Eenie Meenie Mynie Mo… Shoot a teammate in the back…

I’ve been hitting the GRAW this week; just a pinch between the teeth and gums. I’m already sick of that mustard brown filter over everything. The urban environments are nice, though there is a lot of useless garbage lying around and eating up processor resources. It’s distracting to see soda cans, and pieces of paper being drawn in while walking through the streets. I guess this is their way of telling me to get a Physx card. I also have enjoyed the real time advertisements for Axe body spray on the billboards. They even show up in the satellite images!

The game is entertaining and challenging and frustrating at times. The biggest frustration is that your team members have some bi-polar disorders. Most of the time they make good decisions to compliment your basic commands. Other times you’ll hear them say “enemy spotted” and then watch them stand out in the open across from a gun nest while they get decimated. The gun nest problem is consistent. Any time there is a gun turret around I have to purposefully steer my team a block away from it and take it out myself before proceeding. I feel like I need a rope for everyone to hold on to like we’re on a kindergarten field trip.

I also find it annoying that I can’t take over my other team members. I know this gets in the way of a realistic, immersive experience, but it also makes the Ghost Recon series stand out from other games. Without it, it’s just another FPS with some team tactics thrown in; just like Republic Commando or parts of Half Life 2 or a bazillion other games. If I have a soldier with a sniper rifle, I want to be able to deploy him strategically to take out enemies from a distance before moving in for close combat, but without being able to take over and control him, it’s next to impossible to get him to find that far away target.

Another big complaint is the same old “play suspenseful music when the enemy is nearby” bullshit. Why is this necessary? The original GR got it right with nothing but the sound of crickets and wind. I’m going to turn the music off from now on. Screw you Tom Salta!

So far, the original Ghost Recon is still the best.