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lordnikon
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Posted:
Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:54 pm
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This past fall UbiSoft released Ghost Recon 2 for the Playstation 2. The game had some pretty major changes done to do it. The goal of this post is to give you some key differences between Ghost Recon 2 and Ghost Recon Jungle Storm. When you are at the store and holding one in each hand, you can make the best purchasing decision for you. In the following article I will be going over features in each game. I do own Ghost Recon Jungle Storm, but I have not actually played Ghost Recon 2. I will not be commenting on information I have no right to comment on, so please bear this in mind.

Who doesn't love beating up on enemy A.I. with friends? Jungle Storm has a full on co-op mode both online and offline. We all know that the Ghost Recon series up until now has had a FPS view without showing the gun. You would simply see your reticule on the screen. Because of this, split screen in ghost recon games has worked awesome. In many ways this makes up for the absence of LAN in Jungle Storm, because you are working together and the in-game interface frees up more screen space for split screen. Jungle Storm allows you to play multiple different modes in co-op, including missions, or firefights.

Ghost Recon 2, has no co-op modes at all. There is no offline or online co-op. In-fact there is no split screen period. The only way to play against another human opponent is by signing online. (Note: This game could have LAN, I don't know yet. If it does have LAN then you could play some adversarial local network gaming.)

The single player campaigns in these 2 games are very different. Statistically, Jungle Storm has 16 single player missions in its campaigns alone. See, GR:JS was the last game Red Storm made before starting up Ghost Recon 2. Basically they took Jungle Storm and crammed as much stuff into the game as possible. The Island Thunder campaign and an all-new exclusive Jungle Storm campaign are included, boasting 8 missions each. Also, I would like to point out that there are tons of Quick Mission bonus unlockables from Ghost Recon, Desert Siege and more. The game play in Jungle Storm tosses you into a huge open non-linear map. You can go wherever you want on the map and do your objectives in any order.

Ghost Recon 2 has solid amount of single player campaign missions, totaling 14 missions. The problem here is, they are linear. You cannot break off and go wherever you want like you could in Jungle Storm. You have to follow a set path and cannot deviate.

Graphically, each game has their strengths and weaknesses, and it will all come down to personal preference. Jungle Storm looks dated. It looks like an old school PC game. The jungle does do a good job though, creating a vast environment for you to crawl and sneak around in. However trees and elements just plain look old school. Is that a bad thing? That all depends. Me personally, this doesn't bother me, and in many ways I kind of like it. Also this keeps the frame rate running pretty good overall. It's not ultra butter smooth all the time, but it stays consistent. I would rather have the graphics be simplified and have a decent frame rate than have stuff slowing down to a crawl.

Ghost Recon 2 is much better looking. The game looks really decent on the PS2 and the environments look much more realistic (from the video's and screenshots I have seen. I have "read" that because of the graphical upgrades, there is more pop-up. Bushes will just "pop-up" on the screen. So at the cost of better graphics, draw distance is reduced. However this too is something that comes down to the individual. For a lot of people this stuff really isn't a big problem. At least Ghost Recon 2 looks decent. The grass looks pretty sweet.

Now we come to online game play. As far as maps, Jungle Storm has a monstrous 31 maps, while Ghost Recon 2 only has 10 maps. 9 new maps, and 1 map from Jungle Storm, "Docks".

A huge strongpoint to Jungle Storm is its co-op modes. However the adversarial modes in Jungle Storm don't seem to be as rewarding. There is too much time for your character to remain invulnerable after spawning. You sit there and blink, and cannot be shot. If a user spawns near another player, he can take him out without dieing. This tends to cut in on the fun a bit when you're playing Sharpshooter. However it because a non-factor in survival mode (since everyone only spawns 1 time). GR:JS's game play online relies on the jungle. Hiding and waiting for movement, and then striking from the shadows.

