Multiplay i26 show report

Ghost Recon 3

Or, to give it its full name, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. The game is due out in February 2006 on Xbox 360 and just after that on the PC, and i26 was the very first public showing of the game since first details emerged at E3. The game was up and running on the Xbox 360 pods, and there was plenty of multiplayer action to be had.

The game looked good, if a little rough around the edges - but with release not for another four months, that's to be expected. The game played pretty well, and the gamers we talked to seemed pretty happy that it provided a good evolution for the Ghost Recon series. In particular, the HDR lighting looked spectacular.


We spoke to Prince Arrington, who is a QA Analyst for Red Storm, the Ghost Recon developers. How far towards completion was the game? "We're about 60% done with it," Prince confirmed. "There's still quite a way to go, but the reaction here has been really good so far. We're pleased that people are liking this early code, but then the fans are just hungry to see it in action."

What is Prince most excited about in this iteration of the franchise? "Well, there's going to be a lot of customisation in the game, and that's going to be great for the fans. We're not dictating the type of multiplay game they have - they can create exactly the kind of game they want by putting together different factors, we're giving them a lot of choice. The voice communication over Xbox Live is also going to be pretty cool, and is really going to help team interaction. We're also putting together a great engine to collate battlefield data over Live."

How about the challenge of keeping the series true to its roots, but also embracing the new wave of gamers coming into the title through the 360? "Xbox 360 is obviously going to be great for new gamers. I mean, part of the reason for porting Ghost Recon to the original Xbox was to get the game opened up to a different set of gamers, because not everyone can afford a top of the line PC. We brought in a new fanbase, and we're hoping to do the same here."

Of course, after the success of the title on the Xbox, the last version wasn't actually ported back to the PC. Is that in danger of happening here? "No way, it's definitely coming. If we didn't, we'd get killed." Good to hear. Have a gander at the game on the Ghost Recon homepage.