| Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360, has finally seen its first new add-on/patch/expansion thang |
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This is all a bit controversial in Xbox Live land right now. Seeing as Oblivion saw simultaneous release on PC, Ghost Recon's been perhaps the biggest and most successful 360 exclusive yet, snatching up huge critical and commercial acclaim from pretty much everyone, and certainly going down as one of my own favourite games of the year to boot. Any GRAW fiend will tell ya, a large part of the game's brilliance lies in its online co-op mode though; taking down Mexican insurgents with 15 buddies in them mammoth all-night online Live sessions is just about the most fun ever.
Although the basic game came with tons of varying co-op modes - everything from territorial defence to seek and destroy offerings - the actual campaign itself - the real meat of the co-op experience - was only four meagre missions long. Replayability has proven high, luckily, but most of us still burned through those levels pretty bloody quickly.
Ubisoft, recognising this as a huge part of the game's success, just put out a new 725mb multiplayer pack though, one continuing this campaign on with four additional missions, as well as including a new versus game mode or two, four remixed old maps, and a ton of additional novelty bits and pieces on top.
Useless Pap
What "bits and pieces" are those exactly then? Well there's some new face-paints and skins for one (gasp!). There to customise your in-game toons a little and make yourself stand out from the crowd, they're unfortunately largely irrelevant when all's said and done.
| Behold...re-lit Wharf |
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How about the five new weapons then, do these fare any better? They seem pretty good actually. Then again, GRAW already offered a huge and diverse selection of weaponry as it was, from grenade mounted machine guns to full blown rocket launchers, so these new additions get somewhat lost between the crowd. Only one really stands out above the rest for me; the slick new silenced sniper rifle. This is ideal for the lone wolves out there, such as he who wants to take out his prey from a mile away without ever being seen nor heard (Crieff), and in that respect it's a pleasing addition that actually offers some alternate gameplay techniques. Then again, GRAW doesn't feel particularly built with stealth mechanics in mind, so I wonder how much
real difference a silencer actually makes when taking on this AI at the end of the day...
A little more interesting (on paper) are the 4 "re-lit" maps from the main game. These are simple remix jobs that take for example, the night time "Wharf" level, and rejiggle the lighting so that it plays in the day time now. Or my favourite, the transformation of the previously bright and sunny "Old Town", to more of a foggy, early dusk look, as if ripped straight out of a horror movie. It's nice to see some re-imaginings of these already rather fab maps, but I have to say, the spiel we've heard regarding how the new lighting conditions "hugely impact the gameplay in new and interesting ways" is pretty much horse shit. These are the same old maps they've always been - they just look a little different now - and most annoyingly of all, none can be played in campaign mode anyway. A little disappointing then, this.
| Team Battle piles on a little more action than the bog-standard versus modes ever did |
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Finally there's the spruced up versus modes I mentioned. Team Battle peaked my interest, and it's certainly
different, if nothing else. It tasks either side with Battlefield-style territorial warfare, but somewhat interestingly throws in AI troops for both sides too, ramping up the noise and the craziness that extra level over what we're used to. Even more impressively, each team now has an AI controlled chopper that circles above the battlefield too, picking off enemies who stray from cover...which naturally, can also be shot down by the opposing team. It's a fast-paced, action packed game mode that proves somewhat enjoyable when in the right mood...but versus modes are not why I play GRAW.
Nope, forget all the above crap, the sole reason to pick this pack up is for the new co-op campaign, and I must say it's freakin' awesome. In fact I feel compelled to run through the four new maps for you right now, because as boring as it is to read about levels you can't even see, GRAW's newest additions are an incredibly impressive bunch. I pretty much dig 'em all.
Hot Fourways
| Definitely my pick of the bunch, River Depot has some rather explosive vehicular moments in store |
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My fave is probably "River Depot". An enormous jungle environment with small outposts peppered throughout, the primary objective is to destroy a series of weapon shipments hidden within. Towards the start of the mission a set-piece is triggered however where an enemy convey tries to take off, thus throwing in an additional side objective in which you must take out the convey before it escapes. The tricky part is, it splits off into two groups, both going their own separate directions, thus tactically requiring you to split up your team and both run like mad in order to cut 'em off simultaneously.
With a bit of planning and forethought though, you can setup some kick arse textbook ambushes, and with one or two blasts of the old grenade launcher, the various trucks and lorries provide quite the firework display I must say. This all culminates in an awesome (and very large) new addition to the roster.
(As a side note, try playing this map in Defend mode too, if for no other reason than pure comic hilarity. You'll see what I mean).
The jungle vibes continue with "Jungle Mine". This is probably the smallest co-op mission we've seen so far, yet bizarrely probably the hardest. Almost immediately you find yourself walking into a 360 degree ambush, one which usually sees your team halved straight away, made all the more worrying by the enemy chopper which subsequently takes off and begins strafing runs on the remainder of your group. Shooting this motherfucker down becomes your secondary objective, and it provides quite the sense of satisfaction if you can in fact nail the bastard and move on to the final segment.
| The mining facility at the center of the map provides the setting for quite the epic showdown |
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Here things only get tougher though, with a truly gargantuan mining fortress overrun with soldiers, snipers and machine gun nests all on high alert defence duty. Just getting inside proves an absolute nightmare, but seeing as your assassination target lays buried deep within the central bowels of this heavily guarded structure, splitting up your group, attacking from multiple sides at once, thrown in with some good old fashioned luck seems to be the only real way to break through those crazy defences and score a mission complete. One for large groups, I'd say.
