mcbeaty

Hi guys - apologies for the 'newbie' question... I am trying to convince my multigaming clan - [RIP] - to give GR:AW a go. We have a few members already interested - but we really need to set up our own server to test out the co-op mode (which is what interests us)... Our server guys said 'fine' as long as I find out all the info about setting GR:AW up as a server game - so, can I ask you guys....HOW? Basically, what do I need to get GR:AW on a server - are there any resources or FAQs for this I should look at? ALso, what about Admin - are there any Rcon/Admin control apps out there you would recommend? I'd appreciate any advice that you can give, so I can pass it on to our server people! Cheers!

First of all, thank you to everyone for your forthright replies... My own opinion is this... I have been completely underwhelmed by the GRAW demo, even though I have a moderately well spec'd PC (I play BF2 so it has to be), GRAW moans and groans under the strain. -- Something that a couple of you picked up on is that I don't get the same feeling of 'threat' - the enemy in GRAW seem like a bunch of shop window dummies. I was hoping to drop GR1 and BF2 in favour of GRAW, but this simply will not happen. I - like many others I suspect - am in the position where to get the 'best' out of GRAW I will have to spend upward of $250 to upgrade my graphics card. I don't have that kind of cash at the moment... I'm much happier being able to play GR1 with all the graphics turned up to MAX (and playing Year of the Monkey). I'm gutted.

I'm pretty sure this is the big acid test for GR:AW... Maybe this is a little premature as we only have the demo as yet (and there are obviously some issues with that), but we are talking game play here, so techical issues aside, do you think GR:AW is the death nell for GR1? Or do you intend to keep playing GR1 until someone finally gets the message and simply REMAKES GR1 with up to date graphics?

...Yeah - we mainly played the Co-Op - but did enjoy little shoot-outs at 'The Castle'!

Blowing stuff up with C4 is fantastic fun - BUT is also a very handy tactical ability. I play BF2 just now and C4 is used a lot (and has it's own class - SPecial Ops - to use it). Blowing bridges is an obvious tactical advantage - but we also blow tanks, booby-trap flag areas and - and here's where you will probaly NOT like C4 - create 'Jehad Jeeps' (suicide vehicles). We have even attached C4 to aircraft - and watched with glee as the plane takes off and flys off into the ditstance and then KA-BOOM! Seriously though - there are good reasons to want to blow stuff up - and if you work stealthely or in a team there is no reason why it is not practical in a tactical situation... After all, Special Forces REALLY DO use C4 in the field!

One of the things I enjoyed about GR1 was the ease of which you could set up a small LAN game at home (or in the office!) for you and your mates... I read the latest news about multiplayer aspects of GR:AW but can't quite get my head around whether this ease to set up your own server will still be available (I *think* it will). Does anyone else here like to set up small LANs between your mates at home ~ and how do you read the latest news - will this be a supported feature?

Hi there Joseph... Sorry to hear about the extra wait! But nice to hear that it will be available in Poland. It's going to be nice to know we will be cracking into this new game all over the world! I'm currently trying to get interest in GR:AW in my gaming clan (OBC) which is a European clan, and I hope theye will be giving the game server space (there's a good level of interest so far among members).

You said it... I am ticking off the days on my calander! I have pre-ordered already on Play.com (UK) and will be booking a few days off work to co-incide with th release! NO other game has ever had me this excited about it's release. ...THERE ARE GOING TO BE A LOT OF UNHAPPY GIRLFRIENDS/WIVES OUT THERE COME 5th MAY!!!

Absolutely not mate! As I have said before - I am playing BF2 while I wait for GR:AW and I DESPERATELY miss proper mission based COOP. Multiplayer teamplaye might come close but it is still a competitive game - COOP is teamplay for teh purest. There are no egos in COOP, we all have to do our jobs to get the team win. My fingers are crossed for a COOP mode as good as GR1....Or better!

As a avid player of EA's 'Battlefield 2' can I just say this about the 'no jumping'... GOOD! Unless you have played a tactical FPS like BF2 that allows players to jump (uninhibited) you cannot understand what a game spoiler that is! Multiplayer on GR:AW would turn into the shocking 'bunny hopping' fest that it has on BF2... EA has had to do a patch to combat this 'cheat' (which is what it is), but it still isn't perfect. I think Ubisoft/GRIN have done exactly the right thing.

