my own mods, maps or missions - I leave that to the people with the time, the tools and inclination to create such things. I just enjoy GR and playing the mods that other people create. But by your comment, you seem to be implying that because I myself do not make mission mods, that any criticism I may have for those that do is invalid. You know that's complete nonsense. I have no talent nor inclination for making films, yet I have a very definite opinion on films that either do or do not appeal to me. So what's the difference between having an opinion on a film, a painting or in this case- a GR mod? As to my comments about pursuing the hidden enemies, I can explain exactly why I thought it didn't work well for me. I never said there was anything inherently wrong with hiding enemies- what I was trying to get across was that in the mission in question, I felt that from my playing perspective, the process of wandering all over a large map hunting down individual hidden enemies one at a time became tedious and tiresome. It went on too long and as a result, the gameplay was repetitive- and therefore no fun for me.

I played all the missions several times and I NEVER saw an enemy spawning in front of me, NEVER!! Do you want that all enemies are at one place?? and you have a thread indicator I know that size had no bearing on the rating - but apparently my sarcastic device did not translate well. Here's what I meant: Since I couldn't figure out why ORJ received a 10/10 rating, yet a MUCH more original, more well done and thought out map like "Trafic Columbie" did not earn as high a rating, I facetiously wondered whether the rating was based on size. If you didn't see enemies spawn (particularly on the missions that depended on huge waves of assaulting troops) then maybe you weren't looking hard enough. The first "defend the base camp" mission used that. Check it out. As soon as the first incoming rocket explosion hits, you can see a big mass of enemies magically appear on the right side of the mountain pass. You have to be looking through a sniper scope to see them, but they're as plain as day. Same thing was used multiple times on the "wait for relief" map (Foy map?). This is particularly evident on the second half of the mission if you eliminate one squad of incoming enemies, then another group materializes instantly; along with another enemy with an RPG. This goes on, and on, and on.... As to my comments about the "single enemies hidden all across the map" my criticism wasn't based on the fact that they were simply hidden. My criticism was based on my opinion that simply scattering single enemies in the bush that DO NOTHING but stand still and wait until you practically walk into them is not my idea of a fun playing experience - hence my use of the word "tedious" to describe the missions. As to the "threat" indicator - in these missions I found it to be highly unreliable. For instance, in the first mission I just mentioned, I found myself combing every corner of the map trying to locate the next enemy. The indicator kept showing a nearby threat, yet I had gone over the area several times and turned up nothing. Then I figured out the threat indicator was tiggered by the unattended jeep. As soon as I shot out its tires, the indicator turned off. It's things like that that made the whole experience dull and repetitive... but that's only MY opinon.

"Trafic Columbie" was a fantastic map- it worked on every level. The environment, map scripting and "fun" factor make it one that will stay on my hard drive forever. The only minor gripe I can come up with is that my team members would not cross the bridge that leads to the church. That aside, This is one map that can be enjoyed over and over again. Great job!

Sorry, but I gotta weigh in with a dissenting opinion. Of course, I never managed to get past M10 due to some scripting quirk (I assume) but it was just as well, as I was really tired of the whole thing and wanted it to end. I guess if sheer size of the download were a major criteria for greatness, then I'd be giving ORJ a score of "10 of 10" as well. However, even though it was over 200MB in size, I would personally rate this no better than a "5." I am amazed after reading the feedback, that people would rate this equal or better than previous mods/missions that I thought demonstrated far more in the way of creativity, originality and attention to detail and realism- like Battleborne, Frostbite, Harntrox or the new Trafic Columbie. Of the 10 maps I saw, not one was anything new, but then again, maybe the last few missions showed some dazzling original maps that I didn't get to see. Sure, the opening fly-by on mission 1 was cool, but that was THE high-point for me. What ORJ seems to be is a collection of retextured maps with a storyline that is "razor thin" at best. Except for the first map, the retexturing didn't really work all that well - I thought there were just too many obviously out-of-place landscape details left over from the original GR, that don't fit the mideast setting. But I could have easily overlooked that if the missions themselves had been fun to play - but they were not. "Tedious" is the word I'd use to describe the playing experience. The scripting seemed to rely on only two gimmicks: 1) Wave after undending wave of spawning enemies that usually materiaize right in front of you. 2) Hiding single enemies in every corner of the maps so that you have to wander around forever trying to track them down so you can bring the mission to an end. My apologies to the creator(s) of ORJ for the blunt nature of my review, but I'm afraid it rates a big humbs-down for me.