I have been playing the new Rainbow Vegas 2 since launch day, and as much as I hate to admit it, I really do prefer the first Rainbow better. In fact, I just finished playing a game of Attack and Defend on Calypso Casino for old time’s sake… okay, and for my own sake!

If Ubisoft had just made a few tweaks to R6V2, it would have topped the original, especially with the addition of sprinting! So here is my wishlist of what I wish Ubisoft would do so that I would love R6V2 just as much as the first.

No team talking
Okay, this really sucks. I hate playing a game and trying to hold any kind of conversation with friends while playing. Because I’ll be in the middle of saying something and then I’ll get popped in the head, which means I can’t hear the other players and they can’t hear me (unless they happen to be dead too!) So during the 7-10 second respawn time, you need to keep track of who else is dying so you know whether you can continue the conversation or if now you have to wait for the other half of your conversation to respawn. And god forbid you are trying to talk to your entire team of 4-7 players, because there is no chance unless you are completely dominating the other team. I don’t know why Uisoft made this change (it was a multiplayer option in the original Vegas) especially since it is really only going to be liked by the Pros when they are competing. Otherwise, all it does is hurt the players, especially the casual gamer who might want to play with a coupe of buddies.

Limiting respawns in Attack and Defend
A&D on Calypso Casino was my favorite map and mode for the entire time I played the first Vegas… and yes, I got that right on launch day and played it until the new one came out. So I was pretty excited to get to play it on some new maps… until I started playing it and realized that even in player matches, respawns were limited to 3, and there are none in ranked matches. So really, all A&D games turned into a game of team survival… which was my least favorite game mode of all! So it went from my favorite to my most hated, all because respawns were restricted.

More “real life” settings
OK, so there is Three Kingdoms Casino (which is painfully dark), Theatre (which I think everyone I know hates) and Villa. But all the other settings are either warehouse type places or very much under construction places. There are no more “real life” maps… in the first one we had tons (Calypso, Vault, LVU, Library, Doscala, etc) but in this one, there just isn’t the same diversity of settings.

Frame rate
Okay, I can totally understand frame rate issues on downloaded maps, as there was sometimes issues on Doscala. But there is no reason why a map such as Oil Refinery, which is on the disk, should have such a major frame rate issue. This map should be banned in clan matches because if it, it is truly horrendous.

In defense of R6V2
Okay, it does have some nice things the first Vegas didn’t have, the biggest being sprinting. The team swapping etc. is convenient, as is changing the primary and secondary gadgets. But I would gladly swap some of those (well, maybe not the sprinting!) for unlimited A&D respawns and having the team be able to talk the entire time.

Is it a dealbreaker for me? No, of course not. But I haven’t developed that “true love” of the sequel as I did for the first game. Now if only they would come out with a downloadable “vintage” map pack with Calypso, Vault, LVU, Neon and Library… even if they are all in Redux editions!

There are eleven new weapons being added to Vegas 2.

P99 (Pistol)
AUG PARA (SMG)
Type 05 JS (SMG)
SKORPION VZ83 (SMG)
FNC (Assault)
L85A2 (Assault)
AKS-74U (Assault)
M468 (Assault)
500 TACTICAL (Shotgun)
L96 Arctic Warfare (Sniper)
SR-25 SD (Sniper)

The SR-25 SD is a sniper you can put a silencer on. Silencers will increase accuracy but reduce the amount of damage they make when compared to the same weapon without the silencer. And the love-it-or-hate-it noob cannon, aka the XM-26 LSS, has a reduced rate of fire now… will be interesting to see if it will still end up with a perma-ban by most hosts when they start up their new games. And in terrorist hunt you can now have to primary weapons, both for single player and multiplayer hunting.

Okay, all you Rainbow fanboys and fangirls (especially the H20s that constantly ask me!) here are some new videos. They show some conquest battles (in the MLG map that is available through GameStop preorder). I promise I will do another post on what I think of the new game based on the info that has come out so far, but I figured I’d get the videos out to you first for your viewing pleasure.

First, here is an old Raven Shield map Oil Refinery (was also on the original XBox Rainbow Six 3). I compared it to my old version of the map, and it still looks as confusing as I remembered it… and a better server room has been added this time around. The differences seem to be some catwalk type areas that have been added. And the textures look so much better.
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Be still my heart! Some new weapons and the oldies but goodies are back again… my fave M8 is there, and everybody’s fave, the FAMAS, is there too. And of course, the MTAR (called the TAR21) The leveling up system is a combination of the old style and the COD4 challenges style (ie. headshots, distance, frags), because you level up with XP by doing actions instead of just merely winning matches, this should help the problem of all those glitched elites when people like me did it the hard way. And you can level up playing online, single player story and co-op too. It is kind of interesting how it shows you the progression on-screen as you level up. You can sprint, and you can still post up.

And you can play as a chickie in single player campaign now! No word on if you still get custom camo… I love my camos.

And one can hope for a pre-release demo like they did for the first Rainbow, but I won’t hold my breath… would be pretty sweet tho for the March issue of XBox magazine though.

And the new video they released a few days back, if you missed it. The street date of the game is still March 12th.