The fun thing about Gc2006 was being able to see some top new games heading our way in the following months. Oone of the games that is being watched by gamers is the next in the Rainbow Six series. I get suited up for 360monsterand went behind enemy linesin a Rainbow Six Vegas preview and got some interesting information for you.
Vegas looks stunning and highly detailed but from the shots many people saw at E3, the GC2006 content was all new. Vegas looked beaten up and many buildings were on fire. We get dropped into one of the nearby hotels and the game begins. Previous Rainbow games have had health bars but in Vegas you just have Kevlar armour that can take a few rounds. If you get hit after that, its goodnight Rainbow team. Harsh but does force you to play this version more tactically.
The cover system feels very much like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter but with a few twists. Shooting from cover is pretty standard but blind fire to provide support to your team is fun, as is throwing a grenade from behind cover. Your team is very responsive in Vegas but you still have to give them orders so the mission is a success. When the left thumbstick is clicked you get into cover but instead of a small view of rotation this version lets you rotate 360o while in cover. This helps out so you do not get a nasty surprise when someone flanks you.
Enemies are smarter in this version. Many times you can be marking up an enemy in the distance, only for someone else to cap you from the wings. One bit of information I managed to find out was that many of these enemies have a leader which benefits them with commands and increases their abilities. I asked if killing the leader had any effect on what they do and the answer was yes. With the leader dead, the enemy will weaken and also become more reckless. So killing the commander is the best plan of action to make your mission easy.
The old thermal and nigh vision modes are back in and looking very nice indeed. The thermal vision does a great job of seeing through dense smoke, which is something you will be seeing a lot of. The Vegas producers want to take people “On a trip to hell” as they put it. Vegas is already beaten up and this will increase as you work your way through the game. Visually it is leaps above all of the Rainbow Titles.
Many of you will have already seen the enemy tagging system, where you can use your Snake Cam to spy on the enemy and then prioritise which targets you want your team members to take out. This works really well for setting up traps and tackling tricky situations. The thermal and night vision modes do work in Snake Cam mode just in case it is a little too dark to see. The tagging system is easy to use and also gives you the feeling that you are in charge of an elite squad of Rainbow Six veterans.
I quizzed the producer on the chances of the old voice commands coming back for Vegas. He just smiled and said the current build did not have the commands in but it was planned for launch. He was grinning like mad as he could see I loved that titbit of information.
Something else I managed to get out of him was the co-op side of Vegas. According to the producer, Vegas will support 4 player co-op over Live as well. This is another interesting bit of information which will please many readers.
Now the biggest question that many of you asked was about the cover system and would it be in multiplayer.After the presentation I chatted to the producer again and asked him if the cover system was in multiplayer. He smirked and laughed and said that “I would be pleasantly surprised what goes in” Only a rumour but I just loved hisknowing smirk. Hopefully that means cover is in for multiplayer.
Unfortunately no footage could be taken but hopefully some Rainbow Six Vegas events will be planned closer to launch which is planned for some time in November.Hang onto your Vegas hats people, we are goingin!
Originally Written By: Barrie Rogers
