Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon—PS2 …Interesting…

Self | 03/07/2003 | sit-rep

[sit-rep]

There has been plenty of commentary on the “Video Game” syndrome with today’s youth. Granted, without the proper guidance from the guardian, with games, and other areas of upbringing, one could easily get deranged to the point of Columbine. If however, there is a proper guidance path laid forth, some games could be an educational tool. If, you’re an adult player, there is definitely something to gain from some games…may I introduce Ghost Recon, Manufactured by UBI Soft.

Over the years, we have imagined what a revolution would be like in today’s times. We have read the commentary of US Vets, the established Militia members throughout the country, the analysts credited and non, and from the pseudo patriot and our “very own” PC Rambos. We’ve heard it all. There is, imo, a necessity to come to terms with the ideology of war and death if thoughts such as survival or revolution exist in one’s mind.

Being ex-military of the non-combatant type…MM2, worked in the engine room of a Naval Ship, some out there could say I do not know jack about warfare. This would be true. But, over the years since my discharge, the realization of a need for a resistance force for all of the right reasons, I became shall we say… perceptive in the area of warfare.

Books, videos and a laughable time with the local Militia groups around here, I gained a personal view, which is, if you do not know what you’re doing, you’re dead, you and possibly the innocent following you. Simple enough? Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon game for Play Station 2 is a sterling example of what I am speaking about. I just finished it. 5 nights of play after the wee babes go down, upon completion, all I could say is, wow…

This game, unlike others I have played has an actual unit set up. Alpha and Bravo… three men per fire team, you set up their profile, i.e., man/primary weapon/secondary weapon. There is a wide array of weapons to choose from, you military been-there-done-that kind of guys would I’m sure salivate a bit…

Using topography, either inner city or out in the sticks, you mark where you want bravo positioned. Coms between you and the other team leader give you ability to know if they run into hostilities while advancing. “We’re under fire!”, “They’re right on top of us”, “Enemy Armor spotted”, and “We’re here” to name a few, are examples. A quick click over to GPS/topographic map, shows their location. You are, more or less an entity in the one player mode. At anytime you can switch between members of the squad…between alpha and bravo. You become that man. The cool part about this software, is the other team members do a half way decent job on their own. Whether it be a sniper, anti-armor rocket, M203… they surprise you on occasion and cover your ass!! In times of heated combat, they all perform very well for a game.

The game, set up like most has an easy, medium and hard setting. It is my recommendation, play the first two missions in easy mode(recruit) to get used to the controls, movement, etc. In easy mode, you have a small radar screen to let you know where the enemy is. You have actual dots showing enemy positions, and a bar showing north, south, east and west direction of enemy positions. This mode is great for learning to move etc.

The next level, Veteran, only gives the bar directional on the outer edge of the radar. IOW, the enemy is that way somewhere…

After playing these two missions, in both the Recruit and Veteran levels of difficulty, start a new game in the Elite mode. The first two missions you’ll be familiar enough with to get through with no radar screen at all!! You’re dropped in, you have no idea where the bad guy is, only a topographic map of the area with objective locations.

Now, the things I that appealed to me about this game’s depth…

On any given mission, you must reach an objective. As you advance no matter how stealthy you think you’re being, no matter how good you have your advance planned out, all of a sudden there is a WHACK!!! And you’re dead. You never saw it coming (through blooded eyes, the picture fades to black). The screen reappears, and now you’re the next Team member. Some times, the others in the squad got the bastard that just took you out from a mountain top(sniper) or a window or roof top, or cammo’d in real good from the tree line. Other times, if you’re not rocket fast with your scanning of the area…you(the next guy) are gone too. You are now the next member of the squad. If you’re lucky, you get the hell out of Dodge saving the rest of your unit. Maybe, if you are advancing both teams far enough apart, you can switch over to Bravo’s sniper and take out the enemy(s) pinning down alpha…

This shed a little light on a few very important areas. If you lose one person in your team, the likelihood of a successful mission is drastically reduced. You need every man in your team to do his job as complete as you do yours. Complete, no slacking, total awareness to your surroundings. Everything must be thorough…THOROUGH!!

Your enemy in most cases is dug in. He is just sitting waiting for you. You must see him before he sees you. How you accomplish this, is the game…

[Benrand]

Depends if you have all the peripherals, monitor, keyboard and such.

You can prolly get a new system, just the board, case, video card etc. that would play these games from anywhere around 350 on up. Look around Dell's site for full systems.

[sit-rep]

You may want to get the Medal of Honor for PS2 that a couple folks were chatting about. That was a real good game, but I do like GR better because of the fire teams. Definately cool stuff man.

SR

[SENTINEL]

"If however, there is a proper guidance path laid forth, some games could be an educational tool. "

You are exactly right. I have found HALO and MechAssault for Xbox on the most difficult levels teach significant amounts of tactics. As a former Marine grunt and Gulf War Combat vet, I believe that a few of these games exceed chess in the honing effect on fire and maneuver skills that are a part of the whole combat infantryman.

Don't get me wrong, if you resemble a "Far Side" cartoon character and are an expert gamer, you are no soldier. If however you are a member of our Army Airborne or a US Marine, or are being prepared by parents to become one, I believe that there is much to learn from these "simulators".

Getting to blow away aliens with a shotgun on the 35" TV with the subwoofer cranked up just so happens to be a hell of a good alternative to watching TV on Saturday night !!

