Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is a series of military tactical shooter video games created by Red Storm Entertainment, the game development studio founded in part by American author Tom Clancy.

Ghost Recon has also been novelized by Grant Blackwood under the pseudonym David Michaels.

In the series, the player is in charge of a fictional, newly-conceived squad of United States Army Special Forces operators from Company D, 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (5th SFG) stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Except for the "5th SFG" designation, this unit is entirely fictional. They are sometimes referred to as "the Ghosts". Their role is not unlike other real world special operations forces, in that their operations are kept highly classified.

Ghost Recon
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (video game)
Ghost Recon begins in April 2008, with civil unrest in Russia. Ultra-nationalists have seized power in Russia, with plans to rebuild the Soviet Union. Their first step is clandestine support of rebel factions in Georgia and the Baltic States. This is where the Ghosts come in - to silence the invasion. Armed with some of the most advanced weaponry in the world, the soldiers of the Ghost Recon force are covertly inserted into the area of operations and given specific missions to curtail the rebel actions and overthrow their benefactors.


Ghost Recon: Desert Siege
In the year 2009, old hostilities between Eritrea and Ethiopia have resurfaced. Colonel Tesfaye Wolde of the Ethiopian military had participated in illegal arms trades with the same Russian ultra-nationalists who launched the coup the previous year (see above). Sparing no time at all, and with a newly refurbished arsenal, Col. Wolde seized the opportunity to reclaim Eritrea (which won independence in 1993). The situation garnered international interest when the conflict threatened the shipping lanes in the Red Sea. In response to a plea from the Eritrean government for international support, the Ghosts have been mobilized to stop Col. Wolde from advancing any further.


Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
In 2010, Cuba is free, or at least it is supposed to be. Since Fidel Castro's death in 2006, the island of Cuba is wary of the communist rule it had been under for nearly 50 years. It is time for the first free and open elections since Carlos Prio Socarras, who was overthrown by Fulgencio Batista in the early 1950s. The FDP (El Frente Democratico del Pueblo or People's Democratic Front) has fronted a man named Priego as their candidate. The FDP are an outspoken anti-American political faction that wishes to return the Cuban working class to power and end capitalist inequalities, or so they claim. Although the FDP publicly denies utilizing violence as a means of coercion, the reality is quite the contrary, as the Ghosts quickly discover the FDP violently attacking election stations. In reality the FDP are a puppet organization run by Colombian drug cartels who wish to take over Cuba to use as a vast drug depot. Its up to the Ghosts to make sure the elections occur and protect the Cuban civilians from the cartel's puppets.


Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
Taking place just after Island Thunder in Bogotá, Colombia, the drug cartel that had aided and financed the FDP in their efforts in Cuba has initiated a number of terrorist attacks against the Colombian government who have allied themselves with the U.S.A. After Colombia's call for help following an attack on a U.S. Embassy, America responds by deploying the Ghosts to restore order and put the cartel out of business.


Ghost Recon 2
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2
Ghost Recon 2 is set in the Korean Peninsula in the year 2007. The settings of the PS2 and GameCube versions (both of which are labeled 2007: First Contact) are linked with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, particularly the sinking of the fictional intelligence-gathering vessel Clarence E. Walsh. They depict a new Korean War brought about by a renegade Korean People's Army general, Jung Chong-sun, who launches a coup against the North Korean government. The Xbox version is the direct sequel of the two games, in which Jung plots revenge against NATO and South Korea. Ghost Recon 2 also marks the debut of the series' main character, Capt. Scott Mitchell.

Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike
Kazakhstan has fallen into chaos. The Kazakh president and Security Council were assassinated in an explosion set by notorious Pakistani warlord and arms dealer Asad Rahil. With the President dead, the Kazakh military fractured into factions vying for political control of the country. Rahil quickly moved in and consolidated power using his corrupt contacts in the Kazakh military. A large group of soldiers loyal to the government has been working closely with U.N. ground forces to stabilize the region. The Ghosts have been sent in to capture Rahil and neutralize his military presence. They are working closely with a contact in the Kazakh military named Grigoriy Koslov. Together, the Ghosts and Koslov shadow the U.N. forces' assaults against Rahil’s troops and track him from the southern mountain ranges to the wastes of the arid badlands.


Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Often identified by the acronym GRAW, the game takes place over the course of 72 hours in 2013, beginning in Mexico City. The plot revolves around Mitchell's efforts to rescue US President Ballantine from Mexican rebels, destroy a secret communications device that they captured, and prevent a launch of the United States' nuclear arsenal. The game is mostly known for its new combat mechanics, new weapons, and next-generation graphics.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
The game is again, set south of the United States border in 2014, approximately a year after the events of Advanced Warfighter and again deals with the conflict between a Mexican rebel group, Mexican loyalists, and the U.S. Army for a time span of 72 hours. A wide array of location types are included, featuring mountains, small towns, urban environments, and a large hydro-electric dam just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. This game, as well as Rainbow Six: Vegas, has been noted for rectifying squad artificial intelligence problems that the series has been afflicted with.


Ghost Recon 4
Main article: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 4
Ubisoft announced on January 22, 2009 that they are currently working on a new installment in the Ghost Recon series. It will be released in the 2009-2010 fiscal year (March 2009-February 2010).

Far Cry 2 is a first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. Crytek, developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.
Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a fictional modern-day Central African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate "The Jackal," a notorious arms dealer. The gameplay of Far Cry 2 more closely resembles that of Grand Theft Auto rather than that of the original Far Cry.
Players have reported the game suffers from technical problems that greatly hamper both playability and progression which, to date, have yet to be addressed.

Gameplay is open-ended, with the player being able to ally with one or multiple factions and mercenaries and to progress through the game world and the missions as they see fit, resulting in a sandbox style of gameplay that allows the story to progress at the speed and in the order the player chooses. The player can choose from a wide range of vehicles to make their way to the target, accommodating play styles ranging from head-on assaults to stealthy infiltrations. Instead of using individual maps, the game takes place in a sprawling African landscape, with terrain ranging from savannah to jungle. The gameplay area is 50km2 (31 sq miles).
The player's actions may also have a lasting effect because the character may interact with the environment: for example, one of the missions shown by the developers had the player sabotage a pipeline owned by one of the factions that is pumping fresh water from the lake to a neighboring country, exchanging it for arms and munition. After the player destroys it, part of the surrounding area becomes flooded, including a mine where another mission may take place.[
Various factions and vehicles are featured; enemies include human mercenaries, but sci-fi creatures such as the Trigens from Far Cry are not featured. Furthermore, the player's feral abilities introduced in Far Cry Instincts and its expansions do not return in Far Cry 2. There is also a dynamic weather system that has a day-night cycle and different weather conditions such as storms and strong winds. The time of day also affects the behavior of AI, in terms of enemy alertness and aggressiveness; for example, an enemy might have a slightly heightened awareness at night, but be unable to see the player in hiding, while during the hot part of the day the enemies might be sitting in the shade in groups but easily spot the player from a distance.
The player also has access to a large arsenal of real world weapons, including battle rifles, sniper rifles, RPGs and light machine guns. The game breaks these weapons down into three types: Primary weapons, which are mostly two-handed guns such as assault rifles, sniper rifles, and shotguns; Secondary, which are mostly one-handed weapons, such as automatic and semi-automatic pistols, a small grenade launcher, and small IEDs; and Special, mostly heavier weaponry, such as light machine guns, RPGs, and a rifle that fires neurotoxin darts. In addition to the three selectable types of weapons, a machete is carried at all times. All weapons in game are "mirrored", with ejection ports on left side. A major gameplay feature is that these weapons degrade over time. Weapons become dirty and prone to jamming and eventually become completely unusable. The player can purchase weapons at various gun shops, which provide an unlimited supply of the weapon once it is purchased, along with manuals to upgrade weapon reliability and accuracy. More weapons can be unlocked at the gun shop by completing missions involving the destruction of competitors' arms convoys for the gun shop owner.

