Cannon Fodder

Ah, Maiden England! Live after death.... truly one of the greatest albums ever! But if you want something more sophisticated than head-banging pseudo-rock fest noodlings, I suggest you try some musical talent written and performed by the Ex-Marillion member, Fish. Here's a linlk to his site: www.the-company.com Try it and see! CF out.

More screenshots: CF out.

And another thing... this may sound small but when you choose a team in GR you are getting personalities, people you choose based on their abilities, personality and name, not just some faceless number. When one of your men goes down in GR, you really feel it. You'll be all like.. "d*amn, I just lost Stone! He was my best sniper!" But in OFP you're like... "3 is down.. what was he again, the machine gunner? Oh who cares, they'll be another on the next mission..." When I lost Chavez on Ebony horse (the one in the desert fortress) on Rogue Spear, it was really devastating! I really try and get attached to my squad in OFP, but it just doesn't happen, as there are always more coming along. Does OFP let you choose your whole team's load-outs for VERY mission? Does OFP have additional features unlocked for advanced performance (and I don't mean additional missions)? In short, I love OFP for it's ambition, scope and how it's managed (and being the first game to give us PROPER squad management), but I love GR for its polish, personality, asthetics and gameplay. CF out. Sorry, but that's my opinion. I'd love to hear what others thought of GR!

I don't know why, but for some reason I feel the need to defend GR when the rest of you are ripping it to shreds!! The game is bloody fantastic! I was messing around with the AI today and found out the best methods for taking out people at differing ranges: Long range: Standard attack mode, standard approach Mid range: Suppressive, standard approach Close range: Recon, at all costs What I thinnk is fantastic about ghost recon is when you are in recon and at all costs, they wait till they have been seen, or look like they've been seen, before killing the enemy. Alright, I feel you are all looking at OFP thru Rose-tinted glasses. I don't wanna pull rank here, but I've been in these forums since about May, and when the game came out in England, over on the miss-match forums there was a #### of a lot of complaining! No kidding, I really love OFP, and due to the addons etc. I think I'll be playing that for longest, but here are some of the complaints OFP had on it's first days of release... POOR ENEMY ENGAGEMENT AT CLOSE RANGE ENEMY COULD SEE YOU EXTREMELY WELL AT NIGHT MANY, MANY BUGS MANY, MANY AI ISSUES (SUPER-HUMAN HEARING, WOULD NOT PERORM CERTAIN ACTIONS ETC...) SOME MISSIONS COULDN'T BE COMPLETED FADE ISSUES MISSION EDITOR UN-DOCUMENTED And lets not forget GR has fantastic multiplayer out-of-the-box, unlike GR (for us in the UK) or a lag-free game on a 56k. Sorry to rip OFP to shreds, but you have to remember GR has just come out. It will be patched, no doubt about that, and already in this early state, GR is more polished than OFP! And the point about the models... show me a better model than that in OFP... and that's a very poor shot anyhow. CF out.

Well, we're just going around in circles here. All that's left to say is to go and download the demo, try it, if you like it, keep it/buy it, if you don't uninstall it/take it back to the shop. I tried OFP loved it, bought it. I tried GR, loved it, bought it. Really it's all down to personal opinion. I just happened to love GR, Satchel liked it (as far as I can tell!!) CF out.

Really? Jesus man! 3 men down to two terrorists? I have never had any of the AI problems you have experienced. When I tell a squad to cover my team, they do it, and do it well! You'll notice that when you use specialists they will provide much better back-up. Only when a squad has a team leader who has 5 or more leadership points will you really see some decent squad management. Seriously though, I can't belive your squad got massacred! My squad commanding skills though have had a lot of practice. I spent extensive time in the the first mission, testing the AI, learning it's limitations, and what to do and not do with my team. One thing I learned is that the AI has exceptional aim. Place them in covering roles (with holding down the left-mouse and assigning a fire arc) or sniping roles and they're excellent. Tell them to assault an area and they'll do it well. I suppose you've got to learn the limitations with the AI. In OFP, I have people covering me and they get massacred, although curiously this has never happened to me in GR. And OFP's AI is not perfect. When commanding a squad, I think there's far too much micro-management for my liking, and it's hard to really direct a squad in a firefight when you have no waypoint system, and a tricky series of numbered sub-menus to traverse. And GR is an excellent game when it really gets going. Give it chance, some of the later missions are fantastic. Mission 11 stands out as one of the best, but really all of them are great. Still, I find it worrying that we both have the same game, but yours stands out as being markedly different AI wise. CF out.

