Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Xbox 360 Review

G.R.A.W. as its commonly known has been one of the more anticipated titles for the Xbox 360 since the console was relased back in December. G.R.A.W. is a squad based shooter taking place in either the 1st or 3rd person perspective! Personally, I feel the 3rd person is where its at. The detail alone on your player, who goes by the name of Scott Mitchell, is amazing. Ill get to the graphics in a minute! The general gist of the story is that you find yourself in Mexico city after Mexican rebels take over a summit. The Canadian president is after hitting the bucket and the US and Mexican prezzers are missing. You've guessed it, you and your squad are on a mission to find the Presidents in question.

The game opens with a selection of training missions which will give you a general understanding of the controls and the mechanics of the game! Theres quite alot of controls in the game, but after about an hour you'll be ordering your men around a tactical map and calling in air strikes. In G.R.A.W. not only do you control your team as to how they react in a situation, point out who to shoot at and where to go, you also get to control AC's, Tanks and Choppers. You get to order these when the game decides when is the right time. Its not as if you can call in a gunship for any old reason. Some levels have you holding tough until you get a message over the radio calling for you to point out some targets. Then the gunship arrives and kicks some serious backside, while you and your men run for cover! Other levels have you controlling an armoured car, which will happily go forward or backwards blowing things up, while offering a nice spot for you and your squad to get some cover. Parts of the game also allow you to ride in the Choppers holding on to a big machine gun, shooting at anything that moves! This happens early on in the game and its then do you appreciate how wide and vast the landscape is. Buildings of all shapes and sizes are as far as the eye can see, all shimmering away in the hot Mexican sunshine. The graphics are superb through out. On the top left of the screen you can see the various views from your team, chopper or whatever else your controlling. Things explode with debris, smoke and flames. Lights shimmer in the distance, choppers fly over head. Some of the graphics really have to be seen to be believed. The audio is equally impressive. Your squad scream and shout and say "Thanks" when you administer some medical attention to a wounded comrade! Buildings and vehicles make very convincing bangs and your array of weapons make all the right sounds!

This is a very ambitious game, and UBISOFT have almost pulled it off. The game does have its faults though, mainly in various bugs. The first bug I came across was during the training, not 20 minutes into the game. It was a simple task, to move your squad to a point on the tactical map. No matter how many times I moved them to the exact spot, the game would not let me exit the map. I had to restart to pass the training point. Another bug I found was the level where your trying to get the Mexican president to an extraction point. After a long and hard gun battle, the chopper flys in and we make for the extraction point. Nothing happens. Again a restart fixes the problem. I wouldnt have minded so much except I found the level fairly difficult! Bugs aside, the single player game is a really immersive gaming experience. I found myself running through a hail of bullets to get some medical aid to one of my fallen squad. A game that makes you care! Says it all really.

16 player multiplayer on Xbox Live is also part of the package. This consists of your regular death and team matches. Capture the terriority etc. and you take on the campaign mode as well with various levels where its up to 16 Live players all in one big squad. Again the graphics are really amazing here, particuarly on the Fishing villiage and Rocky Cove levels. The water effects alone are serious eye candy!
Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is one of the few titles to give the power of the Xbox 360 a half decent workout. It looks great, sounds great and plays great and the Xbox Live experience is great fun. Check it out. 9/10

Another miserable Monday, weather wise anyway. The weather over the last few days hasnt been the best and I got drenched over the weekend! Busy show last night. We kicked off a brand new promotion last night, which is running for the week. We've teamed up with Vogue beauty clinic on Princess St. and have tonnes of goodies up for grabs, for the hers and the hims including brazilians and chest / back waxes!

Looks like the weekends have gone back to going like lightspeed again. The hour caught me, and Im still feeling it, even this morning! I had my parents over on Friday afternoon for a while and Saturday was a really late riser! We took a wander around Mahon Point on Saturday evening, take christ for the "short cut" around the B&Q roundabout, otherwise we'd still be stuck in traffic. Well its not a shortcut per se, more of a strategic move through the traffic! We "decided" we'd go to B&Q instead of Mahon Point SC, but when we got to the roundabout in B&Q we "changed" our mind. The lights at the entrance provide a smooth entrance into MP! At the time there seem to be plenty of other people "changing" their mind as well! Ended up in Bennigans for something to eat after braving the hundreds of people all running round for mother days pressies. Its nice to see the service has improved in Bennigans! No more half hour waits for a starter etc.etc.etc.etc.

I got home last night for around one and settle down in front of Rescue Me. Another TV show that I missed first time round, and its proving addictive. Speaking of TV I caught about 2 minutes of the new Jigs N Reels show thing before I left for the show last night! This wouldnt be my kinda thing, even if they were irish dancing naked. It must be quite bizarre for George Hook though. Going from his radio show, to rugby punditry to "Well...you should be bending your knees a bit more and I didnt like your backstep there". Maybe Im just jealous!

Hopefully in the next 24-48 hours (!) I should have a review up of Ghost Recon Advanced WarFighter on the Xbox 360 up here. Ive been putting in a few hours over the weekend and its pretty cool!

