Topic: Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 -- Update: Steam weekend deal for this for $9.99

[MysterD]

Update:
For Fan Pack info -- see Reply #25 in this thread.

Original Post:
No surprise, really -- when you make a popular game, cash in on a sequel!

R6: Vegas 2 announced for PC and consoles

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Announced [November 20, 2007, 3:35 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
Ubisoft announces Rainbow Six Vegas 2, a sequel to the Tom Clancy shooter set in sin city, due for release in March 2008:

    London, UK — November 20, 2007 — Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that it is developing Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Vegas 2 for next-generation consoles and PC. Developed at Ubisoft Montreal by the same team that created the award-winning Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas, the highly anticipated sequel is scheduled for a March 2008 release. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the sixth iteration in the wildly successful Rainbow Six franchise which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2008 with more than 16 million units sold worldwide to date.

    “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas took the gaming world by storm in 2006 thanks to its technological advances and gameplay innovations,” said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “We are convinced that Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will remain a pioneer in the highly competitive first person shooter genre, bringing more of what Rainbow Six fans love to the table.”

    The highly anticipated sequel to the winner of numerous awards, including IGN’s 2006 Best First Person Shooter and Best Online Game, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will push the franchise to new heights by adding new gameplay features and even more stunning visuals. Players will encounter an intense solo campaign that uses new tactical possibilities in various locations around Sin City. As expected with one of the pioneer franchises for online multiplayer Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will also break new ground in both co-op and adversarial modes, while providing unprecedented interaction between the solo and multiplayer modes.

[Pugnate]

Woooh.

I wish the had just changed the title. Rainbow Six: Mars or whatever. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 sounds stupid.

[Xessive]

Woooh.

I wish the had just changed the title. Rainbow Six: Mars or whatever. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 sounds stupid.

I think they're trying to distinguish R6:V as a unique series; which it is when compared to the other R6 games especially the blunder that was Lockdown. I don't mind the name too much since it is expected to be a continuation of the "to be cotinued" ending of the original R6 Vegas. I know what you mean though

[Pugnate]

Yes, that's a good point. The Vegas game had different gameplay.

[Xessive]

I honestly enjoyed Vegas, and I felt much better about Ubisoft since the fiascos with Lockdown and Splinter Cell Double Agent. I've come to the conclusion that the only good things of Ubisoft come from Montréal and France. I have learned to think more about the studio developing a game rather than the label.

I'm curious to see how Vegas 2 will be.

[iPPi]

Vegas was a great game, both in SP and MP.  Definitely want to get this one when it comes out.

[MysterD]

Here's some info from Ubi's site on Vegas 2, which is right now planned for March 2008.

   
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – the sequel to the award-winning next-generation first-person shooter – returns to Sin City. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is your last chance to rescue America’s sexiest city from an escalating terrorist siege that will force you into heart-pounding action from beginning to end. The best are back and this time winner takes all.

Recipient of numerous awards, including 2006 Best First Person Shooter and Best Online Game, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will push the top-selling franchise to new heights with new gameplay features and groundbreaking co-op and multiplayer modes.


Key Features

    * Ubisoft Montreal Returns – Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is back in the hands of Ubisoft’s Montreal studio, creators of the award-winning and highly acclaimed Rainbow Six Vegas, to ensure that ending to the Vegas story is one you’ll never forget.
    * More Vegas – Sin City is back and bigger than before. Explore all new Vegas hot spots as the environment changes from dusk to bright daylight to dawn, creating a visual experience that is as challenging as it is breathtaking.
    * More Multiplayer – The highly acclaimed multiplayer mode in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas has been upgraded to include 11 new, smaller maps that force more intense face-offs, 2 new adversarial modes, more rewards, and easier access to matches using the improved and intuitive matchmaking system.
    * Unprecedented Customizable Experience – Create your own identity that stays the same in both single player and multiplayer modes and progresses as you do. Reap the benefits of your single player rewards in multiplayer and vice versa.
    * Vastly Improved Co-op mode – Turn single player mode into co-op mode at any time, just by jumping into the game. Now your friend can jump into your single player game and help you without any change to the story. Single player maps and storyline were created with co-op in mind, which means every map has multiple entry points and the story is the same.
    * Improved AI – AI is more challenging than ever. Now, the terrorists are equipped with thermal vision, night vision, and shields – not to mention a multitude of varying reactions – all of which are guaranteed to give you a new playing experience every time you go into battle. As you progress within the game, you’ll only be able to outsmart your enemies by taking advantage of intel opportunities, such as thermal scanning, and tactical strategies, such as leapfrogging.
    * New Weapons and Armor – Take down the terrorists more effectively using 11 new weapons. New camouflage, clothing and gear allow you to take customization to the next level.

