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LOL WOW! Thanks Samz707 for posting this! I remember this game, game came out, I was on a binge of buying every realism shooter that came out, just because I had a yen to see interesting one-off game engines, and love the genre (actually binge buying realism games never stopped) 🤣. I gave up on this one in frustration and annoyance, but it's cool to read someone else has actually given this a go, and gone further with it than I could!

Pretty sure this is the future of the 'Clancy Franchise' as Ubisoft sees it: https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/1Q7Z0YJIvdof6PHzzDUM5i/rainbow-is-magic-returns-to-rainbow-six-siege-on-march-29 For anyone that wasn't paying attention in school: rainbows are not magic, they're a very easy to understand phenomena of physics, and adult men with pink hair and beards, makeup, dressed up as pink fantasy animal costumes, with beer guts...draw your own conclusions about the kind of 'tactical realism' being applied here, but if they arrive in a candy truck, it's probably best to keep your kids in the house.. And I thought the bar couldn't go any lower than the Ubisoft Coco porn videos, was I ever wrong...

My thinking on this was inspired by the staggering amount of money that's raised by many crowd funding campaigns with very marginal marketing and product presentation. Then the budgets, and revenue stream from marginal AAA games, with better marketing, that's still not particularly great marketing, but does obviously hit enough buttons to make these revenue targets realistic, even before a product is available. While I may not quite be Don Draper (that would be understating how successful and handsome I am), I have more than enough marketing, advertising sales experience to know good from marginal, and just good enough from great, and think if enough effort was poured into a proper crowd funding project's presentation, surprising amounts of money could be made. More than enough to poach top game talent from AAA studios and publishers -- which could even be exploited as part of fun bounty based revenue targets for supporting the project. It may seem a reach, but two decades ago no one thought we'd see game budgets that surpassed 'block buster movies' -- and just like people being fed-up with the MSM, game fans are increasingly fatigued by AAA game publisher's exploits. I believe the indie game development age is upon us, and will really get legs when decent incomes can be assured for capable hard working talent. I'll even raise the ante and vaticinate that it will be an indie game crowd funding project that sets a new and what will be one of the longest held funding records. Professional marketing making an honest appeal -- can go a long ways...

I think anyone that loved Ghost Recon, and enjoyed Wildlands agrees with you Alex; that this is what we'd all love to see, heck even just a reboot of Wildlands would be a step in the right direction that would thrill me. And if Ubisoft could get it done, that would just mean it would come to market sooner, rather than much, much later with something along the lines of what I think will happen. But I'm French, and I can tell you that the stubborn hubris of the people that run Ubisoft, is virtually unsurpassed -- you don't have to look farther than the rinse/repeat downward spiral of unmitigated reckless spending, complete tone deafness and even abuse of their customers, the stock price, the bail-outs -- this has gone on for decades -- it's an icky company that oozes cordial hypocrisy... But I sincerely hope you're as right as you are up-beat, charming, attractive, as positive force here on these forums and in the world! It sure needs a lot more of everything you've got!

With so many being disillusioned with big publishers dropping the ball with the tactical realism genre, for so long (and AAA games in general); specifically and literally disenfranchised with Ubisoft's running the Ghost Recon franchise into the ground -- and GRN still being a locus for what these games had -- what kind of funding do those still here think GRN could generate with a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign? When I think back to some of the amazing Ghost Recon Arma mod trailers Wombat made, the high rez texture mods by Zeealex and others, Apex Mods amazing Heroes Unleashed swan's song to Ghost Recon -- the sheer weight of all the work, time, and talent that has been poured into GRN, chokes me up... And it all still here, decades running, given away for free -- and like the site that hosts it a conspicuous labor of love. Surely others see this and feel the same -- overwhelmed by the generosity, enthusiasm, and hard work... So, what if there was some kind of long term build-up to a focused goal of funding the development of a commercial game, then hiring the people to do it, making GRN a hub for marketing and Fan based intermediary for such a project, it might, at some point, get legs. What I'm suggesting is creating a sort of fictional sub-thread for 'The Ghost Of Ghost Recon', where anyone could throw in with what kind of game this could and should be, how to approach it, from 'pet wish fantasy' to practical results oriented nuts and bolts, here's what would be needed to get this off the ground in terms of time, talent, and financial resources, where to go -- a sort of fan based map that may remain just a Ghost, but -- perhaps a lot of fun 'what if'... I'm know I'm just being maudlin and nostalgic, there's lots of cool games in the wild, and Apex Mods Heroes Unleashed will keep me busy for...probably another decade, with ideas for experimenting with my own hack and tweak mod from my read of the original Ghost Recon game design slightly updated... But what if? And where is that Apex Mods, I miss that guy!