Some more pics left on my bebo whiteboard

Im sticking these up on the bebo page, so I said why not fire em up here too. These are from my days doin 3d animation and film etc.! all using Lightwave 3D. The Whos on Top now Punk? one was featured in a full page spread in the international 3D World Magazine! Todays update down below as well!

A section of our own Air Studio

The joys of the Southlink, Roll on that Flyover

As I usually start a Friday blog, another week goes by! Above, 2 random pics from my phone. Great show (again! modesty) last night! Lots of concerned people about the Wedding Dress Store, although the solicitor representing them gave plenty of reassurances that all the brides to be will be ok! Some brides to be came on last night and they all made the same point "Why havent we got any phone calls". As any one with half a brain will tell you, a business doesnt go bust over night. Ive seen it happen a few years ago and the writings on the wall for some time. Either way, there seems to be a genuine drive to sort out the would be brides! Hopefully everyone will make it down the aisle! Relationships and suchlike are always a popular topic on the show. Jenny Rodgers from The Irish Examiner was on last night recounting her tales of the various forms of dating, from dating agencys to dating weekends away. €500 for a dating agency, and you get 3 calls from other singletons. €1500 is the price in Dublin. This knocked me for six, I know desperate times call for desperate mesaures but for that kind of mone, you'd probably get better satisfaction in a strip club. Which might be a bit harsh I hear some of you think to yourself, but I really dont think you can buy true love. You'll find it when your not looking for it. Think about it, go out planning to get your hole and most of the time the only thing you'll get close to is scratching your hole. Dont go looking for it and you end up buying new bed springs! I remember a couple of years ago being inside Nite Owls (thats now gone) and the same group of guys would do laps of the club, week after week. Maybe they were training for a marathon or something, but I never saw them pick up anyone. The whole place would stare at em. Funny shit!

The bebo stuff is off the chart all together. It must be overtaking the myspace scene. There more or less the same, but bebo is kinda like the puppets on Sesame St, everyone loves em young and old. Myspace is like the adults on Sesame St. serious, funny at times but not for everyone! Welcome to the worlds worst analagy. I spent a fair bit last night, after the show, replying to lots of bebo messages. Once again, the bebo page is linked on the right of the screen or just go to vicbarry.bebo.com

When I finally leave, the rain is coming down like theres a pissing contest in heaven! I contemplate for about 30 seconds, town or home. Home wins and I get in after one. By 3am Im being pinned down by some serious bad ass mo fos. Bullets are whizzing by my head. I start lobbing a few smoke grenades to cause a distraction, but it doesnt help. The feckers are still coming. Then an armoured car ploughs into the place and all hell is breaking loose. I get a message on the radio, that air support is on the way, but it cant arrive fast enough. Finally a chopper comes in and radios for me to point out the targets. The big Armoured Car and those fuckin tanks Im yellin!. After more bullets and explosions, I finally get the Mexican president to an extraction zone, but a bug in the game means I have to do the whole thing again! Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is something else, bar the bugs! I get into bed for around 415am and Im still awake at 5! Most be the flashbacks from the firefight!

As they say in Jarhead "Welcome to the Suck" and so it is. Im off back to the suck now so have a good weekend, and drop by the blog and the bebo page over Saturday and Sunday, ya never know theres probably gonna be some more updating!

Nice wan for reading and an even nicer wan for listening

- V

From Bebo

Jennie from Bebo came up with this rather good likeness (minus the hair on me face) on the whiteboard on Bebo :) Anyone else have a go for the crack and Ill stick em up here!
vicbarry.bebo.com

Nitey Nite!

Last one of the week

I cant believe how fast this week has gone. We're all gone blogging mad, so make sure you check out the links at the side for some serious RedFM Bloggin action! Who knows what you'll find out. Some of it may even make you cry! Absolutley savage show last night, if I do say so myself. Up the walls busy!

One of the topics was "Does TV encourage teens to have underage sex". Personally I dont buy into it. If theres something dodgy on after 9pm and some 12 year old is watching it, then its the parents fault. Its as simple as that! Its the exact same as the idiotic parents who allow there 12 year olds to watch an 18s flick. I do accept that some 18s flicks are nothing but violence and bad language, but theres a reason that little Johnny wont be let into an 18s movie at the flick house.When I was growing up I used to have a TV in my bedroom, which was set up for the southcoast tv thing! Anytime there was anything dodgy, one of the parents were out to the room wondering what I was watching. So any filth watching for the night was abandoned. As most of you will agree, the male of the species are horny period! Sure there was nights that I probably escaped with getting to see a pair of boobs on the TV, but I never decided "Right Im off out to have sex" One thing that did stick in my mind was a documentary about AIDS! That planted the whole "protect yourself before you wreck yourself" attitude in me little brain. It worked. Never had an STI! Teenagers are naturally curious, christ we all were and it really grind my gears when I hear parents avoiding the birds and the bees talk! Armed with a bit of knowledge teenagers are sorted! Maybe some parents are living in the land where babies are delivered by storks!

