Rainbow Six: Raven Shield Options

[Murray]

It is a class game. It takes the fun parts of older Rainbow Six titles, sticks them in a great Unreal engine and adds a whole lot more stuff. Like seeing your weapon in first-person :O

The demo is about 270MB so it may take a while to download, but it is well worth it. It runs at 800x600 on my comp (1ghz, geforce 2, 512 ram) with not much lag at all and all the details down. But even then it looks bloody good. The attention to detail is unbelievable.

You start by planning out your mission or you can load a plan. The system for this has changed since previous Rainbow Six games, its in 3D now :O ! Then you select your team and pick your loadout. Theres quite a few weapons in the demo so you'll be there for ages weighing up the pros and cons of each gun (there are stats for each weapon). Once you've picked your gun (more than likely MP5s all round) you can choose what attatchments to have - sound + flash suppressors, extended magazines, mini scopes, thermal scopes (for sniper rifles) or have none of them. You can only have one at a time however. The secondary weapon can be chosen from a Beretta 92FS, a 5-7 or a USP. These can have silencers and an extended magazine. Items that you can also have include breach charges, mini charges, claymore mines, various kits (electronics, lock picks), grenades (flash,frag, CS gas) and gas masks. There is only one type of clothing, heavy black assault, but it looks well cool! One thing that i found out though, if you are looking to go in stealthily make sure to equip the rest of your team with surpressed weapons.

When you start to play have a look around at your team mates. Visors, utility belts, the weapons that you chose for them, they will all be carrying. If you chose an AK47 with a drum magazine, thats what they will have. No generic world models are present. The controls take a while to get used to, but after a few goes you'll be opening doors with the fluid control (hold use and scoll the wheel up to open the door slightly, down to close it) telling your mates to breach, flash, and clear and using your heartbeat sensor effectively.

The animations of the characters are first class. When climbing a ladder, Rainbow members push their round gun onto their backs first and then mount the ladder. When you kill a terrorist, then dont just fall flat on the floor, the presence of objects in the world has an effect on them. If you shoot them against a generator they will slump down and rest against things like walls, not just pass through them.

It is a really, really good game and i highly recommend getting the demo or buying the full game when it comes out (its out on the PC in March, for the Xbox in June, but it will probably play better on the PC) I just read a preview and one of the missions involves stopping an armed robbery on a bank in Landan/London. Sounds accccccccce!

All the equipment in Raven Shield (yes there is a FAMAS)

[michael]

Looks excellent chap! Is it me or are most modern FPS shooters going with real-world physics and meticolous pre-planning. Ghost Recon on the Xbox is awesome and has over 450,000 people online worldwide, not bad for an online system that hasn't even launched yet. I wonder where these games are influenced from?  

[Frase]

Quote (michael @ Mar. 09 2003,12:43)

I wonder where these games are influenced from? †

Alex The Kid In Miracle World on the Sega Master System!

[Murray]

That game was so ace, it didnt even come on a cartridge! Remember the level with the motobike thing, it was well good and you went about 1,000,000 miles an hour hitting those frog-crossed-with-a-horse things

[michael]

Shut up Sherm, and make with the custom Raven Shield RP armpatches. Pronto.