Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 3

Death, destruction and huge guns will NEVER go out of fashion. Dear old Uncle Tom Clancy knows that, and with the Clancy universe of stars-and-stripes gaming proving a license to print money for Ubisoft, it doesn’t take an evil genius-level IQ to predict that GRAW 3 was all but guaranteed the moment GRAW 2 shipped. The first few months of next year will mark the unveiling, with January and February traditionally being the time when the French publishing monsters start talking about their year ahead.

Here’s what to expect: First, a whole new engine for both single-player and multiplayer. Hardened GRAW players will know that the biggest problem with the first two games’ multiplayer was that it wasn’t similar enough to the main Campaign mode; the fact that single- and multiplayer were developed by two separate teams was glaringly obvious, and many of the things you could do in single-player (locking to cover, for example), you couldn’t do in multiplayer. And vice versa: where was the co-op in Campaign? Sheer madness.

Second, the story. With the end of GRAW 2 suggesting that Mitchell is alive and well, it’s not a surprise to see the most personality-free gaming hero in recent memory back in the saddle for a threequel. Likely to be the last part in the Mexican trilogy, GRAW 3 will continue the struggle with the south-of-the-border nutbags. We expect the game to be set in 2014, too.

One interesting rumour we’ve caught wind of is that the story may possibly link in closer to the overarching plot of companion piece Tom Clancy’s Endwar, especially as the events at the end of GRAW 2 prove to be the catalyst for the (hopefully) explosive beginning of Endwar. Plus, in another neat twist, in Endwar you can send Ghost Recon units (and, we’re telling you now, Splinter Cell units) into battle, which further proves Ubi’s desire to link its main franchises together in one Clancy’s-paycheck-sized monster universe.