Project IGI 2 is going to feature multiplayer modes! One of the biggest criticisms aimed at the original game was that it lacked a multiplayer mode. When it failed to materialise in the retail release, fans gagging for a bit of online action were placated when they heard of Innerloop's plan to release a patch at a later date which would include multiplayer functionality. Unfortunately this never arrived. Innerloop is now addressing this issue for the sequel, and at the moment we can confirm that there will be team-based multiplayer in there... [more]

10. Does the game have 'atmospherics' in it? (rain, snow, lightning, etc?)

Jason: Our environments are dripping with gooey atmosphere. Our technology is geared towards making you feel like you are there. So we have rain, snow, some really incredible clouds, great lighting, swaying grass, and all sorts of other cool effects.

One of Ghost Recon's other beauties is its squad control method. You can now order your units around in real-time by simply bringing up a map of the playing area, selecting your squad, and then clicking on an area of the map that you want them to move to. You can also jump into the shoes of any soldier in your team by bringing up your squad list at the press of a key and then selecting a member of your unit with the left mouse button. It's nice and simple and extremely effective.

Take up the rifle of Dmitri Lukin, ex-Spetsnaz, busted to grunt for a stupid mistake. Using all your specialist skills and years of experience, stay alive long enough to redeem yourself in the sight of the USSR.

Q: Will stealth play a big part in terms of gameplay in GR?

A: Stealth is a very vital component to several missions. As always, it is easier to defeat the enemy force if they do not know where you are shooting from. As a result, everyone has the capability to carry a silenced firearm. Also, one of the dedicated skills is stealth to help you sneak up on any enemies that you see first. Your stance and movement speed have a big impact on how far away you can be before and enemy spots you. Crawling prone into a good combat spot is a great tactic in the single player and coop missions.

And the level of detail on everything is incredibly high. While many people thought the foliage in Operation Flashpoint was hot, the trees and bushes and grass effects in Ghost Recon are much more believable. It's a shame that you can't tell just from the screenshots but the way the trees sway in the wind adds a whole new level of credibility to the environments. The buildings, water and sky effects also add a touch of realism.

Bohemia's newest release has bits and pieces of every first-person war simulation to date. You begin as a common infantryman in the modern army, following orders in a small platoon as you traverse hostile territory resembling the Balkan region. Later on, you play the role as a tank commander, controlling all aspects of the powerful M1 Abrams in battle. As the campaign progresses, you even get to hop in an attack helicopter, bringing the fight to the air. There are many other duties players take on throughout the campaign such as mine-laying, special operations, assassination, hostage rescue, and machine gunnery. Operation Flashpoint also lets you commandeer any vehicle you happen upon during the conflict, so you may find yourself behind the wheel of a tractor, a Humvee, or even an Eastern European Trabbi.

What do you think of the SWAT 3 community and what is the general image of the SWAT 3 community within Sierra?

I think the community accurately represents a terrific game. Everyone seems dedicated to making SWAT 3 enjoyable for the longest amount of time possible and they hold the game to a very high level. However, I think because the fans are so dedicated to the game, they tend to be very critical of any bugs or things that are not perfect within the game. Sierra loves the SWAT 3 community; after all, it’s the fans that allow for the great products coming. Lastly, I think the community needs to slow down and let my levels’ Easter eggs last a little longer!

Date: Thursday October 25 2-3 PM PST
Server: irc.gameloft.com
Channel: #GRchat

Taking the role of mercenary Logan, the player is armed with a massive arsenal including knives, pistols, sniper rifles, machine guns, plasma rifles, flame throwers and rocket launchers. Our hero is also given Implants, which can improve character's parameters (like accuracy, health, or speed), and Equipment, which includes flashlights, radar, sonar, med-kits, drugs (stimulators), various explosives & grenades, and other non-firing weapons, which can be used during missions.

Where in the timeline for release do you currently stand on Renegade and will players have the ability to demo the game prior to release?

Renegade will be released February 12, 2002. We are currently looking at the possibility of releasing a demo prior to launch, but we haven’t made any definite decisions.

HomeLAN - What can you tell us about the single player missions of Black Thorn? Is there an overall story arc to the game?

Patrick Naud - Team Rainbow will be faced with what seems to be recreation of historical terrorist acts but further along the campaign, we’ll discover who is the mastermind behind all these re-enactments and his motivation for recreating all of this.

Like the previous games in the Tom Clancy series, Ghost Recon focuses on modern-day squad-based tactics, but it features large open environments in addition to smaller interior areas. It also features improved animation and graphics, along with a number of new gameplay features such as character development and the ability to take control of any of the characters on the squad.