[Xessive]

SWEET! I love coop gameplay so you can imagine how ecstatic I am to hear that someone is finally gearing things toward it! hehe

[Jedi]

I thought the co-op in Vegas was pretty good but it sound just a bit better already. I can't wait for more Vegas action!

[Pugnate]

I wish they'd add coop to the PC.

[Xessive]

I wish they'd add coop to the PC.

Wait WHAT?! This is not regarding the PC version??!! DAMN THEM! THOSE BASTARDS!!

[Pugnate]

I know... it ticks me off. Yes PC monitors are mostly smaller, but many people have big ones now, and it isn't like it takes a lot of effort to implement split screen gaming.

[Xessive]

I know... it ticks me off. Yes PC monitors are mostly smaller, but many people have big ones now, and it isn't like it takes a lot of effort to implement split screen gaming.

I'm not even asking for split-screen, as awesome as it would be, I just want basic coop!

Hopefully they'll pull it off well.

[Pugnate]

Oh it has basic coop on the net/LAN.

Sorry about that.

[Xessive]

Oh it has basic coop on the net/LAN.

Sorry about that.

Good God man! I was half-way finished with a letter of complaint to Ubisoft! hehe

Imagine if they did actually remove coop from the PC version! I think there would have been some serious backfire if it that really was the case

I watched the teaser vid, and it's nothing big.. I was hoping to have a teaser glimpse on actual gameplay but I guess that was hoping for too much from a teaser. I'm just curiosu how different it will be visually.

[MysterD]

On the official page, there's a vid that's a Dev Diary.

It's on one of the Ubisoft game designers talking about the whole deal w/ integration of Campaign for SP and CoOp Modes -- oh yeah, AND The MP.

Worth watching.

Basically, the game has its own sort of Achievement points system.

It keeps track of "experience" points you will earn for doing certain things -- close range kills under a certain number of feet, headshots, sharpshooting from a specific distance, if you reach a certain checkpoint in the game, whatever-whatever, blah-blah-blah, etc etc.

The more "experience" points you earn, the more different items, weapons, cool-looking gear, and other stuff you'll actually be able to unlock.

[MysterD]

Looks like Ubisoft's game designer Philippe Therien doesn't want to do another Vegas game anytime soon.
 

Speaking to Eurogamer, designer Philippe Therien said, "We will never go back to Vegas - at least, not in the foreseeable future."

...
 
Therien also noted that, although the single location worked well for the story of the previous two games, he's not sure if they'll return to that format for the next Rainbow Six installment. (Make no mistake, no one expects this to be the last Rainbow Six title.) The glamorous, time-paradoxical Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is due out March 21.

[MysterD]

X360 Reviews
8.5 from GameSpot
8.4 from IGN
4½ stars from GameSpy (out of 5)

[MysterD]

Vegas 2 PC has an issue w/ it, where when the game crashes on you, the game's log files can go to around 800 MB of disc space.

   
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Disk Space Issue [April 23, 2008, 10:45 am ET] - Viewing Comments

The Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Forums are filled with stories of users who have discovered that if (when) the PC edition of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 suffers a crash, the resulting memory dump will take up upwards of 800 MB of disk space, in some cases these log files surpass the 1 GB threshold (thanks Ant and Kotaku). A response from Ubisoft reads: "I'll try and find this out. Apologies for any frustration this approach to crash logging causes. I'll make sure the developers are aware of everyone's reaction to it here and let you all know if I hear anything back about the matter." Meantime, no solution is available other than to be vigilant in deleting these files before they take up too much space.

[Xessive]

Vegas 2 PC has an issue w/ it, where when the game crashes on you, the game's log files can go to around 800 GB of disc space.

800 GB? Typo! hehe Imagine!

I haven't played this yet but I'm hoping to soon.

[MysterD]

I made a typo.
It's 800 MB.
I fixed it.

[Xessive]

Just played it on PC. Fantastic. It looks nicer and performs better than the original R6V. The character customization is great, and the rewards system makes it worthwhile to play like a pro!

I've just finished the first act. So far so good. Let's hope I feel the same throughout!

[MysterD]

Just played it on PC. Fantastic. It looks nicer and performs better than the original R6V. The character customization is great, and the rewards system makes it worthwhile to play like a pro!

I've just finished the first act. So far so good. Let's hope I feel the same throughout!

Cool.

Out of curiosity -- have you had the game crash and hit that 800 MB bug yet?

