Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed, A New Unofficial Expansion Pack Options

^ CLICK TO DOWNLOAD (MAC & PC) ^


The Year is 2008... Welcome to Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed!

Dear Ghost Recon Fans,

It is my honor to finally make a contribution to the Ghost Recon family in the form of a new mod. I have been working "swiftly, silently, and invisibly" on this for several years, and now that the time has come for my mod to see the light of day, I am overjoyed to be able to give something back at last.

Heroes Unleashed is my tribute to the Ghost Recon community. The mod's aspiration is to honor the makers and fans of this great game, and to be a token of appreciation for all the people who expanded the Ghost Recon universe over the years - with their work, support, ideas, enthusiasm, and sociability. All of you made our beloved game the all-time classic it is today.

The mod is released as a public beta version at this time to give Ghost Recon fans an (albeit not quite complete) surprise Christmas present - a fully playable "teaser" preview of things to come in the mod's final release, which is planned to be completed in spring/summer 2009.

I hope that Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed will provide you all with many additional hours, days, or even years of fun in playing one of the best computer games ever devised.

Happy Holidays,
ApexMods

PS: As part of this introduction, please allow me to quote the official press release for December 24 and an extract from the mod's ReadMe, listing its features - as requested by many (thanks a lot, Pave Low!).

PRESS RELEASE

MEDIA RELEASE
-------------


ApexMods Unveils "Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed" Add-On for Mac and PC
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THE WORLD WIDE WEB - December 24, 2008 - ApexMods (www.ApexMods.com)
today announced the launch of "Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed", a new
add-on mod (as in modification) for the squad-based military tactical
shooter game "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon", a classic published in 2001.

The mod is released as a tribute to the Ghost Recon community. It
aspires to honor the makers and fans of this great game, and to be a
token of appreciation for all the people who contributed to the world
of Ghost Recon over the years.

Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed is the redux of popular content that has
been introduced to the game by various other mods in the past, and it
strives to incorporate those elements of Ghost Recon's history into a
timeless collection, meticulously complemented by novel features.

The mod makes more than 100 maps and missions available in single and
multiplayer mode and offers over 200 different weapons to choose from.
All additions have been carefully integrated and balanced to provide
a homogeneous level of professional audio-visual and technical finish.

Heroes Unleashed is aiming to improve and expand many aspects of the
original game to increase its already highly addictive replayability,
while remaining true to Ghost Recon's unique character and concept.

It also tries to intensify the realistic feel and immersive qualities
of the game, making it more challenging and emphasizing the atypical
Ghost Recon game style: Tactical team play rather than the "solo, run
and shoot, wanna-live-forever" style found in many other FPS games.

If you are looking for killing sprees and fragfests, move right along,
there is nothing to see here. Just as the original, Heroes Unleashed
is predominantly about tactics and teamwork, and a good strategy will
serve you much better than quick reflexes and an itchy trigger finger.

With the combination of all of its features, Heroes Unleashed seeks to
create the optimum Ghost Recon experience for both single player games
as well as multiplayer battles, whether Co-Op, Solo or Team based ones.
The mod wants to accommodate a full spectrum of players from the casual
gamer, over regular clan and guild players, up to league professionals.

Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed will provide gamers with many additional
hours of fun in playing one of the best computer games ever devised.


Availability
------------

The Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed mod is available as a free download
for both Mac and PC from renown Ghost Recon community web sites, e.g.
www.GhostRecon.net and www.DamnR6.com.


About ApexMods
--------------

ApexMods is the guerilla fighter of the gaming industry, specializing
in game modifications that passionately aspire to accommodate the rare
and often forgotten breed of the "thinking player"... and to be fun!


Media Contact
-------------

Apex
ApexMods
apex@apexmods.com
www.ApexMods.com


------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT © 2008 APEXMODS (WWW.APEXMODS.COM). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ALL OTHER BRAND, PRODUCT, AND COMPANY NAMES ARE PROPERTY OF THEIR
RESPECTIVE OWNERS AND ARE USED ONLY FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES.

