GRAW 2 Multiplayer Demo

[chopemon]

Just downloaded the new demo and i am super impressed.

yes, the front end is basically the same as last time and so is the music (though the music is a new mix), so people can start all that mission pack bitching, but really, who cares?

first off, the demo is crushingly dissapointing because you can't use the character customisation feature but it's nice in a way that they are keeping it back for the full game.

the map is called outpost, its a disused jungle warehouse type outpost. it is most an exterior map and it shows off the game's new shadow stuff really well.

the game does look fantastic, really high res detailed models with a fantastically lit level.

i just played a four player team game with an incredibly over excited tim westwood sound-a-like, and i didn't see any enemies for the entire time, the map is big and there need to be a good few players in it.

it is the graw we all know and love and i am so excited about next week.

i'm heading over to the states next week so i was planning to grab a copy there, i guess it's going to be region free like every other ubi game?

we should get some ntsc-uk games up and running tonight so we can have good sized teams

[chopemon]

I've been thinking the same, I just have to remove the stange need to collect orbs and blow up cars from my mind..... :)


GRAW + Orbs = killer app

[Silvergun X]

Is it a seperate graphics engine again?

[capcom_suicide]

Is it a seperate graphics engine again?

Yes. It's improved, but not as good as the single player. It also STILL doesn't have cover. It does have improvements for Clan support and spawn camping.

This is a game for the fans of the original, and it's the SP game that seems to have been tweaked the most, with higher focus on strategy.

People who thought the first game was crap should probably avoid GRAW2, and in 12 months Ubi can't have made that much improvements and you can be damn sure it will be buggy as hell.

[Uli]

i could not spot any significant improvement over the first game - neither technically nor gameplay-wise. the new top-down drone view doesn't seem to be available for multiplayer. most annoying, enemies are still poorly animated and "move" in a very unrealistic way - sometimes it seems they simply jump around the area. the demo is buggy too. i experienced drop out of sound fx and slow down to 1fps for over a minute! what did Redstorm do in 12 months besides building some new maps?

[Charlie]

i could not spot any significant improvement over the first game - neither technically nor gameplay-wise.

So, basically, it's still shit.

I've never been able to understand the popularity of GRAW, especially the multiplayer which is far worse than the lacklustre single player campaign. It's so slow it feels like moving through sick soup, and the fact you can't simultaneouly move and shoot (which is just pathetic) and not being able to jump or even run diagonally properly make it an unbelievably poor experience in my book.

[Yoshimax]

Yeah I'll download this for a look but I can see the full game being passed over - The more I hear the more it sounds like this should be released at around the £25 pricepoint.

[Uli]

well, although this lazy update wont win any new fans for the series, i think the game is far from being "shit" and still good for some decent co-op fun - presumed you have some tactically experienced friends around to play with. however, the full price is not justified because most the so called improvements are cosmetic at best.

let's hope the single player game provides some more convincing "improvements", most of all better AI and animation.

[Charlie]

Just downloaded it and had a quick go. Seems slightly better than the original and, thankfully, it's now possible to simultaneously move and shoot (something mankind has been doing since guns were invented). Still seems incredibly slow, fiddly and cumbersome though.

As has already been stated, those who liked the first will like this and those who didn't won't.

[chopemon]

it is still bugged to ****

i had one game with no sound effects and then 2 games with a frame rate of 1 every 5 seconds.

i'm glad ubi still have the audacity to charge £50 for unfinished games

[Diggler]

Wow, a lot of BS up there. You can move and shoot. You can use the full screen drone. You can run diagonally. Graphically this demo's a HUGE step-up over the last game's multiplayer. And I played for a couple hours and haven't had any framerate or sound issues. This sounds more like lag/connection issues at your end...

[chopemon]

some other guys tonight reported the sound and frame rate images.

it's not lag either, it is an actual drop in frame rate. it also registers *any* directional input made whilst it is having frame rate dips and it looks like when it updates the frame (every several seconds) it thinks you are still inputting the same control and moves your character in the directional you pressed once.

don't get me wrong, i love GRAW to pieces and i will be playing this at launch but after the GRAW, splinter cell and rainbow six online problems you'd think that they'd fix them. especially if they are going to demo it.

imagine if i had never played graw before and i downloaded the demo and the first match i went into had these problems, i wouldn't buy it. releasing a demo like this is just damaging.

however i am a sucker for ghost recon and will buy this broken mess and wade through the problems.

i wonder if they've fixed the single player bugs?

