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What Attracted You To Ghost Recon?


Waika

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The topic pretty much says it all; I'm just wondering if PC [GR] Fans still reading and posting here recall their first contact experiences with Ghost Recon? What appealed to you? And what kept you playing the game for so long?

Just to sort of illustrate, I'll share some of my experience... My first contact with Ghost Recon was the demo, on a system that was below the minimum spec capable of playing the game, and I'd only had whimsical exposure to the R6 games: read everything about them, but couldn't afford a computer capable of playing them.

When I first got my hands on the Ghost Recon demo my first impression was strongly positive; I'd never seen such an atmospheric game with so many features, and of course for it's time it looked very realistic. But I was appalled at how difficult the game was (at the time) which also had a lot to do with how poorly it ran on my PC (frame rates in the teens and single didgets), so I back-burnered Ghost Recon, and stuck to more familiar games that my crusty PC could play like chess and solitare -- until I bought a more capable PC, and had more exposure to the R6 games.

One of the things that compels me to enjoy games like Ghost Recon so much today (in addition to my infatuation with the genre), is that the game is not easy and not meant to be. I don't understand why it's become so pervasive that entertainment has to be mindless and effortless to be fun -- but that's definition of fun very different from my own, and an outlook I've never agreed with. So for me, the richness, the openness, the non-linearity, the feature complexity, and the challenging game play -- all play a big part in what makes the game so appealing and repayable.

I also think Ghost Recon has achieved a unique level of artistic parity where all its art assets while no longer state-of-the-art -- are more balanced, consistent and offer a level of attention to detail and continuity that has not been surpassed... But that's a topic for another post, and I'm really more interested in what you love about Ghost Recon, what your first brush with the game was like, and what has kept you interested in the game for so long?

:)

Edited by Waika
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LOL

I was thinking about starting this exact topic in the ideal shooter forum, but label it and gear the discussion along the lines of trying to define what "it" is that keeps people comparing GRAW to GR while saying "it" is missing.

However, I'll leave your topic here as it is a GR discussion. ;)

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1. I was a PC gamer almost exclusively.

2. I saw various adds for the award winning PC game called Ghost Recon. I also read a few articles.

3. As I researched the game I concluded that my hardware requried an upgrade to effectively play the game.

4. Microsoft announced that Ghost Recon, the award winning game, was coming to the XBOX

5. I purchased an XBOX and Ghost Recon and have never looked back.

The game blew my mind. I quickly developed a great group of friends. THAT is why I am still playing this game:

1. Great game played tactically

2. Great friends

Edited by Ick
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My first experience of GR was on the day of release, I had kept an eye on the development of the game but was still heavily involved with the Tribes competitive scene and thought it would just be something to play as a pick up and drop time filler.

Boy was I wrong.

ZJJ mentioned it and I have posted several times about this 'IT' factor, and this game has it in spades. Trying to quantify what it is about GR that does it for me in particular is always going to be hard and I may ramble on about seemingly inconsequential things but they all make up part of the whole that is 'IT'.

Firstly, you mentioned that you were appalled by how difficult the game was. I think this is part of what drew me in. Let me explain.

As an example I will use ArmA, (now i'm not going to slag off the game so please don't start trying to defend it here).

GR, when a mission is scripted properly is damned hard, I know of very few people that can approach a new, unknown mission and just complete it first time, even those that do get lucky will normally get nailed the next time they try it. BUT... It is NOT hard to actually play. It required VERY FEW keys and has so many modes, both SP and MP that you can get to grips with the actual game pretty fast. It's then the TACTICS required that make the game hard.

ArmA on the other hand, has a LOT more scope for 'Real World' mission scripting and 'Large Scale' battles, but this is at a price, and for me at least, that price is a HUGE number of key's, commands, and combinations to remember and commit to memory. For ME, this is something that stops ArmA being MY new GR.

So to sum that bit up... GR, an EASY game to PLAY... but a hard one to master. And the learning never stops as long as scripters keep putting those new missions out.

