[SibTiger33]

Average score: 8.27
Number of votes: 116
% of 10 votes: 8%
% of votes 9 and above: 47%
% of votes 8 and above: 81%

Scores updated: 29 August 2007

Hey guys,

I received my copy of rainbow earlier today and i've started playing through it (started on realistic right away)


Ill be adding more comments as i play through the game but here is my take on it so far....


Graphics
only went online briefly with this and the major reviews are right in that the game graphics do not degrade that much when going online (at least not enough to distract from the game itselve - the game plays just the same online as it does offline in co-op mode)
Single player graphics are actually alot better than i thought they would be - in parts it does seem as though they are better than ghost recon but the major problem i find with the graphics is with reference to the hostages. The modelling on the hostages looks JUST THE SAME AS THE HOSTAGES FROM THE RAINBOW GAMES OF YESTERYEAR! lip sync with talking is also none existent!

Overall the environment graphics are fantastic (not a match for gears of wear but not much is)


Gameplay
umm....
HELL YEAH!! Loving it i gotta say, it could be because i started on realistic bu t i do find the ai very good with flanking and getting into cover positions.
The one thing that does bug me about the AI is some of its behaviour during combat
I.E When in a shootout the AI will not stop shooting - i find this silly as it makes it very easy to find the AI's position and nail them and i also find that the AI TALKS TOO MUCH! - all the talking gives away positions very easily.

Very much like Ghost Recon, you will notice outfit bays (i.e in Ghost Recon you would find weapon storage areas located on the map -oufit bays work in the same way as ghost recon)


Online
Best Online Game EVER! ;-) simple as that - all games should work like rainbow and gears of wars.

What many will notice when they get the game is that most of the achievements relate to online play. You also get medals and ranks whilst playing online which is a nice touch - people can see right away what rank you are (not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing for noobs hehe).

You can play the whole game online in co-op mode with up to 4 players plus you can play terrorist hunt on any of the maps too plus some extra maps not available in the story mode. When joining rooms in co-op story mode you pretty much have to set and wait until everyone dies before you can join... (long waiting time if veterans are playing)

I've not played too much online with the full game but there does seem to be statistics page but im not sure what it will save (i.e hit ratios, deaths to kills etc ill update you all once i have a good play online later today)
When playing the demo i didnt like the selection of faces you could use for online play. sadly its the same selection here (although its understandable when you consider that ubisoft expect you to actually use face modeling - although i would have liked a larger selection of faces to pick from )

Thankfully the game saves any changes you make to your character so unlike in the demo, you dont need to keep redesigning your character everytime to load xbox live


p.s you can carry 3 guns at a time (2 primary and 1 secondary i.e pistol)


Also my AI teammates annoyed me today! - i told them to clear a room and they had the cheek to tell me " I DONT THINK THATS A GOOD IDEA - VERY BADLY EXECUTED!! (although the plan went amazingly well!)" I hope i can change my ai teammates like ghost recon else ill be doing alot of friendly kills if they keep dissing me!


If anyones got any questions about the full game ask away

(other user reviews would be nice too - as i said before ill be adding more comments as i play through more of the game)

[akane_1984]

Hi mate only questions I have are what is the co-op features.. how many people can do the campaign over live together.

Can mapped face only be used for multiplayer or can it be mapped for co-op as well?

lastly will rainbow work like GOW were you can't join ranked games with friends.

thanks, and great review.

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by akane_1984

Hi mate only questions I have are what is the co-op features.. how many people can do the campaign over live together.

Can mapped face only be used for multiplayer or can it be mapped for co-op as well?

lastly will rainbow work like GOW were you can't join ranked games with friends.

thanks, and great review.