Read the review ( -- LOL --) and it was fantastic... My only regret is that because we are now getting closer to the actual release date, reviews like this just make me MORE impatient for the game itself! ...It DOESN'T make me feel any better that YOU guys have had a play and we haven't! LOL That said - good review, you concentrated on the important stuff we wanted to know - EXCEPT... The now almost CONSPIRATIONAL lack of info about the multi-player modes and formats! This is doing my napper in! LMAO -- We all know that this is 'where it's at' really, SP is just 'training' for MP. -- A little knowledge about the COOP mode as well would be good - but I realize that your hands are tied and you cannot report on what you haven't seen. So fingers crossed that coop fans of GR1 will not be disappointed! ( -- I am playing BF2 at the moment to 'fill in' unitil GR:AW comes out, and believe me when I say that BF2s complete lack of coop play against a 'mission' senario is a fatal flaw in that game (as is teh so-called 'single player' part of BF2). SO GR:AW cannot come soon enough for me! --)

Well guys - it's getting close now... Play.com have the GR:AW page up ready for us to purchase in advance of the release (to be delivered when released on 5th May)! Play.com(UK) GR:AW £24.99 (delivered) I'm getting more and more excited! -

To be honest I think it's 'horses for courses'... I have a high spec games PC for my strategy and FPS games... I have a Apple Mac for my design work... And I have an Xbox for when the lads come round for a drink and wanna play footy or a driving game (oh, and SIMS for the kids). Each does what it does well. I don't believe there is a 'one box does everything' solution - YET!

LOL - OT, but - Dundee mate. ...Funnily enough half my platoon in OBC is made up of Scots ~ keeps the 'Southerners' on thier toes!

Well done with this mod add-on - I've posted my thanks on your forum. Nice to see the ANZACs represented... Don't think there is much more you can add *EXCEPT* (for fun rather than historical accuracy) ~ there has always been speculation that the British SAS took part in small operations... This has NEVER been proven ~ and will NEVER be confirmed even if it was true. But there is a lot of speculation and hear-say about it ~ so wouldn't it be fun to add a bit of this Vietnam mythology to the game by putting in a British SAS trooper. The favoured silent assasination weapon of the time was the silenced version of the 9mm Sterling sub-machine gun (also favoured by the Australian SAS). This would be a nice controvercial 'twist'!

...What do you guys think is the future of GR:AW mods? Do you think that the game architecture will be as flexible as the original GR has proven? Also, what kinda mods do you think will come along ~ for example, do you think we might se GR:AW updates of old favourites like 'Frostbite'? (Just fun speculation guys!)

Hi Ig... Sure... But remember - I'm thanking Ubisoft for the value that they have already given me/us already AND the hard work they have done on GR:AW to date... We can nit-pick once the game is out eh? And sorry - yes - cheers GRIN!

One thing I would be warey of is putting the 'Ghosts' into a middle-eastern environment. ...I play 'Battlefield 2' on a regular basis and have to say that for the majority of people that theatre of conflict is wearling a tad thin! I would really like to see the original 'GR' revisited! -- How cool would it be to see the 'Castle' or 'The Embassey' again through the new GR:AW HUD? In fact I will say this now - I am willing to BET that one of the first early mods for GR:AW will be updated map convesrions of these classic GR maps! (Also, Ghost Town from DS!) I know guys - I'm a sad, unimaginative old gimmer who doesn't like change!

Like most of you guys I have been a long time waiting for the next PC edition of the Ghost Recon series... And while there is nothing we online forum types like to do more than *MOAN* about this and that, sometimes I think it's nice just to say 'thanks' and 'well done' when a company has obviously put in a lot of effort. Well, GR:AW seems to be a game where we fans have been an instrumental part of driving what a finalized game will look like. Ubisoft has very obviously recicignized what a staunch fan base the [Ghost Recon] game has had (and *STILL* has)... It's unbelievable that a game so old still has people downloading newly created mods so enthusiatically! (I myself have recently downloaded 'Year of the Monkey' and am eagerly awaiting the 'ARVN' add-on to that mod). I cannot imagine just how much value I have got from Ubisoft were someone to calculate how much time I have played on 'Ghost Recon'. And with GR:AW seeming to have everything on my 'wish list' it seems that I will get even more years of pleasure out of thier products... So here's a thread where people can just say 'hey, thank you Ubisoft'!

LOL - point taken... Maybe someone would like to do a complete mod conversion of GR3 for this then! LOL (Stranger things have happened!)