Another, and probably the biggest 'IT' factor for me is the total immersion I feel when in a MP Co-op game. The graphics are dated, the sound uses the same old samples I have been hearing for 6 years... BUT damn... if i'm on a map such as Wilderness, I can still be lying there, watching the trees sway gently, hearing the birds, the occasional creak of a tree and get lost in the moment. I scan the forest for enemy contacts, squinting to try and see that extra few feet. I'll lean in my seat to see around that tree trunk. I KNOW those OPFOR are actually searching for ME... they want ME dead... not because they are AI but because they hate ME. I check my map regularly trying to keep me and my squad mates alive. We cover each others backs... NOT because we have to sit out the rest of the mission, but because we don't want our bud to DIE. It's that immersive... and YES, I DO still jump most of the time when that bullet with my name on it comes knocking.

Does CS/F.E.A.R/UT/PREY/etc etc have this kind of immersion for me? No... the enemy are just a stream of AI for me to kill, the story is just that... a story. Do I actually care about playing them... only in as much as I paid for the damn thing so I WILL complete it... Then it can sit on my shelf along with all the other that just don't make the grade.

I still play GR for one reason, and one reason only. From the moment that mission starts I AM THERE, not some MITCHELL super trooper, not some Futuristic robo hunter or mutant bent on revenge, but me, Dai-San, and my job is to keep my squad mates alive and get the job done.

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Was heavily into Rogues Spear and Urban ops at the time...and looking forward to the next Tom Clancy offering.

Got a huge shock when it was an open rural environment with the same open tactical elements.

I almost died and went to heaven when I saw it on the shelves and had to have it that day. I can remember taking it home and getting wasted on Caves....I thought it was going to be too hard lol.

Finally got the hang of it - and all these years later i'm hostng a SP Tourney where one of the missions is on a snow-textured version of Caves. Who would have thought?

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My first experience of GR was on the day of release, I had kept an eye on the development of the game but was still heavily involved with the Tribes competitive scene and thought it would just be something to play as a pick up and drop time filler.

Boy was I wrong.

ZJJ mentioned it and I have posted several times about this 'IT' factor, and this game has it in spades. Trying to quantify what it is about GR that does it for me in particular is always going to be hard and I may ramble on about seemingly inconsequential things but they all make up part of the whole that is 'IT'.

Firstly, you mentioned that you were appalled by how difficult the game was. I think this is part of what drew me in. Let me explain.

As an example I will use ArmA, (now i'm not going to slag off the game so please don't start trying to defend it here).

GR, when a mission is scripted properly is damned hard, I know of very few people that can approach a new, unknown mission and just complete it first time, even those that do get lucky will normally get nailed the next time they try it. BUT... It is NOT hard to actually play. It required VERY FEW keys and has so many modes, both SP and MP that you can get to grips with the actual game pretty fast. It's then the TACTICS required that make the game hard.

ArmA on the other hand, has a LOT more scope for 'Real World' mission scripting and 'Large Scale' battles, but this is at a price, and for me at least, that price is a HUGE number of key's, commands, and combinations to remember and commit to memory. For ME, this is something that stops ArmA being MY new GR.

So to sum that bit up... GR, an EASY game to PLAY... but a hard one to master. And the learning never stops as long as scripters keep putting those new missions out.

Another, and probably the biggest 'IT' factor for me is the total immersion I feel when in a MP Co-op game. The graphics are dated, the sound uses the same old samples I have been hearing for 6 years... BUT damn... if i'm on a map such as Wilderness, I can still be lying there, watching the trees sway gently, hearing the birds, the occasional creak of a tree and get lost in the moment. I scan the forest for enemy contacts, squinting to try and see that extra few feet. I'll lean in my seat to see around that tree trunk. I KNOW those OPFOR are actually searching for ME... they want ME dead... not because they are AI but because they hate ME. I check my map regularly trying to keep me and my squad mates alive. We cover each others backs... NOT because we have to sit out the rest of the mission, but because we don't want our bud to DIE. It's that immersive... and YES, I DO still jump most of the time when that bullet with my name on it comes knocking.

Does CS/F.E.A.R/UT/PREY/etc etc have this kind of immersion for me? No... the enemy are just a stream of AI for me to kill, the story is just that... a story. Do I actually care about playing them... only in as much as I paid for the damn thing so I WILL complete it... Then it can sit on my shelf along with all the other that just don't make the grade.

I still play GR for one reason, and one reason only. From the moment that mission starts I AM THERE, not some MITCHELL super trooper, not some Futuristic robo hunter or mutant bent on revenge, but me, Dai-San, and my job is to keep my squad mates alive and get the job done.

Now that was a good comment too.

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What attracted to me to GR?

