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| By Brad Cook Political intrigue. Threats to the world’s balance of power. Covert military operations. Those are just a few of the things that Tom Clancy’s name conjures in one’s mind, and you’ll find all of them — and more — in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Game of the Year Edition Aspyr Media’s new tactical first-person shooter for Mac OS X. |
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 Who doesn’t love blowing up tanks? |
Atmospheric effects like rain and fog
heighten the tense realism.
heighten the tense realism.
The game also includes the Desert Siege expansion pack, which takes place in Africa in the year 2009. Ethiopia invades its smaller neighbor, Eritrea, and casts doubt on the viability of the crucial shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The Ghosts are sent to Eritrea to calm the situation and help the U.S. military push the Ethiopian forces out of the country.
“[Desert Siege] really does give you a feel for a different style of combat,” explains Gary Stelmack, a design at Red Storm Entertainment, which developed the game. “The open spaces create an entirely different kind of paranoia as you’re moving through a level, wondering where the enemy is going to pop up. It’s pretty intense.”
More Bang For the Buck
Ghost Recon features 15 single-player missions that immerse you in the story and offer a variety of tactical scenarios. In one mission, your team may be sent in to rescue hostages. In another, you may need your demolitions experts to take care of some enemy tanks or blow up a bridge. After each mission, you gain a new team member who has more specialized skills than the other characters in your squad. You also get the opportunity to enhance all of the Ghosts’ skills with points that you can assign in four areas: weapons, stealth, endurance, and leadership.
Use the command map to move your team into position and keep track of them during the mission.
Desert Siege adds to the fun with eight extra missions, nine new weapons, and additional multiplayer modes that you can use with the multiplayer maps in the Ghost Recon game. There are also four new multiplayer maps in the Desert Siege expansion pack, so that you can do battle against your friends over the Internet. Use the Mac-only service GameRanger, or take on Mac and PC players through the game’s multiplayer menu, which uses GameSpy. You can also play Ghost Recon on a local area network (LAN).
“It just made more sense to give Mac gamers more bang for the buck by including the expansion pack in the box,” explains Aspyr PR & Media Director Amy Torres.
Like other first-person shooters, Ghost Recon puts you in the shoes of a character and allows you to see the game world through his eyes. Unlike many other first-person shooters, however, you can switch between different characters as you move toward your goal.
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Hold Onto Your Wits
You break your team into three groups — Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie — before the mission and use the command map to move them into position. You can choose to control one character as you play or switch between them as the situation changes. For example, you might want to use a sniper when sneaking up on an enemy outpost and then switch to a rifleman when you need to engage the bad guys at close range.
“Patience is key in this game,” says Torres. “I recommend a tactical approach and keeping your wits about you.”
If you want to survive out in the open,
you’ll need to take cover.
you’ll need to take cover.
The game’s realistic graphics help you feel immersed in the action. Birds chirp, leaves rustle as you brush past them, and enemy guards pause if they think they hear something. You can drop flat to the ground and remain still until they move on their way, unless you think it’s a smart idea to engage them at that time. The computer controls the other team members, who will return fire, look for cover, and refuse to advance if they think it’s too dangerous.
“The little things are ultimately very important,” says Richard Dansky, the Central Tom Clancy Writer at Red Storm. “We do a heck of a lot of research up front. We even research things down to what the local wildlife is so we can get the right incidental bird calls in the backgrounds of our missions.”
“That focus on reality is the hallmark of a Clancy game.”
Immerse Yourself in the “Clancyverse”
But how well does Ghost Recon capture the feel of a Tom Clancy novel or one of the many movies based on his work?
“Ghost Recon is the closest you can get to actually living in Clancy’s world,” says Torres. “The ability to use real-world infantry tactics, the stuff that we see onscreen and read about in the books, really makes this game fun. And I love blowing up tanks.”
“We make sure our game stories have a real ‘Clancy feel’ to them,” adds Dansky. “We want the missions to make sense within the context of the story, and the story to support the player’s immersion in the missions.”
You will rely on your teammates as much
as you rely on your trigger finger.
as you rely on your trigger finger.
So if you’re ready to slip into the shadowy world of the Ghosts, click over to the online Apple Store, sneak into an Apple retail store, or visit a certified Apple reseller near you to enlist.
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Think you have what it takes? Visit “Mission Briefings” on page two to learn more about the man behind the “Clancyverse,” tips and tricks that will help you succeed, and cheats that will get you out of sticky situations.    
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