March 2002

If you haven't ordered your copy yet, and you can order from the UK, then you have an even bigger bargain to collect. Amazon.co.uk are stocking Ghost Recon The Collectors Pack, which for little more than the price of a new game includes both Ghost Recon and Desert Siege, A Ghost Recon badge, a voucher for the Ghost Recon Guide, and The Making of Ghost Recon CD!

This image charts the Desert Siege sales rank over the last few days. As it enters the top 10 on the right, it goes off the scale! This would be a great achievement for any game, but for a mission pack that needs the original title to play, it is a remarkable feat - and a huge vote of confidence for the Ghost Recon Development team.

Here is a summary of fixes that grabbed my attention

• Tuned AI investigation behavior
• Texture, model, and animation improvements
• Software sound option added for legacy hardware
• Many sound effects tweaked (inc. footsteps!)
• Leaderboard added
• Respawn locations tweaked
• Improvements to multiplayer stability, especially in high lag
• Added HTML stat generation to after action
• Several specific cheats addressed!
• Improved Mod support
• Fixed memory leak
• New modding options for some cool effects
• Voodoo 3 fix!
• Sound Pop fix!
• "Next Selective" function now called "Rate of Fire" (Phew)
• Some weapon mathematics tweaked

And that is not even half way down a long long list - these guys have been VERY busy - this is an awesome patch.

In the article Jester sets out to explain the confusion over which Unreal version will drive Raven Shield, how the engine handles maps and effects, animation, scripting, debugger and modding. There are also several reference links for more information and screenshots, check it out right here.

At the moment there are two download locations, over at Ravenmouth.org, and a mirror we arranged at FilePlanet. Grab it now and experience the combined work of the communities most prolific modders. You might even spot an infamous name or two in the Gangland Specialists! And make sure you have IFF names switched on so as not to miss out on the mod teams sense of humour.

With Ghost Recon still selling strong and ranked 53rd in overall Amazon sales, Desert Siege has managed a remarkable 15th place even though it is a pre-order item. Compared to Operation Flashpoint at number 214 and it's Red Hammer mission pack at number 673, the massive popularity of Ghost Recon is clear. In fact, when we checked, Desert Siege was even out selling the huge Medal of Honor : Allied Assault, which was released recently. Even pre-sales of Global Operations cannot match Desert Siege, as Global Ops ranks 217th!

Desert Siege is going to be huge! And to celebrate in the run up to the release date, we will be having a Desert Siege Week here at GhostRecon.net, 7 days of brand new images and information, don't miss it.

Got questions about Ghost Recon modding? How would you like your questions answered by members of the dev team? Send them to us at submit@ubisoft.com. Then stay-tuned for the first installment of our upcoming Modding Q&A section!

The thing is, the launch of the mod could very well be delayed as Clan Smurf have just been hit with Cease and Desist legal papers! According to papers they have recieved they have 3 days to :

• obtain the radiation of the domain name under consideration within 8 days
• stop immediately every and all use of the Smurf characters and denominations on your web-site, including the distribution or selling or whatever of Smurf skins for games

You can check what is left of the Clan Smurf webpage, and the actual Cease and Desist communication here.

As we know, in Ghost Recon the Ghosts were deployed on a peacekeeping mission in Georgia - Georgians are now asking if this is merely co-incidence, as American troops train Georgians against terrorism.

Here is the full translated text taken from Ghost-Recon.de - thanks to The LofD.

"The German TV channel, N-TV, showed a 3 minute report about a game which was causing a lot of turmoil. Apparantly GHOST RECON is a big hit in Georgia however N-TV looked at the game in a totally different way and asked the question, "if ghost recon has something to do with the ongoing war against terrorism in Georgia or if it is just a coincidence because of its (ghostrecon's) background story."

Even though the American troups are in Georgia to train the Georgians against terrorism, but who could conclude, that they - in the sense of GhostRecon - already are involved in the fight."

You can watch the TV report right here.

The Platoon are reporting that the first two rounds of the Mercanaries tournament are over. Check out the current standings here, and see how many familiar names you can spot from the community.

One mod that really has us counting the days to its release in a couple of weeks is Monolith's Gangland. With nice use of music to set the atmosphere, and amazing visuals this mod is going to be a huge hit.

Elsewhere, at the Platoon, Svengelska has an update and image from his British Infantry Mod. You can grab a preview for that mod in our forums here. At Gamerz, Bajabravo has updated news on his terrific G8 Special Forces mod including a list of known issues, and a whopping 8500 download count! Also, don't forget about GI Joe and the Dead Presidents, another two mods we can't wait to see!

And last be definately not least great news as a top Rogue Spear mod looks like it is heading for Ghost Recon - AUMWM! Check it out over at the @war forums.

When Desert Siege is installed it installs as a mod, and updates the Ghost Recon version to 1.2. Gamers without Desert Siege will be able to download the 1.2 patch from Ubi Soft so that they can still join servers that have the Desert Siege mission pack installed - but not activated. Obviously if you do not have Desert Siege, you will not be able to join a Desert Siege server.

For more details please visit the official dev forum.

Elsewhere Blackhawks have been working on a V22-Osprey for Ghost Recon, and a RAH-66. Check this page to view progress, and a short movie showing the RAH-66 model.

Demolition have opened their doors, their mission is to serve Ghost Recon demolition players. Check it out if blowing things up is your passion! I think these are the same guys that made this cool GR flash movie, always worth a look.

Sounds like a challenge to the modders out there - let the community know here when you figure it out! Thanks to Alfa FSB for pointing this out.