4 players can play co-op (full squad - )

As for mapping i would think it can only be used for the multiplayer bcause i dont see any options to add a face to your main character in the game but as i dont have the camera i cant really say...
thinking of picking up the camera today if its available just to test


Co-op games can be player games and ranked matches - but im not sure if you can invite friends to ranked co-op matches yet (i assume the ranked co-op matches are the ones that will allow you to win achievements and awards whilst playing)
Usually ranked games dont allow friend invites (no game i've played allows it anyway - so i cant see this being any different but i will test and let you know)

again i only briefly tested online play and it was fantastic but i didnt really check all the options (i.e with the original rainbow games you could really limit the type of weapons people can use - i.e only silenced weapons, or pistol only - ill test all this later)

[akane_1984]

Originally Posted by SibTiger33

4 players can play co-op (full squad - )

As for mapping i would think it can only be used for the multiplayer bcause i dont see any options to add a face to your main character in the game but as i dont have the camera i cant really say...
thinking of picking up the camera today if its available just to test


Co-op games can be player games and ranked matches - but im not sure if you can invite friends to ranked co-op matches yet (i assume the ranked co-op matches are the ones that will allow you to win achievements and awards whilst playing)
Usually ranked games dont allow friend invites (no game i've played allows it anyway - so i cant see this being any different but i will test and let you know)

again i only briefly tested online play and it was fantastic but i didnt really check all the options (i.e with the original rainbow games you could really limit the type of weapons people can use - i.e only silenced weapons, or pistol only - ill test all this later)

thanks mate co-op is my main concern i have 2/3 friends that will want to gear up with me in this. I hope the story is as smooth as GOW and we get to experience all cutscenes together etc. .

looking forward to getting hold of this now. I see you actually get an achievement for taking your photo lol

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by akane_1984

thanks mate co-op is my main concern i have 2/3 friends that will want to gear up with me in this. I hope the story is as smooth as GOW and we get to experience all cutscenes together etc. .

looking forward to getting hold of this now. I see you actually get an achievement for taking your photo lol

add me to your list and you have another buddy for co-op play

co-op was my main draw to this game too because of the old days of rainbow co-op

as for cut scenes im not sure you will get them whilst online..

the host needs to pick co-op story maps to play so they can pick any order i guess but ill test this and update you all later

[akane_1984]

Originally Posted by SibTiger33

add me to your list and you have another buddy for co-op play

co-op was my main draw to this game too because of the old days of rainbow co-op

as for cut scenes im not sure you will get them whilst online..

the host needs to pick co-op story maps to play so they can pick any order i guess but ill test this and update you all later

ahh so it won't be as fluid as GOW. . no problem only thing is the GF is buying this for me from play-asia so I won't be on til christmas lol

[Guns_LotsOfGuns]

Dammit! we'll never finish GOW on insane now youve got this , guess ill just have to pick this up then!

Add another one to the list!, ill blame you when im homless, hungry and end up at GA (Gamers Anonymous)

Hi my names Guns and im a gamer....

[hot-fuzz]

Is it a stark difference for the Demo graphically?

[akane_1984]

Originally Posted by Guns_LotsOfGuns

Dammit! we'll never finish GOW on insane now youve got this , guess ill just have to pick this up then!

Add another one to the list!, ill blame you when im homless, hungry and end up at GA (Gamers Anonymous)

Hi my names Guns and im a gamer....

Tell me about it. I am on final year of degree and 360 is really harming my degree work. . especially since GOW turned up

[sirp]

Originally Posted by Highlander1

Is it a stark difference for the Demo graphically?

its exactly the same as the demo graphically. Visually, single player and online left me a bit annoyed, not very impressed after a few hours on it.

Gameplay wise though, its very good. If you like counterstrike, you will like this. Single player is pretty tough, with the AI being half decent too for a change. The one element that did bother me in single player mode, was the distance between checkpoints. It kind of forces you to take you time a little more than you might wish! I have not played it long enough to comment on variety of levels, but having played multiplayer maps (and i guess they are based on the sinlge player) i think they will not vary too much.
Oh, and the horrid v-sync screen tearing is here again..no excuse for it..they need to stop it now

Multiplayer, i have enjoyed. Once i have got past my annoyance with the visuals, it is fun, like counterstrike. It will take some time getting used to levels though, they do seem very open, path wise. And after playing GOW, it is taking some time to reaslise that one or two bullets do actually harm a soldier!! Multiplayer ranked rooms are limited to one round too, again, due to the ranking system, so if some dooshbag has set it to zero respawns, it can be a short game!

