Ghost Recon Wildlands is back for a second year of running, gunning and making things go boom and, to celebrate, Ubisoft has announced that the game will be free-to-play across all platforms through the weekend.

The Ghost Recon Wildlands Free Weekend is set to run through April 15 and it's live right now so, if you want to take the latest offering from the Tom Clancy umbrella for a test drive, you can get your download started on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or PC.

As has become a common practice in this modern age of gaming, you'll be downloading the full game rather than just a demo. You'll have access to everything Wildlands has to offer through 11:59 p.m. PDT on April 15, at which point you'll either need to purchase the game to keep playing or simply write the whole thing off as a free weekend of gaming. Participants will have free reign over the open world map of Bolivia, where they can take down the Santa Blanca cartel solo or in cooperative play. As an added bonus, "Special Operation 1" went live recently, giving players a chance to help out Sam Fisher from the Splinter Cell series. Based on the Free Weekend event announcement, it looks like that mission will be open to folks trying out the game in the next couple of days, too.

At the bottom of that same announcement is a FAQ that reiterates the fact Free Weekend players will have access to the full game, including online play and stuff like Achievements/Trophies. Your progress will save like normal and, just like with previous free events, you'll be able to pick up right where you left off if you ever decide to go ahead with a purchase.

One thing we tend to see with free weekends is a discounted cost on the full game, and Ubisoft does not disappoint, as the developer has decided to discount Wildlands for a limited time, making it more enticing ever to take the plunge if you enjoy your free time in Bolivia. The game and its various DLC is up to 67 percent off on all platforms, with the Xbox One and PS4 discounts available through April 23 and the PC discount available through April 18. A special note mentions that the discounts on Xbox One are only available for Gold subscribers. Discounts include the Standard, Deluxe and Gold editions of Wildlands, as well as the first Season Pass.

We found out in recent weeks that Wildlands will be getting a second year's worth of content and event support, so you can also pick up a pass for all of that jibba-jabba if you like. There does not appear to be a discount on the Year 2 pass, though.

So what do you think, readers? Anyone planning on giving the Free Weekend a go? Any current players want to encourage everyone to take the plunge? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.

Ubisoft's major update for Ghost Recon: Wildlands featuring the Splinter Cell content is set to arrive later this week. The new update will give fans of Wildlands some additional content to sink their teeth into whether they're playing on the Xbox One, PS4 or PC.

The trailer was posted on the official Ubisoft YouTube channel. It's two and a half minutes long and starts with a voiceover from none other than the original Sam Fisher, the venerable Michael Ironside.

The unmistakable voice of the Canadian actor shines through front and center as he explains that Langley doesn't like to be messed with. We get a glimpse of a heavily armored compound, and Ironside explains that when Langley has an international problem, they call him... since he's the guy that can go where others can't.

Ironside's voiceover feels right at home in Ghost Recon: Wildlands. He really seems to be into the role here, returning as Sam Fisher. The trailer explains that Fisher is the guy who executes his directives with "swift action" and in equal manner, the guy that they can disavow if things get ugly.

Meanwhile, we get glimpses of Fisher stealthily sneaking into the compound, taking out the guards, hiding the bodies and using a knife to get most of the dirty deeds done.

It's explained that the target that stole the information from Langley has plans on selling the information to the drug cartels in Bolivia. Fisher is sent in to neutralize the target and retrieve the data.

The cinematography for the level and the lighting is absolutely perfect. In fact, if you weren't paying attention you would just as well assume that this was a right proper sequel to the beloved Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. The dark, moody aesthetic and Sam's gear look like the next step up from what was introduced in the Xbox classic.

The trailer does a better job of setting up a Splinter Cell game than every single one of the trailers for Splinter Cell: Blacklist. It's amazing what an Echelon suit, Michael Ironside's voice and a karambit knife will do for raising the excitement levels within the gaming community for a new Splinter Cell title.

But, in addition to Sam Fisher's iconic suit and deadly knife, there are also new pistols and assault rifles added to the game, along with several new night vision googles, one of which includes the three-goggle headset that Fisher is known for wearing in the Splinter Cell franchise.

All of this content for Ghost Recon: Wildlands will go live starting April 10th with the Special Operation 1 DLC update. I imagine a lot of gamers will be willing to fork over cash to Ubisoft given that the company seems to be giving gamers the Sam Fisher they grew up with and in a very respectful manner. You can look to grab the DLC for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Now that we know Ghost Recon Wildlands is getting another season's worth of updates, speculation can begin concerning what, exactly, players can expect over the next 12 months. One thing none of us probably saw coming, though, was Sam Fisher dropping into the action.