I don't think 'taste' comes into it ~ it's history (of sorts). If you seriously look at plot-lines for games using 'good taste' as a yard-stick I think we would still be playing 'Pong'! If you feel the story-line of a Republican uprising is in poor taste - without wishing to turn this into a political debate - I think there are many Irish who feel that this struggle is just as justifiable as a plot-line which marks it's historical value as - say - D-Day or Vietnam, or (as in the case of BF2) Iraq. -- Honestly Lancer, *please* don't get the idea I am trying to flame you. I'm genuinely not. But I think that portraying this conflict in a game is just as valid as any British of American game that portrays thier wars against the Germans, Japanese, Iraqis or Chinese (real or imagined). As far as I can see the only way this can be seen as distateful might be from the point of view of Loyalists or British who do not see the Republican struggle as a valid one. But in the end that is just a point of view. -- If we were to get philisophical about this, in the end, ALL conflict is distasteful. You can't really say one is and another isn't.

Hi there Rebar - lovely looking add on... Just a little note ~ I notice you have moddled the L1A1 (British version of teh FN FAL)... I have submitte an idea for a total conversion called 'Belfast 1979' ~ a suggested conversion mod which takes place during the Northern Irelad 'Troubles'. The L1A1 is obviously a key weapon for this. Just thought I would mention this (hint, hint!)

Thank you! I must stress though, that this is just a 'script' - I am not a modder, and wouldn't know where to start actually buiding this conversion. Hopefully someone who does have the skills will pick this up as a project. In this I declare that this idea is PUBLIC DOMAIN - anyone who wants to pick it up may do so (a credit for the original idea would be nice, but aside from this it's here to use by anyone). Personally I think it would be a fantastic mod ~ a lot of Brits would like to see teh 1970s weapons moddlled, especially the L1A1 SLR. ANd I'm sure there are many Irish out there who would like to see this part of thier history moddled... As far as I know NO ONE has attempted this.