[Xessive]

Cool.

Out of curiosity -- have you had the game crash and hit that 800 MB bug yet?

I've got it patched up to v1.01 and I've only had one time when an error message showed upon exiting the game. No problems with the log file so far.

[MysterD]

I've got it patched up to v1.01 and I've only had one time when an error message showed upon exiting the game. No problems with the log file so far.

Pssssshew!

[MysterD]

R6: Vegas 2 will gets some FREE DLC content for all of the supported platforms in July -- PC, X360, and PS3.

This is all the info on the R6: Vegas 2 - Fan Pack DLC.
This is all the info from Ubi Level Up and edited by Ubi Vigil.

Hi everyone,

I am very pleased to announce that Ubisoft will be releasing a Fan Pack to all Rainbow Six fans. I am also here to give you better insight and clarification on what the Fan Pack contains:

The Fan Pack includes an Update for the game and DLC (downloadable content). The first thing that may come to mind is: “Is this free?” Yes it is, including the DLC. This pack will be available via Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network and ubi.com in July 2008. You can find out more about the Fan Pack in this video.


*** Update Features ***

New Ranks
An additional 99 Elite Ranks have been added for bragging rights. For those of you who are already Elite, you may have noticed that your XP continued to accumulate while playing. Once you have the update, your XP will automatically be applied towards the new Elite ranks, so it is possible that you have already ranked up multiple times past Elite.

New A.C.E.S.
A total of 100 A.C.E.S. are available for each category: Marksman, CQB and Assault. Each A.C.E.S. level past 20 will reward you with 5000 XP that applies to your rank. For players who have already reached A.C.E.S. 20 and continued to collect A.C.E.S. points, you will be happy to know that the update will automatically advance you to the level you have earned. For example, if you have enough A.C.E.S. points to reach Marksman 25, you will automatically be at Marksman 25 and earn 25000 (5000 x 5) towards your next Rank.

Grenade Indicator
When you are within the damage radius of a Frag or Incendiary grenade, an indicator will appear on-screen telling you which direction it is. The indicator can show multiple grenades at once.

Weapons & Gadgets Balancing
Here are a couple of notes about Weapons and Gadgets:
• Explosion delay of the incendiary grenade has been increased
• Detonation speed of the C4 has been slightly increased
• Increased the damage of Sniper Rifles at long range
• Increased the base accuracy of the Light Machine Guns
• Adjusted the rate of fire for some of the Assault Rifles, Shotguns and an SMG
• Sped up the time it takes to zoom in & out with weapons, making it more responsive

To better clarify: the zoom for all firearms have been significantly sped-up and you can now fire DURING the zoom transition.

Respawns in Team Deathmatch – Host Option
An added host option has been added for Random Respawns. Random Respawns OFF will play like the classic Versus style where each team spawns in their designated Alpha or Bravo base. Random Respawns ON will have your players spawn randomly throughout the map after they die the first time.

Voice Chat – Host Option
Added as a host option for Player Match & System Link, players now have the option to talk to their team mates while dead.

Score in Deathmatch
Displayed on the bottom left of the HUD in Deathmatch, players can now see their score along with the top opponent’s score.

Team Leader - Spawn Change
Players now respawn next to the leader by default, unless players specifically choose to spawn back at the base.

Show Dead Players in Lobby
Players who no longer have lives remaining will now have a skull icon displayed next to their name in the pause menu.

Terrorist Hunt Spawning
Terrorists will no longer spawn right in front of you or behind you, or in a room you just cleared.


* * * * *

High Stakes Setting
High Stakes is a host option for every Versus mode that really pushes tactical gameplay to the next level. Here’s a detailed description of High Stakes:

Limited HUD (High Stakes)
The Radar is disabled. Enemies will not be visible on the Tactical Map (back button on 360/select button on PS3). Grenade indicator is disabled.

Health System (High Stakes)
Health regen is disabled. If you are shot and close to death, you’ll enter a visual state of critical health (screen turns monochromatic).

Cover System (High Stakes)
The cover system as been changed in High-Stakes mode to encourage players to peek instead of pop-n-shoot. The camera has been moved so your character cannot look past their cover unless they expose themselves around a corner.

Weapons & Gadgets (High Stakes)
Aim Assistance has been completely disabled. Bullet spread has also been increased when not zoomed-in (you will notice your crosshair indicators are much wider when not in zoom). Realistically, a person holding a gun would have better aim when zoomed-in than when he’s walking around. This encourages players to really take aim instead of run-n-gun. Also remember that the zoom time has been sped-up and you can now fire WHILE you zoom in and out. Players now have less ammunition (1 for each gadget you choose and less clips for your guns) so you really need to play conservatively and rely on precision use of ammo.