Ubisoft made a lot of their fans very, very happy today when they revealed a crossover of sorts will be happening between Tom Clancy games. According to the reveal trailer, Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher will be joining the fray in Ghost Recon Wildlands.

While we don't know all of the details just yet, the trailer drops several hints as to what players can expect out of Fisher's arrival in Wildlands. For more details, the trailer ends with the promise that additional information will be revealed on April 9. We have a feeling we've got a full-on trailer in store, perhaps showing off Sam Fisher's sneaky abilities and how they are translated into Wildlands.

From the trailer and the provided description, we know that a special operations mission, "The Call," will be part of the year-two content for Wildlands. We get lots of interesting radio chatter and then, boom, Fisher himself is shown on-screen. The coolest part is that Fisher seems to be voiced by Michael Ironside, who was replaced in the most recent Splinter Cell game. We can only hope that this means the voice talent is back for good and, fingers crossed, maybe even starring in a new game for that beloved franchise?

In the trailer, we hear the voice of Paladin explaining that "Langley has sprung a leak and needs us to stick our thumb in it." Shortly after, the person Langley is talking to is told that they had better brush up on their Spanish, as they'll be heading to Bolivia.

That's when we hear Fisher's voice come over the radio, saying he's going to need some extra firepower to get the job done. Then we get the rather fantastic line "I've got friends in that neighborhood. Call the Ghosts." We figure all major Clancy fans either felt chills, cried or both.

The good news is that we only have to wait until Monday to find out more details concerning The Call. We figure that would be a pretty great way to kick off the big year two content in Wildlands, which Ubisoft has decided to keep rolling due to continued community support.

Still, since Predator is already in the game, we can't help but wonder if there will be a future mission pitting the stealthy alien hunter against the stealthy human hunter. Just imagine the promotional videos featuring the iconic green glow of Fisher's goggles accompanied by the iconic red crosshairs of Predator's cannon.

Ubisoft is continuing to support Ghost Recon Wildlands for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The third-person shooter came out last year in the spring and received a number of updates and DLC, but Ubisoft recently announced that a second year of content updates will get underway throughout 2018.

In the press release, it was announced that during the second year of content, Ghost Recon Wildlands will receive free content for both the campaign mode and the PvP, including the new Special Operation 1 update, which is set to go live on April 10th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

The Special Operations 1 update will include teammate customization, allowing players to customize and outfit their teammates during the campaign mode. This was added as a brand new feature after being specially requested by the community ever since the game launched last year.

The customization for the teammates will allow players to outfit their buddies with the clothing items that they've unlocked during their playthrough.

A new update to the PvP feature will also be available in the Special Operations 1 patch, including a brand new game mode for Ghost Recon Wildlands called "Sabotage", which contains five exclusive new maps. There is also a new playable class and brand new perks and weapons to unlock for the character classes. The Special Operations 1 update will feature the first of six new playable character classes, which will be rolled out throughout 2018 as part of the Year 2 content roadmap.

Gamers who aren't entirely thrilled with killing each other in PvP modes will find that there are also some new updates for the PvE content as well. A special new PvE mission has been added with additional special challenges and unlockable rewards.

Now, while some of the content for Year 2 will be free, a lot of it will be premium. This means players will have to pay for the content. To help make the move into the premium content easier, Ubisoft has a Year 2 Pass, which is a season pass for all second year content. This also includes a week's worth of early access to all Year 2 Ghost War classes, along with access to an exclusive customization pack, and eight battle crates that feature four Special Ops crates and four Ghost War crates in order to customize your character(s) for the main campaign mode. The Year 2 Pass will run you $29.99, as outlined on the Ghost Recon web portal.

Ubisoft started paying a lot more mind to the game after it managed to rack up more than 10 million players worldwide across all three platforms. The sales for the game allowed it to warrant enough attention for a second year's worth of output, so, much like Rainbow Six: Siege, Ubisoft is giving the fans what they want.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands features a four-player cooperative campaign that can be played either solo or with up to three other players. The developers also recently added an event where you and your friends attempt to hunt down the AI that's controlling a Predator. Yes, this is based on the popular movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

You can look for the Year 2 content for the game to start dropping on April 10th.