Far Cry is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release and has currently sold over 1 million copies worldwide. The original game has since spawned several console ports and a movie.
The game's story follows an ex-Special Forces operator, Jack Carver, who is stranded on a mysterious archipelago in Micronesia. He is searching for a female journalist he was escorting after she went missing when their boat was destroyed by mercenaries. The game includes thematic elements relating to the dangers of weaponizing genetic engineering and the genocide of local islanders as can be seen by the deformed creatures created by a mad scientist named Krieger.
The terrain in Far Cry varies greatly. Set on a South Pacific archipelago, the landscape includes beaches, dense rain forests, towering canyons, mines, swamps, and even volcanic forests. Many of the interiors range from simple beach huts and army camps to elaborate complexes, an underground temple, and ultra-modern research labs. Several of these mazes use the remains of Japanese WWII-era fortifications and bunkers.
Jack Carver has left his mysterious and bitter past behind him and dropped out of society to run a boat-charter business in the South Pacific. He is hired by Val Cortez to take her secretly to an uncharted island in Micronesia. After Val takes off on her own with a jet-ski, Jack's boat is blown apart by a mercenary rocket. Jack manages to escape but is stranded thousands of miles away from home. With his only friend lost somewhere in the depths of the jungle, he must now find his way back to civilization. The mercenary commander, Col. Richard Crowe, orders his men to find Jack as his body has not yet turned up.
Hopping across the islands in the area with the help of a mysterious man named Harlan Doyle, Jack battles mercenaries in search of Val, searches a beached Japanese aircraft carrier, knocks out the mercenaries' satellite communications, and destroys a mercenary camp ammo depot.
Through encounters with the Trigens (genetically altered primates) and information from Doyle, Jack soon discovers that the island is part of an experiment involving genetic modification. As the game progresses it becomes clear that the Trigens are becoming too large a problem for the mercenaries to handle, breaking through security perimeters and massacring the guards and workers. Furthermore, the experiments are not limited to just non-human primates, but moved on to mutating humans in order to create the ultimate soldier.
When Jack finally catches up with Val, she is being taken to another area by a helicopter. Jack attempts to stop the helicopter and Val manages to escape. After swimming to shore, she reveals that she is Valerie Constantine, an undercover CIA agent and is investigating Krieger's operations. Val then suggests that the two of them split up in order to better investigate the islands.
After further exploration, Jack must again search for and rescue Val. This is made increasingly difficult as more Trigens have escaped, some of them with powerful weaponry. To add to the chaos, the Trigens have begun a revolt against the mercenaries on the island, causing Krieger to call his personal elite special forces to control the situation. After Jack battles through both parties to reach Val, they split up again, and reunite shortly after Jack kills the mercenary commander, Richard Crowe. The information that Crowe had with him indicates Krieger has a tactical nuclear weapon on the island. Val further discloses that Doyle was sent by the CIA to infiltrate Krieger's research under the guise of a lab technician.
After the Department of Defense has supposedly analyzed the situation, Jack and Val steal the tactical nuclear weapon Krieger had intended to use as a last resort in covering his tracks, should his projects be investigated. Jack seems uncomfortable about setting off a nuclear weapon, but Val assures him, "it's only a tactical nuke, just enough to take out the factory and the base. By the time it goes off we'll be upwind and out of range." Before entering the factory Doyle warns that the mutagen might infect them when the blast goes off, and advises them to take some antidote before arming the nuke. Inside the factory, he directs them to inject themselves with serum from a red box with a biohazard symbol on it. They do so and arm the nuke, which detonates directly behind Jack and Val as they exit the factory, leaving them unconscious.
While Jack and Val are unconscious, Krieger visits the site and abducts them. Jack wakes up on a helicopter with Krieger and Val, and is kicked off by an elite guard as Krieger taunts "survival of the fittest, good luck!" On the ground, he finds a rifle has been tossed out as well, loaded with only ten rounds. The player, as Jack, now has to fight through the Trigen-infested area to rescue Val — for the third time — and escape the islands with his life. His task is made easier as the Trigens have broken through the security perimeter. Upon reaching a mercenary weapons cache, Jack notices his arm is turning green. Doyle responds, "The antidote should have been able to handle it, but the explosion could have saturated the air with mutagen. That's what happened to Dr. Krieger. He developed a serum to keep it from spreading, and he's still on the treatment." Jack is thus directed to find Krieger and thus more treatment.
Due to the chaos caused by the mercenary-Trigen battles, Jack ascends the volcanic slopes to reach the headquarters without much trouble, where Krieger had apparently found a way to prevent the eruption and harness the lava flows for energy. After mortally wounding the mutated Krieger, Jack asks where the antidote is. Krieger responds "Who infected you? The mutagen can only be administered through sub-dermal injection. I wish I could take credit, but I had no time to prepare the serum. You should turn out to be a beautiful specimen. Give it another hour... much less for her [Val]." Then Doyle comes up on the nearby volumetric display and says "The old man was always one for melodrama. Too bad he had no head for business," and reveals the 'antidote' they took earlier was the very mutagen they were trying to protect themselves from. He also remarks that "Working for the government taught me that where there's a weapon, there's money to be made." Jack resolves that Doyle will not leave the island without handing over the antidote and carries a weakened Val up to the docks. He then heads back into the facility.
In the crater of the volcano, with Krieger's lava harnessing system damaged and eruption imminent, Jack battles through a horde of Trigens angry at him for killing Krieger, their "father". Most likely, Doyle kept Jack around so that he could take the blame once Krieger's time had come. Jack, unfazed, finishes off the Elite Special Forces guarding Doyle, likely among the last humans left on the island as they stood back from fighting the Trigens. A cornered Doyle tries to explain the situation saying, "You don't understand. They sent me. They're all watching. They're always watching. You can't change this. You can't change the future," to which Jack replies, "Probably not, but I can make sure you're not a part of it!" and shoots Doyle, killing him. "Stupid bastard," Jack remarks.
Jack then escapes just before the volcano erupts, using a blast door to shield himself from the initial explosion. Both he and Val make it off the island in a sailboat, just as the eruption destroys what is left of Krieger's labs. Jack, having already administered the antidote to himself, proceeds to cure Val of the mutagen. The ending cutscene shows Val looking at a thick folder of papers and two CDs tied together labeled "Project Far Cry" (in the French localization of the game, it is labeled "Project Mutant").
The Xbox version Far Cry Instincts, has a modified storyline to incorporate the addition of feral abilities to Jack's repertoire.

