GRAW impressions from a ghost recon fan (taken from gaf)

Griffith

Newcomer
To start things off the first thing i noticed when i walked up to the booth, was the graphics. Now i had been thinking what alot of people on here were thinking , that the graphics in MP arent as good as SP.

well i do not think that is the case. the first map i saw was desert gulch, and it was simply beautiful, photorealistic in many places. you got a real sense of light and shadow. I guess you could say you felt like you were under the sun so to speak. Everything is animated in the map. all the grass moved, trees swayed, etc. Again everything casting really convincing soft shadows, and really hardline shadows, when you were shaded by an object or rock etc. The next map i played was the beach map. not sure what it was called, but the one that serallen first showed way back at x05 or something. The one with the white sand, and the castle perched up on the hill. This was really nice looking, and really nice playing. many different types of play styes were good for this map. Snipers could take advantage of the long distance perches, and riflemen could have their way in the twisting turning rock outcroppings that lined the beach area.

The next map i played was treasury, and this was incredible. It was kinda the "new govt. district" for all you Summit strike fans. But this was not a grided out metro area. really natural layout of the buildings, streets, courtyards, etc. Seemed very very open and large. as a matter of fact i got turned around more than a few times. This map is huge ! what i really liked were the many cars throughout the map., and when people use them as cover, you can shoot through the windows, and even blow the cars up. No more cover then. heh, the explosions are , in my opinion, the best i have seen in a videogame. both when cars explode and grenades. both have a real power behind them, and can do alot of damage.

Tomorrow, i will play through all of the maps if i can, however the game is set up on a lan, so i am not in control of the server when i play. The drone wasnt very useful in my opinion in a squad type game. at least with the people i was playing with. everyone was running and gunning, which basically meant i couldnt do much intel/recon, i basically had to go balls to the wall, and hunt people down. i CAN see the drone coming in handy on coop or , when playing tactically. Also the drone can be taken out quite easily.

The guns are really nice. alot of power behind them, and the sound is unmatched. hands down the best sound effects for guns i have ever heard. I didnt use alot of them, but i did see when i cycled through them, that guns come in alot of configs. Like when you went to the scar, you had several versions, of it including the silenced and grenadier, versions. and if i am not mistaken, a version that had both a silencer and launcher. Which was cool to see. Alot of the fan favorite guns are in there, and i will try to write alot of them down tomorrow if i can,.

The new tight shoulder view is really cool. when you pull in your left trigger, the camera pulls up close behind shoulder, and gives a pretty solid view to use when firing so that you dont always have to be zoomed in, but still focused on an area in the distance. You also have the ability to move while firing in this view, and maintaining, accuracy, because you move slower in that view. I didnt get a chance to mess around with game options but will try to get my hands on that tomorrow. If there was any complaints out of the whole experiences there would only be 2 of them.

A. when i set up a server, if i am playing a daytime map, i will personally be turning off the night vision ability for all players, as i saw quite a few people using it to their advantage on the day time maps.

its like a big bread truck, with lcds and graw stations , 4 on each side, but one on each side is some airforce training game. so you have 3 graws on one side, and 3 on the other, thats how they are doing the lil tournament. one team on one side, the other team on the other. and then you got HANGTOWN, up on top of the truck, talking into a loud speaker, telling everyone at comic con, that it is the greatest tactical shooter of all time. heh, pretty funny, and i believe him from what i have seen and played

oh one interesting thing, is Hangtown kept saying it was the first time the public has ever played the game. didnt realize that. but i guess its true, since x05 and e3 are trade events

one thing i forgot to mention is the amount of character detail. the player models are really really detailed. if they were anymore detailed i would be able to make out the size shirts they are wearing by looking at the tag. there also seems to be a good "weight" for each character. they seem well modeled, way way more detailed then the char. models from GR2, which i thought were pretty good

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/opsixdelta/CIMG2253.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/opsixdelta/753f6846.jpg
 
Sounds good. One thing that has bothered me since GRAW came on the scene is that it seems to have been hijacked by themes like "what are the graphics like?" and "can the Xbox360 handle such and such?" Very little has been said about the apparent switch of gameplay that the videos have shown.

From what I have seen it looks very action oriented and a far cry from the Ghost Recon I know and like. As a disclaimer, the original Ghost Recon had action scenes, but they weren't dominant throughout the game. Perhaps it is just the video montages making it look like GRAW is tilted more in this direction. Ghost Recon will not (or should not) appease the Counter-Strike crowd. It's not anything like that. It is a lot of active planning while in the field, setting up your "pieces" and then letting it rip. This is the one thing Ghost Recon has (had?) and I hope they didn't let go of this somewhat unique gameplay feature. It is really satisfying to set up a sniper for a kill and timing it with the passing of a patrol unit, causing them the investigate....but...wait for it...you already set up some other teammates with a killzone in the path with a SAW and that sniper kill was carefully timed to pull in the enemy. Like dominos they fall *click* *click* *click*. Beautiful. :smile:

Oh, and this is just me saying "I hope the old gameplay is still there. The graphics play second fiddle." I'm sure it will be good no matter what. I think the new features and the hardware guarantee that, but will it be great? It could be. I hope it is. The connection to the OP quote is that it is somewhat disturbing to read a Ghost Recon "fan" talk so much about graphics and not the gameplay. But he's talking about MP so I guess talking about structured missions and AI is out.
 
wireframe said:
The connection to the OP quote is that it is somewhat disturbing to read a Ghost Recon "fan" talk so much about graphics and not the gameplay.

There was a lot of angst regarding graphics of mp in relation to sp in ghost recon forums, so this was the first problem. Thats why delta cheked it first.
About sp, first review from dutch magazine (from sniper)

Some quotes:

- If you own a xbox 360, you'll need to get this title!

- After a dramatic showing at X05, Ubisoft listened to the gamejournalists and delayed GRAW, the delay worked out fantastic!

- The commandstructure works perfect, it resembles Brother's in Arms commandstructure!

- The game goes back to it's roots! It's a tactical game!

- The pace is slow. As the first GR!

- Because it resembles the first GR gameplay. It's tactical. And if you loved the first game, this will be your new Heroine! It's highly addictive!

- The shootouts are intense and amazingly thrilling!

- You still can't take much fire. It's realistic. Watch out carefully!

- GRAW is graphically at the very top of the xbox360 architecture!

- It has amazing detail. Everything feels real, sight and sounds!

- Still there is some scripting in the game. But we don't mind! It's not much!

- The levels are big and open. You aren't limited to one specific route!

- They haven't really played the multiplayer part of the game. So not much comments about that!

- The reviewer is hooked! The action of a FPS and the depth of a RTS!
 
Lysander said:
There was a lot of angst regarding graphics of mp in relation to sp in ghost recon forums, so this was the first problem. Thats why delta cheked it first.
About sp, first review from dutch magazine (from sniper)
I see. That makes sense then. I just got a bit edgy because everything I have seen so far seems to involve huge explosions and even tanks. From your quotes I particaularly enjoyed feasting my eyes on these three:

- The game goes back to it's roots! It's a tactical game!

- The pace is slow. As the first GR!

- The levels are big and open. You aren't limited to one specific route!

I'll go back to my cave and drool a bit now. :smile:
 
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