Awe man I wish I had been with you guys for that.

Say, other than leaderboard rankings is there an advantage to playing Ranked compared to Player Matches? I mean does your designation rank up differently or anything like that? I noticed a while back that I would still rank up in terms of my designation on Player Matches so I stopped playing Ranked due to the amount of nuts, psychos, and people not interested in Fun.

The only other reason is to obtain Achievements

I traded mine off because I got on the game to late and everybody owns me. LOL. Wait to Recon 2.

You're missing out. There are plenty of noobs online and I have no problems playing with them. It's actually fun to explain the best strategies.

Besides MP, the single player campaign is a blast.

Having said that, I AM looking forward to GRAW2

Ok, that's what I thought. Some of those Ranked Achievements might be a little over my head right now.

exm,

I signed up at ravensreapers... not sure how a clan works, but I'll look for you online this weekend.

Clans are great if you keep with the schedule. I may try to join the one you just joined since I'm trying to play with more dvdtalkers online. I've only ever been in one and that was the now dead dvdtalk Halo 2 clan. The 8 Bit Brigade aka(Ate Bitch Bi-gay*) was an offshoot of players who were more hardcore and didn't want to hang with us casual Halo 2 players.





*Just Kidding about the name!!! I made that up. All the other stuff is true though.

No seriously, dvdtalkers are a blast to play with. You don't have to deal with assholery, annoying kids, cheaters, or sickos who're just looking to annoy online.

Now now, no hatin' on the Brigade

Clans though are great. I just wish Live had a big clan function that would span multiple games. Recently our schedule in the clan has kind of fallen apart as well - mostly due to the low player limits in recent good games. R6 has been occupying much of our time lately.

Is there a trick to playing single player campaign on Realistic after finishing the game on the easier difficulty first?

I went to Single Player and started a new game and chose Realistic (it has warning that you will lose current checkpoint which was from the easier difficulty). I played all the way through using the "Load Last Saved Checkpoint" after quitting each time and never got Achievement from finishing. I did notice I had three grenades and think Realistic only give you two.

So, I tried again last night and started a new campaign on Realistic. Get dropped off in Mexico with 2 grenades so all looks well enough. But then I notice in the trainyard that I now have 3 grenades again.

WTF??

Jamie

I got something from them recently and haven't replied. What's up, who is in and is it as laid back as the Halo bunch?

Kenny J - Buzz Starhopper

Who is in 8BB?

Here is the clan card.

Thank you for the info. I went in to Live and it's actually "Ravens Reapers Clan" I got. So who's in that and what's the word?


Kenny J - Buzz Starhopper

Im registered but haven't played any games with them yet --- no time / bad timing when Im online. I also don't know how to put that [RR] in front of my gamertag online.

I believe if you edit your character in R6 you have an option of a prefix - that is where your clan initials can go.

Regarding Ravens Reapers: I'm the clan leader for Rainbow Six. We are a new, growing clan of adults which want to have a good time playing games.

To change your prefix, goto the multiplayer menu, then go to personal info.. the option is in there.

I'm planning on scheduling clan matches through the www.ravensreapers.com forums...

Can anyone clarify how you can tell if you are playing Realistic or Normal (is it 3 grenades for normal and 2 for realistic)?
Posted above about troubles playing on Realistic after completing the game on Normal.

I ended up deleting my saved game via the the 360 dashboard and started up a new one on Realistic. Things seemed to be working as I only had 2 grenades all through Mexico level.

When I land in Vegas (level 2) and when I get out of the copter I have 3 grenades again!

WTF???

Jamie

Jamie, I'm pretty sure you get one less grenade on realistic. But you should also notice the difference between the 2 levels immediately. On Realistic you die with 2-3 shots, on normal it's double. AI is smarter, etc.

So, somehow after I select a game and start on Realistic it keeps reverting back to Normal difficulty.

Rainbow Six: Vegas Revisited

Ubisoft hits us with five new maps and two new gamemodes in the upcoming Player's Pack Red Edition. We have all the details.
by Jonathan Miller

February 12, 2007 - Imagine a regular day at the office. Suddenly, a Rainbow team anti-terrorist agent explodes through the window and into your cubicle. He hands you a gun, a rappelling belt and tells you to follow him or be killed.

Actually, we imagine this quite a bit at the IGN office, especially when expense reports are due. Go figure. This is also how the team at Ubisoft Montreal described the new Assassination mode, part of the upcoming downloadable Player's Pack Red Edition, available on Xbox Live at the end of March. While no price has been announced, look for this package to be a must-download for fans of one of the most popular online titles on Xbox 360.

Hey you, VIP. Come with us or die.
Along with Assassination, the pack will include another mode called Total Conquest, as well as five new maps -- well, three new maps, actually. Both Killhouse and Bordertown are being revisited and relit, getting a complete face-lift from the team at Ubisoft. Here's what Ubisoft says about the three new maps:

Doscala Restaurant: This well-known Italian restaurant is located in the heart of Las Vegas, near the famous Fremont Street.

Marshalling Yard: This century-old service yard is situated in the center of an industrial district. Still active today, it is primarily used to store cars, but is also equipped with cleaning and maintenance facilities.

Roof: A coffee factory has been overrun in the continuing gang violence that is wreaking havoc in this Mexican border town. The strategic positioning of the factory makes it highly desirable to control, and therefore a focal point of the violence.

Better than the friggin' water cooler.
As for the game modes, here's how Ubisoft describes Assassination: "The goal of the attackers is to eliminate a high-value asset of the defenders, who in turn will try to defend and escort the VIP to his extraction zone."