"Shipping Port" provides a nice change of scenery. Its name really gives the game away, this is ultimately a much prettier and way bigger take on the Dry Dock map seen in the main game. I prefer this though, mainly due to the massively enhanced scope of the thing. There are tons of multiple paths throughout the map, and enemies have a habit of popping up all over the place for plenty of noisy insanity. Battling to the rooftop of the central warehouse with a sniper rifle provides some wonderfully cheeky fun though, and the epic view from up top sure shows off the sheer size and scale of this huge map in its true beauty. Another chopper showdown rounds off this tough, but interesting mission, and it too offers a good, solid bash, whether 2 or 16 players strong.
"Coffee Plantation" ends our list of newcomers, another jungle-centric offering set on a hot sunny day. It's setup much like River Depot really; small outposts interspersed between busy tree lines, with varied objectives such as blowing up vehicles and assassinating an arms dealer. Although a series of pathways surround much of the map, a rogue APC tends to patrol them randomly, catching you off guard more often than not and regularly massacring your entire team in about five seconds flat. My advice? Bring along a rocket launcher for this one.
All in all, not only are these maps good fun, but fucking enormous in size to boot. They also feel considerably harder too, with more enemies on screen and a much tougher pace than what we're perhaps used to from the previous chapter. This can only be a good thing, considering how quickly the GRAW community adapted to and mastered the earlier missions; I feel these new ones'll take a fair while longer to nail down, and in most of 'em I tend to die within the first five minutes alone if I'm perfectly honest. Nothing new there then.
On the downside? No new achievement points for any of these. As a gamerscore jockey, this leaves me with quite the hole in my heart (must have...precious points). This epic annoyance aside though, Chapter 2 provides quite the solid package I must say. The new maps all play wonderfully - and as a side note - also visually stand out as pretty god damn stunning as well.
Beware: Rant
So what gives? Where does the aforementioned controversy rear its ugly head? Ah yes, the price. Let's cut to the chase shall we...this bundle goes for a whopping great 1200 Microsoft points on Live, which in real world moola, is approximately ?10. That ain't cheap for what some might argue is little more than a rather extravagant patch. Not to mention one for a game that already costs a humungous ?50 on store shelves as it is. Is that what it's come down to...60 quid for a ruddy video game?
| Mucho fun...but a tenner, you say? |
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It gets worse. Sneaky Microsoft only let you buy up Microsoft points in wads of 500 or 1000 too, meaning if your account is currently empty, this download's actually costing you more like ?13 or so. In fact, the price is so ridiculous, that it's already turning away droves of GRAW fans, and segregating the community hugely. Every night this week I've popped on Live for a blast with the guys, only to find it damn near impossible to round up the full roster of 16 players for the full on co-op experience we all know and love. Hell, we're lucky to get even half that. Peeps just ain't buying this thing.
While steep, I found the maps high enough in quality to remain content with my purchase, and as a result, my anger has been perhaps a little more benign than most on this matter. At least, that was until yesterday. I picked up a copy of 2004's Ghost Recon 2 for the original Xbox though you see, in order to partake in even more online Clancy goodness (I'm a fan, what can I say?). I was pleased to see the game runs great through the 360 backwards compatibility mode too, nicely upgraded to high def and fully playable on Live. The first time I logged in however, I happened to spot something of interest. "Downloadable content available" I believe it said. What's going on here, I pondered...
After a brief read through the notes accompanying the three available "Tactical Pack" downloads, I was somewhat floored to see just how freakin' much shit Ubisoft put out for
free with this game. Let's run through the list shall we? When combined, the Ghost Recon 2 Tactical Packs include;
10 new multiplayer maps
5 new gametypes
8 additional weapons
and a whopping great 18 multiplayer skins
Now this shit is entirely 100% free, yet I just splashed out
how much for less than half that with GRAW? From the same company, no less? Not to mention the fact that even when it was released, the game itself cost a good tenner less than GRAW does. I dunno about you guys, but I feel a little raped.
I don't take issue with throwing some cash Ubisoft's way for the extra work they put into this pack. I've already put in probably 10 hours with the new maps, and if history repeats itself, will be destined to put in a further 50 to 100 with these suckers before I've had my fill, so when weighed up like that, it's actually pretty damn good value for money I guess. It's more the principle of the thing the irks me here...that is quite the price hike over what they offered for Ghost Recon 2.
Ubisoft know they have a killer title on their hands in GRAW - and just how desperately us fans will mop up new content like this - and are therefore more than happy to charge ridiculously high premium rates for it. What the hell happened to throwing out a little extra content for the fans? Ubisoft were always the fucking dons when it came to this sort of shit in the past, from the aforementioned Ghost Recon 2, to the freebie Splinter Cell maps they've constantly (up until now) pumped out with no charge. It's a sad day to see the mighty turn into The Man.
Worth the Anal Pounding?
For those sitting on the fence then, what does that mean for you? Is Chapter 2 worth the cash or what? The quality of the maps isn't in question - they provide more of the slammin' GRAW aceness many of us have fallen in love with - but only you know how much spare cash you have laying around for what essentially amounts to gravy, and however you look at it, the fact we have to pay out of our arses for what we got for free barely a year or two back, most definitely doesn't bode well.
Either way, I think tonight I will take one solitary night off from playing GRAW on Live, and fire up some Ghost Recon 2 instead. It'll be my own, albeit minor and barely visible act of defiance against The Man.
Fuck you, Ubisoft.