I'm going to 'Negative Nelly' this rumor (which probably is an actual production track), and say the game will never be released, in fact Ubisoft will probably not even be around as a company by 2025 as we currently know it. There just isn't the revenue, as a function of the costs of the company's gaffs -- the scale and repetition of Ubisoft's erroneous approach is unprecedented in business. Even Tencent buying a massive amount of Ubisoft stock hasn't kept it from cratering, or management from burning everything in sight to the ground. Were this a decade ago, there might be hope of another government bail-out, but there just isn't the money for that kind of thing anymore... It's not just that the company makes the same mistakes over and over trying to push game design that has been rejected by would-be fans across multiple game genres, multiple times; Ubisoft's approach to signing on to ESG is a death knell to reaching revenue targets when production schedules become 'racist and sexist', and employee's are told by HR to 'bring your true self to work' with all the other ESG commitments obviate results oriented production. The company is literally burning itself down from every direction, and openly hoping to be bought out -- but nobody will, as anything the company has that's worth anything will be available at fire sale prices when the company goes under. My hope, and I think many might agree the best outcome may come when Ubisoft is finally sold off, hopefully piecemeal to various publishers and IP management companies -- that the RSE Clancy IP will be seen as it truly is 'untapped and unrealized in terms of real revenue potential', and something both old & new will be booted up, perhaps hiring some of the original talent to steer the direction of the design. You don't have to look far to see what Ubisoft has done with all the RSE/Clancy IP is widely held in poor regard across the industry. If this were a one off aspirational 'pet wish' that has never happened in the industry before, hope for any of this would be thin, but that's not the case...

There aren't many games as old as Ghost Recon that have Fan Sites as long standing as GhostRecon.net -- and those are based more on nostalgia than a game that is still compelling over twenty years later. Even though by today's standards Ghost Recon looks rough and lumpy, once in -- it still oozes atmosphere, with art assets, music and sound design that consistent and congruent in way that they'll pull you in. Players new to the game discover this, then features, and an approach to game design that hasn't been surpassed or even approached in any realism game since, and then they get it -- the bug, and then they try some mods, discover this site, or a mods on Mod Db and post about their gushing enthusiasm for the new old game. It's great fun to see that when it happens and some even drag their friends along... Two decades in, I don't know if Ghost Recon would be as good "remastered" -- something definitive would likely be changed, I'm not suggesting it might not be a good game -- but some of the constraints RSE was confronted with forced very thoughtful, intelligent, and well-engineered design decisions, that might not be as focused, cohesive, or impressive, and it goes without saying if something good can be broken or otherwise screwed up, Ubisoft will be there maximizing exactly that. Given proper attention to what Fans were asking for around the time of Ghost Recon 2, and Ubisoft could easily have had a success on their hands that surpassed Battlefield and COD. On a similar track, I was at one point wondering why Ubisoft had not put all the Ghost Recon expansions on Uplay, and wishing they would to make the game more accessible. As well they could easily integrate the features of the old Mplay server browser in Uplay (it's code a 12 year old could do in an afternoon), but that would never happen as having twenty-year-old acquired ip, with more people playing it than their most recent multi-million-dollar crash and burn atrocity would be simply unacceptable, and of course the game portrays politically unacceptable content, so will likely have to be removed from Uplay at some point anyway... Fortunately, Ghost Recon, and all the expansion are still available on Steam, and hopefully due to obscurity and luck stay there indefinitely as even at full boat price they're a bargain and not just classics but a high water mark in game design history!

