According to their website, much of Ubisoft's technical support staff has taken this weekend off in observation of Good Friday and Easter. That's all well and good -- but perhaps, when they aren't draining Cadbury eggs or enjoying fine roasted hams, just one of them could take the time to Google their latest release, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, and discover that a good portion of the console gaming world is ready to swear off all things Clancy.
Our tip box has exploded with complaints from owners of the PS3 version of the game -- apparently, a majority of those who try to play online either can't connect or have to suffer staggering amounts of lag. We'd expect a bandwidth epidemic such as this to be patched post-haste -- we guess Ubisoft didn't anticipate we'd actually want to play their game on the first weekend of Eastertide. What, did they think those terrorists would hunt themselves?
It seems Tom Clancy's latest visit to Las Vegas has yielded strikingly similar results to his 2006 outing: Lots of jumping out of helicopters and being shot at by ambidextrous bandits. Some people like that sort of thing, however, and reviews of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 suggest that Ubisoft's second trip down the strip is just for them. This is your last chance too -- the next Vegas game is that one starring Kevin Pereira.
Eurogamer (70/100): "Overall, Vegas 2 feels like an incremental expansion, despite the success of the character-creation feature. The annoying thing is that with a bit more investment these quickfire sequels would feel like true follow-ups, which would go a long way with those of us who've been following the series for the past ten years. As it is, we'll still go to Vegas, but we'll be grumpy on the way home."
IGN (84/100): "The gameplay in Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is awesome; it just isn't as awesome as it was 18 months ago. The main complaint that most gamers are sure to have with RSV2 is that it's simply too similar to the game that we played late in 2006."
Videogamer.com (80/100): "While Rainbow Six Vegas 2 feels more like an add-on than a proper sequel, that shouldn't stop you picking Ubisoft's latest up. The gun-play is excellent, the production values are top notch and the multiplayer game modes will keep you coming back months down the line."
One of our favorite things about Rainbow Six: Vegas was the multitude of weapons a player could choose from while outfitting their digital soldier. With varying levels of kickback, damage, ammo capacity, and accuracy, each weapon felt like a unique character, and diehard followings sprung up behind many of the game's realistic firearms.
For some reason, watching this gameplay footage for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 gives us a pretty powerful sense of déjà vu. Either our surreptitious digital overlords just changed something in the Matrix, or we've seen this game before. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you -- we loved the original Vegas, and we're definitely not asking them to reinvent the wheel. But in the first batch of gameplay videos for a sequel, we want to see new, fresh features -- like that revamped Persistent Elite Creation system, or that unlikely (but potentially awesome) boss fight against Mantecore, the white tiger that was responsible for Roy Horn's near-shuffle off this mortal coil.
Don't expect a Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 3 anytime soon. Speaking to Eurogamer, designer Philippe Therien said, "We will never go back to Vegas - at least, not in the foreseeable future." So much for the "rescue four hooker witnesses from a back alley full of out-of-town drunkards" mission we've been dying to play.
Therien also noted that, although the single location worked well for the story of the previous two games, he's not sure if they'll return to that format for the next Rainbow Six installment. (Make no mistake, no one expects this to be the last Rainbow Six title.) The glamorous, time-paradoxicalRainbow Six: Vegas 2 is due out March 21.
Eurogamer reports that Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will be shooting up casinos and terrorists before you know it, as Ubisoft has confirmed a March 21st release date for the game.
Vegas 2 will feature numerous improvements over the first Nevada-centric Rainbow Sixgame, including an improved reward system, online co-op, sprinting, and destructible cover. We're assuming March 21 is a worldwide release for the game, although we will confirm with Ubisoft whether that date pertains to North America as well as Europe.
Ever since the first lackluster trailer was revealed at the 2007 Spike TV VGA's, we've been curious about the direction which Ubisoft is taking our favorite terrorist-hunting franchise, Rainbow Six: Vegas. Sure, we've been promised that that Vegas 2 will improve on the mechanics of the Vegas the first, but we haven't heard much about the storyline for this "part prequel, part sequel".
The newest trailer for the game still doesn't tell us about the subject of Six's Sin City romp, but it does drop a few vague clues. For instance, most of the trailer takes place in a large concert hall. Can we expect to rescue a helpless Celine Dion from a pack of disgruntled Cirque du Soleil performers? We can only hope, as this would provide the greatest video game soundtrack since Revolution X -- but it's a fairly unlikely scenario. Ah, well. Our hearts will go on.
"Talk to the hand!" has been the sentiment of thetwoRainbow Six Vegas 2 teaser trailers released thus far, and while Ubisoft still isn't ready to show us the game, the publisher is ready to talk. A smattering of gameplay details was disclosed today, confirming what the game title already reveals: we're in for more Rainbow Six Vegas. More weapons, more armor, mo' better AI, more multiplayer and, of course, "more Vegas."
As the Tom Clancy franchises continue along the 'EA Sports trajectory,' Vegas 2 will see its most ambitious seasonal tweaks in the form of improved "vastly improved" co-op play (a jump-in/jump-out campaign) and single-player expansion of the first game's multiplayer progression system (offline experience points). Anyone else convinced that the Ubisoft Montreal devs could code this game in their sleep?
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is being developed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Games for Windows, and is currently scheduled for a March 2008 release.
If you're wondering what Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will look like in-game, close your eyes and wish really hard for a new trailer. However, if you want to see what operatives do when not scaling walls or killing people (hint: it involves bountiful, big-breasted, brunette bimbos bumped briskly by brazen bodies), boy do we have a teaser for you.