The "switch to any character" feature seems to be similar to the Rainbow Six games. Do you plan to build missions that *require* you to switch between characters, or would it be possible to just play using one character?

Sometimes you’ll be required to use a character’s special ability, but the possibility of switching to an arbitrary soldier was implemented mainly for getting different game experiences for each character.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - October 23 2001: Ubi Soft Entertainment is delighted to announce that the title Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon has reached Gold Master Status.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon has been developed by Red Storm Entertainment, the studio behind the multi-award winning 'Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six' franchise.

Set in the year 2008, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is a squad based tactical combat game that follows the exploits of a fictional US Special Forces team. Russia has fallen under the control of ultra-nationalistic leaders intent on rebuilding the Iron Curtain. This leads to conflict with NATO as Russia attempts to reclaim the breakaway republic of Georgia, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. As the war escalates, casualties mount, hostages are taken and the Ghosts are sent in.

The player takes command of the Ghosts through a series of missions that range from demolitions, to search and rescue, to all-out firefights for survival.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon ships on PC CD ROM on November 13th 2001. MSRP $49.99

You get your mission briefing at the start of each level and can choose to stick with the AI soldiers, heading for the same control points as they do. These will always be interesting areas that have to be taken out. Or you can choose to go your own way, even though you don't know what you'll stumble upon. It could be a minefield or another machine gun in the bushes."

Everything in Operation Flashpoint is so thorough it’s amazing, and this extends (most of the time) to the AI. The AI can be set from “target practice” to “retry the level” (not really, but you get the idea). The AI will, on occasion, pick you off with ease. And it’s hard to get away from the crossfire, since the damage modeling is accurate in nature, meaning one or two shots and you are watching a death cut scene. It’s a tense situation, as there are many ways of dying (including getting run over by a tank: don’t ask). All told, Operation Flashpoint delivers the goods in the most realistic war action shooter present in our gaming realm in quite a while.

* controls are now more intuitive, we use the roll bar, you simply point to an object and a list of actions you can perform is displayed.

* story - there is a great background story in the game, everything you do makes sense

* graphics - very much improved - shadow maps, realtime shadows, single mesh characters, more than 150.000 faces per mission. Anyway, its better to look at the screenshots attached

* animations - we bought our own motion capture studio, so we can recapture any movement we are not satisfied with whenever we want, for no extra cost

* engine is totally new, we use the same engine for Mafia and other games within Illusion Softworks. It’s being developed by four extra people and it’s tweaked to a maximum. We don´t know about any other engine which is so good for both indoor and outdoor, and runs also on Playstation2 and will run on X-Box

* code - there are 5 programmers working on the game (apart from engine programmers - they are extra) and they have enough time to polish their code. As for the AI, one person is doing just the AI full-time

* music is now composed by Czech musicians and played by a live orchestra

So if you wanted to be cruel you would stick this game in a similar category to the likes of 'Delta Force' and 'Rainbow Six', but being fair to OPF even it is not THAT similar to those games. For OPF happily sits in the middle of the two genres, taking the best features of each, and losing some of their more unattractive qualities in the process. And to be honest, it pulls it off nicely!

As fun as the game is, it is devilishly hard. The computer AI is mixed, but generally very intelligent. AI troops will attempt to flank your position, hide and even call in reinforcements to get rid of you; I can?t count the number of times I was picked off by some Russian super shot! As the game tries to recreate an accurate depiction of war, it?s only going to take one or two shots to kill you.

The best approach for this game is stealth, enemy react to noises and commotion, the lower your profile the higher the chance of succeeding. This is not a game where you try and clear the level of enemies, be a coward, run and hide until the coast is clear. You’re best buddy is the zoom function on the weapons, spotting and listening out for enemies while crouching in a river or behind a bush will give you the upper hand, especially with the sniper rifle primed and ready for action.

The demo includes:
- full multiplayer functionality including the new Lone Wolf multiplayer mode
- one new map
- New weapons including the P90, in suppressed and unsuppressed versions

Be sure to look for Black Thorn’s 9 new single player maps, 6 new multiplayer maps and 14 new weapons on store shelves on November 1!

AI will also be getting substantial attention. From what we saw, the AI is a bit hard to quantify due to the nature of the brief flares of intense action, but what we can say the spawn points from the original are going to be removed completely. This outing will instead rely on preset amounts of characters carefully placed in missions. And once dead, these characters are dead. None of that "phone booking" to death a rat only to find twelve more scurry from a hole crap.

Today we are happy to confirm that reports of Ghost Recon's exclusivity have been greatly exaggerated. A brief statement from UbiSoft reveals that "there is no exclusivity partnership between Ubi Soft and Microsoft for Ghost Recon on the Xbox, therefore Ghost Recon may be devel