MOD FEATURES

REALISM
-------

- Original campaign missions are re-scripted to improve scenario
realism, e.g. "No resistance remains" triggers are changed to allow
mission time without enemies showing on the threat indicator, so the
player realistically never knows if or when hostile reinforcements are
on their way. Also, reinforcements do not spawn out of thin air in
front of your eyes and the location of some enemies varies each time a
mission is done.

- Mission environment settings (fog range, color, and opacity, as well
as overall rendering distances etc.) are adjusted for a more realistic
visual appearance.

- Spotting distances for AI characters are corrected on all maps - if
you can see the enemy, he can see you, too.

- All mission locations displayed during briefings are corrected and
shown with proper coordinates on new world maps covering the entire
planet. Mission times displayed during briefings correspond to visual
environments in their respective maps.

- All map textures have been reviewed one-by-one for potential visual
inadequacies and touched-up or recreated if necessary to achieve the
best possible level of visual realism.

- Many visual effects like muzzle flash, tracer ammunition, ricochets,
blood, gunshot wounds, fire, explosions, debris, smoke, rain, snow,
lightning, shadows, clouds, lens flare etc. are retextured for a more
realistic appearance.

- OPFOR characters are adjusted to exhibit more realistic behavior and
capabilities (e.g. there are no more enemies with super-human weapon
accuracy that lets them shoot the wings off a fly at a distance of
hundreds of meters with a standard-issue assault rifle).

- Enemies carry a wider more authentic range of weapons and equipment.

- Player and friendly AI characters' abilities are slightly increased
to make them act a bit more like the elite soldiers they are supposed
to represent.

- New allied and OPFOR weapons and vehicles are added for a broader
and more realistic variety of military materiel.

- All weapons are correctly designated and adjusted using real-life
properties (weights, magazine capacities, trigger groups, fire rates
etc.) and ballistics (range, stopping power, recoil etc.).

- Weapon handling is adjusted for more realistic weapon control, e.g.
to facilitate improved shooting while moving slowly, and smaller guns
like pistols, SMG's etc. "feel" more compact and allow for quicker
target acquisition than larger weapons.

- All weapons feature authentic sounds which also exactly reflect the
rate of fire of each individual weapon. For example, when you fire an
assault rifle with an effective rate of fire of 750 rounds per minute
you hear a staccato with intervals of exactly 0.08 seconds.

- Weapon models are more detailed and exhibit more authentic overall
appearance. Every single weapon texture has been manually reworked
and refined for a perfect finish providing realistic visual features,
including homogeneous color saturation and optical contrast across
all weapons.

- Weapon scopes provide accurate magnification levels and realistic
field of view (circular zoom). Weapons without magnifying optics
feature a minimal full screen zoom to simulate distance-focussing of
the human eye.

- Weapon optics are represented with more realistic visual appearance
based on their real-life reticles. All reticle textures have been
completely recreated from real-life weapon optic photographs.

- Night vision and binoculars more closely match the field of view
and appearance of their real-life counterparts.

- HUD and Threat Indicator are changed for a slightly less restricted
field of view.

- The body damage model provides more authentic wound lethality (e.g.
shots to the head are more likely to kill, while hitting arms, legs or
abdomen has a higher probability to result in non-lethal wounds) and
body armor more closely reflects real-life (NIJ Standard 0101.04)
Type II, III, and IV armor levels, e.g. characters wearing NIJ Type IV
bullet resistant vests - like support experts - have at least single
hit protection for the chest against most ammunition types.

- Loads for all soldiers are re-balanced to range from 25 to 45 kg
(including clothing, body armor and equipment) for the four different
soldier classes, with about 10 to 30 kg TAT load for equipment to
approximate FORSCOM regulations. Compromises are made to comply with
mission objectives and for a more balanced gameplay.

- Overlap in equipment kits between soldier classes is increased for
real-life unit flexibility (e.g. the four different soldier classes
share more primary weapons, anti-armor secondary weapons can be found
in non-demolitions kits etc.).

- Weapons originating from, or in use by, NATO and the former Soviet
Union (Warsaw Pact) are presented in separate equipment kits for more
authenticity and to provide a more realistic "Cold War" environment.

