[k2director]

I was looking forward to this game, and dloaled the demo. I'm intrigued by the slower, more thoughtful pace of the game, and like the fact that one shot kills, but can't figure out how to use my squads very well. Even if I command "Advance at All Costs", they don't seem to do anything.

I thought the idea of this game is that you work within a team that functions without you having to tell it every last thing to do...

[proux]

I couldn't make the other teams move either... Only other gripe: need to turn all the candy down on a Cube 500/geforce2, it looks UGLY!

[Aragorn]

are you giving your team way-points before telling them to advance?

[El Pre$idente]

Realisticish but runs a bit shi-t even on a Ti800. Obviously Doom3 won't be running well on any current or new Powerbooks for quite some time.

[exca1ibur]

Greatest tactical ever to me personally

Squad notes.
Hold shift and click the letter of the squad on the command tab, on the map do select a squad.

Click the gun icon for attack modes.

- RECON to be defense and use sileced weapons if they have them

+ Attack any target in sight.

normal mode is attack targets selective and cover each other

Also the icons here:

Red X - hold position until new orders

Yellow arrow - move out but be cautious. If you have more than one guy they will cover each other and move out

Green Arrow - move at all costs (even taking gun file) Only use if a clear path. They will NOT shoot back in this mode

use your squads to leapfrog each other so each one is always covering the order. This game is pretty realistic. Use tactics you would REALLY do. Since you can die with one good shot, you have to be cautious and precise.

PS. If you try this game on a LAN, cancel dinner for a week, you may never come back. LOL

Hope that helps guys. Good luck

[k2director]

This was helpful, thanks Excalibur. Though it's a bit tough to pin point where exactly I want my squads going on that map--it's a small map, and it's hard to make out the precise terrain features I might want to send my guys to.

Also, I think I need to better master those action modes, because half the time I leave a squad unattended, they end up being surprised by an enemy and taking casualties. Ie, I put a squad of 3 guys in a corner with their backs to the wall, so you'd think they'd be able to shoot anyone who walks into their line of site, without getting shot first. But that's not the case sometimes....

[CheesePuff]

Play multiplayer. Best damn thing ever. I host the largest multiplayer game every night around 8 PM and lasts for hours.

[Ashman]

Ghost Recon is great. Initially I wasn't overly impressed with the single-player Demo. Then I started playing on GameRanger...I ended up playing it all night and into the wee morning hours. Who needs sleep or food, right? Needless to say, I ordered a copy this morning.

[Maquero]

I love the game,but the demo crashes ALOT and freezes my computer,no kernel panic tough,i even have to pull the electrucity plug to restet the computer,must be something with my video card (geforce4mx)

[Don Pickett]

Originally posted by exca1ibur:
Greatest tactical ever to me personally

Squad notes.
Hold shift and click the letter of the squad on the command tab, on the map do select a squad.

Click the gun icon for attack modes.

- RECON to be defense and use sileced weapons if they have them

+ Attack any target in sight.

normal mode is attack targets selective and cover each other

Also the icons here:

Red X - hold position until new orders

Yellow arrow - move out but be cautious. If you have more than one guy they will cover each other and move out

Green Arrow - move at all costs (even taking gun file) Only use if a clear path. They will NOT shoot back in this mode

use your squads to leapfrog each other so each one is always covering the order. This game is pretty realistic. Use tactics you would REALLY do. Since you can die with one good shot, you have to be cautious and precise.

PS. If you try this game on a LAN, cancel dinner for a week, you may never come back. LOL

Hope that helps guys. Good luck

Don�t have the full release yet (hurry up, UPS!), so I don�t know about this stuff, but:

• � Always position your teams so that one emplaced team is covering the advancing team. This is called Bounding Overwatch.
  � Emplace your teams so that they have overlapping and mutually-supporting fields of fire. Position teams so that one team can cover another team�s blind spot.
  � Use the terrain. Position your men lying down, just behind the brow of a small hill, for instance, when covering an advancing team. Use trees, bushes, structures, etc. for cover.
  � When moving on open ground, always run.
  � Always pair a sniper with a rifleman. Snipers are very vulnerable by themselves.
  � The more heavy weapons (M249s) the better. For the demo My �squad� was three riflemen, two SAWs and a sniper.