Ubisoft, whatever faults you may throw at them, at least has a very consistent track record of supporting its games for long after release. Games that do well enough seem to receive lots of post-launch support, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands is definitely a game that's been receiving a lot of love from Ubisoft.

The latest update for the game includes the Extended Ops Extraction mode, which is included as a free update for Ghost Recon: Wildlands that's available right now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and for gamers playing on PC through Steam or Uplay.

The new mode is designed to compliment the Ghost War PvP mode for the third-person shooter. The Extraction mode also comes with all new maps. In the mode, two teams go against each other in 4-vs-4 PvP bouts. One team is focused on locating and escorting a specified target to get them out of the conflict zone. It's almost exactly like Rainbow Six: Siege, where the Rainbow team has to extract the hostage out of a hostile zone, while the terrorist must keep the hostages alive and force the Rainbow team out of the area.

The concept plays out identically in Ghost Recon: Wildlands, where the opposing team must locate the hostages (or keep track of the hostages) and prevent the extraction team from getting to the hostages and extracting them to safety. The hostages must stay alive no matter which side of the conflict you're on, so it literally is a Rainbow Six mode made available in Ghost Recon.

If the opposing team manages to kill off the rescuers while keeping the hostages alive, then the opposing team wins. If the rescuers manage to get the hostages to the extraction zone, then the rescue team wins the round.

The new mode comes with two brand new maps as well, one of which is called "Institute" and the other is called "Garage." The institute is centered around an actual institute area that you can infiltrate, which involves several buildings in a small area. The garage is set just off the road that involves several garage buildings and storage facilities. Both maps can also be played either casually or in ranked mode play, whether you're playing across PC, PS4 or Xbox One.

Not only that, but Ubisoft was generous enough to give gamers all new equipment to acquire as well. In fact, the comparisons to Rainbow Six come into play with the costumes, given that some are literally based on the operators from Rainbow Six: Siege. A few costumes are also based on the campaign characters from Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

There's also a full changelog for the new updates listed over on the Ghost Recon website, where some additional changes have been made to the existing characters in the game and the character classes.

The Ghost War PvP mode originally made its debut back in October of 2017 as a means of extending and expanding the replayability of Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which came out back during the early first half of 2017. You can enjoy the new content via the free update right now.

If you've been looking for a reason to dive back into Ghost Recon Wildlands, the folks at Ubisoft are happy to deliver. This week, a bunch of new DLC is heading to the game and, yep, it's all going to be made available free of charge.

Ubisoft has announced that the second major DLC bundle being brought to Ghost Recon Wildlands will arrive later this week, giving players a chance to try out some new classes, visit some new maps and finally take part in ranked play. The DLC is called Jungle Storm and it'll arrive on all platforms Dec. 14.

The Jungle Storm DLC is geared specifically toward PvP and, as noted above, it's being made available to all players free of charge. Given the clouds of controversy surrounding microtransactions, loot boxes and DLC these days, it's nice to be able to report on something like free content. It's also nice to see PvP content being handed out at no additional charge, as that goes a long way to keep a game's community from fragmenting. Everyone can enjoy the new content together and nobody drops out of the game due to feeling left behind when it comes to playing on new maps.

As for what you can expect from the upcoming Wildlands DLC, here's what the official press release had to say.

Two new classes are being made available in the game's PvP modes, including the stealthy new Pathfinder who uses a crossbow and can't be marked by drones. As for the second new class, Ubisoft is keeping their lips zipped for the moment. Apparently, we can expect a proper reveal for the class sometime before the Dec. 14 launch of the Jungle Storm content.

Ranked play is also being added to the latest Ghost Recon game, with players and squads able to compete for higher positions in the game's various rankings.

Jungle Storm will also introduce some new maps for the game's Elimination and Uplink game modes, though we haven't had word on what those maps will look like just yet. Some new weapons are also being introduced to the game, as well as gameplay updates for both PvP and PvE modes. We assume more specific details will be provided around that Dec. 14 launch.

Yet another "games as service" title, Ghost Recon Wildlands has been dishing out the content and keeping players coming back for more throughout 2017. With the launch of this latest DLC, we're curious if Ubisoft has given more thought to how long of a tail they hope to add onto the core game. Our guess is that, so long as people keep playing, they'll probably want to keep developing fresh reasons to keep everyone hooked.

The second expansion for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands is nearly upon us, and it's set to inject the game with a whole bunch of new missions packed with elite enemies, as well as some new weaponry for players to use against them.

