Ghost Recon Phantoms

My disappearing act continues!

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog for a new entry. Things keep happening IRL and sometimes one simply cannot find the time to do what one really loves. So in the spirit of moving forward..... ONWARD!

One of my earlier posts talked about Ghost Recon Online, a F2P 3rd Person Tactical Shooter that was in Open Beta testing for quite a while. I started playing it on the first day of Open Beta and have been part of the community since. Well the news is that Ghost Recon Online has gone from Open Beta to Full Release and has been re-titled as "Ghost Recon Phantoms."  The change of title was done to give the title a back story (A very flimsy one at that but then again, such titles do not really need a story.)

The move to Launch brought with it some nice graphical changes and some map changes. The graphics do look rather nice and some of the map changes are... interesting. I am not the best in coming up with map strategies or knowing how map changes bring out about differences in game play save for the very obvious changes. It takes me quite a few times of playing through the map to understand and come up with ideas about how to attack or defend points. With that being said though, at least some of the changes have given me something fresh to tackle. There hasn't been a big influx of new players as everyone would still be working their way up the ranks and I have yet to see new names. My alternate character which is low leveled however gets to see a lot more action with new names and faces and some old ones as well.

The Good:

1. Graphics : They have re-skinned a lot of things and given the whole game a very good makeover. Looks more polished.

2. Map Updates : Some maps have been changed for the better (Attica, yes Attica is now actually somewhat playable!)

3. Devices : The Blitz Shield deployed looks good. The Blitz now offers enhanced bullet protection when deployed.  The Specalist Support devices look and sound great.


The Bad:

1. Match Making: The battle for MM continues and nowhere does it feel more painful then in the upper bracket. Get a high ranked fire-team going and you will wait forever to find a match. Presumably this will get better as players move up in the brackets but for now..... Great for running errands.

2. Maps : Xinyi Robytech is still a pain with its broken covers (The pit walls I am looking at you!) This map at least personally is not fun for me to play at all! Give me Tomsk or LZ The Nukes all day long with Attica as a distraction and I will be a happy man.

Additionally the name changes seem... Unnecessary but that could just be my opinion.

3. Devices : The Blitz looks like a backpack when it is not deployed. Currently the Blitz also feels broken as sometimes it may hit people but they do not go down. The Heat ADS (Active Denial System... lulz) has been changed pretty radically but I feel the deploy time has increased somewhat. Don't know how I feel about it yet. Oracle has now become Scan and I personally liked it better when it was called Oracle.

4. Lag : Lag still is a huge concern and with this game's client side detection couple with the cover based gameplay, people with bad pings actually fare better against people will better pings.

There are some future updates that I have no idea what to feel about (Smoke Grenades and Tactical Insertion) but I will know better once they are thrown in and I get a chance to check them out. But from first glance, Smokes seem unnecessary to me.

This game has been one of my favorite games to play over the last few years and I just hope it does not go downhill. Only time will tell.

If you feel like you want to check out the game, you can head on over to twitch to catch quite a few people playing this game. Some good gameplay streams to check out are

1. twitch.tv/anders_holmvik Leader of the clan zd3 (Zero Dark Thirty.) You can catch me there as one of the moderators.

2. twitch.tv/punjistick Leader of the clan NJP (Non Judicial Punishment.) With bonus hilarious teamspeak conversation. You can catch me there as one of the regular viewers.

3. twitch.tv/bournelegacy Leader of the clan PhX (Team Phoenix.) You can catch me there as one of the regular viewers.

4. twitch.tv/karachidevil Shameless self plug ^_^

If you drop by on any of these channels through this blog entry, be sure to let them know and me as well if I happen to be in there!

There is an ongoing tournament as well on Mondays and Thursdays and you can see the clans battle it out for supremacy.

Kiyoshi Out!
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Ghost Recon Online I : Introduction and Classes

Hello everyone!

Wow! This time around I have been away for a much longer time than I realized. Part of it was there was a wedding in my family and if you know anything about South Asian (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh etc...) you should know this, our marriages take forever. Multiple events spread out over multiple days. Anyways I am now free after all that and here is my newest post.

Click here to go to the website

In one of my older posts, I talked about Ghost Recon Online and how excited I was about playing it. Well that is exactly what I have been whenever I have spare time. The game and the community have me hooked! The game is still in Open Beta so it is going through changes almost every week but the core of the game is very solid.

GR:O is a 3rd person, team-based, class-based, tactics heavy shooter. Your squad will deploy against an enemy squad in a 8v8 battle. For now there are two game modes:

Onslaught - The attacking side has to take over two points on the map to unlock a final third point while the defending side has to ... well defend all three

Conquest - Both sides start the game contesting the middle point in a five point map and the objective is to take over all five or hold the most points for victory.

A total of five maps are available as of this post, 2 Onslaught and 3 Conquest maps.

CLASSES:

Each class has access to two main weapons, two devices, two squad supports and one handgun.

ASSAULT:

Armed with the Assault Rifle and Shotgun, the Assault is the slowest of the three classes and the one with the most armor and health. Use the Assault class to take over points and to hold the points. The two devices Assaults have access to are:

Blitz:

Dashing with the Blitz deployed

The Blitz shield is on your back and when it is there, it provides you with a little more armor in case somebody flanks you and shoots you from behind. When the Blitz is fully charged, you can enable it by pressing F (default key) and then use it as a battering ram to knock down your opponents and have your team (hopefully) kill them in your wake. You can also use it to defeat the Heat and Aegis. It is however not a hundred percent bullet proof as you can still get hit on your legs. Also the Blackout device can disable it.