[Woehrle46]

I havent played the mac version yet but on xbl its extremely addictive, now if only it didnt lag so badly....

[Arkham_c]

It seems just like all the other "Tom Clancy" games. It's realistic, but who the hell needs realism? I passed on it and got SOF2 instead.

[appledude83]

Yeah this game is just Rainbox Six 15, with some improved graphics maybe. I played the demo, it was ok, but I've pretty much played this game before.

[dstranathan]

I tested "Gh R" on a TiBook 667 with 768 MB RAM and a ATI RADEON 7500 (AGP 4x) with 32 MB DDR VRAM. I used a brand-new Lacie 22" Electron Blue flat CRT graphics monitor (w/ hood!), Stanton DJ/sstudio headphones (and HK Soundsticks/iSub too), Apple Pro USB Keyboard (black keys), and a Logitech Dual-Optical mouse (5 buttons). I used a 3Com cable modem via RR for mutiplayer. I used Mac OS X 10.2.1 (Jag). Needless to say my system is pretty humble. I have access to a LAN of QuickSilver dual G4s, but for my initial tests I wanted to start with a modest rig.

I must say that the game is amazing from a graphics perspective. The maps are huge and appear to go on forever. Its very hard to see where the 3D world ends and the 2D boundeirs begins. Very polished, detailed worlds indeed. The sounds are wonderful and very detailed as well. Crickets chirp, the wind blows (and distorts your aural senses). I think that the music in MOH:AA and RtCW was better though. The vegetation is the BEST I have ever seen. Period. Trees are thick and bushy, and they sway and lean in the wind. It's very cool. I was amazed at how awesome the weather conditions were. I saw pouring rain (and reflecting puddles), crunchy snow, sticky mud, whispy dirt, and flowing streams. A whole world of dynamic environments to explore. The outdoor maps reminded me of Halo and Unreal. Sprawling fields, rocky deep canyons, thundering waterfalls, and dense forests. The lighting flares from the sun were well done. Shadows are very rich and dark. I didn't think I would see shadows this good until Doom 3 (I can't wait!) The player models are very nice, too. Good skeletal movements, nice scripted animations. loading guns is really nice looking. Foggy breath in the cold. Blinking eyes, etc. It just looks REAL. Players can choose from three positions: standing, crouching, and laying prone. Crouched is a kind of like MOH:AA in that you can stay "locked" in a crouched position and walk without holding the crouch key down. Prone is way cooler than I thought. It's really exciting when enemy fire is heard, and everyone drops to the ground just like a real combat situation! And it helps keep players alive longer when they normally wouldn't have any other source of cover. The camo skins are so good that you can walk behind a team member into the woods, turn around, look back at him, and totally lose sight of him in an instant, even if he is a mere 10 feet away.

RE: AI

I have found the AI to be pretty good thus far. The AI bots will duck, crouch and even lay down prone! They don't run all over the place like Unreal, but then again this ain't Unreal! Its super-real! You can play against bots as a sigle player or with human teams. You can even blend in bots on your team with other humans to help even the skill levels, and balance out the duties. The will even curse at you in Russian as they stand over your dead body. I have seen them retreat, hide, duck and even rush me at a full sprint!

Re: Weapons

Unlike Urban Terror and SoF II type games, you don't get to carry an entire arsenal into combat. You get a primary and a secondary weapon. No knives. You do however, have a nice selection of guns and ammo combinations to choose from, including pistols, assault weapons, sniper rifles and explosives.. You can even trade a secondary gun for more primary ammo. It makes the game easier to play, since you don't have to worry about toggling through five different weapons. Reloading is pretty realistic, but without the cool loading "click-click" sounds I love so much. Switching guns is also very realistic. Both take a few seconds to do. If you thought trying to reload during combat in Counter Strike was hard, think again. You will literally die trying to reload in Gh R if you are not smart about your ammo rations and how you use them. When you get hit with a round, assuming that you live through it, you will notice that the impact really knocks you back, kind of like MOH:AA. It really feels like you are taking fire in the chest. Your aim is lost, you jerk around, and you moan in agonizing pain. Medics? Not that I can find. Suck it up soldier. The optics and cross-hairs are very unique in this game. The HUD has a lot of info tucked into small simple reticles. To get a steady bead on an enemy, you must sit still for a second to adjust. It takes a second or two in order to hit a target accurately. I think that overall, the aiming is more accurate than any other FPS I have played. Guns feel responsive and realistic. Welcome to the Military, ladies. M16, OICW, MP5, nades, bazookas. Its all here. And they looks great and they sound better than any other game EVER. I think they actually sampled the real gun for the game. Pretty cool!

