Parabellum

There's no such thing as "Original Ghost Recon". It's simply Ghost Recon. And yes, the video does look pretty cool. Carry on.

The animations are okay, but still not as fluid as I'd like to see. The OFP/ArmA series has always suffered from jerky animation transitions. If you compare ArmA II's animations to Medal of Honor's, for instance, there's just no comparison. MoH's animations are so much more believable and life-like. It would be great to see that remedied, because Arma II is, in most other respects, a completely superior product.

Mrs. Para and I saw Act of Valor Friday evening. The film was outstanding, and I don't foresee Hollywood putting out a better action film for a long time, unless they employ current/former military guys in the action roles. The difference between the SEALs and the typical Hollywood actor was apparent even to my wife, who has absolutely no tactical training. On a more important note, Act of Valor is a moving tribute to our military, made even more poignant because one of the SEALs who stars in the film was aboard the CH-47 that was shot down in Afghanistan last August, leaving no survivors. Keep that in mind if you watch the film: One of the studs that you're watching gave his life for your freedom.

What is this OGR of which you speak?

I concur. MoH was outstanding (much better than MW2, in my opinion) but far too short. I'd like to see MoH: Warfighter be longer, while retaining the same tastefulness and respect for our guys. That's the thing that separated MoH from MW2; MW2 was, like all Modern Warfare games, just an action movie on your computer, while the Medal of Honor games have always been about honoring our military. The last MoH did that in spectacular fashion, and it'd be nice to see that continued, just longer.

When it comes to airsoft guns, I think the cheapo guns in the $100-$150 range are hit or miss as far as accuracy and reliability are concerned. I've had a few of them, and while I'm by no means an avid or serious player, have found the cheaper ones to be absolute garbage. If airsoft where you live is anything like it is here, then you're going to need a gun with a high rate of fire that's accurate past 100 feet, and reliable. That kind of accuracy and reliability usually doesn't come in an inexpensive gun. Sometimes you luck out and get it, but not usually. Hopefully, you have.

OMG I laughed SO hard! That's probably not a mod that I'd use (because I do enjoy the immersion of Skyrim) but that's funny right there.

LOL that's easy enough to do. I don't know about modding for the XBox though. Do PC mods work on the 360?

Outstanding news! Time to brush off the modding skills and get to work!

Wow. For some reason, I was under the impression that Ubi had changed their DRM requirements, so that you only have to be online when you originally install/authorize the game. I was mistaken, clearly. This news obliterates what little chance there was for me to purchase GR:FS, to be honest. The game has been sounding a lot better as of late, but this kind of incompetent indifference on the part of Ubi makes me wonder why anyone buys their products.

Aah, Illia, that's it! I dismissed her some time last week, and she still hasn't made it home yet, so I've been unable to find her again, lol. You're certainly right about companions charging in, and even moreso on quests such as the Imperial or Graycloak lines which have you attack fortresses with a number of friendly troops. At times, I find it easier to just let them attack enemies, while I find someone else to kill, because they'll end up jumping right in front of my character and get cut down along with the enemy troops. One-on-one the enemy AI is pretty cool in combat in Skyrim, I think. In larger numbers though, it's paltry at best, and that's a shame. It would add to the immersion if Legion troops actually fought like Roman Legionnaires, in a coordinated group.

Bah. As usual, not available in the US. Where've you been hiding, DS?

lol my failure to read carefully strikes again. Sorry! As far as companions go, I honestly haven't used them very much. Never had a need, really. I did use the mage that asks you to help her kill her mother (sorry, her name escapes me right now) but found that her icy projectiles hit me in combat almost as often as they hit the enemy, if I didn't turn the mob so that its back was to her.

Fantastic job, Rocky! It's cool and awesome that after all these years, Ghost Recon is still the 2nd most popular item on these forums.

Honestly, the article makes GR: FS sound a lot more fun than past previews have indicated. I'd almost be willing to try it, if it weren't for the DRM scheme that's coming with GR:FS. (Cross-thread points, anyone?) Now, if only Ubi would ditch all the futuristic stuff. While Red Storm games have always featured nifty, futuristic things (heartbeat detectors and the OICW, for instance) those gadgets weren't major features of the games, or even all that important. What was and should be important is the action itself. In the end, Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon were about tactics. Ubi still seems to be using gadgetry as a major selling point of the series, rather than letting the action speak for itself, and letting the gadgets simply be tools to get the "job" done.