A downside to both parts of the game, i feel, is the inability to 'dash'. I never feel like i can actually 'run'. Already i am yearning for a GOW style 'move quickly to that wall'! Instead you have to amble acrosss to it

I cannot comment on co-op, not tried that yet.

Overall, 'so far', its a 7/10 for me.

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by Highlander1

Is it a stark difference for the Demo graphically?

yep i've played again online for a few hours in co-op mode and i can say that the graphics in multiplayer do take a big dip after comparing with single player missions, more so than ghost recon i think. still very enjoyable but a real shame though

As for online play when playing ranked matches in co-op mode and you host
In player and ranked matches you can host any maps even if you have not completed them in single player.
But in ranked you can only load one map whilst player matches allows you to load a sequence of maps.
Games in ranked mode go towards your online statistics.
Face mapping is an interesting one, with one of the guys i was playing with today he used a custom face map of himselve but...

It does take some time before other players can see the custom mapping and in a few missions you couldnt see it at all - it was back to the default face (although he did have bad ping).
when mapping was visible it did look great (although low res but very good)

When playing in co-op mode there are a few differences from the single player missions. i.e there is a mission in single player where you lose all your weapons after getting hit by a blackout but in co-op after the blackout you still have your weapons which makes the level alot easier

The levels are great though - played first 5 missions in co-op.

The game gives you points you need to get to but you will find that there are 3 or more ways of getting to these points this makes for a more interesting game as you find yourself going areas in which you have never been before: also finding places to better take advantage of the terrorists weaksides. An example of this was when playing co-op on level 3 you have to save an hostage in the middle of a room but there are 2 floors in this room, the guy i was playing with found a way to get to the tangos on the top floor and i found a different location with a good entry point on the ground floor where the hostage was. (It made for a very easy take down of 7 terrorists in the space of a few moments)

The first time we did this mission we both took the same door - as we didnt think there was another way in (we completed it but it was alot harder work)

(usually the onscreen map gives you an idea regarding other ways to an objective point and flanking- in saying that the game is still not very open planned but thats not a bad thing consideirng that you could get easily lost on some of these MAPS!)

[SibTiger33]

man im starting to think it was very bad idea to play this game on realistic first...

its bloody hard! mainly because of the long long checkpoint

one level i played didnt even have a checkpoint! u either finish the level first time or DIE!
I can imagine it not being too bad on normal but on realistic its a real pain. I've only just cleared my first casino after being stuck on one level for over 2 and a half hours!! (realistic)


Although i still think the game is excellent there are few things i would have liked to have seen ...


1. knife option for secondary weapon (sometimes you really wanna just go stealth when right next to an enemy but can only use the pistol)
2. when going silent i've not seen a huge difference in how the AI react compared to previous rainbow games
3. better control over your ai teammates
4. onscreen map is poor :-( would have been great to have some button that would allow for an permanent map whilst you point out tactics and waypoints for your AI just like with original PC Ghost Recon, with this option misisng it makes it very hard to really command your AI


right... back to this damn casino

[SibTiger33]

forgot to mention...

you can use voice commands to order your AI teammates...
although i've not been able to get it working correctly - i.e it seems slowly to issue orders than using the standard buttons (i.e its useless - unless the reason its slow is because of problems with my mic.. )

[T Henry]

Played the multi player demo yesterday ( after loving the single player one ) and i dont know whether its because ive been playing so much GOW.......but jesus, multi player rainbow looked terrible !
I must admit that i only played it quickly as i was knackered and needed my bed, so i will have a proper go later but i was honestly shocked at how bad it looked
Maybe GOW has just spoiled me, i dont know.

