Tom Clancy's Endwar: gmaes features, history, gameplay at discountedgame

Tom Clancy's EndWar

Tom Clancy's EndWar is a real-time strategy game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms. It is set during World War III being designed by Ubisoft Shanghai. The special edition of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 included a video with the first live gmaes play footage of this gmaes .

North American Xbox 360 version box art
gmaes Developer(s): Ubisoft Shanghai
gmaes Publisher(s): Ubisoft
gmaes Designer(s): Michael de Plater
gmaes Engine: Unreal Engine 3
gmaes Platform(s): Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
gmaes Release date: US September 2008, EU Q3 2008 fiscal year,
gmaes Genre(s): Real-Time Strategy
gmaes Mode(s): Multiplayer, Single player
gmaes Rating(s): ESRB: RP (Rating Pending)
gmaes Media: Blu-Ray Disc, DVD

Plot

In 2011, the United States and the European Union sign the historic SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield) Treaty, agreeing to co-develop technologies for a comprehensive, interlocking anti-ballistic missile system. Left out of the treaty, Russia accelerates development of its own system. SLAMS is activated in 2014. The US and EU launch test salvos against each other, which the SLAMS weapons completely destroy. Emboldened by the success of the tests, the US and EU pronounce "the end of strategic nuclear war," and the world celebrates a new age of peace and security.

However, in 2015 it is found that major oil companies have overstated the amount of recoverable oil reserves. The price of oil spikes to US$200 per barrel, sending stock markets in New York, London, and Tokyo into a massive downturn. Energy security becomes the explicit priority of governments around the world. Only Russia, already the world's No.1 supplier of oil and natural gas, benefits from the energy crisis, spending its oil profits on modernizing its armed forces and utilizing its new-found power to influence world events. A nuclear war occurs between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2016, further compounding the global energy crisis and greatly crippling the nations of Europe. Once an alliance of individual countries, the EU now evolves into a continental state called the "European Federation" (EF). The United Kingdom is not required to join the EF and remains neutral, while the now fractured superpowers of the US and EF embark on a costly space arms race with each other.

The militarisation of space reaches its peak in 2018, when the United States reveals plans to launch the "Freedom Star" space station into high orbit by 2020, in an effort to regain its position as the premier world superpower. While partly designed for civilian research purposes, the station will also house three companies of U.S. Marines, who can deploy anywhere on Earth within 90 minutes. International reaction is extremely negative, to say the least. In 2020, when the final module of the Freedom Star is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center amid international outcry, it comes as little surprise when a group of terrorists attack the launch site. In investigating the source of the attack, the US, the EF, and Russia find themselves at odds, rolling with unstoppable momentum toward full-scale global war.

Characters

It is highly suggested that the game will serve as a tie-in with the events occurring in Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell. The website makes references to a "Ghost Leader", "Crosscom", "Splinter Cell" and an audio sample of the Splinter Cell night-vision activation sound effect can be heard, all being trademarks of the Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell series. A TeamXbox Article confirms that Captain Scott Mitchell of the Ghost Recon series indeed survives the events of GRAW 2 and leads the JSF. Lead designer Michael de Plater has revealed that the Ghost Recon team will be the Special Forces team for the US faction, Rainbow Six characters will be promoted as special EF commanders, and Third Echelon will provide battlefield intelligence, along with special units such as snipers . Also, there has been hinted at a "President Fisher..." (Possibly a reference to Sam Fisher, the protagonist of the Splinter Cell series of games) followed by a laugh. However, the U.S. president in the novelization of the game is David Becerra who also happens to be the first Hispanic President. As to whether David Becerra or Sam Fisher will be president in the game is currently unknown. In an IGN interview De Plater said the setting of EndWar (as a possible series) is a global battle, but this installment is focused on the North Atlantic theatre of battle, Europe, Russia and North America, but players will also hear reports of events in other parts of the world.

gmaes play

Electronic Gaming Monthly issue 216 contained an interview with the gmaes 's lead designer, Michael de Plater. He confirmed the game to be a Real Time Strategy gmaes , but not in the traditional sense. Units will gain experience as they are used in battle. The emphasis will be more on smaller scale battles rather than the overarching campaign. Clans will also be included in the game online for coordinating battles and creating a unified strategy for attacking or defending.

Factions

There are 3 playable factions in EndWar:

• The Russian Spetsnaz Guards Brigade, which is composed of veterans of Russia's many regional conflicts, specializing in heavy weapons and heavy armor.
• The European Federation Enforcers Corps, which is made up of veteran elite counter-terrorist and peacekeeping forces from throughout Europe, especially skilled in urban warfare. While their weaponry may not be as precise as those of the JSF and their units are slightly less armored, their strength lies in electronic warfare, as well as non-lethal weapons technology and advanced directed energy weapons. Their ranks notably contain many previous members of the elite counter-terrorist unit Rainbow.
• The United States' Joint Strike Force, which is led by Ghost Recon main character Scott Mitchell, is modeled after today's Marine Expeditionary Units. The JSF is built around small, fast, and light units packing a precise punch, and is made up of elite units from all branches of the US military,. It also specializes in access to state-of-the-art stealth technology and battlefield robotics, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Automated Sentry Drones.