Need For Speed Pro Street

Need for Speed: ProStreet is the 11th installment of Electronic Arts' popular racing game series Need for Speed. On May 21, 2007, Electronic Arts published a teaser trailer of ProStreet, and officially announced it ten days later. It was released worldwide in November 2007.The demo, featuring two races, one speed challenge and one grip race, appeared on Xbox Live on October 26, 2007, on PlayStation Store on November 1, 2007, and on PC on November 2, 2007. The PC version is the last in the series to use CD-ROMs, which are succeeded by the usage of DVDs for the rest of the series.ProStreet is followed by Need for Speed: Undercover.The game begins where a former street racer known as Ryan Cooper enters a challenge day and wins it with a Nissan 240SX. Ryan is mocked by Ryo Watanabe the Showdown King .
He then moves on to Battle Machine a famous race organization and he dominates it. He then moves onto Showdown Chicago promoted by Super Promotion and the best organization is introduced, the Super Promotion , there are other organizations in each specific event such as the Noise bomb for drift, G Effect that are a circuit crew, ROGUE SPEED which is for drag, and Nitrocide for speed runs. Each organization has a top race team, Apex Glide, Touge Union, Grip Runners, Aftermix, and Boxcut, respectively. Ryan dominates the showdown and moves onto React Team Sessions. He then moves onto another Showdown and dominates it. He then receives invites to elite organizations of the four Kings of Drag, Drift, Grip and Speed challenge. He beats them and earns their crowns and dominates enough organizations and showdowns to face Ryo who drives a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. Ryan beats him and the Super Promotion team leaves Ryo. Ryan then becomes Street King owning all the crowns of the Kings and becomes the best racer in the country.Need for Speed: ProStreet has taken the series in a different direction of gameplay. In previous installments, racing scenes are set around streets with moving traffic and street crashes with a broken window feeling sound to give it a more in depth feeling of hollywood style racing. However, all racing in ProStreet takes place solely on closed tracks, making ProStreet the first game in the series since Need for Speed II that doesn't animate illegal racing. Rather, the type of racing appears to be Touring Car Racing. Performance tuning feature is enhanced, compared to previous versions, especially Autosculpt. Unlike Carbon, where only certain body kits can be autosculpted, this can now be applied to all body kits, including stock bumpers and wide body kits. Furthermore, some adjustments through autosculpt impact the car's aerodynamics.In ProStreet there are four different game modes: Drag (a race in a drag strip, point to point), Grip (similar to Circuit races but with four different types of Grip races available), Speed (similar to a Sprint race) and Drift.
Drag race is a simple straight away race that has three heats. There are three types of drag races, 1/4 and 1/2 mile drag races where the fastest time, out of three runs, wins. There is also a wheelie competition where the longest wheelie on the 1/4 mile track wins.
In Grip races, there are four different modes (Normal Grip, Grip Class (all versions except for the PS2 version), Sector Shootout and Time Attack), the player has a choice to race rough, such as ramming, smashing, or blocking the opponent in order to win the race, or race cleanly and follow the given racing lines. Normal Grip races feature 2 to 4 laps around a circuit track with up to 7 other racers. First driver to cross the finish line wins. Grip Class races take 8 racers and divide them into two even groups. The racers are placed into the groups based on their vehicles performance potential. Group A starts about 10 seconds ahead of group B, both groups race on the same course but are only competing against the 3 drivers in their group. In Time Attack, the driver with the fastest overall single lap time wins the event. In Sector Shootout the track is divided into several segments, with drivers attempting to complete these sectors in the shortest possible time. Extra points are awarded to drivers who 'dominate' the course by holding the fastest time for every segment of the track.
In Speed Challenge races, players must cross the finish line first to win the race. Players have to be cautious in Speed Challenge at speeds exceeding 180mph.
In Top Speed Run races, the course is divided into 3 to 9 sections (just like that of Sector Shootout in Grip races) and at the instant a player crosses a checkpoint their speed is clocked and added to that player's score, the player with the highest cumulative speed wins. This is similar to the tollbooth events in Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and is followed by tollbooth events in Undercover.
In Drift, players drift to emerge as the driver with the most points scored in the event. Points are scored based on speed, angle, and how long the drift is held.
Other than gameplay itself, ProStreet features detailed damage modeling, unlike previous Need for Speed games (except for High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed) where damage is relatively little or non-existent altogether. The new damage system introduces more depth of damage (except on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and Wii versions, where the damage modeling has been scaled down due to the limited processing power, so the damage is similar to the previous titles) where any object in the game world has the potential to inflict cosmetic damage breaking off pieces of the car such as the hood,bumpers,side view mirrors, light damage, or heavy damage which reduces performance of a car, and even has the potential to total a car immediately after impact.ProStreet features customization of cars. The changes affect the aerodynamics of the cars, and players can test them in an enclosed chamber called the "Wind Tunnel" (all versions except the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions).
The Speedbreaker does not return for ProStreet (as the game lacks a police presence; the Speedbreaker was mostly intended for police evasion, however it returns for the Nintendo DS version of the game).