Ubisoft announced via press release this week that the second batch of DLC for Wildlands will arrive on May 30 for Season Pass holders on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. If you don't fall into that category, then you can buy all of the new content for $14.99 piece meal come June 6. It's called "Fallen Ghosts," in case you're curious, and it's packing in a little something for everyone.

Set following the main Wildlands campaign, Fallen Ghosts features a new threat, Los Axtranjeros, who have been assembled to restore order to a country caught in the midst of a civil war. They pretty much blame the Ghosts for everything that's going wrong, which is why their mission is to track down and eliminate any and all American agents. In other words, the hunters are becoming the hunted.

Your job is simple (kinda): Track down and evacuate any remaining Americans in the territory. Unfortunately, a monkey wrench gets thrown into the proceedings before you can really get rolling. Your chopper gets shot down and you find yourself stranded in a jungle surrounded by hostile agents. Fun! Those new enemies come in four flavors.

Armored: Equipped with heavy bulletproof plates, they are especially threatening in close combat.

Elite Sniper: Geared up with an advanced movement detector, these Elite Snipers are able to notice far away targets and never miss their shot.

Jammer: With a jamming antenna directly in their backpack, they are able to neutralize drones and interfere with all electronic equipment.

Covert Ops: Equipped with a new prototype cloaking device that makes them almost invisible and a powerful crossbow, they give a new meaning to the word "Ghost."

Luckily, you'd never be thrown into the Wildlands without a way to defend yourself, which is why players will have access to some brand new firepower to help even the odds. These include new assault rifles, sniper rifles and that crossbow mentioned above with, you guessed it, explosive arrows.

All told, this Wildlands DLC stretches across 15 new missions boasting a collection of new bosses to take down in three major regions. Also, when you start playing, you'll get a new character who is already set to level 30 and has all of the main game's skills ready to roll. The cap will be shifted from 30 to 35 to give you something to strive for, and you'll also have nine new skills to unlock.

If that isn't enough, then you folks who enjoy a good challenge will be happy to hear that Wildlands' advanced and expert play modes have been tweaked to be even more difficult. Also, you'll no longer have access to a HUD in those modes, so good luck!

Usually, in newer games, you can skip through the missions you don't want to play, or avoid grinding by buying DLC to unlock the game or progress through it quicker. Well, you don't have to buy DLC to quickly skip through a ton of missions in Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

IGN discovered that it's possible to get to the very end of the game, the final mission against the boss El Sueno without doing much at all. First, join an online game. Then, simply make sure you're teamed either with friends or other players who have already defeated the other four cartel bosses. This will automatically update your bounty board and enable you to take on El Sueno's mission even if you didn't complete any of the other missions leading up to him.

If you haven't defeated any of the cartel bosses on your Santa Blanca mission board, but you join two or more players in the online mode where they have, it will enable you to go back and play those missions even when you eventually go offline and play solo.

The hook is that even after you unlock El Sueno by joining someone else's game in Ghost Recon: Wildlands, you won't have to worry about having to grind through the main campaign in order to unlock the final mission. What's more is that when you replay the missions you can gain access to all the higher level rewards without having to build up to them first. This sort of thing is a great way to breeze through the game if you find yourself not really enjoying the game and you just want to get to the end.

Alternatively, you might not have a lot of time to play and maybe you just want to see how the Ghosts take down the big baddie... well, that's one method to use in order to do so.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands follows up on Ubisoft's two previous titles, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Ghost Recon: Phantoms, the former of which launched for home consoles and the latter of which launched for PC. Ubisoft decided to take a very different approach with Wildlands by putting it in a fully open world environment within the beautiful but troubled region of Bolivia.

The game features the ability to team up with three other friends, ride around the open world, steal cars (for mission purposes, of course), customize your character, outfit them with a cool weapon, and take on a variety of different missions sprinkled across the game's world.

The design of Ghost Recon: Wildlands is actually quite similar to Avalanche Studios' Just Cause, so gamers who are familiar with the tropical action title will likely be at home with Ubisoft's open-world take on Ghost Recon. Of course, you won't have access to a grappling hook, a wingsuit or tons of physics-based explosions taking place throughout the environment.

You can make use of the news tip to jettison through the game and get to the final boss without much effort. Ghost Recon: Wildlands is available right now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands has been unleashed on the gaming masses, allowing players to team up and take down deadly drug cartels in a big, beautiful, highly detailed world. But with such a big and demanding game, that's got some PC players wondering if their rig can handle the load.