Real Time Strategy

A prominent feature of the game is the Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy feature. Players choose a faction and engage in combat with players from opposing sides in roughly 40 battlefields spanning North America, Russia, and Europe, contributing to their side’s overall success and changing the front lines on the global map. In a gmaes Reactor interview, it was revealed that players will have a personal character, and each day the front lines of the overall war will be reset based on smaller battles that have taken place. A briefing before each match will inform the player of his or her previous actions and the current global situation, as well as the possible effects of the battle that they are about to fight. There can be hundreds of battles that last an indefinite amount of time in a single territory, with the victor being the side that was the most effective; there are plans to include game play recordings of the best players' battles. There will be multiple ways to initiate new combat on a continent that's already been captured by the enemy, some examples that were given were a "D-day" style invasion of France, amphibious landings in southern or northern Europe, and a mass invasion of Siberia through Alaska. there will be several different types of gameplay like Attrition, Siege, and Sabotage. If one faction completely defeats the others, the developers can create a new scenario based on the previous outcome and start the war over again. Also, according to Erik Brudvig, "Ubisoft didn't rule out a little 'interference' on their part if one faction was getting a little overambitious."

De Plater hinted at the game being "streamlined" with regards to units, resource management, etc. He stated that "every time [they] cut features out, it just made the gmaes better." For example, only 12 groups are allowed under control at once, creating a "Madden at war" style of battle. Also, the resource system will be stripped down compared to other RTS gmaes . Each unit costs the same amount of resources, which are gained by capturing strategic points on the battlefield. There will also be "no magic" in EndWar, meaning all new units must be transported onto the battlefield by a transport vehicle.

Units

The number of unit types was revealed to be limited to seven: Riflemen, Engineers, Tanks, Transport, Gunships (includes tiltrotor aircraft, shown in the trailer), Artillery, and Command Vehicles. Troops which have been with the player for many battles will be more effective than fresh recruits. De Plater, lead designer, says this creates a "Pokémon-like" ownership of the player's units, and will have a large effect on his tactics. "It's a battalion that you own," says de Plater. "You can personalize it. You can customize it. You can choose its motto and its heraldry. You can change its composition and abilities." According to a Pre-GC IGN article: "Each faction has roughly 150 upgrades and units have six levels of experience. These upgrades are where the seven unit types can gain great variety and specialization through three different ways-experience, equipment and training, all of which have different effects and abilities. This allows many of the related unit types other games consider a different class have merely to be folded into one of the seven present in EndWar. For example, a rifleman may be upgraded to a sniper unit rather than having that unit type exists by itself." There are about 40,000 lines of dialogue, 9,000 of which are "unit chatter" that will give a battalion its own personality. Each unit will have a specific voice to help the player recognize instantly which one is in danger, and these voices show the degree of danger they are in (such as the severity of an injury or the morale the unit has).

The player will not control individual soldiers, but much larger platoons and companies. The soldiers will behave realistically, using stealth and military tactics. Veterans will act based on their experience in previous battles. Says Robert Ashley, a writer for EGM, "Squadrons of heavily armed soldiers, when ordered to a cluster of firebombed cars, will automatically take cover in different ways, periodically taking potshots at the enemy through windows and over hoods. If a soldier gets shot, one of his squadmates will drag him back to safety. When the player orders reinforcements, the additional troops deploy from helicopters, rappeling down the ropes like old pros. When ordered to take control of a building, the troops will gather around the entrance and break in Rainbow Six-style-boot through the door and guns blazing. Then they will take sniper positions in the windows."Craters, walls, debris, and buildings can be used for cover, and units can be pinned down by heavy enemy fire.

Voice

The game will feature optional voice commands so that the player may use a headset to give orders to their troops, although the troops will only react to valid and game-related orders in certain languages, but are able to understand many accents of those languages. It has been said by officials at Ubisoft Shanghai that, "You can control the whole game using voice controls if you wanted to." Hearing enemy soldiers communicate gives the player a strategic advantage to counter their attack with one of their own.

Point of View

The view in the gmaes is from the perspective of one of the units under the player's command. The camera can be panned 3-dimensionally and swapped between units but is not directly under the control of the player. Enemy units will only be detected if they are visible; doing away with the fog of war common in most strategy gmaes ; however, a player with enough investment into the space program can use satellite feed to see all units on the map.

In addition to the units' point of view, there is also a tactical map, which shows the entire map with the locations of all allied and any visible enemy units and can be used for commands such as setting waypoints.

Trailer

They promised the shield would save us from nuclear annihilation. They were right. They also promised a new era of peace.

The first EndWar trailer shows an overhead map of Europe with only Spain and half of France under US control, while the Russians occupy the rest of the continent. The camera then zooms to an ongoing battle in Paris, where a local Joint Strike Force commander, Major General Smith, directs the action from a mobile headquarters vehicle by touching and moving a holographic map display. Outside, US soldiers armed with modified M8 assault rifles, along with advanced M2 Bradley APCs, DPV Jeeps and M1 Abrams tanks attack Russian forces holding out at the Élysée Palace. Eventually, the US troops call in air support in the form of redesigned RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters and V-22 Osprey transports, forcing the Russians to fall back. However, the assault is short-lived, as in addition to a mechanized counterattack, the Russian forces launch hundreds of UCAVs that shoot down the helicopters right on top of the soldiers. Realizing the desperate situation, General Smith issues voice attack commands to a Kinetic Strike satellite hovering over Europe. Russian soldiers surround him as he emerges from his vehicle.

Just before the Russians take him in as a prisoner of war, the general says, "Now." The satellite fires a kinetic missile down on his position, obliterating himself and the Russians, as well a large section of Paris.

The trailer depicts several major cultural icons from Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, a heavily damaged Luxor obelisk in the the battlefield of the Place de la Concorde, and the Louvre museum.

Novelization

Endwar was published as a novel, on the 5th of February 2008 in paperback form. The back cover says "Based on Ubisoft's bestselling gmaes , Tom Clancy's EndWar", despite the gmaes not yet having been released.

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