Total Conquest, on the other hand, is more of a "Battlefield" type mode in which teams strive to control points on the map. "This is a team-oriented, static control-point game mode where each map contains three Mobile Radar Installations (control points). To win, a team must activate and maintain control of at least one of the three Mobile Radar Installations for a given period of time," said Ubisoft.

While we've seen these types of modes in other shooters, we've yet to see them at work in the heart of Sin City. We sat down with the team to see how it all comes together.

IGN: Assassination sounds great. Tell us about some of the interesting matches you have had in your play-tests.

Ubisoft: Well, the goal of the game is to protect the VIP and escort him to one of the two extraction points. Sometimes the games are incredibly short when the whole assault team jumps on the VIP. However, when the defending team really plays with teamwork, it gives a super high velocity showdown where every player works as a team to pull off their goals. We've played games that were up to 15 minutes long trying to pin down the other team. Great moments!

IGN: Does the VIP have a different weapon set or advantage/disadvantage that we have seen in previous modes of this type?

Ubisoft: Imagine a regular day at the office, and then a Rainbow team member smashes through your window and hands you a pistol and a rappelling belt telling you to follow them or you will be killed.

IGN: That answer was so great we made it our opening paragraph. Thanks! So, what advice do you have for the assassins as they go about the match? What general advice for the VIP team?

Ubisoft: For the Assault Team, there are two extraction points, so even though you may risk a few men to try intercepting the VIP halfway, you must remain watchful of these two points (snipers when line of fire allows it, motion sensors coupled with C4 charges near extractions can also work well.).

For the Defenders, it is best to keep a few men around the VIP covering his front and back, and in the worse case, to give the VIP time to escape if things go wrong. And since the extraction points are most likely to be filled with assailants just waiting for you to try and extract, it would be wise to send a few guys to try and clear the way for the VIP and the men who escort him.


It's marshall law in the Marshalling Yard. OK, that was stupid.
IGN: I'm getting nervous because I consider myself a high-value target. How is the VIP chosen?

Ubisoft: The VIP is chosen on a random basis within the Defenders, so everyone has an equal chance (good or bad depends on your perception) of being the VIP.

IGN: Just to give everyone an example, take us through the set up of Assassination on the Calypso Casino map. Where do the teams start, where is the extraction, and where does the action tend to heat up?

Ubisoft: The team with the VIP starts in the basement in the computer room, and the Assault team starts on the roof. The VIP needs to get to the chopper on the roof. Depending on how the Assault team decides their strategy, the fight will either occur in a doorway of the roof because the defender team is camping near doors waiting for the VIP or in the casino. The casino is a hard place for the VIP to go through, since snipers can get you by the skylight or in cover behind slot machines. It's a really nice complex map for the Defenders to protect their VIP.

I told you to file those TPS reports. Now look what's happened.
IGN: Yeah, we enjoy that map. So tell us about Total Conquest. We love these "Battlefield" type modes. Does yours do anything different than other games out there?

Ubisoft: In previous Rainbow Six games this multiplayer mode was won by holding the most satellites at the end of the allowed time or if you gain possession of all three satellites for 30 seconds. To prevent matches from being too short, we changed it to a system of cumulative points. Every second a team holds a satellite, the team gets 5 points, 2 satellites 10 points per sec, and all three gives them 25 points per second. The number of points needed to win a match is set before the game starts; it can be set between 1,000 to 8,000 points. An 8,000 point game is challenging because killing the other team gives you no points but is just as cool.

IGN: Is there an advantage to controlling a radar station other than, you know, winning the game? Do you get extended radar or something equally radical?

Ubisoft: Simply put: if you don't control a radar stations, you can't win. Killing opposing team players doesn't give you any points; the only way to score is to hold the radar stations as long as you can. The more radar stations you hold, the more points you're awarded, the team to reach the limit score wins.

Don't shoot! I'm just looking for a radar I lost.
IGN: Even though we have an entire team dedicated to walk-throughs, can you walk us through a Total Conquest match on Calypso Casino map? Where are the radar stations, where do teams begin, and what's the best strategy as you play this match? Stay as a team, split up? Run and hide? What say you?

Ubisoft: Team Alpha starts in the security rooms next to the vault; Team Bravo starts on the one side of the roof. There's one radar in front of the Vault, one in the slot Machine room and one on the other side of the roof. The match starts and both teams go for the radars that are on their levels. Since they are rather close they can start scoring some points as soon as possible. Then it's a rush to get to the slot machines room to get the second radar. It will feel more like trying to survive the bullet-fest going on there. The best way to win these matches is to split the team in three groups, each having precise radar to capture and protect. One group is set to protect the nearest radar, the more aggressive players really should be trying their luck on the middle radar since this is where most of the combat is going to happen, and the sneakiest players ought to get the furthest radar, trying to avoid contact, doing the detours, and getting the radar behind the enemies' backs.

IGN: Hmm, we like being sneaky. Thanks for taking the time and we're excited for the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas Player's Pack Red Edition. Is that the best title you could come up with?

Ubisoft: [Crickets chirping.]

exm, I take it you'll be picking up this collection of maps? Im tempted to, but I find most people play Attack & Defend on the Calypso Casino map.

I am CERTAINLY going to pick this up: new game modes, new & improved maps. Wow!

More on the "Map Pack" here at XBL

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/12773/...Pack-Revealed/

Kenny J - Buzz Starhopper

Yeah I'm going to get this.

how much is it going to cost?

Hasn't been announced yet, but I've read rumors of 800 points.