This is just mad.  I love the craziness of Superman using his arctic breath on Sub Zero

With the disappointment that was Mass Effect, I switched to playing through another couple of games I got recently.  I’ll talk about Call of Duty 4 in a future post, but I thought I’d talk about Rainbow Six Vegas 2 first.

Much like Mass Effect is to the PC RPG market, this is a successful PC franchise which has been ripped apart for the console gamers.

The first in the console-friendly series was Rainbow Six: Lockdown, which was widely regarded as awful by the PC market.  The Vegas series has faired better however, striking more of a balance between the tactic-heavy gaming of the PC versions, and the console-style gaming.

The main casualty in the conversion to console has been the planning mode.   Instead you play the game as if you’d skipped to the “Action” phase of the mission.  There are no multiple teams (aside from a few AI teams that turn up as part of the storyline in some of the missions), no Go Codes, a less strict planning regarding rules of engagement etc.

Instead, you follow way-points a la the action phase of old, and within those waypoints, you can lay down tactics on-the-fly between your character, and the two other teammates.   This is actually more flexible than it sounds, and once you get into it, adds a lot to the missing tactical side of the gameplay.   You can order them to push forward to various locations while you provide covering fire, breach-and-clear a room from a door while you head around through another door (or window), or issue orders for them to frag grenade areas.

You also get an array of gadgets to help you out.  These generally take the form of grenades, targetting scopes, and your trusty thermal and nightvision goggles.   There’s a lot of fun to be had, when pinned down, by throwing down some smoke grenades for cover, and then using your thermal goggles to spot, and take down the offending tangos in safety.

The other main change from the PC versions, is that your player is a lot more robust.  In the old PC versions getting shot was pretty much certain death (unless you were particularly lucky and got winged).   This game adopts the system from Call of Duty.  Issuing you’ve not just taken a shotgun hit to the chest, or had a grenade go off in front of you, your character becomes disoriented, and the screen blurs.   By getting out of the line of fire and behind cover, you’ll recover and be able to carry on.   Get pinned down and take any more hits, and you’re toast.    Its a nice compromise system between the unrelenting realism of the previous games, and introducing health bars etc, that tend to allow you to become a bit reckless when playing FPS games.  This way as long as your careful, you’ll be fine, however if you do get into a spot, you’re given a chance to get out of it, rather than being gunned down mercilessly.

The other thing that’s been borrowed from other franchises is the idea of most of the equipment being unlocked as you gain XP and levels (this very much reminded me of the Battlefield series).   Unlocking certain weapons for example, is done by completing levels in the various types of combat such as Marksman, or Assault-style.   Points being gained in these styles by performing various feats, such as headshots, killing through cover, or killing using blind fire.  If anything, this is possibly my one complaint with the game.  While the default array of weapons is more than adequate and includes some old favourites (my usual loadout being an MP5 and a FAMAS), I still miss the range of choices you had by default in Rogue Spear and Raven Sheild Series.

Its a minor quibble though.  This is a great entry in the Rainbow Six series, and well worth playing for anyone who enjoyed the other games.  As long as you’re aware that its a different style of gameplay to what came before.

Well, given my praise of the BBC’s treatment of Heroes in my last post, it seems balanced to point out their treatment of another US import: Kyle XY.

I’ve been getting really into this show, which tells the story of a boy who is found wandering with no memory of who he is (indeed, he has no memory of anything, and we share his first experiences of the world and life via an internal monologue).

The first season is pretty short, only about 10 episodes, and season 2 has already finished in the States. However here in the UK, the BBC has taken a break after only 6 of the season 1 episodes. I had originally thought this would just be for Wimbledon, but checking the website, it appears that the remaining 4 episodes won’t be shown until September.

Great way to treat those who are enjoying the show. Me thinks the Beeb may well lose my ratings as I’ll try and source some US DVDs or something.