One of our callers on Tuesday night was invited out to try a blind food test last night. Basically she would only shop in Marks and Sparks and had, as far as I was concerned a certain snobby air about her. Well she arrived last night, and we fed her. Olives, Bread, Ceral, Coffee and Crackers. Everyday food. Admittingly it was a bit bizarre staring at someones face while they ate and ate. She thought all the items had either been purchased from The English Market or Marks. Risteard arrived in with 2 lots of reciepts, and its a pity we're not on the TV because the look on her face was priceless. Everything she ate and drank had been from Lidl and Aldi. The amount of texts that came in were huge. As one listener txt in "The nile isnt just a river in Egypt"

Last night in between everything else I managed to play 2 tracks off GMC's new album "Diggin a Hole". The plan is to play 1 or 2 more this evening. Its been on in the car for the last few days and its really rockin stuff. Great to see another Cork guy enter into the legends of Cork music!

My copy of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360 arrived yesterday. I havent had a great deal of time to get into it, but first impressions are Wow. Its hard but really immersive! Hopefully over the weekend Ill squeeze in some serious Recon action! The Blazing Angels demo has also gone up on Xbox Live and its a 600mb+ download but its worth it. Really playable!

Nice wan for dropping by

2 Pics from last night. Unfortunately my battery was dead in the cinema, so no pics of the crowds, sorry! Next Tuesday night, for the Failure to Launch screening Ill have a full charge! Great crowd at the Inside Man screening though, and they all got a shiny RedFM mug to assist in their beverage (hot or cold) consumption.

Huge reaction to our Aqua Spa Kids to Mother Pamper Package giveaway last night. Its back again tonight and Thursday. The prize consists of a Balneotherapy bath and an Elemis Taster Facial. The Balneotherapy bath has 240 jets. I dont know how big it is, but 240 jets!!!!!

It was a really busy show last night with one caller in particular almost boasting about spending 250 a week on weekly shop in M&S! She wouldnt venture into any of the other stores, because she liked her quality. Hopefully on Thursday night she'll be in studio, and just for the crack we will have a blind food test! Its only when you move out of your Mammys home that you appreciate how difficult a weekly shop is. Im probably the worst person in the world when it comes to doing it. Im a real impulse buyer and throw more shite into the shopping trolley than is needed. It is hard to decide "What'll we have for dinner next Thursday" especially when its a Friday. We've tried it the weekly way, the daily way, the bi weekly way and none of them work. Why is the whole food shopping thing so difficult, maybe its just me! The times Ger goes shopping on her own its around €60 cheaper than if I go with her! Says it all really.

Thats about it for now, Ill try and squeeze in another update later this evening! Im running off to a meeting now!


Alright, Im driving to it!

Just a real quickie. Just came across the latest trailer for the Da Vinci Code. Check it out here

Not being a good 12 hours technically. More PC issues and this morning, the phone lines were dead. Fair enough, problems happen. Ireland would be regarded has having one of the finer telecommunications systems in the world, but there is an exception. When you ring Eircom you get to talk to a machine, and it reads out a list of options, followed by more options, followed by even more options...slight pause...and then even more options! All the time your roaring Yes, No and the odd Feck sake like. Its really a clever system, it even asked me for my phone number and then went off and done a line test. During the line test, it spoke again and I got more options. At this stage, I was actually mildly excited in anticipation of the line test results. Then, I get put through to an operator, who explains the network in the area is shot and that was the end of the conversation! Im still waiting for the machine to tell me the results of the line test! Maybe they'll come with the next bill!

Failure to Launch is the latest rom com to hit these shores when it opens Nationwide on Friday week! Every night this week on the show we have some pairs of tickets up for grabs for our special preview screening next Tuesday night at the Gate cinema.
The Inside Man screening is happening tonight as well. Yours truly will be there roraring and shouting. I also do believe that the Haribo are back!!!!! Ill take a few pics for the blog as well!Speaking of giveaways Ive just got an email about another giveaway for the remainder of the week. Lets just say we might have the best ever Mothers day present ever!

One of the topics on the show last night was creches in the city and county. A report in the Examiner yesterday didnt instill any confidence in me and after hearing what some callers had to say last night I dont think Id be landing a child in a creche anytime soon..thats if I had a child of course! 4 year olds with black eyes, no hygene, slaps. This is a creche, not a prisoner of war camp. Thats the impression I got of at least one creche last night. You would think for paying some serious bobs for childcare that you would actually get value for money, not your 4 year old coming home with a shiner. One caller told how her daughter hated going, and would cry at the thought of going in! Its a creche, not a school. I think we all bawled at the thought of going into school at some stage, feck it, some of us were still crying in sixth year!

On a different note, for any of you Xbox 360 owners theres a demo of the latest Burnout game on Xbox Live. I was a big fan of the original games, but this is no more next generation than bird growing robotic wings. If you've absolutely nothing else to do have a nose off it, but to be honest its much the same as before. By the end of the week I should also have put Ghost Recon 3 Advanced War Fighter through its paces on the 360, so keep your eyes open for a review on here and the show!

Thats about it for now, Im a bit behind due to the phone line problem. Check the show out later on from 9pm on Corks RedFM 104-106, or click the listen to live button! See ya at the sreening!!!