Ghost Recon Wildlands Operation Oracle missions bring in Punisher's Jon Bernthal for a potential sequel tease

A new Ghost Recon Wildlands update may be the big sequel tease that agents have been waiting for. With Wildlands' second birthday behind it as of March, Ubisoft has unveiled plans for a set of two new story missions called Operation Oracle: they star Jon Bernthal (AKA The Punisher) as a fellow Ghost, and even if you don't own the game, you'll be able to check them out via an upcoming free weekend.

Operation Oracle will be added to Ghost Recon Wildlands through a free update on May 2. Ubisoft says it will start out as a rescue mission for an engineer held hostage by the Unidad faction, but things will go off the rails after you meet Bernthal as Cole D. Walker, "a Ghost Team Leader on the hunt for truth". A post on the official site for Ghost Recon Wildlands advises players to explore thoroughly, because "what you will discover here might very well set the scene for the future."

Sounds like the secrets you uncover while working with Walker may set up a potential Ghost Recon Wildlands 2. Come to think of it, it would be a odd for Ubisoft to bring in a high-profile actor like Bernthal just to do a couple post-launch missions for an old game. Expect to see more of him in whatever comes next for Wildlands.

If all that sequel teasing has you eager to finally jump in and play Wildlands for yourself, the free weekend is set to begin on May 2. Here are the specific opening and closing times broken down by time zone. Note that the PC version on Uplay and Steam will end just under a day earlier.

PDT: Free weekend begins at 7 am PDT on May 2 and ends at 10 am PDT on May 6.
EDT: Free weekend begins at 10 am EDT on May 2 and ends at 1 pm EDT on May 6.
BST: Free weekend begins at 3 pm BST on May 2 and ends at 6 pm BST on May 6.

You'll have unlimited access to the base game's contents during the free weekend, including single-player and online co-op. Any progress you make will carry over to the full version (which you'll be able to buy at up to a 70 percent discount through May 13).

While we wait to see if a sequel's on the way, check out all of the E3 2019 games to expect this year. And see a selection to get excited about right now in the video below.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.