E3 demo: Rainbow Six Vegas (Xbox 360)
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ May 12th 2006 at 12:45AM }
We're pleased to report that Rainbow Six is back on track. Lockdown was a huge disappointment, but Ubisoft Montreal lead game designer Jean-Pascal Cambiotti has pledged to bring the series back to its "core values," meaning tactics.Rainbow Six Vegas was running off of an Xbox 360 dev kit and being played by a developer. We caught a glimpse of the new snake cam, which can be inserted under doorways to assess what lies within. Using the camera, players can tag enemies within the room, in effect, giving your two teammates targets to attack upon entry. This is all part of an improved tactical interface, which oozes smart action.
You bust through one door, your teammates through another. You've already given them their targets, all you need to worry about is yours. A few calculated bursts from your rifle, a few more from your teammates, and when the smoke clears, you've got a pile of dead evildoers and a handful of lucky hostages.
While developed on a different engine (Unreal 3), it's hard not to notice the conceptual similarities between Vegas and GRAW: from a single city setting, to between-mission helicopter transportation, to a focus on fighting from cover. Thankfully, Vegas looks to abandon the faulty friendly-AI that plagued GRAW's single-player. No babysitting tonight*.
*Vegas unfolds during a long, 12-hour night.
[Note: Cambiotti has assured us that Vegas' multiplayer will do things that have never been done before on Xbox Live. He confessed that the full details will be revealed during a special event this summer. About all that we could squeeze from the tight-lipped developer was that Vegas will feature a robust 4-player co-op mode.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bobill @ May 12th 2006 12:57AM
One thing that made GRAW single and multiplayer against enemy AI was that though they were so dumb. They had large numbers so you always got a target.
I think of GRAW gameplay as frantic and not so in depth. Where as Rainbow is down to details, plus it's first person.
I hope they dont got the PEC anymore, I hate it...
vadermaggot @ May 12th 2006 12:58AM
I'm looking forward to this game. I've always like the Rainbow six games since I first played them on the 64. I even played lockdown through completely, even tho it didn't stand up to Rainbow Six 3. Vegas should be awesome.
Goobers @ May 12th 2006 1:16AM
i'm also looking forward to this... but hopefully on the PC platform... for the life of me, i just can't play FPS games on consoles...
i got Ravenshield for the xbox, and constantly died after a few seconds. -.-'
tomato @ May 12th 2006 4:38AM
This game looks nothing like the "core" R6. It has the cover system that every game seems to include nowadays (PDZ and GOW come to immediate mind). And it seems like every newer iteration of R6 includes fewer and fewer teammates. I mean, the original allowed for 8 operatives to be split into 4 teams. Ravenshield allowed 8 in 3 teams. Lockdown had 1 4man team. And now this has a 3 man team. I really hope they do go back to the core of the franchise, but from the looks of it, things are getting further and further away. No tactical map or planning, seemingly faster paced action. The original required planning and slow tactical movement. I really wish someone would remake Rogue Spear (the best R6 imho) and the original GR with improved AI, graphics and physics.
bryan @ May 12th 2006 12:50PM
Rainbow six is dead. Everything since Covert Ops has been RS in name only.
"since I first played them on the 64".... You missed the PC version? It was much better. I have yet to see a console do this game justice.
Kal @ May 15th 2006 7:20AM
Console games bring the players to an equal battlefield, so to speak. Everyone has the same system. With that being said I have always been a console kind of gamer, and I learned the ways of FPS's through Goldeneye, which was probably the first GOOD FPS of it's time, and even so after.
When I first got my Xbox I didn't know about Rainbow Six, I had played Rogue Spear on the computer and HATED it... but again, I had inferior equipment to play such a thing, and the keyboard/mouse isn't my cup of tea. I didn't like the planning of the map thing either, I wanted to pop in the game and do my own thing. Needless to say, I thought the game sucked. Anyway, back to what I was saying... I got Counterstrike for Xbox and it was cool, I was addicted. Then I saw Rainbow Six 3 at Blockbuster and rented it. I played the Co-op online and that is what caused me to buy the game. It was so much fun, and finally I got into the Multiplayer... and then after that I was like. "Counterstrike? That game is horrible." and it was in comparison. Rainbow Six 3 had really great maps, and there were tons of people playing on Live. Of course you have your cheaters, but there were always other rooms, and of course... The boot.
Black Arrow was the identical to Rainbow Six 3, so it just gave us more maps but equally entertaining. As far as single player I liked controlling the team by clicking a door and telling them to open it instead of "preplanning" what they would do in the older games.
Rainbow Six Vegas looks really good. Like many others, the third person views ruin it completely. You can't consider a game a "Realistic, tactical shooter." and be able to see your enemy without your character actually moving to look at them... (Unless of course you have such things as the under the door cam and such, which is a nice add-on.) Hopefully they keep that for Single player only, or I know most Rainbow Six veteran's will dislike this one as much as the previous Lockdown.
A message for Ubisoft would be to... Add more weapons, maps (bring ALL the maps from previous games to be played on this new one... and not those crappy "updated" maps like they did to Black Arrow.) Make the game less glitchy. Add things like being able to go Prone... and stop worrying about this whole "Cover" scheme. If we want to take cover, we just crouch behind something...