Single Player: Can You Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time?

I won't talk much about Single Player, because I haven't played it too much so far. Ghost Recon is a squad-based FPS, which means you can jump into a mission alone and control a team of soldiers, all at the same time (basically). It is slower-paced than Q3 or most FPSs. You can't jump, climb, or swim. You cant survive falls. In single player games, as a leader, you can move yourself and your team members (who are well programmed AI "bots" BTW) like combat chess pieces. This is very cool. Coming from the "Twitch" game world, I can tell that it will take me a while to learn how to play Gh R! The idea of toggling between squads and individual players is very compelling. It gets VERY HARD to do when you are under fire from multiple directions! You have to assess the damage, deploy the right soldier with the right weapon and do it all in a timely manner. This involves using maps, charts, and soldier "cards". It's kinda like rubbing your head and patting your tummy at the same time. Or is it patting your head and rubbing your tummy? I dunno. But I digress...

Multi-Player:

OK, here's where it gets good. Multi-Player is similar to single player with a few tweaks (i.e.; you can activate "Arcade Mode" which makes the game a bit faster, etc...). It uses the same executable app, unlike SoF, RtCW, etc. You set up and join teams (squads) of players. You can play the typical "death Match" games, or more misssion-specific game types. This is similar to RtCW or SoF II, but way more realistic and detailed. You can even play co-op games against AI enemy bots. Co-op is a much-needed game mode that I have missed. Playing Halo this summer reminded me of how cool it can be with good friends and a lot of beer. Shoot with some skill boys, as a default you won't find packs of ammo all over the map, and you cant steal ammo from the dead doods either. If you don't bring it, you ain't getting it later on. I found myself up "poopy-creek" without a paddle a few times when I realized 1/2 into a mission that I had used all my ammo. Going from a happy healthy soldier to a flat liner is very easy. One shot can kill you. No medical packs out here, men. Stay low, aim to kill, and keep your eyes open.Wide open. Speaking of eyes, the Night Vision goggles are nice. I love night missions. Some guys hate them. The NV is realistic, but I like the SoF II better. Just my opinion. There arent any Thermal goggles, sorry. There are a lot of on-screen controls and stats to watch, including options such as being able to track friendly and hostile players. I personally don't like "radars". It's like cheating in my opinion. Don't like it? Turn it off! I did. Creating pre-configed team chat text messages is easy, and it can be done without hacking text files right in the GUI. Binding the chat keys are easy too. Unfortunetly there are no pre-recorded user-controlled voice radio messages-they are all automated by the game (enemy eliminated", "Man down!", etc) Unlike RtCW and SOF II, Gh R doesn't use the "floating bubble" HUD icon over friendly players heads. No colored armbands like Urban Teror. Instead you must use your cross hair (reticle) to tell you if that angry man with the machine gun running at you is a hostile or not. I like this added touch of realism myself. I also like FF too. Go figure. Gh R doesn't support its own in-game server browser. Instead, Mac users must use Game Ranger, or connect to hosts via IP. This is a problem I think. Right now the combo of Game Ranger and Ghost Recon are dangerous. I played for 5 hours online with 5 guys and we discovered that there are some MAJOR bugs in hosting, connecting, and map rotation. Keep Game Ranger open and close at hand, as you will visit it often to regroup and restart. Sigh. I am not happy with the GUI and the HUD, but maybe it will just take time to get used to it. It feels clunky. Kinda like a Sony PS port. The setup screens are complicated and very "busy". Gh R doesnt have the polished GUI that RtCW has. Although I enjoy team-based "elimination style" Death Matches, I really like the team missions. I love to be able to set charges, complete tasks and guard certain "hot spots". I think objective-based missions really add a level of skill and playability to the FPS genre.

[a2daj]

Ah... but it's basically an OS X native version of Rainbow Six! That's the key. I find the game is still very fun despite the crashes, the memory leaks, and the whacky netcode (will occasionally go into autopilot on some people's servers).
If SoF II had Co-op mode, I'd probably still be playing that more often.