Just thought I'd add a list of a few more GR fan sites that have long disappeared, some may have some content on the internet archive: http://www.ghostrecon-sof.com/ http://ghostrecononline-france.com/ http://planetrainbowsix.com/ http://ghostrecon-fanpage.de/ http://ghostrecon2.co.uk/ http://rainbowsix.gamesweb.com/ http://2342.3mu25x.info/ http://portablegaming.de/ http://rainbowsix.gamesweb.com/ http://ghostrecon2.com/ http://ghostrecon-fr.com/ http://grmercs.com/ http://ghostrecon.nl/ http://ghost-recon.wo.to/ http://ghostrecon.30plus.org/ http://ghostrecon.it/ http://ghost-recon.nu/ http://ghostrecon.3dretreat.com/ http://mission-ghostrecon.com/ Buried somewhere I have a much larger list that includes Asian & SE Asian sites that had some amazing mod content.

I... LOVE IT! Pepe Silva references and all! I get to this from a totally different direction: I went down to maintenance and there's no Janitorial Office! Or, more on topic, I've been revolted by the portrayal of women (and girls) in games for a long time, where too often women (and girls) are portrayed as 'porno toy filth thing', some 'token extra', or more recently as seminal ESG satisfying, over the top, 'monster-masculine' thing that makes Sylvester Stallone look delicate, sensitive, intelligent and even pretty by comparison -- you don't have to look far in Ubisoft games to see all of these really disturbing portrayals of women. Realistic, heroic, aspirational portrayals of women in games, as they are, in the real world, especially those that aspire to and work extra-hard to get to jobs that have typically been a male only opportunity, are few and far between. In the case of the genre we all love here, women portrayed as military professionals has been especially scant, but that's also becoming the case for men too -- as military professionalism has left the building of game design almost in entire. One of my favorites, and the first female portrayal in a game that I fell in love with -- in the sense of how I would rather see women portrayed in this kind of game, or if I ever had a little girl this is what I'd want her to see, was Manon Batiste in Medal of Honor: she's tough, smart, attractive, charming, witty, and most importantly -- competent. You don't know if Manon likes girls or boys, and you don't need to, you do know she's a great character, admirable, actually historically accurate in many ways, and in many ways could be regarded as the French female James Bond for women with an added bit more realism. Elea Oberon, the voice actor that DreamWorks hired was excellent, she's feminine, tough and exudes real confidence -- not over-the-top bravado as we get in so many games today from both male and female characters. Love your lore story Zeealex! I generally don't read character or story detail in games too deeply, but yours, got me intrigued to find out more about Manon Batiste than I previously knew, I'm glad I did, and what a nice surprise to find the background they've written for this woman is just exactly the sort of thing you'd think it might be if you were going to write it yourself, if you wanted to create a realistic, heroic, aspirational female character.

Wow! All of this makes me feel... Old... I remember not long before they signed off and went full Armaholic, Ghostaholic had a list of 'lost mods' that I was racing to find, and even filled a couple three CDs, that are buried somewhere. I wonder how much work remains lost... What a great page Rocky! What a great game! Anyone heard from ApexMods? I miss that guy's posts...

Well, you're far from alone in that regard -- things are only good when you're getting as much out as you put in, and if your not feeling it; glad ya like what you found in Insec, protecting SkyNet from humans! 😁 Jsut as glad you're still around, and hopefully still enjoying gaming! You're a great force for good here -- a very charming and up-beat presence, and a very talented 3d Artists too boot!

Moved away from game dev?! Oh noze! Why? What doing now? 😮

Thanks for the 'heads-up' Zeealex! I hope you mean his PC and not something like a pacemaker or... If he needs a new computer I have some donor hardware -- it's not SOTA but it's not junk either... PS Is this your handy work? https://www.deviantart.com/zeealex

It looks like it has been over a year now since he's visited the forums... Has anyone seen or heard from him? Nicest of nice guys, creator of tons of content for Ghost Recon, looks like still an Admin here too? Rocky?