The original video was posted and later pulled by GameTrailers, only to be re-uploaded to the site via a user -- if the video is pulled again, you can also find a copy at DailyMotion (via Megatonik). Other facts: it's still in Las Vegas and that's the logo above. Did you want to know anything else? Don't be so greedy!
After last week's report of Haze being on track for a December release, we're now prompted to point out the rather abrupt appearance of a detour in-between the metaphorical train and its final stop at the PlayStation 3. It seems the designers at Free Radical didn't receive nearly enough coal to reach the lead platform in time for Christmas, and now hope that you'll conduct your purchase of their first-person shooter in the first quarter of 2008.
Thankfully devoid of increasingly insufferable train puns, a Gamasutra article details the delay mentioned within Ubisoft's favorable first-half financial results. Sales for le publisher rose by 52% to $372.86 million, with profits jumping up 12% to $44.8 million. You might consider the money already spent on Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, expected to arrive in the same quarter as Haze. Not much is known about the sequel, save that it'll (probably) feature soldier-types shooting up evil, one-armed bandits.
Fellow Tom Clancy property, Splinter Cell: Conviction continues to be wishy-washy about a potential release date, as it's also been pushed back to Ubisoft's fiscal year 2008-2009.
So, the Rainbow Six Vegas Black Edition DLC really did appear on Xbox Live. It was brief, but it was there. But now, as you have already found if you've attempted a download over the past day or so, it is most certainly not there. The good Major offers little help on his blog, saying only: "This has been pulled. I'll let you know when it makes a return." Wow, cryptic.
There are, of course, plenty of delightful theories as to why the pack pulled a Judy on Family Matters. Some think that it got on to Marketplace too early, some think a critical bug was discovered. We like to think that Ubisoft was so racked with guilt over charging $10 for five maps (when that amount previously got you five maps and two new modes) that they pulled it. We admit that's not really likely. We'll be sure to update this post when it triumphantly returns.
Rainbow Six Vegas continues to roll along, picking up new levels like some sort of very specific Katamari. This new infusion of terrorist-thwomping action (just two months after your last hit) is called the Player's Pack Black Edition and will run you 800 points ($10).
For your sawbuck, you'll nab three brand new maps like Red Lotus and Wartown plus a revamped version of Streets. You'll also get an appearance from a very special guest star: PRESIDIO, which the elderly among you may remember from Rainbow Six 3. The content weighs in at 705 MB and is available now.
Leading to the obvious conclusion: Ubisoft needs to somehow combine the gritty realism of the Tom Clancyfranchise with the anthropomorphic antics of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Politically charged yet irresistibly adorable properties like Tom Clancy's Splinter Shell and Tom Clancy's The War on Terrapins are sure to tap into hitherto untapped fountains of marketability and financial prosperity. Not that Ubisoft is currently in dire need of money, mind you. Gamasutra's detailing of L'Ubi's most recent financial report suggests that the publisher is already exceeding analyst expectations by exchanging one type of green for another.
The company's fourth quarter sales saw an increase of 37% to $267.5 million, largely instigated by the one million unit success of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 on Xbox 360, as well as the TMNT film-based game which dragged in 1.1 million units in its eight platform-wide net. Sales for the full 2006/2007 fiscal year stand at $923.4 million following a jump of 24.4%, with earlier titles such as Red Steel, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas and Petz being key contributors.
Ubisoft expects profitability to increase further in the coming year by supporting new-gen consoles and expanding their presence in "the casual market on the Wii and Nintendo DS systems." Oh! We've yet to add casual games into our bubbling cauldron of cross-franchise success! So, that'll be Tom Clancy's Krang Age, then?
This has been a terrible week for significant others. Not only were their loved ones drawn away from designated "snuggle time" by two delicious new maps for Halo 2, but now they'll have to contend with new DLC for Rainbow 6: Vegas. Yes, the Player's Pack Red Edition ... the one announced two months ago. There was also a freebie auto-update released for the game, which you can read about here.
In case you didn't hear before, the 800-point pack includes two new game modes: Assasination (Team 1: Let's kill that guy! Team 2: You'd better not!) and Total Conquest, which is King of the Hills (not you, Jordan Eubanks) with three spots teams need to control. There are also three fresh maps and two remixes, but you wouldn't know that from reading the dashboard description, which just says there are "brand new maps." A small request to companies releasing DLC for purchase: Please let us know what we are buying. Anyway, you know now, so go, buy with confidence. Or, you know, don't. He/she misses you.
Nowadays, "viral" is more or less the term used to describe any website that is overly cryptic, edgy or, thanks to an abundance of Flash, somewhat annoying. Enter the recently erected, cryptic, edgy and somewhat annoying Ubisoft website, jsf28555833-80604722.com.
Upon visiting the page, you'll be faced with all manner of military gibberish, false newscaster mutterings and a man who appears to be in a permanent state of discomfort. The Tom Clancy logo at the bottom provides the biggest clue, seeming to suggest that marketing for a new terrorist foiling sim is already in stealth swing. Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six are fair targets, but a glance at the infamous (and quite reliable) leaked list of Ubisoft games shows one of the few remaining titles to be Tom Clancy's Firehawk for PS3 and Xbox 360.
Further intrepid internet investigation (read: Google search) highlights the website's initial letters "jsf" -- Joint Strike Fighter. Is Tom Clancy taking to the skies?