Over on Gamespot, they decided to take Ghost Recon: Wildlands for a spin through some benchmark testing to determine what setting will work best for PC gamers. According to the game's official site, Wildlands requires a pretty beefy computer to get it up and running. You'll need 6GB of RAM and 2GB of VRAM, but that's pretty standard these days. As for the CPU, they recommend an Intel Core i5-2400S @ 2.5 GH or equivalent. Over to the GPU and the supported list includes the likes of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600/GTX 750 Ti/GTX 950/GTX 1050 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better).

For many gamers, that's just a whole bunch of numbers and acronyms. What it translates to is: you're going to need a pretty current computer to even get Wildlands up and running. To check this, the Gamespot crew took the title through its paces, concluding that Wildlands is an "incredibly demanding" game on the PC if you want to play it at its highest settings. They point out that the fastest graphics card out there, the GTX 1080 Ti, even had trouble keeping up with full settings and 4K resolution. In other words, the "sweet graphics" of modern games are outpacing the hardware available by a decent margin.

The final conclusion is that the open world and many moving parts of a game like Wildlands are simply too demanding for a modern rig but, again, that's if we're topping out the settings. We're also reminded that upcoming patches, drivers and the like could help make this a problem of the past in the case of Wildlands.

And, let's face it, most of us aren't too worried about playing our games on uuber settings. The cost of building a computer that can keep up with the times is likely a bit too restrictive for your average gamer. The silver lining here is that, if you aren't looking for the highest performance available, the game runs perfectly well on lower settings. If you've got a pretty decent rig and knock the settings down to Very High or even High, things should run smoothly and, again, Wildlands is still going to look fantastic in action.

We understand wanting a game to look as good as possible, but it also seems counter-intuitive to build something out to a degree that a fraction of a fraction of your audience will even be able to enjoy. Then again, that audience still exists, so it's nice to see that Wildlands will look eye-bleedingly gorgeous for those who can take advantage of those higher settings.

One of the upcoming games from Ubisoft is Ghost Recon: Wildlands, an open-world game centered around taking down drug cartels in a South American country. Well, the country represented in the game isn't happy about their portrayal, and they're doing something about it.

According to Reuters, the Bolivian government filed a formal complaint with the French embassy on the grounds that it makes Bolivia look like nothing but a country filled with drug dealers, traffickers and violent criminals.

So why did the Bolivian government take their issue up with France and not with Ubisoft? Well, it's because Ubisoft is a company native to France, so quite naturally the Bolivian government is essentially trying to tattle tell on Ubisoft's "parent".

For those of you who don't know, Ghost Recon: Wildlands takes place in Bolivia. Gamers assemble a team and customize their character as they attempt to thwart the drug running happening within the country. This includes commandeering vehicles and taking out drug transport convoys, destroying distribution stations, interrogating and intimidating suppliers, and engaging in armed combat against drug militiamen.

It's not all bad tidings and evil intentions in Ghost Recon: Wildlands, though. The game also features rebel fighters also trying to fight back against the drug cartels. The locals aren't standing by idly... although you might find some who are.

Much like every other open-world game out there, there are good and bad people featured throughout the vast open world of Bolivia. However, it's the bad parts that has the Bolivian government up in arms... but not literally.

They decided to take their case to the French embassy before taking legal action against Ubisoft. They claim that they would prefer to use "diplomatic negotiation".

Ubisoft has already stated to Reuters that they chose Bolivia due to its rich environments and diverse locations. It probably also helps that it's the third largest supplier in the world of coca leaves that are used to produce cocaine, as pointed out by Reuters.

Even still, Ubisoft sticks by the claim that the game is a work of fiction and not representative wholly or entirely of Bolivia or Bolivian culture.

This is always one of the dangers of featuring a real life location in a video game. Former dictators were angered about Activision including their likenesses in Call of Duty games, and one French town was angered that Pokemon would pop up in their area within Pokemon Go without Niantic Labs first getting permission to do business there.

It's hard to tell which way this is going to go, because a lot of it depends on how Bolivia presents its case to the French government and, potentially, the courts. Of course, they'll likely use the fact that 6.8 million people participated in the open beta and possibly argue that it reflects negatively on the country and could affect their tourism and travel. However, that remains to be seen, and for now they're simply going through the proper channels to pursue said diplomatic negotiations.

Meanwhile, Ghost Recon: Wildlands will launch for the PS4, Xbox One and PC on March 7th.

