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News: Tom Morello stars in Guitar Hero III
Activision has announced that Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, will guest star as a boss character in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Click here to read the article.
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Ghost Recon
You are the team leader of the group called Ghosts. You are an elite squad of the United States Army Green Berrets, experts in stealth, weapons, etc. You control a team of 6 (including yourself) to complete missions such as rescuing a hostage, or destroying evidence. You are silent and deadly. Move through the land like ghosts and strike when they least expect it. Plan your attack well or risk sacrificing the mission. This is not a game, this is an experience.
At first, managing all of your team members might be a bit tedious. You have to go to a screen and select them, then select their route, etc... And I must admit, I was a bit bored by this at the beginning but as the game progressed, I realized that if I wanted to be successful at accomplishing my mission objective, I would have to use team strategy. Sure enough, after taking some time learning how to manage my team I was kicking ass and taking names!
Ghost Recon is a tactical first person shooter without the gun. Thats right, when you are walking around, you won't see a gun like all other FPS games. All you will see if an aiming icon... which is a real bummer. Hopefully Ghost Recon 2 will let you see the gun in front of you.
What Ghost Recon does well is mimick real life. If you get shot once or twice ... you will probably die... as would probably happen in real life. Also, you wont always have perfect aiming. You'll have to take your time and slow down if you want to get in an accurate shot.
If you get bored of the single player game, you can always play multiplayer! Ghost Recon lets you play head to head with 3 other people in split-screen or in system link. If that doesn't float your boat, how about some serious action on Xbox Live? Go head to head against other teams online and communicate over the Communicator. A great experience is had when playing Ghost Recon online... you will feel as if you are a soldier in the middle of an important mission. Extremely fun!
Visually, Ghost Recon is nothing special. Its pretty much a direct port of the old PC version which is a true shame. Models are average. Animations will remind you of the counter-strike days and the environments wont make you all giddy inside. Trees are pretty dead with no motion of life to them. Most missions are outside in the grass... the ported grass... if only they would have used bump-mapping. Overall, visually Ghost Recon is nothing to brag to your PS2 friends about but they are enough to make for an enjoyable experience.
While the graphics aren't great, the sound sure is. If you have a 5.1 surround sound set-up in your home then you will really enjoy this game. Birds will chirp, water will flow and your team mates will speak to you in low voices. All of these things are presented in 5.1 to make you feel as if you are in the game. The sound surrounds you and does a great job of immersing you into the overall experience. Voice acting is average by today's standards, nothing really stands out. Guns and grenades all sound great.
Overall, Ghost Recon turns out as a PC to Xbox port that introduces itself to the console folks. If you have Ghost Recon on PC, then don't bother with it on Xbox. If you don't then definitely check this one out.
Report Card:
Gameplay = 8.5
Graphics = 8
Audio = 9
Replay Value = 9
Overall: 9/10
Click here for the Ghost Recon screenshots gallery!
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