Our review of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360 hit back in March when the game came out, but its impossible to not bring it up again here. If you dont already have GRAW on the 360, heres a quick overview that should help you decide between the two versions when you walk into the store.
On the 360, GRAWs all about bringing the franchise into the next gen, whereas the PC version focuses 100 percent on bringing the series back to the tactical-shooter audience.
As a package, its an incredibly complete product of flabbergasting quality; more than any other game, GRAW puts the player in the nerve-snapping tension of pauses between engagements. It thrusts you into the terror of modern, quicksilver-fluid combat. Black Hawk Down and GRAW stand together; they both paint a horrific situation so impressively that it can be hard to say if theyre “fun”—but theres no denying their quality. GRAW isnt just for dedicated shooter fans, but it is a PC game with no quicksave or manual save—checkpoints only.
Like the original Ghost Recon PC title, the going is slow and arduous as you use the new real-time tactical map to issue orders to your three squadmates and support units. The Ghosts A.I. is on par with the 360 version: Theyre excellent at taking shots, but theyre poor at grabbing cover or not walking in front of your line of fire.
Instead of screaming angrily as your sniper gets gunned down staring the wrong way, you can go into the tactical map and not only tell your squadmates where to go, but also which direction to face and how far away to focus. This increases the range of their vision cones, but it reduces their effectiveness at spotting things nearby.
The ability to issue these precise orders on the tactical map compensates quite a bit for the deficient A.I., but it also makes the pacing very different from any recent Ghost Recon title.