Ghost Recon 2 invades PS2

Ubisoft today announced that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 for the PlayStation 2 has been sent into retail battle. The game is the prequel to the Xbox version that was released earlier this month. Set in 2007, the PS2 version takes place after the previous wave of Ghost Recon games and four years before its Xbox brethren.

The game, the first Tom Clancy title built from the ground up for the PS2, features all-new original content including unique levels and cinematics. Gamers will also be able to battle online in a variety of multiplayer modes and maps supporting as many as 16 players via the PS2 broadband adapter. The first-person view is now accompanied by an all-new third-person over-the-shoulder view, allowing greater peripheral vision in the heightened combat. Gamers will also participate in "lone wolf" missions that equip one soldier with superweapons currently in development by the military as they attempt to accomplish objectives solo.

The unique story sees the Ghosts, a small elite fighting force, deployed to North Korea to defuse a potential threat to global harmony. North Korean military dictator Maj. Gen. Paik is suspected of harboring a nuclear weapons program, and it is up to the Ghosts to quell the potential problem that ultimately escalates into an attempted invasion of China in Ghost Recon 2 for the Xbox.

Naturally, North Korea took offense to the game's premise and officially denounced it as anti-Korean "propaganda" by Americans. Due to the tense military situation with its northern neighbor, South Korea officially banned the game on the grounds its story goes "way too far."

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 is rated "T" for Teen and sells for the SRP of $49.99. Ghost Recon 2 for the GameCube, which follows the story of the PS2 version, will be available February 15 and the PC edition, which follows the story of the already reviewed Xbox version, hits stores March 15. For more information, check out our previous coverage of Ghost Recon 2.