1. Mrs. Stephenson from Form L2 (she was working on the second hand stall at my son's school fete).

2. The Price £1.00!

Never being a fan of fps or war games or games where you can't progress until you've finished a previous level (actually not true of GR, but I didn't know that at the time), and not having much experience of pc games, I only stumbled on GR by pure chance.

Loading the dusty cd onto my pc I quickly realised that this was no ordinary game. And once I'd sorted out my internet connection, patches, headset etc etc, I was hooked.

After 18months of playing I'm still only on Lvl 6, but this game isn't about getting through the levels as quick as you can. Its about the journey, not the destination.

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Answer to this easy.

Being able to kill my Daughter time and time again and boast about it for weeks afterwards.

We play but not often now, her boyfriend gets in the way, perhapes I should convert :shifty: him.

With me it started out a Lan, Dad and baby thing, fun element very big, somthing we both enjoyed.

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It was definitly part of the sceneary of the game.

I mean when you first start the campaign and your squad is all standing there with your sniper that looks like a bush. It was all kind of a surreal feel of actually being in the woods just looking for that 1 tango to come walking out of no where and shooting at you.

You could change your tactics from sneaking around undetected for most part or all out firefights. Each character was vital to you. It helped build their skills which you would need later on in the missions.

There were no single heros only you and your squad trying to complete objectives.

As playing as the full time commander of the squad you always felt responsible for keep your guys alive. Even if you died you would think about doing what is best to keep all your men alive......

for me it was mostly Setting up two teams to cover while i do the most damage but it was vital to keep me from getting flanked.

oh the good old days.

then multiplayer... just wow when 3-4 men can lay waste to a entire other team if they worked together outstanding.

Edited by Prozac360
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Got my first PC in 2001 and knew very little about PC's and even less about PC games. :huh: Friend of mine,who also knew nothing about PC games and didn't play PC games, gave me a bunch of cd's that had game demos on them and said maybe there's something on them you might like. Played a few military type shooters which were fun but didn't really grab my attention because they were very arcade like where the enemy stayed in the same spot and shot at you no matter what tactics you employed. :( One of the last I tried was Ghost Recon (Name meant nothing to me as the only game I had ever heard people mention playing was Doom)and within about 15 minutes I was blown away and amazed at what I was playing. I couldn't get over a game that challenged your brain to calculate every move like your life depended on it. :snipe: Must have played that demo 100X's. Was totally hooked and went in search of the retail game. None to be found anywhere close to my area. :wall: Ended up driving to Cincinnati,Ohio (200 mile round trip) and found a copy for $45.00. :D Hooked and still playing an amazing game to this day,with no end in sight. :notworthy:

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I was late (as usual) to the party and first played it in 2003 episodically on a friends computer. As soon as I upgraded to a new system Gold Edition was my first software purchase.

I Could not believe the tension (sweaty palms, turtled neck, pucker factor) that a PC game could create, and am still amazed. Low-crawling up the slope of a hill to get a snapshot on the sniper in the tower in the middle of a thunderstorm...I feel wet.

It won't be replaced.

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And so the story goes.

I'd only ever had a NES, a SNES and a PS1, but i'd played Doom on a PC somewhere. So I got Doom for my PS1, eventually I ended up trying to play it more tactically instead of just running around with my finger on X :rofl: I longed for something more.....

Then around 2002 I got my first PC and went to get a game for it in a place called gamestation. The guy in there was like, yeah get this one its got lots of shooting its class (i dont remember the name of teh game). So I was like is it realistic or are you just shooting monsters? So i picked up another 2 games. "How about this one?" "That one's ok, but its as if you have to follow lines on the floor because you are part of a team and you dont control the team all the time (he was talking about operation flashpoint). I didn't like the sound of that, but looking back I wish I'd got it, as i didnt buy it for another 3yrs <_<

"....And this one?" (holding copy of ghost recon). "Oh you won't like that, all about sneaking around in bushes :ph34r: ,it can get quite boring." :nono:

Really?! :thumbsup: I'll take it!!

Pretty much ran home to play it and thought it was amazing. When I finally got the internet a year later, the only thing that stopped my playing was that the majority of people using the ubi.com game service just sit in the main lobby swearing or they only played TvT where people ran around with the fire key held down.

Eventually a like minded person told me about ghostrecon.net and I got a few mods. I found out what clans were (i'd assumed the ubi kids were just being their racist selves <_< ) and somehow I found out about =SeALZ=. Joined them and started playing on Tactical Gamer and Alpha Squad etc.