[Deputy Dawg UK]

Originally Posted by akane_1984

ahh so it won't be as fluid as GOW. . no problem only thing is the GF is buying this for me from play-asia so I won't be on til christmas lol

akane...

you and me both....all the games i've recently purchased i had to keep one back for christmas

[Vellocet]

Is the full game in multi better than the demo? Mainly graphics wise it put me off. But as someone else has said I think Gears of War has spoilt me in terms of graphics and gameplay in multiplayer I cant find anything that beats it.

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by T Henry

Played the multi player demo yesterday ( after loving the single player one ) and i dont know whether its because ive been playing so much GOW.......but jesus, multi player rainbow looked terrible !
I must admit that i only played it quickly as i was knackered and needed my bed, so i will have a proper go later but i was honestly shocked at how bad it looked
Maybe GOW has just spoiled me, i dont know.

yep not many games do look good compared to GOW frankly but the more and more i play of multiplayer the more and more im seeing the differences between single player graphics.

As i mentioned before i dont think this is a huge problem as the gameplay is still fine IMO. I actually played the calyso casino level in the full game yesterday to try and spot some differences and nope :-( none. so no improvement in multiplayer graphic quality in the final game im afraid. (P.s the full calyso casino iS HUGE!! )


differences between Single PLayer and Multiplayer Co-op story mode

1. No Cut Scenes in Multiplayer mode
2. Game plays different i.e more enemies, different weapons etc - as mentioned in my earlier post regarding a particular level, places where you had to set explosives with AI you no longer need to do as the area is already cleared :-(
3. Graphics
4. Co-op does not flow like with single player but understandable - Host needs to select map rotations and you see the after action report after completing each mission.
5. Can not issue orders in Co-op (pressing A or voice command)




here is my summary of Advantages and Disadvantages for This version of rainbow

Advantages

1. Graphics at times look stunning
2. A.I on realistic are super hard - makes the game alot more fun to play
3. Weapon choices and realism is great
4. Cover system and blind fire
5. waypoints - a few different ways of getting to objectives and flanking positions
6. Multiplayer and online modes (this game should keep you for many many years)
7. Smaller team means its easier to move around as a unit without getting into each others way
8. AI teammates actually pretty good at taking out enemies that you cant (maybe a little too good)
9. Game length (playing on realistic and it looks like it will take me a while to complete)
10. Story - works very well
11. Locations - even though its called Las Vegas there are a few other locations that had some great variety to the game
12. Entry points - i.e windows, skylights (fantastic fun!)
13. Online co-op is actually 4 players and not 3 like with single player (teams of 2 works very well in co-op with flanking the enemy)
14. Good range of achievements - none seem out of reach
15. Nice range of weapons
16. Good online character creation / face mapping / player ranking system
17. Not much lag online



Disadvantages (Wants)

1. Tactical Map - unable to move your teammates using the map or set waypoints
2. Unable to run (sometimes when you die and have to do a checkpoint again it can be bloody annoying having to walk it all the way to our death again!)
3. online Co-op not the same as single player (game doesnt flow like say GOW or Marvel when playing co-op)
4. Unable to tag enemies in co-op mode
5. no bundle package available with the vision camera (unless they do with UK release)
6. Graphics (although at times they look great... sometimes you can see where the developers have taken shortcuts)
7. AI (AI talks too much giving away their own position)

[akane_1984]

I haven't had a look at achievements list but I take it singleplayer achievements can still be gained by doing co-op??

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by akane_1984

I haven't had a look at achievements list but I take it singleplayer achievements can still be gained by doing co-op??

no i dont believe its possible

as to play co-op u go onto xbox live and co-op achievements are based on xbox live (i.e complete story mode in co-op or complete terrorist hunt in co-op)

then you have split screen achievements for doing story mode in split screen or terrorist hunt in split screen.


Single player achievements are to do with completely areas of the game and also a few extra (if you add me to your friends list then go to my achievements you will see the list of achievements available for rainbow )

[bu5ter]

Played about the first hour just now and so far so good first mission is very GRAW like but thats probably down to the environment dusty mexico!

