Update: At the time of this story the Rainbow Six website wasn't acting properly, however it has been reported that it too is pointing to the Ghost Recon website via a similar overlay. This story has been updated to include the Rainbow Six site.
In the early hours of the day this morning one of our readers helped us spot a strange overlay on the official Ghost Recon website. Visitors of the site were treated to a smoking dossier (which might be a black box after all) but nothing could be done other than close off the overlay and scratch your head.
Today, both the End War, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six sites have received similar flash-based marketing treatments. Each site includes an overlay of smoking items that appear to be from a wreckage which, when clicked, redirects visitors to the official Ghost Recon website -- home of the original mystery.
While it could all end there, today the Ghost Recon site updated with new information and a mysterious countdown timer.
One of our eagle-eyed readers tipped us off to an interesting development on the official Ghost Recon site. Users are treated to a large smoking file flash overlay when the site is loaded up. It appears that some information still marks the burning folder but as it stands the entire thing is a mystery. With the recent release of Rainbow Six Vegas 2, the ownership agreement with Tom Clancy and the continued domination of Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on Xbox Live (proving gamers want more than just Halo 3) is it possible this new smoking file could contain a gun? A gun called Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 3?
Hey, kids! Still playing that Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 game? Do you feel like you need something new? Maybe you saw the fancy, newfangled Co-op Collection content pack that was released yesterday, and maybe you found yourself wondering if it was worth 800 MS Points. You thought to yourself, "that's a lot of scratch," perhaps. Well, as usual, we're here to help. Ubisoft released a little teaser video that shows off all the levels available in the new content pack. The co-op campaign is comprised of 5 missions from previous Ghost Recon titles (3 from Ghost Recon, 2 from Ghost Recon: Island Thunder). The pack also includes four new adversarial maps, two of which are remakes of old favorites (Castle and Prison). Check out the video and see if it's worth opening your wallet.
There's a very interesting article at Popular Mechanics exploring the differences between the technology of GRAW 2 and its real world counterparts. Of course, we already know that GRAW 2 is the most realistic game ever produced, but how realistic is it really? Popular Mechanics compares the Cross-Com of GRAW 2 with the American Army's Land Warrior system. So, how does GRAW 2's system compare? First of all, both systems allow for the tracking of friendly units. In Ghost Recon, these are indicated by blue diamonds that move in real time. The Land Warrior system has a similar system that uses blue circles on a GPS map. The only difference here is that the tracking is far from real time. In fact, it takes a full minute to register new movement. The article notes that the GPS system is useful for large, conventional battles, but that it proves far less useful for the smaller, faster battles of modern day warfare.
We love us some MEGA64. That really goes without saying (which kind of nullifies the first sentence ... never mind). The latest video from the group is actually an advertisement for GRAW 2 but, as usual, it's pretty damned funny. Given the reaction from the Mexican government concerning GRAW 2, the video is also surprisingly relevant (in addition to the obvious hilarity). We won't spoil the video, so let's just say that it's worth watching. Click play, give it a watch, and tell us what you think.
This week Circuit City is hastily clearancing out a few popular video game titles, selling the original Xbox 360 version of GRAW for $19.99. Yes sir, $20 will get you one of the prettiest looking advanced war fighting games this side of the moon. Even if you're not a huge fan of war-style games, GRAW at $20 is a great "try me" price for anyone sitting on the fence. And if you are sitting on the fence ... why? Fence sitting results in 280 deaths a year, just get down and go buy GRAW already.
The hip and trendy kids over at G4's The Feed put together a list of what they think are the 17 lamest Xbox 360 achievements to date. Horrible games like Bomberman Act Zero and NBA Live '07 made the list as well as our favorites like Gears of War and Rainbow Six Vegas. We agree with most of their picks, but really agree with hating NBA Live's "Online With 1,000 People", GRAW's "Committed (Multiplayer)" and FFXI's ridiculous "Reach Level 75 with each character class". We guess this article made us further realize that there are truly lame achievements out there and that we have to be careful. Remember, friends don't let friends spend days on end trying to earn lame achievements. It's one epidemic that we can stop.
Yes, we are a little slow on reporting this, but better late than never right? Gamertag Radio found out that in the April issue of Official Xbox Magazine you'll be pleased to find that the Chapter 2 content for GRAW will be included on the demo disc. True, the magazine does cost $10, but if you're a regular subscriber or are a religious purchaser, then all the better. If you remember, the Chapter 2 content was originally released to on the XBLM for a whopping 1200 Microsoft Points, but was recently discounted to a more reasonable 600 Points. So, if you play GRAW, buy the April issue of OXM, haven't purchased the Chapter 2 content, and won't be purchasing GRAW 2 ... then it'll be like Christmas all over again, but in March.
[Via Joystiq, Thanks, to everyone who sent this in]
Last week, Crackdown came on strong with bronze position on the Live top ten. Now it's swapped spots with Rainbow Six: Vegas as Call of Duty 3 continues to be just shy of the podium. GRAW 2's mulitplayer demo makes a return to take the Crackdown demo's position, which moved to 7th. Madden refuses to budge at sixth while Lost Planet and Oblivion get nudged to eighth and ninth, respectively. GRAW rounds out the bottom of the list while last, and obviously not least, Gears of War retains its top spot over all of Xbox Live-dom. Do you feel slightly confused? If so, our simple, yet eloquent list awaits your review after the break, complete with last weeks standings in parentheses.
If you've been in search for one of the best GRAW 2 deals this week, it looks like Circuit City is the winner. For this week's release of GRAW 2 Circuit City will be discounting the game by $10 and will retail for $49.99. It's not an amazing offer, but it sure beats paying the full $59.99 price tag. And, as an added bonus, if the game isn't in store by 2PM on Wednesday they'll give you a $20 gift card. So, save yourself $10 on the (very similar to GRAW) sequel and hope the UPS guy gets lost in the massive urban sprawl.