Ubisoft is a "Woke" company now, has been for some years; they understand what the Clancy franchise audience wants, too well, they just don't care; they are on-board and being munerated handsomely to press the "Woke Agenda" which is part of ESG, and will be penalized for not going with the program. That means no game can contain any content that may offend anyone for any reason no matter how subjective if it can be litigated; if you think that's a reach this even extends to color palates used in games. Under ESG, games must primarily embrace and convey themes of "inclusiveness and diversity" -- historic accuracy, realistic depictions of anything that can be felt by anyone, under any circumstances, including extreme psychosis to obviate any of the aforesaid can and will not be tolerated or allowed. You'll never see another tactical realism game from Ubisoft again, ever -- where tactical realism is described or defined as game design where realistic depiction and use of tactics to achieve realistic military objectives are portrayed. Ubisoft has promised and is committed to "Woke" social justice outcomes at all fronts. Welcome to the world of Harrison Bergeron...

I've never wanted to be as wrong about a company or game product franchise as this; but since Ghost Recon 2 being pulled, everything accelerated to where we find things now -- and there has been little sign Ubisoft has any intention of redeeming the 'Ghost Recon', 'Tom Clancy', or 'R6' IP, to anything other than a sophomoric parody of what these games were. Never has so much been squandered; Ubisoft had it all: enormously successful brilliantly crafted IP, enthusiastic talented Developers, an enormous equally talented Fan base that created an unsurpassed volume of content in the form of fan sites, and mods (almost every country had at least one native language fan site) more in fact than any other game before or since (old GameSpot had an article about this). It's sad, and sadder still that none of this is a surprise. But the good news is Tactical Realism Fans and their money will go where they're treated best; it may take a while but as other point out indie titles like Ground Branch, Insurgency, Operation: Harsh Doorstop, Ready Or Not, Zero Hour, Escape From Tarkov, Caliber, Squad, and dozens more have committed talented people many that took inspiration from RSE IP working hard -- and many will raise the bar in new and compelling game design. Best of all Ghost Recon remains evergreen -- a playable high-water mark in Tactical Realism game design with features that remain unsurpassed for over two decades, and mountains of brilliant mod content that will continue to compel, immerse, and thrill people that are wondering: 'why didn't someone make a realism game with features like...' only to discover someone did, did it really well, and even provided means to add new design, content and features... Ghost Recon isn't dead, it's just taking a nap... Anyone can wake it up any time and have an amazing adventure!

I may be mistaken, but I believe this was a map originally created for True Combat (or was inspired by one or a setting that was). What surprises me here is how rough R6 3 looks, remembering how great I thought it looked at the time; but even today the immersion for me doesn't come from eye candy it comes from game design!

Yup, really good game. Has lots of rough edges, but progress is steady and very impressive. This looks like a real up and comer if M7 can stay the course.