Its mostly these kinds of servers that bring me back to [GR], ones where there are adults playing and it's not just about runnind around using full auto. But saying that, it's nice to have a balance, don't really want to finish work and then start playing a game like its a job (no you can't shoot 'til I say, even if you are about to be killed etc). I can't believe its 2007 now and i'm still playing it (because of centcom), there doesnt seem to be any point in reinstalling GRAW now that i've reformatted... unless someone does something along the lines of Centcom for GRAW that is .

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Ahhh...I love feeling nostalgic, thinking of all the good times in the last few years. :)

Let's see, the reason that attracted me to Ghost Recon...

One word...friendship.

As many of you know, I'm partial to mission-based coop with comms. I like the feeling of being on the same team with friends as we kick virtual butt (or get ours handed to ourselves).

Even though I've never had the guts to server in the real military, I believe I feel a small portion of the comraderie my grandfather mentions when he talks about WWII (Pacific Theater, Guam, Okinawa). He still meets with his war buddies every year. I meet with my friends every week or so as we dodge enemies in foxholes, trying to outflank the OPFOR, and enjoy each other's company. I feel like I've bonded with them because we're in it (i.e. the virtual mission) together trying to stay alive. We're a team. And I'm always one of the "good guys". ;)

I play Ghost Recon because it allows me to have good friendships with those I meet. Other shooter games don't allow this friendship because you're trying to kill each other (TvT). I don't mean to offend anyone with this statement. Just my opinion.

There were no single heros only you and your squad trying to complete objectives.

Here, here!

As playing as the full time commander of the squad you always felt responsible for keep your guys alive. Even if you died you would think about doing what is best to keep all your men alive......

The first time I led a team into virtual battle was scary as hell. I didn't want to screw up. Of course, I did and most of us didn't make it out. But even now, I still take the leadership role VERY seriously when inserting. Your real-life teammates are relying on you to keep them virtually safe. No other game does this.

Ghost Recon Forever.

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When I first tried the GR Demo I was still a Q2 freak - playing every single Q2 sequel and user-made map I could get my hands on . I loaded the GR Demo and was like, "wth, this is like watching grass grow - too much of a "military-type sim". There was just no action and I got bored REAL fast. If I wanted to think this hard, I'd go play chess.

Maybe a year later I tried the demo again but this time decided to give it a real go. I remember sneaking along the outer wall of "the castle" (in the demo) with an AI mate. I must have turned my head to look back and I got lit up by a tango who was sneaking up on me from the opposite direction. I must have quick-switched into the AI mate behind me and instantly got lit up again by the same tango. Considering that I was a death-dealing, chain-gun-blazing bad ###### in Quake 2 (or similar games), I was...outraged. This game had handed me my ***. I remember thinking, "this game is sick!". And I got ######(mad)! ######(mad) enough to realize that I had discovered a whole new way of gaming - one where I would be challenged in ways far beyond my reflexes - and most of the games I've played since then have been tactical shooters and "one-shot, one-kill" games. And GR ruined me on all FPS games as well. I just finished HL2 yesterday and I thought it was mind-numbingly boring and repetitive. If I hadn't found GR, I probably would have thought that HL2 was the "game of the gods".

So I showed GR to my main gaming buddy and he became a GR "groupie" or I used to call him, the "modwhore". Though I also thought it was the best game I'd ever played, I tried to have a life outside of GR. :D The gameplay in GR SP is just unparalled and the game challenges you in ways you'd never have imagined before. The MP gametypes make GR co-op incredible.

Overall, I find GR's gameplay alot better than GRAW's. We still play GR co-op with mods like YOTM, SOAF, Alpha Squad Mod, etc. and now I'm the "modwhore" jumping on any new mod I see posted on the home page.

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I happened to play rainbow six on the n64 because it was hyped as being ultra realistic and tactical....i was early into my military service and wanted to play something with deeper realism than goldeneye provided...naturally i was hooked after the first time i turned around and shot a teammate in the face, it is then i realized the "tension" the game created was addicting......anyhow fast forward to the "next-gen" consoles and the much hyped army special forces, open environment equivalent of rainbow six and i was hooked.......well playing the first mission and spending 15 minutes prone due to enemy fire and loving it.... i was hooked..

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