Kill Camera & Friendly Fire (High Stakes)
Kill Camera is always disabled and Friendly fire is always enabled.



*** DLC ***


THREE FREE MAPS
There are three maps included in the free DLC: Murdertown – Dark, CQB Training – Dark and best of all the much-requested fan favourite Calypso Casino! The three map layouts have not been changed. The re-lit “Dark maps” have a very eerie atmosphere, and may require players to use night vision to spot enemies. Calypso Casino returns with updated lighting and textures. The three maps are playable in all Versus modes and Terrorist Hunt.


This Fan Pack is dedicated to all of you in the Rainbow Six community. Everything in this update and DLC comes directly from you on the forums, private messages to us and even matches the team has played with you all online. We’d like to sincerely thank you for your continued support and feedback. See you online!

Gamertag: UBI LevelUp
PSN ID: UBI_LevelUp

Update by Ubi.Vigil:

We're sure some of you are wondering when it will be available on platforms other than UK PS3s. This early release was a result of a miscommunication with Sony, we apologise for any confusion or frustration this sudden release caused. Until the release of the update in other PS3 territories, UK PS3 players will only be able to play with other UK players.

The full Fan pack, including all maps, fixes and changes, will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in early July.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ubi.Vigil, Fri June 27 2008 07:10


--
Best Regards,
Ubi.LevelUp - Community Developer
Rainbow Six Vegas 2

[MysterD]

Vegas 2: Fan Pack DLC released in the game's newest Patch 1.03

[MysterD]

From Slashdot.
Recently, UbiSoft  released a fix for D2D Users (Direct2Drive) for those having trouble w/ getting Vegas 2 to boot-up.
The fix was actually -- well, a No-CD Crack that Reloaded (WareZ Group) created to get around Vegas 2's protection!

Here's the thread on their Ubi Message Boards.

Hilarious.

More here from Torrentfreak.com on this

[Xessive]

I use the cracks anyway; so no 'news' there. In my case I've never really had to worry about all the problem that arise from disc reading or disc-protection software.

I just don't like having to put the disc in the drive every time I play game since I've already installed the damn thing. Unless I'm mistaken isn't that originally the point of installing? Of course it increases performance slightly since it doesn't have to read from a disc.

I find it amusingly ironic that Ubisoft wound up here!

By the way, I've been playing R6V2 with patch v1.03 and I'm noticing a major glitch in the singleplayer mode: My character keeps randomly issuing commands or canceling ones I've given to the team! It's is infuriating! Especially once I've stacked my guys at a door and I've run off to another entry point, Bishop suddenly issues a "go here" or "hold" command which puts them off the door!

I know for a fact that it has nothing to do with a crack because I've been playing it clean with the disc in the drive. This bug only occurs in v1.03.

I have also tried fresh installations on other PC's and playing the game vanilla at first, all seems well, then I update to v1.03 and the same problem reappears. It's weird.

[MysterD]

It's funny that UbiSoft resolved their D2D drives boot-up issues by -- well, using an unsupported 3rd party No-CD crack! LOL.

Though, Ubi should not be really taking credit for fixing the issues; they didn't fix it, the Reloaded Squad did. They should be thanking Reloaded in the D2D Fix-files ReadMe's or something. Reloaded Squad really saved UbiSoft a little bit of work.

I really just hope Ubi checked it out for viruses, trojans, and whatnot, before they decided to use that as their fix for the D2D version of the game.

[Xessive]

Someone at Ubi must have been frustrated with having to juggle discs in and out of their drives! hehe

[MysterD]

Someone at Ubi must have been frustrated with having to juggle discs in and out of their drives! hehe

About time these damn developers found a way to let pirates/crackers actually benefit them.

[MysterD]

I picked this up for $20 today at BB, since it finally got a universal price drop.

And yeah -- so far, so good. Game looks great and runs great, at its highest systems on my PC in 1024x768.

Oh, I really like the whole ACES system -- for gaining XP and all. Feels RPGish. Also, I like being told you why you're gaining experience points if say you got a headshot kill; close up kill; whatever the case.

[Xessive]

I picked this up for $20 today at BB, since it finally got a universal price drop.

And yeah -- so far, so good. Game looks great and runs great, at its highest systems on my PC in 1024x768.

Oh, I really like the whole ACES system -- for gaining XP and all. Feels RPGish. Also, I like being told you why you're gaining experience points if say you got a headshot kill; close up kill; whatever the case.