I believe that there was an amazing confluence of opportunity, timing, talent, and game design that has not only made the 'original' Ghost Recon an exceptional high water mark in tactical realism game design, I think it may never happen again, actually be something we should value, and a good thing! Ghost Recon was developed during and set in the height of the Cold War, where covert warfare peaked in terms of skill based tactical operator intervention. Not that this still isn't a thing today; but contemporary warfare, weapon systems and intervention are designed to obviate operator skill and the skill of his/her intended target, even avoid have him or her in proximity of an intended target, or, remove human operators from the theater entirely. The theaters of operation, kinds of missions and actions performed by elite special operations have in many cases been automated, supplanted and even obviated -- and those that are still in motion are so highly classified we lack an author with the background, imagination, motivation, research skill and writing talent of a Thomas Clacy to reveal at any depth what might be going on in a compelling way. Tom Clancy played an important role in what made Ghost Recon outstanding, both monetarily, his knowledge, insight and inspiring writing. While there are many great military writers (fiction and non), none have surpassed Tom Clancy in the breadth of what he was able to convey; some may be better writers, have more in-depth, or even hands-on knowledge and experience -- but I would argue none have brought as much to the genre as Tom Clancy, and at time in military history that was making history, very advantageous to his success and the level of attention a game like Ghost Recon received. Gaming was also just hitting its stride; very polished, professional talent and standards of quality in 3D game design were in many regards peaking, with many 'firsts' established setting a high watermark for execution. Of course, if you compare the absolute aesthetics of the original Ghost Recon to a contemporary tactical realism game it's obvious the bar has been raised considerably (more on this to follow) but critical immersive levels of game design, and interactive features beyond having a simplistic shooting gallery with moving targets had been achieved. This was also a time where game developers didn't even have to 'think outside the box', as the box of big publishing and its puppy mill approach was only getting started, not as limiting and restricting a factor of what a developer could accomplish as it has become today -- and market saturation was not yet a thing. Limitations were more a function of time, money, and what you could do with technology, game feature concepts, and art assets on a particular budget -- and RSE delivered a lot. Realism fans were hungry for more realistic games with higher fidelity, that (importantly) allowed for or even required more realistic tactics than the typical run-&-gun FPS, games that were thematically realistic, offered scenarios that were germane and convincing, and design approaches that were successful in actually accomplishing these things. With Ghost Recon, like Tom Clancy, RSE did them all, and did them in spades. Ghost Recon also light a fire under genre fans with mod support, game fan and mod development sites were going gangbusters as well -- fueling the fire. Without deep-diving Ghost Recon's game design, and features -- the entire heft of GRN should clue as how much is there, and to that end does a fantastic job, but to the uninitiated the Original Ghost Recon offers a tactical realism gaming experience with features, concepts, design, game modes, fidelity, net-code, military professionalism and even art assets that remain unsurpassed. This last is sure to bewilder some; how can generations old, low poly, low texture resolution assets possibly be 'unsurpassed'? And the answer I believe is key to Ghost Recon's greatness. 'Uncanny Valley' and 'Theater Of The Mind' are two concepts in game development and literature respectively that don't get enough attention, aren't appreciated for what they accomplish or obviate. In literature some of the best writers only describe their characters and settings in terms of concepts, piquing and allowing the reader's imagination or 'Theater Of Mind' to paint a vastly more detailed and immersive picture. Raymond Chandler, Ayn Rand, and to some extent even Tom Clancy are examples of modern authors that use this technique that's highly regarded for immersive writing when done right. Writers that over amplify and laboriously describe detail and aren't exceptionally good at it can create the disconnect, cognitive dissonance, or 'Uncanny Valley' of how you think something should look, and what's being described and can wreck otherwise good storytelling and immersion. The same applies to games. While modern high-resolution 3D game art assets may allow for more immersiveness, they certainly don't guarantee it, many create the same Uncanny Valley bump in dissonance that while it looks great for ad copy just doesn't draw you into a game or even distracts from it, more so if the game design just isn't there or an over articulated ridiculously stupid narrative underpins everything as is all to common now. Ghost Recon, perhaps by some dint of luck and talent offers just the right amount or at least a compelling level of presentation, narrative and continuity in art assets that like good literature and radio theater allows for an experience that's actually more immersive that many games that offer higher resolution art assets. Minimal narrative, the soundtrack, military professionalism conveyed in the narrative, foley and character interactions just takes this to higher level, and the game design itself takes everything to a higher level. Ghost Recon's approach to mods and art assets have also made for a, while not easy, I would say more approachable game to mod and add content to, and that's easy to see from the profound amount of content here on GRN, with many of these mods even surpassing the original game in regards that keep Ghost Recon current and engaging. Add more game modes than all the other Ghost Recon games combined, solid net code that will work on even the rattiest connection, a game engine that runs on anything (even Linux on WINE), and people steadily discovering or rediscovering how great Ghost Recon is and you have a recipe for at the very least -- longevity. But when I consider all that is the original Ghost Recon; I think it will never be surpassed, and is not merely a 'Classic' but Evergreen!