[Here's an idea I had quite a while ago - people seemed to like it, so I thought it was time I dusted it off.] Overview: Northern Ireland, 1979 Growing discontent, violence and frustration with British procrastination and Loyalist intransigence over devolution has turned the province into a powder keg, ready to be ignited with the slightest spark. It was the height of the so-called 'troubles'. Republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands, were conducting a high-profile 'dirty blanket' protest in the infamous Maze prison. On August 27, 1979, an IRA bomb killed Lord Mountbatten as he was sailing off southern Ireland, and in a separate attack 18 British soldiers were killed in an ambush. The heightening tensions, and the British outcry ensured that the two factions were never further apart. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher ('The Iron Lady'), struck a hard-line stance and the scene was set for an inevitable and immanent show-down. Protagonists: Government factions: • RUC - Royal Ulster Constabulary. The Northern Ireland police force, largely drawn from the protestant population. • British Army - infantry units (acting as police units) backed up by elite elements, such as the Parachute Regiment and the SAS Republican factions: • IRA - Irish Republican Army. The primary armed faction leading opposition to the 'British occupation'. Well armed, the IRA has a large armoury of heavy weapons to call on including RPGs. • INLA - Irish National Liberation Army. Marxist based terrorist group, notorious for the Droppin' Well disco bombing in Ballykelly, Co Derry, which killed 11 British soldiers. Smaller and less heavily armed as the IRA. Scenarios There are five maps in my 'scenario' - outlining a progression to full-out civil war in the province. The goals are simple; the Republican faction must ensure this progression to gain maximum support, and the British must disrupt this progression to maintain the status-quo. Mission map 1 - 'Bandit Country' The countryside on the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was known as bandit country by the British. Weapons smuggling and cross-border incursions were rife, and to deter this the British had set up a chain of outposts and watch towers. The map is wide-open farmland, overshadowed by a few observation posts. Ideal sniper country! The mission entails the British foiling a large arms consignment crossing the border area. The INLA must ensure the shipment - by truck - crosses the buffer zone. Success or failure is determined on whether any of the trucks leave the northern end of the map. Protagonists: INLA versus British infantry Mission map 2 - 'Fort Apache' The first steps toward civil war would undoubtedly be an attempt to create vast 'no go zone' for the British in the Ulster countryside - traditionally the most hostile areas for government troops. The map is a small village, with a RUC (police) station at it's centre. The mission is an all-out attack by the IRA on the RUC station - guarded by a small contingent of RUC officers - in an attempt to overrun the outpost. The British must move in infantry to prevent this and rescue the RUC officers. The mission is lost to the British if all the RUC are killed. Protagonists: IRA versus British infantry & RUC Mission map 3 - 'Harry's Game' Belfast - Harry McGerk is a local INLA warlord who hold sway over several streets in a Republican area of the city. Special Branch has identified him as the instigator of the recent arms shipments into the province, and so has issued a warrant for his arrest. There are three problems; first his hard-line supporters will not let him go without a fight, second this is a residential area with many civilians which the INLA will no doubt try to mingle with, and finally, McGurk is a double agent working for British MI5! The map is a section of several parallel streets, lines of narrow low dwellings with lots of alley-ways connecting them and many upstairs windows from which snipers can shoot from. McGerk's house is at the end of a cul-de-sac, where he is protected by his entourage of INLA gunmen. Because McGerk is a double agent, both sides can loose is he is killed! But the British also loose if any civilians are killed in the ensuing crossfire. Protagonists: INLA versus British Paratroopers from 2 PARA Mission map 4 - 'Postman's Knock' In an attempt to take the 'war to the city' the IRA has planned an audacious raid on a main post office. Primarily for the publicity - as they hope to mimic the historic Eastern Rising in 1916 when the IRA set out on a all-but suicidal mission to capture and hold the General Post Office building in Dublin. Although this original mission failed, it went down in Republican history as a great 'victory' in the struggle for independence. The map centres on the main post office building, from where the IRA are be-sieged by the British forces. The surrounding buildings, however, offer some hope of a 'bust out', with the numerous alleys and houses providing cover for the IRA to escape. The British must successfully prevent the IRA from breaking out of their stronghold, but primarily they must kill or capture the leader of the small group of 'terrorists'. Additionally the British must deal with sporadic sniper fire from surrounding buildings AND take care not to harm and civilians. The IRA group must simply get its leader away from the city centre to win. Protagonists: IRA and British infantry & RUC Mission map 5 - 'Bad Crack' The ultimate phase in the instigation of an all-out civil war. British intelligence suspects that there is to be a grand war conference - an unprecedented meeting of the war councils of both the IRA and the INLA. The goal is the formation of a single Republican Army, uniting the hoards of 'irregular' gunmen and thugs across the province in a large-scale uprising. Should it succeed, the RUC and Army contingents in Northern Ireland would be completely over-whelmed, and the levels of violence - the Republicans hope - would undoubtedly turn international opinion against the British and force them to make large-scale concessions. The map is a rambling farmhouse in the depths of the countryside, surrounded by hills and wooded areas. The buildings are heavily guarded by both IRA and INLA gunmen and snipers. This is a NIGHT mission. A British SAS force must infiltrate the outer security cordon, and assault the farmhouse itself - their mission, the assassination of the combined leadership of the IRA and INLA! As this is just but one of many British night-raids across the province to pre-empt the immanent up-rising the SAS unit cannot expect any back-up, as the government forces are spread too thin. Therefore if they are wiped out the whole British strategy will fail and the Republicans chances of a successful revolt is greatly increased. Killing both 'terrorist' leaders will signal a British victory. Protagonists: IRA & INLA versus British SAS sabre squadron ----------------------------------------------- (Due to my stupidity I lost all my original weapons inventory for this senario. SO I am having to start again a bit at a time - sorry!) WEAPONS British Army L9A1 9mm Browning 'Hi Power' Pistol L2A3 9mm Sterling sub-machine gun L1A1 7.62mm Self Loading Rifle (British version of the FN FAL) L4 7.62mm Bren Gun (light machine gun) 7.62mm GPMG 'Gimpy' (British version of the FN MAG 58 machine gun) Vehicles: Land Rover patrol jeep, Ferret armoured car, Humber 'Pig' x4 APC, Alvis Saracen 6x6 APC. IRA Coming next!

Interested to read the 'Ghost Recon 2' article on the site...But I was left feeling it was a little 'thin' and did not really say enough about the 'philosophy' of Ghost Recon above other tacsims. In a nut shell I would like to think that we all agree that Ghost Recon is the 'thinking man's' Unreal Tournament. A bit of a generalisation but true I think. I have got my work colleagues in the office over to Ghost Recon after a long period where UT was all they would play... However, once they tried it (and stopped moaning that they thought all that 'sneaking about' was dreary looking) they found that what they lost in the quick head rush of UT was more than made up for by the immersive nature of Ghost Recon. It wasn't long before those who were previosuly adicted to solo deathmatch were now avid 'team players' equally adicted to tactical simulation. ...This is what I mean about the 'philosophy' of Ghost Recon. And I don't really want to see the game 'streamlined for competition play' if it means the dumbing down of either the tactical team-play or the realism... - There is a real danger that Ghost Recon 2 could become 'Virtual Paintball'. Another issue is the cross-platform accessibility of Ghost Recon. To you (and there is a pretty good chance you are a PC user) this may not be an issue at all. But going back to my office experience one of the reasons that we play GR instead of Counter Strike for example is because MAc users and PC users CAN play each other seamlessly. GR2 would have to keep this in mind - particularly since Mac users historically do perfer the more 'cerabal' games - which the tactical aspect of GR is all about.