The release of Ghost Recon: Wildlands is fast approaching. The game made big waves at E3 a few years ago but slowly and quietly faded from view after Ubisoft adopted a new method in promoting their games. Well, now we've reached a point where the beta sign-ups are available, so you can play the game for yourself.

Ubisoft sent out a press release directing gamers to the official Ghost Recon website where you can sign up for the beta process taking place in North America. The site will first take you to the age-gate portal where you'll need to insert your birth date and then you will be taken to a screen where you'll need to login using your Ubisoft account.

If you don't have a Ubisoft account it's possible to create an account using your Facebook account, your PlayStation Network ID or your Xbox Live account. They don't give a specific date on when the beta will start, but they'll definitely need to do it soon given that Ghost Recon: Wildlands is due to drop on March 7th, 2017. This gives them only three months in which to conduct the beta test.

Now I know some people might think that three months is plenty of time, but you have to take into consideration things like a weekend's worth of data needing to be sorted through and collected, and then the team has to modify and make changes to the game's multiplayer based on that data and feedback, and then they have to test the new changes and iterate whatever bugs or other glitches might be present.

This process can take anywhere between two weeks to a month, depending on the amount of data they collect, the feedback they receive and what amount of work has to be put into the game based on those changes.

What's more is that Ghost Recon: Wildlands is going to need several weeks for certification, so that would be most of February, which would mean that the beta would have to take place either sometime this month or in January if they want to make sure that they get the changes implemented and fixed before the March 7th release.

A perfect example of a game that didn't have a proper beta before release is Watch Dogs 2. The game recently went live for home consoles and PC during November, but it launched on the Xbox One and PS4 without the seamless multiplayer integration due to Ubisoft finding a nasty bug in the seamless matchmaker the weekend before the game was due for release. So, in order to smash out the bug and make sure that the game worked properly, they had to launch Watch Dogs 2 without the seamless multiplayer.

Given that the four-player co-op plays a much more substantial role in Ghost Recon: Wildlands compared to Watch Dogs 2, it makes sense why Ubisoft would conduct a beta test and ensure that the drop-in co-op works properly and that everything is synched up nicely.

The open-world military shooter has gamers cautiously optimistic, but after the beta test we'll likely get a much stronger indication as to how people really feel about the game.

If you're curious how Ghost Recon: Wildlands is shaping up, you'll have a chance to find out firsthand before the game launches next March. Between now and then, the developer is touting a beta period to make sure everything is going according to plan.

You wouldn't be blamed for forgetting that Ghost Recon: Wildlands even exists. That's not to say that the game didn't have a great E3 reveal back in June, just that there's a lot going on in the shooter department these days. Destiny launched its Rise of Iron expansion earlier this fall and, within the past few weeks, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare have all hit store shelves.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is actually making a pretty smart move not launching until March, giving it some comfy breathing room between itself and all of these other shooters. But you won't have to wait until the end of Q1 2017 to actually play the game, with Gamespot reporting a beta is on the way.

And speaking of quarters, that's the period of time within which this beta will appear. According to the publisher, Ubisoft, the Ghost Recon: Wildlands open beta will arrive sometime in the next three months. This information was revealed by CEO Yves Guillemot during an Ubisoft earnings call yesterday, Nov. 3.

Since Wildlands is set to launch on March 7, we wouldn't be surprised to see that open beta pop up some time through the holidays, giving folks something to keep them busy during time off and, hopefully, something to look forward to early next year.

As is usually the case, a closed beta was also mentioned in regards to this next Ghost Recon game, though no timeframe was offered for those. Since closed betas usually come before open betas, though, we imagine some gamers might be enjoying Wildlands in the pretty-dang-near future. According to the original report, the purpose of these betas will be less about testing systems and servers and more about allowing players to figure out what Wildlands is all about.

Based on what we've seen of the game, it's not too far removed from previous Ghost Recon games, though the characters seem to be a little less "professional" in terms of attire. This cooperative romp will set you free on an open landscape with missions available at every turn. You'll be able to team up with other players and then decide the best way to tackle your objectives. Despite the more rough-and-tumble setting and characters, as well as some explosive set pieces shown off in early gameplay, it looks like players are still encouraged and, to a degree, rewarded for trying to complete their missions as stealthily as possible.

For those of you who loved The Division, we'll end by saying that Yves Guillemot said that Wildlands has a lot in common with that hit from earlier this year, so get ready for something familiar wrapped in something new.