Not a fan of the WAPO, but I think they were actually generous in their rating of Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Ubisoft had EVERYTHING going their way, again; Wildlands wasn't 'all that' or even Ghost Recon really, but it had the right attraction, and a game design that was good enough. Ubisoft literally ignored all the most supported and vetted complaints and discussion on their forums, in fact did the opposite. In what other market or in what other company could you do that, even get away with it no less expect anything even remotely resembling a good result? I know of no company that treats its customers as poorly as Ubisoft does.

Glad to see mod talent is still here keeping the fire going. I think dropping mod support for the franchise was the biggest and most unrecoverable mistakes Ubisoft made; GRN is a great site, but there used to be thousands, in many languages, some were even GRNs equal -- surpassed it in some regards not as good in others... The lack of a current gen mod-able Ghost Recon game, the long term continuity that offered is something Tactical Realism fans value (look at ARMA) and is an enormous loss here to fans of the genre, as well as all the free marketing which is an enormous, and very well earned loss for Ubisoft. All these OGR sites (fan sites, mod sites, tactical study and software sites), the mod talent they attracted and promoted, fans that would discuss and nit-pick everything is a level of fan/fan/developer interaction that while still alive, was definitely kicked in the crotch by Ubisoft as hard as possible, then lied about, then beaten to a pulp, and finally thrown from speeding car and left to bleed to death. But OGR, it's fans, mods and mod talent have survived, and even thrived as a reminder of what was. That so many games actually have taken an enormous design inspiration from the original Ghost Recon (and the developers admit as much) -- make it noteworthy that no Ghost Recon game that has followed under Ubisoft's direction has inspired any such thing. Just a few that come to mind where it was interesting to see things like the squad features of OGR explored and developed: · Full Spectrum Warrior & 10 Hammers · U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike (another ICT game based on FSW) · The nFusion Engine Games (Line Of Sight Vietnam, Elite Warriors: Vietnam, Deadly Dozen) · The Conflict Games (Global Terror, Desert Storm, Vietnam) · The SWAT Games · Close Combat: First to Fight While not given to squad features games like Red Orchestra, Insurgency, Squad, Ground Branch carry on a lot of the realism, military professionalism, and atmosphere that was a Ghost Recon exclusive. Original Ghost Recon's influence even extended to Ghost Recon mods for the nFusion, Unreal, SWAT, and ARMA games, but just like commercial games, there are no mods taking any inspiration from any Ubisoft directed Ghost Recon bowel movement "product"... As everyone has reflected here; it would appear that a Ghost Recon game that even remotely resembles the original, no less something with mod support is somewhere between never happening and impossible due to the company's absurd level of paranoia, dysfunctional design and corporate culture that goes all the way to the top (he who shall remain unnamed steers the ship)… But you'd think (or hope) as a token 'good will' marketing gesture Ubisoft would see the wisdom other publishers and developers have in such a move, and with a game as old as OGR offer the source under some kind of open license. Knowing the principles though, the good will is just not there, and even if this did make it up the chain from someone in marketing as a good promotional move, it would no doubt be finagled into something more resembling a ploy -- where even if it could make it past legal, there would be onerous legal boiler plate in the license that was not particularly open -- kind of like Rockefeller giving dimes to kids for news or photo opportunities, then having his lackeys take them back after the press left.

Great article link and post ApexMods! I especially liked Jeremy Peel's reference to what used to be called Ghost Recon's 'Ghost Perspective', that this isn't and is not intended to be a first person perspective, and was something I wrote about decades ago in the context of 'there is no "I" in team' and the limitations of realistic scale view distance in realism games -- great to see someone else pick this up and ❤️ it from another well articulated perspective. Everyone here is obviously a fan of OGR has made this a great thread, even though we're 'not allowed' to talk about what's really going on. Being French there's a lot I could add that doesn't put Ubisoft in a favorable light, but I'll say summarily, it's virtually impossible for Ubisoft to make, remake, reimagine or remaster the original Ghost Recon. Consider: Ubisoft had zero involvement in the creation of the original Ghost Recon, they functioned as a publisher for RSE back then, shortly thereafter bought RSE, and nothing they've added to the 'franchise' since (which is a franchise in name only) beyond talented artists has been original or even brings tactical realism game design forward. Is anyone here aware of any games designed by Ubisoft internally (not by some bought company that's now a fragmented team fighting for game design concepts) of any genre that have even a fraction of the depth of play, or thought given to design poured into the original Ghost Recon? I sure don't see it... In fact everything Ubisoft looks like a neck down, dystopian product nightmare headed toward over-simplification for Eloi where the company's ultimate game design destination will be putting shaped pegs in holes with exploding banners running up political slogans, commercial advertising, and the game's primary mechanic will be paying money for new shapes and colored pegs... Thank you, no... Just as the original Ghost Recon didn't come from an 'AAA' publisher with a seven figure budget, a management committee the size of a small government, and a team of wage slave developers numbering in the hundreds, it seems unlikely it's spiritual successor will either. In fact virtually every game with compelling game design is coming from independent developers. I'd love to be wrong, and would even pay for that privilege.

