Xbox 360: Rainbow Six Vegas

Today for Xbox 360 owners, the demo for one of the most anticipated games on the console hit the Xbox Live Marketplace for download (along with yesterday's first Xbox Live Update). I've been eagerly anticipating this game since its development, and let me tell you, it straight up fucking rocks.

I was immediately taken aback by this game in every single way. Now this IS a demo, so there are things that just aren't up to par, such as some framerate issues here and there, slowdown, some control bugs, as well as some graphical problems, but Ubisoft has stated that this is JUST in the demo and this is the same demo shown on the E3 floor this year. In other words, Rainbow Six Vegas is due out November 20th, and these bugs will be fixed.

Anyway, time to get into the game itself. The short demo puts you straight into the action of a terrorist-seized casino in Las Vegas known as Dante's. Funny thing about the casino, it's not quite built yet. You'll descend 5 floors down through all sorts of construction mess and cells of terrorists to clear out. Sounds easy? Can be. But not always.

Rainbow Six Vegas is about planning. I've played through the demo about eight times now, and each time I discovered something new, or a different way to just kill ONE guy so he ultimately doesn't get to a spot that puts my guys in a crunch giving access to another guy to shoot my men who can lead to... blah blah blah, a mouthful, but you see where this is going? The game will reward you based on your planning and execution. Running into a firefight even on normal, you will die. It's not a matter of what your Halo 2 multiplayer level is, you will still die trying to do what you do in Halo in Rainbow Six Vegas.

You command a team of two other men who you can point and tell them to do things, nothing new here. As I said earlier, planning is key, but I did notice that for once, when I put my men in a situation where they SHOULD win, they really did win for once. I was kind of amazed to see AI that actually works. One of the coolest features I saw was when you are breaching a door. You can line your men up to breach, then you can go up to the door and with your snake cam (small camera letting you see inside the room) you can look inside. This may sound like Splinter Cell, but BRAND NEW to series and to any other game (comment on me if I'm wrong), but by pressing the Select button, you can select the enemies you want your men to shoot first based on priority.

For example, if you have a hostage situation, you want to make the guy with the gun to the hostage priority one, followed by the guy closest to you, and then the guy furthest away priority three. This plays an integral role in strategy, and you'll see just after doing it ONE time how much fun it can be. I've re-done several parts of the mission where I died or my men got shot, and through this planning, I have been able to beat this parts in merely seconds without any damage on my end. Also, you are able to select how you'd like your men to breach the door via mine, smoke, grenade, flashbang, or just guns blazin'.

Aside from some minor technical issues, this demo proves that Rainbow Six Vegas IS going to be a game to own this Christmas. Everyone's hyping up Gears of War, as they should be, it's gonna be fuckin' sick baby! But, don't overlook Rainbow Six Vegas. The game has a solid crouch and cover system putting you in the third person perspective, amazing graphics, great AI, awesome effects, and it takes place in the Sin City itself. I can't wait for this one, and my $5 is already waiting on it. Definitely check this one out.