In response to Satchel's post: Well.. you didn't like the game? Based on your argument, I'd say you had some problems with the AI. For me it was nothing short of breathtaking. If you keep your squad's limitations in mind, and keep in mind the fact that you ARE THE COMANDER, not a footsoldier, then you will succeed with the game. For me, the infantry combat is better than OFP. That's my opinion. The game for me looks great, sounds great, plays great. But then again, I'm not telling you to buy it. I just want people to consider another game that might warrant interest in the soldier sim genre. CF out.

Open expanse and fluid. You can complete any mission any way you like. e.g.... You have to assault an enemy encampment. It's somewhere on an off-shore island 400mx400m. You find it with a relayed spy sattleitte. But how to assault it? In game, you position your squads in the bushes outside the base. You can see the patrols and the guards chatting (you can actually hear them laughing and couching etc... really talking to each other!) in the base. You tell sqauds bravo and charlie to move silently and out of sight into postions around the base, and tell them to halt. You assign them a plan to assault the base, charlie laying down cover fire with his SAW, while you (Alpha) and Bravo assault the base. You give the command.. GO GO GO! Charlie immediately opens up with their SAWs. The sound rips through the air, tracer fire all around. The terrorists try to escape, but they've got them pinned down. You and Bravo run full pelt into the base, terrorists running around panicing. They're screaming orders at each other while you and the rest of Alpha engage targets all over the place. In a matter of seconds, it's all over. Bravo helped you in the assault, and Charlie provided cover. The camp lies in ruins, corpses litter the ground. But it's not over. The fight to the extraction begins... There I've just tried to give you an example of how the game works. It's first person, with you ordering your squad around with a system similar to OFP, but more suited to real-time commands. You can go prone, crouch or stand. You can be snipers, riflemen, demo guys or support gunners. You can assign 6 people to your squad. You can earn specialists when you complete bonus objectives, and after every mission you earn points to spend on your regular soldiers. Sound good? It is! CF out.

Heh, some people don't like me passing on info. Then what the #### are you doing in this thread anyhow? It's not as if OFP is going to sell less because I recommend GR. GR is more of a 6 person a squad army SF shooter. The Ghosts of the title are basically the SAS under another name - which means many dangerous and covert missions, spliced with some excellent mid to long range combat. Really you have to download the demo (except the demo level is very poor) or buy the game to see what the fuss is about. Here's another couple of screenshots! CF out.

Yeah, you set orders on the fly with a waypointing system and a simple to use ROE system. You can assign cover etc. and fire arcs. A great and intuitive system, although no doubt somebody will disagree. PS: I have had no trouble with the AI, contray to rumours on the net. Everything worked great! CF out.

Ah well, that's where you're wrong my friend. In my opinion GR offers both amazing and intelligent gameplay for the war sim fan. Don't dissmiss this game as a "oh it looks good... bet it plays crap". Don't even pay attention to the demo, as the mission given there is crap and has fog to 300m. The real game has you peering over dense woodland from a mountain top with a rifle in hand, sneaking through caves with NVGs on, performing raids on terrorist prisons to free hostages and escorting tank columns through enemy territory. You also end up getting jobs like destroying the pylons on a bridge, perorming an AT duty and numerous other ideas. The game also has full urban area combat, with the final mission totally urban combat. Games like OFP cannot handle urban areas. The soldiers fall through stairs for crying out loud! Look, OFP is fantastic. I'm not here to bash it. But to be offered an intelligent game that allows indoor to vast outdoor combat seemlessly, and squad based tactics that are a joy to learn and master - I just can't help but fall in love with Ghost Recon. Yes, OFP has the vehicles - but I love GR for what it is: An absolutely fantastic infantry combat simulator. And for that, I am proud to recommend it to anyone. P.S. It looks great too! CF out. (Edited by Cannon Fodder at 9:44 pm on Nov. 22, 2001)