Yeah, I think Ubisoft did a good job with R6V2. Being a fan of the original R6 I can understand how some of the fans felt alienated by the new style but I got the hang of it pretty quick and I love it. A lot of the hardcore original fans claimed to hate the cover system. Personally I think it's exactly what R6 needed.

[iPPi]

R6V was an amazing game -- unfortunately I heard the sequel, was basically identical to the first, but includes more performance issues, and less memorable locales.

[Xessive]

R6V was an amazing game -- unfortunately I heard the sequel, was basically identical to the first, but includes more performance issues, and less memorable locales.

Less memorable locales, that's true. It doesn't feel quite as grand as R6V. However, the performance of R6V2 was definitely way better than the original. They fixed a lot of issues I was having with R6V, which is still kind of choppy on my current system.

R6V2 runs beautifully on max settings and it hasn't crashed at all. I tested it further when I installed it on my old system (currently my brother's machine) and although we have to put it on the lowest settings (old Radeon X1650 Pro 256MB) at 800x600 we can actually LAN it up. R6V is unplayable even at 640x480.

R6V2 really shines online. I often find decent servers and if not I just start one and people join. It's not as barren as some other games.

[MysterD]

Less memorable locales, that's true. It doesn't feel quite as grand as R6V. However, the performance of R6V2 was definitely way better than the original. They fixed a lot of issues I was having with R6V, which is still kind of choppy on my current system.

I must say, the club with the casino inside, gymnasium (especially with all the rappel and upwards shootouts), and entrance to the arena were awesome.

R6V2 runs beautifully on max settings and it hasn't crashed at all. I tested it further when I installed it on my old system (currently my brother's machine) and although we have to put it on the lowest settings (old Radeon X1650 Pro 256MB) at 800x600 we can actually LAN it up. R6V is unplayable even at 640x480.

Wow, they really did optimize R6V2 quite well.
They should optimize the original R6V1 some more, too.

R6V2 really shines online. I often find decent servers and if not I just start one and people join. It's not as barren as some other games.

Nice.

[Pugnate]

R6V2 turned any sense of deliberately paced action the first game had, and turned it into Doombow 6.

[Xessive]

R6V2 turned any sense of deliberately paced action the first game had, and turned it into Doombow 6.

It was a little faster overall, but it's basically the same game. They didn't compromise the tactical gameplay (at least not more than R6V).

I am so glad they added a dash button too. It's a short burst of running (distance depends on how maneuverable your character is based on your armor), you can't shoot, but it's handy for running from cover to cover.

The AI is still a little off, I'll admit. In Terrorist Hunt if you stand by a rope where tangos can rappel, just fire one shot and watch them come up like livestock in a slaughterhouse assembly line.

[Pugnate]

I am speaking in terms of level design, not the controls. Have you played the SP campaign of R6V2? While in the first game the enemies were somewhat realistically placed, in R6V2, you can encounter like a thousand baddies in each small building. Sometimes there are a hundered baddies scattered in a single corridor. What the hell are they doing? Having a conference? Also, why aren't they together? What is the point of a hundred terrorists in groups of ten taking separate positions in the same hall??? With each group just enough apart for them not to hear the group calling for help, but still close enough to have stood together. Obviously, I am exaggerating, but you know what I mean.

And why is there a boss fight? WTF?

And then there was the ridiculous achivement crap, that totally reeked of consolitis. I don't mind achievements as long as they don't disturb the game ala hl2:ep2, but they are really poorly implemented in R6V2, and feel totally out of place considering it is a tactical game.

For example, you have different achivement trees that rewards various styles of play. These trees include long range shooting, demolition skills, close encounter kills etc. Now that's all fine, but the rewards are locked weapons and equipment which are somewhat essential.

The worst of it is that plenty of weapons can only be unlocked once you reach a higher level in a certain style of play. Now when one of those achivement trees constantly asks you to get extremely close range kills, I get ticked off. It has no place in a tactical shooter.

At one point, I really wanted the equipment that was locked behind the close range kills tree, and I ended up running around like a mad man with a desert eagle, hoping to clear the entire level by blowing up each terrorist's face while standing right next to them. Of course that's when I really started dying a lot, and hating the game.

Imagine if that happened in real life. What if there was a hostage situation at the UN, and the SAS started running up to the bewildered terrorists armed with baseball bats so that they could get extremely close range kills in order to "unlock" better equipment.

The whole mechanics of the achivement stuff was just totally out of place.

edit:

Admittedly, I played the game again with friends in co-op mode. I have to admit, it was really badass. Just wasn't a proper SP experience.