Ghost Recon 2 looks like it is a much more direct Deathmatch style game. Which, could be something you want. There are 3 basic modes including: last man standing, assault, and supremacy. Less tactics and more direct competition.

Both of these games have online rankings.

The last thing I will talk about here is the viewpoint. In Ghost Recon the traditional view has always been, an FPS perspective with no gun showing. You only see your onscreen HUD along with the crosshair. In Ghost Recon 2 they changed this. They added a third person perspective. They called it OTS, standing for Over The Shoulder. For some it will seem extremely awkward. Gamers are used to seeing "whatever object they are controlling to emit enemy bullets", either in a direct center third person perspective, or the gun on the screen as if you are holding it right handed. Ghost Recon 2 puts the camera looking over the right shoulder of the character.

The interesting thing is, you cannot use this OTS view online. On other platforms you can, however not on the PS2 version. This is a pretty glaring problem, because it shows the developers shipped the game unfinished. Online in GR2 you have no choice but to use the traditional FPS no gun view. Which again, is a preference thing. I like this view so it would be no problem. However if someone were to play GR2 in single player and love the OTS view, then being forced to use the old school view online would be really upsetting. I have no information yet to confirm if offline you can optionally switch between the OTS and FPS viewpoint. I would hope so, because being forced to only use OTS offline and only using FPS online would be really weird.

So there you have it. I covered some of the most important differences between the 2 games. I hope some of this information has helpful to gamers looking to check out the Ghost Recon series on the PS2. Maybe these points will give you the info you need on deciding if you want to buy, non, one, or both of these games.


Last edited by lordnikon on Tue May 10, 2005 2:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Mir_wan
rank 39
Posted:
Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:06 pm
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i actually liked the thrid person change in GR2. It was something different from the others... when i first saw it i thought it would be a socom clone but now i know it still feels like it is the old first person ghost recon....

i mostly online play online but i have played the single player campains and i like them more than the others also...
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lordnikon
rank 59
Posted:
Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:20 pm
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Mir_wan wrote:
i actually liked the thrid person change in GR2. It was something different from the others... when i first saw it i thought it would be a socom clone but now i know it still feels like it is the old first person ghost recon....

i mostly online play online but i have played the single player campains and i like them more than the others also...

Are you talking about the PS2 version or another version? (I noticed in your signiture you have GR2 on xbox as now playing).
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The most effective, in this war?
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Mir_wan
rank 39
Posted:
Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:55 pm
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i played both versions...

i was mostly talking about the game in general
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Apple
rank 23
Posted:
Fri Mar 25, 2005 9:01 pm
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When we play GR, it's for the co-op (even though I suck and die quickly) and they took it out? What the hell were the thinking?
 
TheMytho
rank 38
Posted:
Fri Mar 25, 2005 9:03 pm
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Apple wrote:
When we play GR, it's for the co-op (even though I suck and die quickly) and they took it out? What the hell were the thinking?


It's present in the Xbox version of GR2, but I digress. Like I've said, it's unfortunate that when it comes to features, Ghost Recon 2 bites compared to it's dated looking brother, Jungle Storm.

-Mytho
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Freshcut_t70
banned!
Posted:
Fri Jul 01, 2005 6:07 pm
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I have the Xbox version and there is big differences in the PS2 version. It sounds like they stripped the PS2 GR2 game especially online where the game shines for the XBOX. No pop up is in the XB version. I know there is some difference in hard ware but i think PS2 owners got screwed.
 
Mir_wan
rank 39
Posted:
Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:10 pm
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im magazines the PS2 version got really low scores and the xbox version got pretty decent scores.. it almost makes you thing they didnt put much effort into the ps2 version
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TheMytho
rank 38
Posted:
Fri Jul 01, 2005 11:13 pm
quote : #9
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Mir_wan wrote:
it almost makes you thing they didnt put much effort into the ps2 version


You are correct. The focus was on the Xbox version, and quite frankly, it shows...

-Mytho
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