Heat:

Switches to Infra-Red view and cooks anyone not in cover

Heat is a device which emits microwave rays to suppress your enemy. It can prevent them from shooting or pretty much restricts them to cover. However again it is not a perfect device as it can be neutralized by the Blitz or Blackout device. Also if somebody is very close to you, they may have a chance to shoot you as they can maneuver quicker than you while Heat is deployed. You can zoom in for extra damage.

Squad Support:

The Assault Class has two squad supports:

Combat Regen: Increases your and any nearby team-members health regeneration.
Armor Harden: Hardens your and your nearby team-members armor making them tougher to kill.

SPECIALIST:

Armed with Light Machine Guns (LMG) and Shotguns, the Specialist is the support class of the game. They have medium armor. They can be used to spearhead attacks, team protection and also disrupting the enemy team so they cannot attack your team.

Specialists have access to:

Aegis:

Notice the shield just a small distance away from the specialist

The Aegis shield when deployed creates a bullet proof "bubble" which can protect several team-mates allowing everyone to move up. Great as both an offensive and defensive device, The shield however depletes faster as your enemy shoots at it. The enemy can kill you if they enter the bubble and also grenades can cause damage. The Blitz can knock you down and the Heat can still suppress you while the Blackout as always stops any devices.However a well timed charge with the Aegis for protection is very difficult to stop.

Blackout:

You can see the aftereffects of the emp discharge around the specialist. 

Blackout is an EMP discharge which disable all devices, stuns the enemy and also disables their guns for a limited time. However your enemy has to be in the area of effect for all of these effects to work. When enabled the Blackout has a increasing "ring" of effect and you can run in and stop your enemy in their tracks. It is a great tool but is difficult to aim correctly and it has a sound when it deploys which tells everyone there is a blackout in the vicinity. However once it is mastered it is indeed a very frightening (and annoying) device to run in to. Can be stopped by weapons, grenades or if you don't deploy it fast enough.

Squad Support:

The Specialist Squad Support are:

Ammo Resupply: Regenerates ammo for you and any team-mate within range.
Device Recharge: Recharges the devices faster for you and your team-mates.

RECON:

The intelligence gathering and all around mayhem causing class, the recons are the fastest of the three classes with the lowest armor of the three. They have access to Sniper rifles and sub-machine guns (SMG.)

Recons have access to:

Oracle:

"Pinging" the enemy through walls. Not my Oracle though as I am carrying cloak in this instance

The Oracle can be used to detect your enemies so your team can maneuver around to neutralize them. It can pick up cloaked recons and can pass through walls. Every team should have at least one Oracle!

Cloak:

I am on the right side. Notice the disruption pattern.

Cloak can turn you nearly invisible to the naked eye. The faster you move, the easier it is to see you however it is a great way to flank. You can start shooting in cloak but you will de-cloak so make sure you can take the target down. Oracle can show your outline to the enemy and Blackout and disable cloak.

Squad Support:

Gunshot Detector: Outlines the enemy shooting within a radius.
Vector Detector: Outlines enemies sprinting.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This is part one of my Ghost Recon Online posts. As a thorough exploration of the game will take more time, I have decided to break the posts up and that way you won't have to read all of it in one go.

Be on the look out for part two!

Kiyoshi Out!

Ghost Recon Online

UPDATE:


The Open Beta for GRO has started. Head on over to their website and download the game. I will be playing the game tomorrow and if possible will also be streaming it on my twitch.tv channel. Happt Hunting my friends. Review of the Open Beta will also be underway soon.

END

If you haven't yet heard about Ghost Recon Online, now is the time to sit up and take notice. The game is out of Beta and is releasing very soon. In fact the site is up and displaying the option to download the game however I haven't yet been able to (I am thinking they are setting up the server so waiting for that to happen and then they will.)

So what is it about? Ghost Recon Online is a Tactical, F2P (Free to Play,) third person shooter. It is a class & squad based shooter that features weapon upgrades and player leveling. There are three classes, Assault, Specialist & Recon with each class further specializing in weaponry. Assault class can use rifles, shotguns, pistols & grenades and can use combat shield and improve armor or combat health regeneration of nearby allies and themselves. The  Recon class uses Sniper Rifles, SMGs, Pistols & Grenades and can cloak scan an area to search for enemies. The Specialist class can use Shotguns, LMGs, Pistols & Grenades while also capable of blacking out the opposing teams electronics, deploying high-energy plasma fields and providing ammo & energy to allies.

A cover system is also in place helping you shield yourself and use some advanced tactics to subdue the enemy.

Up to 16 player matches can be played. I am not entirely sure what game modes there are as I did not enter the Beta, however once the game is downloadable, I will find out and do a review of the game so look forward to it.

Also I got selected for the GFACE Beta and so far it is pretty good. While at present, the Play option is not enabled, there are a bunch of really nice and friendly people on it so it is fun getting to know them and making future teammates ready for any game we play. If you haven't yet, I would advise to go ahead and sign up for the Beta. From my perspective it will be the gaming social networking and as such of very high appeal to me. If you are on it, and read this blog, go ahead and add me and let's play some games (KarachiDevil)!

Kiyoshi Out!
Psst... Hey... Spread the word! +1, Subscribe,Tweet ^_^ Thank you for reading.