Need for Speed: Undercover

Need for Speed: Undercover is the 12th installment of the popular racing video game series Need for Speed, developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and mobile phone in November 2008. It is preceded by Need for Speed: ProStreet. Gameplay
Undercover features a new "open-world" map consisting of 100 miles (160 km) of road and a large highway system, making it the largest Need for Speed "world" EA has created so far. The game's environment consists of four boroughs: Palm Harbor, Port Crescent, Gold Coast Mountains, and Sunset Hills.These four boroughs make up the city, Tri-City. The road system includes four water crossings, going clockwise: the Main Guy Causeway (Ocean Expressway connecting Sunset Hills to Port Crescent via man-made island), the Vale Causeway (Sunset Hills to Palm Harbor), the North T Causeway (Man-made island to Palm Harbor), and the Memorial Tunnel (Port Crescent to Palm Harbor).Undercover also features a new contiguous highway system. In previous installments, highways were relatively small circuits concentrated within separate boroughs.In Undercover, the main highway circles Tri-City, with each of the four boroughs sharing a piece of the larger circuit. The longer highway length gives a more realistic shape, with long straight areas, gentle curves, rest areas and large interchanges.Lastly, the entire map is open from the start of the game, unlike previous installments where boroughs had to be unlocked.The police system is similar to Most Wanted and Carbon. It uses a similar bar graph at the bottom of the screen that moves between the blue "Evade" (shown as green on PS2 and Wii), on the right side, and the red "Busted", on the left side, depending on the player's speed and proximity to police. The "Cooldown" period after evading pursuing police units returns as well, along with heat levels, speedbreaker and pursuit breakers. Similar to Most Wanted and Carbon, police vehicles range from generic city patrol cars to federal pursuit cars accompanied by police heavy SUVs and helicopters. Unlike previous games, the type of police that appear is not entirely dependent on heat levels (i.e. high level police can appear at low heat levels and vice versa) but more on the player's wheelman level (i.e. progress through the game). At a high wheelman level, federal police will immediately join the pursuit, even if the player was at a low heat level. Common police tactics such as road blocks, rolling road blocks, spike strips, and PIT maneuvers are all featured, although some are only used by federal police. In addition, the player gets to drive a police vehicle in a mission in career mode, which consists of stealing a state police car.The damage system returns to Undercover and is similar to Need for Speed: ProStreet. It differs from ProStreet in that the damage is only cosmetic and does not adversely affect performance. However, a car can still be "Totaled" in the new "Highway Battle" mode and in some missions in career mode. During these missions a car damage bar is displayed, which indicates the amount of damage done to the player's vehicle. The primary goal of these missions is to deliver certain cars without totaling them.In general, damage is automatically repaired after every career race or police pursuit, unlike in ProStreet where it had to be repaired by the player at a cost (either money or a "repair marker").
The customization of cars is similar to Need for Speed: Prostreet but has been enhanced on the level of graphics and detail. The new color palette and the "matte" paint were improved. The game also features aftermarket parts like Carbon did. As a bonus, EA added a vinyl similar to the vinyl of the BMW M3 GTR in Need For Speed: Most Wanted.The player can gain reputation points as they progress through the game's story by participating in side missions or performing flashy maneuvers in a police chase. In turn, this grants the player access to bonus missions, adding a small RPG-like element to gameplay.