TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Ubisoft Paris , Red Storm Entertainment And GRIN

Publisher : Ubisoft

Engine : GRIN Diesel Engine , Unreal Engine 2 And YETI Engine

Genre : Modern Tactical Shooter

Release Date : May 3 , 2006

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon 2600+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 1 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 128 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 6800 Series
ATI : Radeon 9800 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 4.5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

You take the role of Scott Mitchell, a captain in the elite Ghost Recon squad in the US Army. You find yourself in Mexico City as part of the security entourage tasked with guarding a summit between the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the US. Disaster strikes when Mexican rebels attack the summit, killing the Canadian prime minister and causing both the Mexican and US presidents to go missing. Over the course of the campaign, you'll explore the massive city--fighting rebel infantry, armored vehicles, and helicopters from within the dense, urban areas in the center to the dilapidated shanty towns on the outskirts. You'll do this solo and with the help of three teammates--who you can issue commands to--and supporting vehicles. Major landmarks, such as Chapultepec and the spire at Angel Plaza, are represented fairly accurately in the game's depiction of Mexico City. The story arc in the PC version of the game is the same as all the others, but the way the levels are laid out and structured is noticeably different than any of the other versions of GRAW. The game's campaign should last most players 12 or so hours, counting restarts from death--maybe more depending on your familiarity with hardcore tactical shooters. The first thing you'll notice about the game is how breathtakingly massive and believable the city looks. You take several helicopter rides throughout the campaign, and the city is literally sprawled out all the way to the horizon with buildings and streets. Fires and smoke curl up into the sky from patches of fighting or factories. As you land, you find yourself engulfed by the metropolis and plying your way through the maze of buildings, streets, and alleys. The tactical map isn't just a static overlay--it's a real-time, overhead view of the surrounding area that lets you track movement of enemy infantry and vehicles. It's not a god mode, though, as enemies beneath rooftop areas or underneath trees can be obscured. As in other versions of the game, you'll be able to control support vehicles from time to time, such as UAV drones for reconnaissance or heavier vehicles for fire support against enemy armor and other hard targets. The animation isn't perfect--you'll see your teammates moonwalk over the ground from time to time--but in general, the human-character movements in the game look nice and realistic. The interactive nature of the environment bears mentioning, as many aspects of the environment are reactive to the battle around you. The game supports the AGEIA PhysX card for more advanced physics effects, which do offer some added particles and other effects to the game. You'll still notice principles of physics being used in the game without that kind of hardware support, though. Wooden fences break apart under heavy fire, for example, and trees and foliage sway as bullets whiz past. Vehicles never seem to come apart the same way twice when you blow them up either, but that nifty visual trick would always send our frame rates plummeting into the single digits any time we blew something up.

You and your squadmates can still absorb a few shots before dying, and you do get mysteriously healed at some checkpoints or if you reload a save. But since there are no quicksaves available, it can still be quite a challenge to get to the next checkpoint without dying if you don't advance intelligently from corner to corner and check all possible threats around you. The artificial intelligence on both sides can leave something to be desired, though. Sometimes after issuing an order to a squadmate, they don't take up position or face in the manner you intended, leaving them exposed. Advanced Warfighter affords you a good amount of control over your character. You can peek around corners to minimize your exposed profile, as well as kneel or go prone, and you can even dive for cover if you try to go prone while on a dead run. You'll see the AI-controlled characters frequently make use of the dive to get under cover. There's also a low-light mode that you'll need to use for darker areas of the game. You can sprint as well, but you'll need to lower your weapon to do so, which can be dangerous if you turn the corner into an enemy, as it takes a second to bring your gun back up. Outside the single-player game, GRAW offers 32-player online play, but the game shipped with only two game modes--cooperative play for most single missions, as well as a domination mode where players try to control different sections of the map. Before we begin describing those modes, though, we should mention the myriad of problems we ran into while trying to test out GRAW's online play. First of all, the in-game server browser is bug-ridden to the point that it's nearly nonfunctional. The interface you use to login won't work unless you press the enter key after inputting your screen name and your password. The cooperative mode is available for up to four players, but if you have fewer players, the computer will control the rest of your squad. The team leader has access to the tactical map and can issue orders to other players, which appear as waypoints on their screen. The domination mode is a cross between a standard capture-and-hold mode. What's interesting about domination is that you don't need to be at any specific spot to contest or capture a zone. Simply enter an area, eliminate all enemies, hole up in any building or hiding spot in the zone, and you can make a capture. This adds to the tension, as there are fewer obvious areas to look for enemies, and any dark alley or window could be a potential death trap, but it can also make the game somewhat chaotic as zones often change hands frequently.

At least there's some salvation to be found in GRAW's sound, which is an excellent complement to the fantastic graphics. The different guns all have unique sound effects, and they're all very sharp and impactful, which adds to the chaos of pitched battles. You'll hear enemies call out to each other in Spanish as they engage you, and the bullets ricocheting around you make the appropriate thunk or plink depending on the type of surface they're hitting. You'll hear dynamic music spool up whenever you get into battle or when a scripted sequence starts up, as sort of a cue for you to get ready for action. This music is generally pretty good and adds to the atmosphere but never dominates over the sounds of battle. The major problems with GRAW's multiplayer implementation are a huge disappointment when contrasted with the compelling and challenging campaign. When you consider the overall package, GRAW for the PC just isn't as balanced and refined as it ought to be. If your computer has the necessary horsepower, and you're looking for a hardcore, tactical shooter experience, you'll have a grand time with GRAW's campaign. While the PC version of GRAW offers the most impressive and expansive campaign, the extreme system requirements and multiplayer headaches make this tactical shooter feel rougher around the edges than it should.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Trailer :-