- Due to lack of realism in the game's hard-coded system for awarding
decorations, these are no longer displayed in the mission debriefing
and platoon setup screens (although decorations that have been earned
by a soldier more than once will still be shown in the platoon setup
screen as bronze and silver pins during campaigns).



GAME
----

- The mod's campaign consists of all 31 missions of Ghost Recon and
both of its official expansion packs (Desert Siege and Island Thunder)
combined into one trilogy sequence. It features all of the original
specialists (except Jodit Haile) as unlockable characters in proper
woodland, desert and jungle camouflage uniforms appropriate for all
possible mission locations. Specialist models that originally did
not feature all camouflage types have been completely retextured.

- Every specialist can be unlocked in two different campaign missions,
so if a player does not succeed at first try, there is still another
chance to unlock the same specialist later on in the campaign.

- Specialists of the original game that are already unlocked before
installation of the mod are unlocked within the mod as well (the mod
uses the same database for unlocked specialists as the original game).

- Campaign missions are re-scripted to provide a more demanding game
experience and increased non-linearity, and adjusted for a unified
"look'n'feel", e.g. objective triggers and their response messages are
more consistent. Additionally, several script errors and glitches are
fixed, and hidden enemies no longer appear as shadows in multiplayer.

- Movie sequences are adapted for the new campaign (and the final
movie features a little special bonus).

- All movie sequences are re-cut and re-encoded with corrected common
widescreen aspect ratio.

- Intro and/or outro cinematics are added to many missions depending
on the mission circumstances, e.g. if the mission's briefing context
calls for or allows insertion and/or extraction by helicopter etc.

- In-game text is corrected with proper English title capitalization
and modified for homogeneous sentence spacing, as well as a more
consistent wording style.

- Maps and missions are renamed and reordered for a more consistent
naming convention and to provide logical sequence for single and
multiplayer mode. The map sequence is the same for all game types
in both single- and multiplayer, and maps have the same numbering as
their corresponding missions. Consequently, once the "In Order" map
selection option is activated in multiplayer setup, players can go
through the entire campaign in correct mission sequence without the
need to enter the server setup screen again. So it is not required
to create a customized server scripts to play through the campaign.
Single missions outside of the campaign are in a "shuffled" order by
default to provide varying environments for all map sequence options.

- All game types for both single and multi-player games are completely
re-scripted for improved gameplay and replayability, and to provide
better compatibility with a wider range of maps from very small indoor
CQB locations up to huge outdoor scenarios.

- Several new maps, missions and game types are added for both single
and multi-player to increase the game's variation and replayability.

- Menus, PDA, loading screens, HUD, command map interface, mouse
pointer, credits screens etc. are redesigned for a "fresh" game look
that offers an updated overall appearance while staying close to the
original game's unique visual style.

- The command map interface is modified to display all other human and
computer team members with authentic military rank insignia next to
their names. The player's character is identified as Captain, other
human players as Master Sergeants, and computer players as Sergeants.

- All command maps are recreated to feature a more homogeneous design
and tactical grid coordinates that facilitate strategic team play.

- All missions and maps are unlocked for single player quick missions
by default.

- All maps feature completely reworked map scripting that makes them
available in all single and multiplayer game types. Every map script
is also modified to allow an increased number of enemies and a greater
variety of enemy locations in all game types.

- Many maps feature newly created UI elements like snapshots, briefing
world maps, command maps, and command map briefing images, as well as
mission briefing texts.

- Multiplayer server setup now allows selecting the availability of
both equipment and military units through restriction sets, so the
"Available Kits" option is renamed to "Units and Kits" to reflect
its influence on available team units as well as their kits.

- New military units are made available as multiplayer characters to
improve balancing between teams through competitive camouflage on all
types of map terrain. The additional military units feature character
models that are retextured to fit in with the original characters as
closely as possible while maintaing a high level of authenticity.

- All standard multiplayer teams are represented by U.S. and Russian
military special forces units in full camouflage battle dress uniforms
suitable for all possible terrain types - woodland, desert and jungle.
The default multiplayer teams 1 through 4 are represented by the U.S.
Army Special Forces "Ghosts" (Blue Team), Russian Spetsgruppa Alfa
(Red Team), U.S. Army Special Forces Delta (Green Team), and Russian
Spetsgruppa Vympel (Gold Team), respectively, all in appropriate
woodland, desert, and jungle camouflage for all types of terrain.

