In my New Year retrospective on the past ten years of computer games, I mentioned a game very dear to my heart - 'Tom Clacy's Ghost Recon'. This turned out to be a seminal game for me, which turned a pastime into a obsession, and set me on a long and torturous path of computer upgrades and increasing complex military first person shooters.

Well, despite it's age (7 years old now) this game has managed to retain a hard core community of players, developers and dedicated servers which are a huge testament to the immersive quality of the game play. So much so, that a new and exciting mod for the game was released just over the past month that has had me scrambling about in my attic for my old Ghost Recon CDs.

Called 'Udmurtia Spetsnaz', this game add-on supplies a completely new set of uniforms, weapons and special characters that represent a snapshot of modern Russian special forces.

"Udmurtia is a region in russia that lies in the southern ural mountains. The capital is izhevsk and there you'll find the ismash gun factory, home of many russian guns.

Many units from this region has seen a great deal of action in recent years. OMSN Sobol - quick reaction force (earlier the name was SOBR), Krechet - an elite unit within the MVD (can cope with the most situations really), and Udmurtia OMON - an elite police unit." Ingleloop, developer of 'Udmurtia Spetsnaz' mod.

What is nice about this mod - aside from the superbly textured uniforms and weapons - is that this completely revitalises the classic Ghost Recon with a completely up-to-date force with which you can battle with in single player or multiplayer modes.

For me, and my involvement in the Russian themed airsoft team - Team AKA - this mod allowed me to investigate some very obscure modern Russian weaponry and uniform loadouts. Indeed, inspired by this mod, I have now started collecting the gear required to play one of the characters from the game at South Yorkshire Airsoft.

If you haven't ever tried Ghost Recon, I don't think this one mod will have you hunting through eBay to secure a copy of the original game, but for hardened veterans like myself this new mod is a delightful reason to dust off the old disks and spin that oldie! 

 DETAILS OF 'UDMURTIA SPETSNAZ':-

Description: New Russian weapons and characters with a 5 mission campaign.

Author/Developer:  Ingeloop/Migryder
Released:  22/12/07
Current version: 1.2
Requires: Ghost Recon plus Desert Siege, Island Thunder expansions
File size: 99Mb


RELATED LINKS:

> Download the ' Udmurtia Spetsnaz' mod for Ghost Recon (PC)

> UBISOFT's official Ghost Recon series website
> GhostRecon.net download section for classic Ghost Recon
> Wikipedia: Tom Clacy's Ghost Recon