Ubisoft has been taking a more reserved approach with how they promote their upcoming games like Ghost Recon Wildlands. Instead of over-hyping them with lots of promos they've employed a more focused tactic, highlighting the unique and interesting elements of gameplay, such as the stealth mechanics in the upcoming Wildlands.

The video was recently posted up over on the official Ubisoft YouTube channel, where Dominic Butler, the lead game designer on Ghost Recon Wildlands, walks gamers through 12 minutes of stealth-oriented gameplay.

The video starts inside of a helicopter, where the four main characters are being played by four developers in co-op mode. They parachute out of the helicopter and land outside of a camp where they're set to take on a night mission during a thunderstorm.

Butler explains that the objective of this particular mission is to steal a cartel truck and tagging enemies so they know who their targets are and how to avoid getting involved in an unnecessary firefight.

They explain that the synch-firing is making a return in Ghost Recon Wildlands, enabling gamers to tag enemies and take them down in synchronicity.

Butler explains that C4, diversion grenades, and flashbangs, are just a few of the available weapons. In the video, they set down some C4 on a tank to set up a preemptive escape route. It's also explained that there are flyable drones in the game that can be used to scout areas in Ghost Recon Wildlands, including marking important mission targets like power generators that can be disabled to kill the power in a camp or facility.

Killing the power will alert the guards, however, so they don't do that in the video above. Instead, they use the cover of night to take advantage of NPC routines, which is something that happens in the game frequently. In one example an NPC guard who would usually be up and about patrolling the area, is instead asleep in the bed. This allows the players to take out the guard, eventually disable the power generator and get their target out of the building.

They also explain that there are multiple factions within Ghost Recon Wildlands, such as rebels. The group frees some of the rebels to use them as a distraction against the cartel members while they extract their target.

The whole mission plays out like something you would expect from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It's actually really impressive what Ubisoft has accomplished and seems to have the right mixture of intensity, player-agency, and openness to keep the gameplay looking fresh. I could see myself replaying this game a lot.

They mention that there are more than 60 vehicles in the game, as well as more than 50 weapons with hundreds of different customizable options and modifications for each weapon. That's not to mention that the guns are designed to mimic their real-life counterparts, including things like dispersion, bullet-drop, and spread.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is set to launch for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC in early 2017.

Ubisoft took GamesCom as an opportunity to roll out tons of new footage and content for their upcoming games. They have a slew of new videos and screenshots for their upcoming titles, including a new trailer for Ghost Recon: Wildlands, showcasing some deep customization features.

The Wildlands trailer was posted up over on Ubisoft's YouTube channel and starts off talking up the ability to adapt in dangerous countries. We then see each of the four Ghosts undergoing a quick-edit of different headgear that can be worn, different operator outfits you can deck them out in, as well as different pants, camouflage and weapon gear that can be applied to the characters.

One thing that some gamers may easily miss is that the weapon customization takes place in parts, and each part can be personalized to fit your play-style and livery needs.

During the Wildlands trailer we get a really clean shot of a modular sniper rifle, where they zoom out and show us the barrel, the tip, the scope, the body, the grip, the stock and the magazine. There's a lot of adjustments and configurations that can be made that alter the way the guns fire and operate.

Hopefully they don't take the "newer is stronger" approach where any new item you lob onto your weapon makes it stronger, and instead focus on different parts having different strengths, advantages and weaknesses depending on when and where it's used. Situational customization always makes for greater replayability.

The Ghost Recon: Wildlands trailer also shows us a cool car chase where an ACR is customized to have an under-slung grenade launcher, resulting in the pursuing truck going up in flames after getting hit by the grenade.

And for those of you wondering, yes you can play as a female Ghost. Ubisoft has made an effort to include as many customization options as possible, and this includes customizing skin tone, gender, facial features and clothing options.

I do worry about how they'll handle the story with four characters who are pretty much going to end up being like Saints Row protagonists. It's tough to tell a personal or cohesive story when you can customize your character. It basically means that the story will have to revolve around the villains and the location.

Now, given that Ghost Recon games were never heavy on story in the first place, this could be a forgivable option insofar as letting players choose and customize their Ghost. Of course, where the game lacks in story it will most certainly have to make up for it in the gameplay department. Titles like Mount & Blade and XCOM have certainly prospered even while lacking main, recognizable characters, so it's entirely possible for Ubisoft to accomplish the same thing with Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

The open-world, military action game is set to release on March 7th, 2017 next year for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Ubisoft released a new trailer for Ghost Recon Wildlands ahead of its appearance at this year's E3 in Los Angeles California. The trailer focuses on the combat and vehicular play offered in the open-world title, which is set to appear on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. It looks impressive, to say the least.