- Many newly created multiplayer restriction sets provide a more
adjustable kit and unit selection for all teams. For example, there
are now several settings especially designed to offer a wider choice
of AI Backup equipment, and some restrictions sets - mainly aimed at
Co-Op and Solo games - allow simultaneous access to all available
military units plus all specialists for all teams. These Co-Op and
Solo game multiplayer restrictions also provide an additional military
unit - the U.S. Marine Corps - to choose from, equally featuring new
retextured characters with camouflage uniforms for all terrain types.

- Several new multiplayer restrictions feature sorting of equipment
kits based on the selected military unit, e.g. a demo expert of the
U.S. Army Special Forces Delta will have a different default weapon
than a U.S. Marine of the same soldier class, and all U.S. soldiers
will have American equipment displayed before Russian equipment when
scrolling through available kits and vice versa.

- Some original multiplayer restriction sets are renamed to reflect
the changes in kit and unit selection.

- All equipment outline textures for equipment selection screens were
completely reworked to reflect weapons and their attachments with more
detail. Additionally, all weapons with magnifying optics are marked
with crosshairs symbols, and all grenade launchers, anti-tank weapons,
and demolition charges are identified by corresponding symbols.

- All weapons and equipment are made available in single player quick
missions and multiplayer games. In the single player campaign the
selection of equipment is limited to military materiel that is in
actual real-life use by the U.S. Army Special Forces represented in
the game's campaign.

- The equipment selection screens are adjusted to correctly display
3-digit kit numbers.

- Interface dialog strings are adjusted to reflect the existence of
anti-armor weapons other than the M136 and also their availability
outside of the demolitions soldier class.

- All used files have been reviewed one-by-one for possible conflicts
with any other files in the mod, the original game and both official
expansion packs, and - if necessary - adjusted, to ensure a perfect
compatibility of all components.

- Many other little technical and cosmetic fixes and improvements are
implemented to achieve the best possible gaming experience.

Downloading now!

I'll d/l this for sure.
Thanks is not enough for the countless hours you spent creating Heroes Unleashed.

Im also DL right now.
thx a lot and congrats to you ApexMods for a great contribution.

/Ingeloop

Xmas was moved to dec 20 th ! Gonna give this a try right now !!

Downloading, hope it goes well. Massive mod, sure it will be welcomed by all.

Congratulations on the public release!

Congratulations on the public release!

Thanks, Rocky - and all you guys - for the warm welcome! This is indeed my pleasure and I hope you all enjoy the mod! I "moved Christmas" a bit so there is plenty of time for the (admittedly massive) download, but nobody forces you to unwrap the present now - feel free to wait until the 24th.

Everyone is of course invited to post any feedback here and discuss the mod in general!

Congratulations Apex! I know you have been itching to get this out for a while now. Thanks for keeping the dream alive!

The Year is 2008... Welcome to Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed!

That's a link, BTW.

That's a link, BTW.

Snake! You are such a spoilsport!

OK, for those of you who have not yet noticed it: Yes, the mod comes with its own web site www.HeroesUnleashed.net, but it still needs a LOT of work! So don't expect too much (yet)!

Looking foward to downloading this as soon as I get home from work. Thanks ahead of time and long live GR!

Oops... lol Sorry Apex... I keep forgetting you like to hide little "?easter eggs?" everywhere.
My b. lol

dld, congrats again Apex'..the presentation is nice..have not played a mission yert though just had a good look around the folder and did open the game...I like the unit stuff in the PDA...good for a Quick Mission mod..
as I'm busy with another large mod ay this time I'll have to wait awhile on playing through any for now...
BTW - the dl is not bad at all.I started it and went to take care of a few minor chores, came back and it was almost finished - this at 308 Kbps..
thanks for your efforts!
mig

Thanks again Apex,

(nice work on the site too)

So any reviews of the mod or details on what it contains?