Cover system looks like it might make things a bit too easy but maybe im jumping the gun. Does work well though as its on the left trigger much more fluid than gears!]

Have to work this afternoon then back on it later....strange that its not showing up on my gamercard though does anyone know if this takes some time to regioster?

[Vipen]

does this game have off-line split-screen for 4 players?

[KevG123]

Really enjoyed the single player demo but really dissappointed with the quality of graphics on the MP demo.

Was hoping the full released game would address this but reading the posts here, I guess not.

Maybe I'm getting grumpy in me old age but a 360 next gen game with MP graphics that remind me of PC games of yesteryear really p****s me off

Thank goodness for the lovelyness that is GOW

[chaddy]

someone forgot to put a POLL in this thread ?

[hot-fuzz]

I know its been mentioned before, but has anyone got a definative answer on how good the Live Camera is on this game?

is it worth getting the cam just for this ??

[Munkey Boy]

Originally Posted by chaddy

someone forgot to put a POLL in this thread ?

I was thinking about this, and I don't think we should do polls until at least a week after the game has been released so we don't get Amazon syndrome where people vote on reputations as opposed to the game itself. I'll put up a poll a week Friday, until then we can just chat.

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by Vipen

does this game have off-line split-screen for 4 players?

yes it does

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by Highlander1

I know its been mentioned before, but has anyone got a definative answer on how good the Live Camera is on this game?

is it worth getting the cam just for this ??

i've not used the camera but i've played with many people who have

and from what i'v eheard from them the camera is good but not great

it does the job its meant to do

and you can tell a likeness when in game which i think is the best we can get right now (im thinkin bout getting the camera myselve )



as i mentioned before it takes some time for the camera mapped image to load before users can see it in game


http://www.videogamesblogger.com/200...ion-camera.htm



also just as note. I find that i dont check other peoples faces on game as im too focused on actually taking down terrorists its not until you are in the chopper or doing nohting that you really notice people have their own mapping.

[mrgrill]

What are peoples thoughts in general regarding multiplayer and how the game plays. I've played a bit of the MP demo and for me I found it really flimsy. By this, (and I'll try explain the best I can) the controls and in particular the cover system felt weak. I don't like to use this comparison, but in gears, when you go into cover, you sort of actually feel like you are pressed against something. But when I play R6 MP demo, it felt as though I wasn't behind a wall or pressed against anything. You may think I'm being extremely strange, but it just didn't feel as solid as Gears.

As some people have pointed out, I think gears may have spoiled us. I just wondered if anyone else felt that way about R6. To be honest, I didn't love the MP demo. The graphics didn't bother me, it was the feel of the game which I just didn't get. But the Single player demo I really enjoyed, so can't quite grasp why it doesn't feel the same.

I think I may pass of this one, or rent it...or just wait until it comes down in price.

[featherhall]

yes, I played the demo again last night in preperation of it coming this morning, and the cover system will take alot of getting used to again after being spoiled so much with GEARS system. Still, I guess the answer is - dont play GEARS (not easy I know)

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by featherhall

yes, I played the demo again last night in preperation of it coming this morning, and the cover system will take alot of getting used to again after being spoiled so much with GEARS system. Still, I guess the answer is - dont play GEARS (not easy I know)

yep your right

if you have gears and r6 it is difficult to make the transition between the games


I.e trying to play r6 after playing gears is hard because you keep pressing the wrong buttons for cover and reloading the same the other way around.

but i do prefer the cover system on r6 but i would have loved it if you could roll out like with Gears or Ghost Recon.

As for the feel of multiplayer - to be honest its just like single player i dont really notice any difference to how the character plays. The game plays the same in multiplayer as it does in single player minus the graphical differences.


If you grew up on rainbow then i think you will like this game alot if not it may take you a while to get used to it.
Im on the verge of completing this game now so i should be able to fully judge it later this evening.