[spagmasterswift]

I'll wait until you lot have given it a good going over, at the moment it 'plays' a hundered times worse than the first online - if they no fix, I no get.

[tbm]

fair to say i`m a bit gutted that the online system does`nt appear to have been given ANY kind of going over in the slightest. the actual demo is superb, looks incredible, and the new healing a team mate is a nice touch. the new weapons, esp. the slienced sniper rifle/ 5 grenade launcher are just sublime.

as spatial said last night, it would be nice if someone who has access to ubisoft/red storm could ask them about why they state 16 player co-op when its clearly not the case. i fear this`ll be a 6 tops in co-op and deprive a group of players of a game with other GRAW players.

i`ll do the glass is half full thing and hope its just issues with the demo code (stop laughing at the back)

[capcom_suicide]

OK then....

ADSL2+ ordered, they say 2-4 weeks before I get the router etc.

I'm 150m from the ISP and they say I should get over "1MB up", so lets hope we can some nice games going when GRAW2 debuts.

:thumb:

[Myth]

some other guys tonight reported the sound and frame rate images.

I've also had the sound bug twice now.

Overall the game feels alright, think I'll give it a miss as it hasnt seemed to grab me like the first one did.

[PeteJ]

I won't be buying the game on the basis of either demos, however GRAW was one of my favourites of 2006 so wil be there on day one (next week!), if only to get more of the same.

Both demos so far have been OK in my opinion, the lack of options\content has hurt them as has the realisation that there isn't much in the way of new content. If anything I found it harder to play the multiplayer mode in the sequel than before - the controls felt really slow, which is either because they are slow, because I've come from playing Crackdown, or I've missed the option. Turning felt 'wrong', I really struggled while playing.

Also I found the shadowing on everything quite a distraction. Don't think I've ever seen so many objects and leaves with shadows all over the place. It looks nice but also quite messy, sure it'll get better after I get used to it though (again, coming from the very clean look of Crackdown doesn't help!).

Not even updating anything on the front end is shocking though. I'm hoping Ubi are actually able to release this one polished and bug free, their record for 2006 was poor to say the least.

[Commander Marklar]

I dunno, I loved every second of the demo to be honest. I'm so weak when it comes to Ghost Recon. There have been other games to try and pull of the atmosphere and game play of how GR plays, especially team mechanics, but none do it as nicely. Still, I dunno if I'll go out and buy the full-price release but it's certainly one to watch.

[chopemon]

capcom, you are a top guy!!!

good work and thanks a lot :thumb:

[GODZOOKI]

OK then....

ADSL2+ ordered, they say 2-4 weeks before I get the router etc.

I'm 150m from the ISP and they say I should get over "1MB up", so lets hope we can some nice games going when GRAW2 debuts.

:thumb:

Holy Sh*t!!:thumb:

Save me a space ya ****er, i will hopefully get GRAW2 at the weekend and im coming back ina few weeks to kick some ass on live!!:w00t:

[capcom_suicide]

:) I love my GRAW sessions, and had the oppertunity to get the DSL upgrade without it hurting my pocket, so it would have been rude not to.

At the very least I would hope that we can do 8 players, the only possible way for me to improve upload is to swap to Sync DSL which they can do 2mb/2mb but then I will lose my 20MB download speed.

At the end of the day you can't get a faster DSL connection in Norway than ADSL2+ so if the Ubi netcode can't work on that, then there's no hope for us! :rolleyes:

Be interesting to hear how many SOI manages to host with his uber pipe. Fingers crossed it will work OK.

[PeteJ]

There is absolutely no reason why the host shouldn't be able to cope with 16 players, particularly with that sort of connection. I really hope Ubi have sorted the netcode!

[Soi]

Unfortunately, with 16 players and co-op, I suspect it isn't just the host upload that is the determining factor. With that much of a bandwidth requirement, I strongly supsect the download capacity of each player becomes a factor too.

If GRAW needs (for example), 1 meg upload for 16 players, then each player needs 1 meg download. 1 meg download doesn't sound much, but many people on 2 or 4 meg connections won't get anything like what their package is meant to be (for example, I'm on "24 meg" down, but get 13 odd -and I'm only 1.5km from the exchange). Add to the fact that many people have housemates using there connection at the same time, and 1 meg/s actual usuable bandwidth might be a problem.

Anyway, I haven't had the chance to download the demo, but I will do very soon. I'm playing a GoW match tonight at 9:30, perhaps we could try after that...

[mr_sockochris]

R6 Vegas needs at least 768kbs of upload to run a 16 man room, so I suspect GRAW2, given the size of the maps, will need something close to 1mb.