[Squantos]

Well ,....I will do for the rest of mankind by my self sacrifice again. If I buy a PS2 on Saturday then by Monday they will release the PS3.......no, no.....that's OK no need to thank me now :o) The pessimist in me showing.

I'll check out both games SR.....Thanks Bro !.......Stay Safe !!

[LibKill]

Like I said earlier, I only have a 166 pentuim and it does not like to work that hard. What is the normal requirements for these PC games??

I don't know a good war game for that speed computer but Prairie Dog Hunt Pro (Will open in window.) is a free download. Supposedly this is shareware, but I can't find a register button, it does not have any 'crippled' features, and it hasn't come up with a nag screen after an hour or so play.

I've blasted quite a few virtual prairie poodles with it. Lots of fun, should run on an older machine.

[sit-rep]

Getting to blow away aliens with a shotgun on the 35" TV with the subwoofer cranked up just so happens to be a hell of a good alternative to watching TV on Saturday night !!

heheheeeee!!

Don't have a sub system, but my Infinity SM 155s (mains) do a bang up job!

[ChadGore]

Have you tryed "Americas Army" yet ?

[knews_hound]

If you buy half-life to play DoD, you should also check out Counter-Strike.

Oh yeah, I played that one to DEATH.

My wife thought I was going to get Carpal Tunnel from playing it so much.

Counterstrike is a Terrorists VS Cops game that you can purchase better equipment as you improve. A nice one as well. It, like Day of Defeat can be played on older machines that are not state of the art. A low end P3 and even a decent video card will play.

Cheers,

knews hound

[sit-rep]

Cool! I'll check it out...

[knews_hound]

Actually, I have played BF 1942 and found it to be, as we would say in the Army, a complete Cluster**uk.

A disorganized mess that had 4 dozen 14 year olds running around without a plan.

It was not a pleasant experience.

I have come to the conclusion that, unless you are talking about a truly organized League or something, all on-line games with a population of above 32 total to be unwieldy.

I also have real life Military experience and find that the on-line area lends itself to mostly small unit tactics.

But then, perhaps your experience has differed from mine.

Cheers,

knews hound

[knews_hound]

I could not agree more with your assessment of these games as a training aid for small unit tactics.

They are a virtual (excuse the pun) replica of the battlefield and the soldier will learn many hard lessons in humility and the difference between cover and concealment.

I play on a server that caters to mostly ex-military or cops and we have a ball.

I have often thought that in this age of Miniaturization and Biology, we may in fact be seeing the future of the battlefield.

where the 14 year old killers of today become the Colonels of the future.

Cheers,

knews hound

[Riley]

VIETCONG! pretty neat for a free multiplayer demo

Been playing that since they released the demo. Too many kids cracking it now, invincibility cheats, unlimited ammo, etc.

I read one of the 'team killer/cheater' web pages. It was an amazing parallel to liberal thinking: 'You are so much smarter and more capable than the run-of-the-mill people who follow the rules' and 'cheating and teamkilling is just our style of play, and we're proud of it'. There is a FAQ on how to disrupt other people's servers.

I'll freepmail it to you if you want a peek. I won't post it and give them the traffic.

[drunknsage]

I really couldnt agree with you more. The biggest problem with Team combat games like BF1942 and America's army is that unless you play with a league or a clan, the game play is reduced to everyone running around like crazy people. BF 1942 is an amazing game if you have organized people to play with. Trying to play on public servers is a nightmare. Basically the games starts and everyone runs to the airplanes. Jealous team mates will then most likely shoot you down on take off. America's Army suffers from the same draw back. Team games are a nightmare unless team work is used.

[ExSoldier]

I have Ghost Recon for the Mac as well as RAINBOW SIX and ROGUE SPEAR. The intersting thing about these are that Clancy's team at Red Storm Entertainment has hired ex-SEALS and fmr Delta operators to help design the games. So if you know what you're doing (trained for it) you can get thru the games easier. I have beaten my game on every level including elite. It took awhile, but I stuck with it. I like the Barrett sniper rifle the best. My game limits me on the number of personnel I can have....six to a team. Three teams of two or two of three. Just remember bounding overwatch and be good at issuing commands for recon, engage and suppress fire. Interestingly enough, there are no cheat codes that I know of....

I also like RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN...what an awesome game! Kinda sci-fi but well worth the look.

Anybody here seen the tv commercial on SOCOM US NAVY SEALS that has the online gamers being blown away by the unknown source...and these kids are just killed left and right and wind up scratching their heads ("Who ARE those guys?") as the camera zooms into a tiny quonset hut in the middle of the desert while these SEALS huddle over a laptop and smirk: "JUST LIKE SHOOTIN' FISH IN A BUCKET" ROFLMAO!

[vannrox]

Excellent Game. Indeed.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear...and their variations: Black Thorn, Urban Operations, and Covert Ops Essentials are all awesome. Same kind of format, only more as an Urban swat team.

Excellent all of them.

[vannrox]

Rogue Spear is awesome!

[vannrox]

[quack]

Try Splinter Cell.My vote for the best RPG to date.

[razorbak]

Anywhere from a do it yourself AMD processor base system with a 2200+ processor, decebt motherboard, 512mb DDR ram, good video card, sound card, speakers, modem [?], network card, keyboard, mouse, 19 inch CRT monitor, 80gb hard drive, DVD drive, CDRW drive, good case, power supply and fans for about $1200 [pays for parts from NewEgg.com], or:

Nice Dell Intel processor based system with similar specs and good warranty for about $1600.