Ubisoft and Red Storm just keep the downloadable content coming forTom Clancy's Ghost Recon™ 2, and they've already built up a substantial library of free downloads for Xbox Live™ gamers who want a new twist on gameplay or new commando skins. With Tactical Pack 3, the maps are getting soggy, and the custom skins are getting downright goofy—in a good way.
New Maps The three new maps in this download are united by the universal solvent itself; that conjoined union of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom you and I know as "water." All three new maps are playable for two to 16 players in a variety of game modes.
Outside the dam, in one of the new skins.
Bunkers Flooded The foxholes are soaked and the terrain is noisy. But there are still ample places for ambushing enemies to hide and long stretches that reward steady sniper scopes. If you've played any Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30™ lately, you might think you've parachuted into France.
Dam Pumping Station This outdoor power plant features heart-stopping open areas and tight interior confines. The color scheme means you have to be sharp-eyed to spot distant moving foes (unless they've chosen to go with one of the new novelty skins—more on that in a sec).
Dam River Crossing If Bunkers Flooded is a taste of old Normandy, the Dam River crossing may remind you of a later historical conflict, one that didn't go so well for the US of A. The river crossing is strewn with jungle growth and clusters of boulders for cover.
New Skins The novelty skin sets are just awesome. After getting realistic new skins in the last two packs that included winter and digital camo, it's nice to know the designers aren't afraid to take themselves a little less than seriously in their corner of the grim 'n' gritty Tom Clancy-verse.
Novelty Set One. Dig the turkey.
For the first set, left to right, you get a badass in shades … and a pink bunny snowsuit kind of thing. The boots don't really go with it, but this is a deadly commando, after all. In the center of the first set is some sort of mechanical tin man of doom. Or he might be the Medieval Knight Who Saved Christmas and Is Now a Ghost, an admittedly unlikely possibility. Rounding out the group? The obligatory pilgrim riding a giant turkey, naturally. And that's not a euphemism in any way, shape, or form.
Terror, thy name is Novelty Set Two.
The second set is even weirder. You get a peg-legged, eye-patched pirate (it's hard to tell whether he's got a hook, but that would probably make reloading even trickier); a pumpkin-headed scarecrow that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Batman villain of the same name; and a bearded Ringo Starr complete with "Caveman" skins riding a velociraptor and presumably planning to eat the turkey and pilgrim from the first set.
Where will the GR2 goodness end? Your guess is as good as ours, but there's no doubt that squad-combat fans are getting their money's worth, and then some, with the wealth of free maps, skins, and more available on Xbox Live. Go ahead, give the bunny suit a try.