The numbers rather suggest a lot of them were never here to begin with; many Ghost Recon fans saw what the game lacked, and never bought it. The numbers on the GRN forums show this too and are in decline with each iteration of the Ghost Recon franchise, and mirrors play share. None of this is surprising with Ubisoft continued heralding a return to the roots of Ghost Recon and tactical realism sounding more and more like little boy that cried "Wolf!", only now it's other publishers and even indie developers eating Ubisoft's lunch. I agree, but look at what else has disappeared from the game that tactical realism fans have long regarded as essential; some of them things Ghost Recon was first to deliver when it inaugurated the genre: · nav maps · a text mode communication system · mission based load out system · sever browser · high resolution net code · realistic missions based game modes · realistic weapons and equipment And look what these have been supplanted with: · magic radar · Barbie's Mystical Adventure weapon grind system · horrible Quazal net code · match making that's been terrible for a decade built on same · action/arcade fictional game modes · casino clown content system · a communication system that only communicates taunts and insults The last is a poster child for the kind of cognitive dissonance Ubisoft has created with tactical realism fans. With their 'inclusive virtue signaling' and Ubisoft as 'Your New Gamer Mommy' approach, making sure everything in virtual military game that includes killing is 'safe' and offers a 'safe space' against every kind of 'ism' -- except those Ubisoft doesn't care about, yet... So...the game's voice over and is loaded with swearing, hostility, psychosis, and 'isms' galore that are ban hammer content for fans texting and is so far beyond military professionalism it would be humorous if it weren't so denigrating and ridiculous. And the only alternative now to VOIP is a radial menu that only offers taunts and insults that you have to grind or buy in a virtual kiddie casino where you get to bet real money to win a taunt or insult. This is so sick, and below the basement it's now illegal to include in games in some countries -- that it sacrifices an important game interface makes it even uglier and more ridiculous (and worthy of ridicule). All of this is just...sad, because at it's base Wildlands is an impressive achievement, sullied by too many over ambitious attempts to monetize everything with the lowest common denominator in click and scam bait for naive and vulnerable minds just short of 'Do you know where mommy's wallet is?'... There are better more honest ways to make just as much money with games. For tactical realism fans to jump back on the Ghost Recon franchise wouldn't require a Herculean effort on Ubisoft's part; Wildlands offers an excellent platform for expansion, but it would require real and honest effort in showing rather then marketing, baiting and promising...

Looks like Void Interactive is still hard at it; their latest Devblog 03 was just posted: (clicky) It's a relief to see serious Tactical Realism on the event horizon that's not a 'dress up combat Ken & Barbie ' RPG game to monetize naïve kids with toddler pajama pattern 'skins' and prono cos-play costumes on game design so abaft of realism, anything tactical or even to do with reality it makes you wonder why so many titles even use the word and moniker. Tiny ambitious team to be sure; but their talent, progress, content quality and prduciton volume looks like they're up to it, and they've chosen a project and sub-genre that at least looks well suited for a small team and a revisit with a modern engine, art assets, and design. Sure are a lot of enthusiastic GR fans, and interesting discussion on Twitter and Reddit.

So, "PVP" is just death match? No objective based realistic game modes?