Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter PC Q@A

Introduction
Mathieu Girard is the Ubisoft Producer of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™. His role is to ensure that the production of the game goes smoothly, and that Ubisoft reaches the highest possible quality. That means following closely the team at GRIN, and also the group here at Ubisoft.

Who is working on the PC version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™?
More than 100 people are involved with the PC version. Ubisoft and GRIN are working in close collaboration to deliver the next installment on Windows® PC DVD-ROM of the smash-hit squad based shooter franchise.

GRIN has strong experience in military applications (they started developing software for the armed forces). They distinguished themselves in developing groundbreaking technology; actually GRIN made the first game to feature pixel and vertex shaders in cooperation with Nvidia for the launch of the GeForce 3.

What differences can we expect between the PC and the Consoles versions?

There will be many differences between versions, as the platforms themselves are different. For instance, if you take into account that you control your soldier with a keyboard and a mouse rather than with a pad, you know that you will shoot faster and more accurately. For us, that means that we have to adapt the level design (offer more covers), the camera system (immersive first person view), the difficulty (enemies are more challenging)… Basically nearly all areas of the game have to be adapted just considering this simple fact.

In the PC version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™, we will develop the tactical aspect further than in the other versions, because this approach best fits this platform, and we know that all Ghost Recon fans are expecting to be able to plan their team’s actions on the battlefield.

That’s why we are implementing exclusive features for the Tactical Map of the game. With this tool, the planning phase can now happen at anytime in the game (at least when you’re safe enough!). That also means that you’ll be able to change your plans if things do not go as planned, just like real soldiers do. We feel this is an ideal balance between strategy and improvisation.

Also the PC version will provide many other improvements and tweaks to make it fit the expectations of our audience.

Can you please explain us the main differences between the first opus of Ghost Recon and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™?

Actually, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ has a lot in common with the features that the fans loved in the first opus, the features from a tactical shooter. We have however improved and increased these tactical features, taking advantage of the technology that the soldiers of the future will use.

The other big difference is of course the visual quality which will benefit from the latest Next Gen PC rendering and effect. Finally, multiplayer expands towards new modes which also take advantage of our new tactical layer and near futuristic context.

A lot of people have been upset with very little information on the upcoming PC-based Tom Clancy games. Have you in any way listened to the input and wishes of fans when doing Tom Clancy’s GHOST RECON Advanced Warfighter™?

Because we do not express ourselves on the forums does not mean that we don’t read them. We know what the expectations are, and our objective remains to provide a deep and involving game.

We are still debating many aspects of the game, and the opinions expressed by the fans are always taken in consideration. For example on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2, feedbacks from the PC community revealed that the “Over the shoulderâ€ÂÂ

More Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter PC Q&A from 11.11.05


Will GRAW have a "class system" for weapon selection, similar to original Ghost Recon? How will the "kit" selection work (how many slots for equipment and what types of weapons can be selected as primary/secondary etc)?
GRAW is not limited to individual classes of weapon selection : you have a complete freedom on the type of equipment you can carry. You have 3 slots for primary, secondary, and backpack, and you can select a different equipment for each of these slots. Primary is of course used for assault rifles and sniper rifles, while secondary is for handguns and SMGs. Finally, the “modâ€ÂÂ