Game Informer caught wind of the new trailer as it recently started making its way around the internet. The two and a half minute promo piece has a voice-over talking about the squad of four being watchers, adventurers and ultimately the judges and executioners of those who they have been sent in to eliminate.

Sprinkled throughout the philosophies of a ghost, we get to see some really neat action sequences and some great use of vehicular combat, including traversal, turret play and chase sequences. One of the more standout moments in this newest Ghost Recon game was early on in the trailer when the dune buggy is trekking across some watery marshlands and it's kicking up water and dirt particles along the way. It's the little things like that that give the game a deeper sense of immersion, and the mechanical elements a sense of weight and realism, something that's sorely been missing from a lot of games this generation.

Of course, those details were also noted by plenty of gamers and it led to the proverbial call-out on how long it would take Ubisoft to downgrade Ghost Recon Wildlands before it hits store shelves.

It's not an invalid complaint. Ubisoft as a company has been known to promote some awesome looking games that are just above and beyond the resource budgets of the home consoles, thus resulting in the games having to take a huge hit in the graphics department before release. We saw this in a sterling example with Watch Dogs, which became its own controversy just surrounding the E3 graphics and the real-time graphics. We also saw a similar downgrade with The Division, where the game looked near photo-realistic during the debut at E3 but then looked rather generic by the time the release day rolled around.

The trailer above did a fantastic job of making Ghost Recon Wildlands look magnificent, and the threatening appearance of the APC looked good, just as well as the bikes tearing through the icy tundra or ripping up the dirt alongside the mountains also looked good. The question is: will they continue to look that good when this latest Ghost Recon game releases on home consoles and PC?

We'll likely get our first glimpse of some unedited gameplay footage at this year's E3 during the Ubisoft press conference. A lot of eyes will be on the games set to appear during the second half of this console generation, and innovation and unique gameplay will be the key. Unfortunately the trailer doesn't even hint at a release date, so we can't even say if we're to expect Ghost Recon Wildlands to launch this year. I guess we'll find out at E3.

I really wasn't sure what to expect when the video started of a group of highly specialized military operators began traversing through some rocky terrain toward a stronghold governed by a drug kingpin, but after a short while I realized I was watching the future of the Ghost Recon franchise.

The new game from Ubisoft came completely out of left field and it's called Ghost Recon Wildlands. You can see the whole five minute trailer below from the official Ubisoft blog.

Now there's a whole lot to cover in this trailer. Within just five minutes this Ghost Recon trailer does more than what some games attempt and fail to do within eight whole hours.

First off, if this is truly indicative of in-game play, the procedural animation system is spot-on. I loved the way they adjusted and moved across the rugged terrain as they moved up, over and through the various types of landscapes in order to reach some of those remote destinations. It's a feature sorely missing from many other AAA games out there and was previously a staple in Crysis but unfortunately gamers didn't really get to appreciate the quality of animations in Crysis since it was first person.

Here, we get engulfed in truly highly quality animation and character art direction from the team at Ubisoft. So, huge, huge props to them for that.

Next up are the vehicles. For the first time we're seeing multiple vehicle types that players can commandeer throughout their travels in the South American country.

As mentioned over on the Ubisoft blog, the objective of the Ghosts are to stamp out the Santa Blanca drug cartel, so players will have a bevy of weapons and vehicles at their disposal to do what they need to do to complete the mission.

And speaking of missions being completed, this Ghost Recon game brings back the open-world gameplay from previous games, but it takes it a step further. In this game players can utilize time of day , locations, scouting and vehicles to their advantage. I love how the trailer shows the Ghost team attacking the mission in three distinct ways. The night infiltration was probably my favorite given how stealthily the team managed to carry out the mission and get in and out without being seen.

It's rare in open-world action titles that we get to utilize time of day and location-based mechanics to really disrupt the way a mission can be completed. It would be cool if this feature was present in games like Saints Row or Sleeping Dogs, or even Ubisoft's own Assassin's Creed. However, it looks like the open-world action genre will get a serious next-gen upgrade with Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

The game is being worked on by various Ubisoft studious from around the world, and is due for release on the Xbox One, the PS4 and PC.