GR: O doesn't really play like CoD, in my opinion. It doesn't play like anything else that I have tried. Let me stress, that it isn't an enjoyable game, in my opinion, but it certainly is unique. If anything, I'd describe it as more like a MMO than a typical shooter. I say this because in GR:O, there are several very specialized roles, just like in an MMO, where you have a tank, a couple of healers, then a bunch of DPS classes. In most shooters, you have just that: Shooters. Maybe a SAW or an M203 here or there, but everyone is largely the same. Contrast that with GR:O where there are vast differences between the classes. In the end, it doesn't feel like Ghost Recon to me, but it also doesn't feel like CoD. I'd use the CoD label only as a negative epithet.

Ubi's DRM scheme will definitely keep me from purchasing GR:FS. Even though I dislike the direction that Ubi has taken the GR series, I typically do purchase the titles eventually, just to check them out, and I enjoy them to one degree or another (minus the abysmal Rainbow Six games of late. *shudder* ). In the past six months though, I've had to replace two graphics cards, a stick of RAM, and I've put in a second hard drive. If my understanding of (to borrow 101459's wording) Ubi's onerous new DRM is correct, then I would no longer be able to play any Ubi games using this new DRM. Why should I be punished for having to replace hardware on my machine? The need to protect a company's intellectual property and revenue source is understandable, but not at the cost of penalizing players for upgrading and/or repairing their machines.

Maybe you've already done this, but ... have you considered sending a private message to Rocky about the situation? I don't know you or your situation, but I do know Rocky very well, and have known him for over a decade. He's one of the most patient and fair-minded administrators that you will meet. I dare say that, if Rocky or his trusted admins believed your posts needed to be deleted, then they probably had a valid reason. Any time that I've ever been on the receiving end of corrective action here at GR.net, Rocky has always given me the courtesy of explaining exactly why. I'm sure that you will be (or have been) afforded the same courtesy upon request.

Dok, have you tried the Deadly Dragons mod for Skyrim? It comes in varying difficulties, all of which make dragons more dangerous, to one degree or another. I downloaded it last night, and was quite pleased with the results. Even on the easiest difficulty, dragons are much more difficult than in vanilla Skyrim. Finally, dragons feel ... epic ... rather than being easy kills!

RE: Dark Brotherhood: I thought that they'd be operating out of Windhelm as well, and was pleasantly surprised by where the quests there led me. The murders in Windhelm ... well, rather than spoil it, just follow it if you like and see where it goes. RE: Dragon priests: I'll give that a try. My main character has finished the quest line, and cna summon Odaviing and the Nord heroes. It just doesn't occur to me to use them very often. The dragon is a lot of fun when you're assaulting fortresses, though. I rather enjoy calling him, then taking cover and watching him obliterate all the guards.

The game runs fine on Firefox 9 in Vista.

Thanks for the detailed write-up, Dok. I may explore the casting side of the game a bit more in the near future. RE: The Stormcloak quests, yes, those were very enjoyable for me as well. Joining the Stormcloaks seems to make more sense to me than joining the Legion, simply because I can't fathom how someone would be two seconds from having his head lopped off by the Legion, and then turn around and join them. The Dark Brotherhood series has been the most enjoyable for me thus far, and I've done all of them except for the Mage guild and the Imperial line. Doing the Stormcloak line and the Dark Brotherhood line pretty much wipes the Legion off the map, at least in Skyrim.

Casters aren't my thing really, but I may give it a try. Sad though, that the dragon priests are, for a melee/ranged class, more difficult to kill than the dragons themselves. I'd prefer dragons to be extremely difficult.

Aaah, I was wondering if there were more werewolf totems to be found. My character married Aela after the first one, and thereafter, she didn't give him any more of the totem quests. I'll have to run through on another character. BTW, the Dark Brotherhood questline has turned out to be one of my favorites. Assassinating an emperor is such a positive experience, hehe. I do wish that killing the emperor had a greater effect on the world though, beyond random people lamenting his death.

Thanks guys! What a great day it was, too! I hit the big 3-5 today though. Slowly getting closer to the top of the hill.