Tom Clancy fans eager to get their hands on GRAW 2 will be happy to learn that the game has officially gone gold. TeamXbox reports that Ubisoft made the announcement today, stating that the game should be available on store shelves by Thursday, March 8th (just in time for our heads to asplode from covering GDC). In celebration of this momentous occasion, Ubisoft also revealed the entire list of achievements for the game. Achievements are more or less evenly spread among campaign, co-op, and adversarial modes. The adversarial achievements all require that at least 5 gamertags be in the session, presumably to prevent boosting. So, the game has gone gold and the achievements have been uncovered, but that's not the best part. No, Ubisoft had one more surprise for us. GRAW 2 will feature an in game achievement tracker. The achievement tracker, surprisingly, keeps track of your achievement progress. In other words, if you're wondering how many more sniper kills you have to make to acquire the "100 sniper kills" achievement, all you have to do is pull up the tracker and check. We're going to go on record and say that this feature should be in every game. You listening Microsoft?
Now that we've all had a chance to try both campaign and multiplayer demos, what do you think? Is a GRAW 2 purchase inevitable?
The Gamerscore Blog guys are confirming a few games that will be headed to the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits lineup on March 16th in North America. If you didn't know, the Platinum Hits program is a list of games that have been singled out to retail for $29.99, because they "supposedly" achieved greatness during their lifetime. We may not always agree with certain games that come to the Platinum Hits, but nobody can disagree with the cheaper pricetag. Below is a list of games that will become Platinum Hits in North America.
Over at Hexus Gaming they are reporting that they received some insider information on the status of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2's multiplayer demo. After attending a Ubisoft hosted GRAW 2 event, Hexus Gaming says they confirmed with a Ubisoft representative that the GRAW 2 multiplayer demo will be available on the XBLM this coming week. The idea of a multiplayer demo isn't all that far fetched, but being released this week might be stretching it, knowing Microsoft's certification process. We hope we can get more hands on time with GRAW 2 before we commit to a purchase, because the single player demo just wasn't long enough to get a good enough feel for the game.
Fanboys, just a heads up that the official website for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 is up and running. At the site you'll have access to all kinds of GRAW 2 media, screenshots, news, and the official forums to troll around. Oh yeah! There are also a few GRAW 2 wallpapers to make your desktop all spiffy n' stuff. As everyone knows, Ubisoft's announcement of the official website is just one more step towards the March release date and we wonder how much hype there is surrounding this sequel. Are you GRAW fans even more excited for the sequel or will you be saving your pennies for this year's other blockbuster titles?
GameTrailers has posted this lengthy preview of GRAW 2 multiplayer (also available in HD). The preview highlights most of the game's multiplayer features including controllable recon drones. Like many, we watched the video waiting to hear only one thing: is there a cover system in multiplayer? Unfortunately, if there is a cover system in multiplayer, the GameTrailers preview makes no mention of it. This leads us to believe that is has been excised from multiplayer as it was in the original GRAW. There are some notable new features though, including the ability to see through a teammate's eyes using the cross com. All in all, it looks like fun, though Tom Clancy fans are likely to be disappointed by the lack of a cover system.
This week Circuit City is hastily clearancing out a few popular video game titles, selling the original Xbox 360 version of GRAW for $19.99. Yes sir, $20 will get you one of the prettiest looking advanced war fighting games this side of the moon. Even if you're not a huge fan of war-style games, GRAW at $20 is a great "try me" price for anyone sitting on the fence. And if you are sitting on the fence ... why? Fence sitting results in 280 deaths a year, just get down and go buy GRAW already.
Yes, we are a little slow on reporting this, but better late than never right? Gamertag Radio found out that in the April issue of Official Xbox Magazine you'll be pleased to find that the Chapter 2 content for GRAW will be included on the demo disc. True, the magazine does cost $10, but if you're a regular subscriber or are a religious purchaser, then all the better. If you remember, the Chapter 2 content was originally released to on the XBLM for a whopping 1200 Microsoft Points, but was recently discounted to a more reasonable 600 Points. So, if you play GRAW, buy the April issue of OXM, haven't purchased the Chapter 2 content, and won't be purchasing GRAW 2 ... then it'll be like Christmas all over again, but in March.
If you've been in search for one of the best GRAW 2 deals this week, it looks like Circuit City is the winner. For this week's release of GRAW 2 Circuit City will be discounting the game by $10 and will retail for $49.99. It's not an amazing offer, but it sure beats paying the full $59.99 price tag. And, as an added bonus, if the game isn't in store by 2PM on Wednesday they'll give you a $20 gift card. So, save yourself $10 on the (very similar to GRAW) sequel and hope the UPS guy gets lost in the massive urban sprawl.
The Gamerscore Blog guys are confirming a few games that will be headed to the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits lineup on March 16th in North America. If you didn't know, the Platinum Hits program is a list of games that have been singled out to retail for $29.99, because they "supposedly" achieved greatness during their lifetime. We may not always agree with certain games that come to the Platinum Hits, but nobody can disagree with the cheaper pricetag. Below is a list of games that will become Platinum Hits in North America.
Over at Hexus Gaming they are reporting that they received some insider information on the status of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2's multiplayer demo. After attending a Ubisoft hosted GRAW 2 event, Hexus Gaming says they confirmed with a Ubisoft representative that the GRAW 2 multiplayer demo will be available on the XBLM this coming week. The idea of a multiplayer demo isn't all that far fetched, but being released this week might be stretching it, knowing Microsoft's certification process. We hope we can get more hands on time with GRAW 2 before we commit to a purchase, because the single player demo just wasn't 