[Don Pickett]

Originally posted by dstranathan:
Single Player: Can You Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time?

I won't talk much about Single Player, because I haven't played it too much so far. Ghost Recon is a squad-based FPS, which means you can jump into a mission alone and control a team of soldiers, all at the same time (basically). It is slower-paced than Q3 or most FPSs. You can't jump, climb, or swim. You cant survive falls. In single player games, as a leader, you can move yourself and your team members (who are well programmed AI "bots" BTW) like combat chess pieces. This is very cool. Coming from the "Twitch" game world, I can tell that it will take me a while to learn how to play Gh R! The idea of toggling between squads and individual players is very compelling. It gets VERY HARD to do when you are under fire from multiple directions! You have to assess the damage, deploy the right soldier with the right weapon and do it all in a timely manner. This involves using maps, charts, and soldier "cards". It's kinda like rubbing your head and patting your tummy at the same time. Or is it patting your head and rubbing your tummy? I dunno. But I digress...

This is what I really like about the game - you have to think. The terrain in the maps is usually set up so that you can use it to your advantage, but you have to pay attention. And, like I said before, the more support you have the better. Machine guns are your friends.

[godzappa]

Online play is great in Ghost Recon, WHEN it works.

Creating a server often causes crashes or disconnects for the server and clients from what Ive experienced. For some reason anyone in a different version of Mac OS than what I have when I start a server (well when I start a server running 10.2) the players who connect can expect horrible lag unless they're running the same OS as myself, and running a server in 9 seems to prevent this, but you get all the lockups and crashes that go with the OS9 basket

Hopefully some fixes are on their way :-/

The games that havent ended bad mind you, have been terrific, the game is no Quake, but thats not always a bad thing. Its a good step from MoH towards strategy over point and kill.

James

[justinkim]

Anyone having problems with night vision when playing the game in OS X? Can't make out any terrain when I have night vision on, which makes it completely useless for navigation. I find myself moving in regular vision, occasionally switching to night vision to look for hostiles.

Things seem to work fine when running the game in OS 9, but rebooting into 9 just to play GR doesn't seem like a good fix.

[a2daj]

I've seen the same issue reported in other forums. My suggestion is to contact Aspyr. Let them know the issue and give them your system specs.

The one other good thing about booting into OS 9 to play GhR is that you should see a substantial performance improvement.

[atomised]

will and how well will g/recon work with my 466mhz, 384ram and rage pro?

i'm thinking not very well and better in os9 than osx, but i'd love some real feedback rather than the stuff i'm making up in my head...

[justinkim]

Originally posted by a2daj:
The one other good thing about booting into OS 9 to play GhR is that you should see a substantial performance improvement.

I actually get pretty good performance on my machine (1GHz PowerBook), so hopefully Aspyr'll get a fix out soon.

Originally posted by atomised:
will and how well will g/recon work with my 466mhz, 384ram and rage pro?

Have you tried the demo? You can download it from macgamefiles .

[CheesePuff]

I've played Ghost Recon for some time now on the Mac, but I just got SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals for PS2. Damn does that blow this game out of the water.

[justinkim]

I received an email from Aspyr tech support telling me that the night vision glitch is a problem they've seen in ATi video cards in 10.2.2 and 10.2.3.

I was also told that the upcoming GR update should fix the problem.

Keep your fingers crossed that the update is released soon!

[Chimpmaster]

Originally posted by atomised:
will and how well will g/recon work with my 466mhz, 384ram and rage pro?

i'm thinking not very well and better in os9 than osx, but i'd love some real feedback rather than the stuff i'm making up in my head...

Ive played it on my imac g4 700mhz with 384mb ram (it has a 32mb Gforce 2 mx card).

Performance was decent on medium settings as 1024x768.

You say you have a 466mhz with rage pro? Are you referring to a g4 powermac or an ibook?

The ibook would struggle big time with ghost recon (might work at 640x480x16 with low settings).

The powermac would run it fine with a better video card. If you havea powermac g4 466, do yourself a favour and go out and buy a decent video card (gforce 2mx/radeon 7000 or better).

[Sarc]

What I think ?
Simple, it kicks ass.
Pretty much the only game I have installed right now.

Well I also have quakeII but that's a classic