PC Game News

We’ve got the first details, screens and a teaser trailer of the next installment in Ubisoft’s heralded series.

Now Ubisoft is preparing to unleash the sequel to the masses in Spring 2008. The game brings several new features and modes to the mix so in order to keep all of our sub-machine gun totting ducks in a row we sat down with Jean-Pascal Cambiotti, the Lead Game Designer for Rainbow Six Vegas 2 to get the skinny.

Read the Interview by Nate Ahearn @ IGN, RIGHT HERE.

Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced the first details for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Vegas 2, currently in production for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows. Scheduled for a March 2008 release and developed by Ubisoft’s award-winning Montreal studio, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the sixth iteration of the multimillion-selling Rainbow Six tactical shooter franchise and follow-up to the highly successful and award-winning Rainbow Six Vegas.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the last chance for gamers to rescue America’s sexiest city from an escalating terrorist siege that will impose heart-pounding action from beginning to end. The best are back and this time winner takes all. The highly-anticipated sequel to the recipient of numerous awards, including 2006’s 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.

What’s new in Rainbow Six Vegas 2? Lets Review the Highlighted Upgrades!

* More Multiplayer – The highly acclaimed multiplayer mode in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas has been upgraded to include 13 new maps with more intense face-offs, two 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 persists through both the single player and multiplayer modes and progresses along with you. 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 you and a friend can jump into a single player game and assist without any change to the story. The single player maps and storyline were created with co-op in mind, meaning every map has multiple entry points and the story is unaffected.

* Challenging AI – The 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 tactics – 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 be able to outsmart your enemies by taking advantage of intelligence opportunities, such as thermal scanning.

* New Weapons and Armor – Take down the terrorists more effectively using 11 new weapons. New camouflage, clothing and gear allow for the ultimate customizations.

* More Vegas – Sin City is back and bigger than before. Explore all new Vegas hot spots and the gritty back streets creating a visual experience that is as challenging as it is breathtaking.

Ubisoft released a pair of the first screenshots showing off Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2.   Enjoy:

Activision sends along the latest Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare patch, updating Infinity Ward’s first person shooter to v1.4. The 70mb download offers more bug fixes and game improvements, improved mod support, and a holiday version of the multiplayer map Crash.

CHANGES:

* “Winter Crash”, a holiday version of Multiplayer map “Crash”
* Improvements to the server browser
* Fixed some rare bullet accuracy issues for all weapons.
* For server admins: fixed user ban list not working correctly on servers. Ban.txt will be created in the main or fs_game directory

MOD SUPPORT:

* In the connect screen, Mods will be identified as”Mod: [mod name]”
* Only official IWD files will be read from the main directory. All custom IWD should be placed in a mod directory.
* Fix for reloading several times after connecting to a modded server
* Improved mod.ff support to allow adding game types.
* Fixed an issue with Http redirect downloads.
* “fs_game” will be forced to lower case

Download Locations:

FileFront

Worthplaying

The NPD Group has released the latest list of the top 10 best selling PC games in the US, this time for the week ending Dec. 8:

1. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Activision
2. The Sims 2 Bon Voyage – Electronic Arts
3. World Of Warcraft – Blizzard
4. The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff – Electronic Arts
5. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade – Blizzard
6. The Sims 2 Deluxe – Electronic Arts
7. Crysis – Electronic Arts
8. The Sims 2 Seasons – Electronic Arts
9. Half Life 2: Episode 2 The Orange Box – Valve/EA
10. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest – Blizzard

Despite their high-profile, Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 sales fizzled in November according to the NPD Group. Are PC gamers flocking to less expensive consoles?
 
The simExchange reports that neither Crysis or UT3 managed to sell more than 100,000 units in their debut last month.

Crysis, which requires an unprecedented $1500-$2500 in PC upgrades to play, sold 86,633 copies in the U.S., while Unreal Tournament 3 sold just 33,995 copies.

In January 2005, Vivendi said it sold 1.7 million copies of Half-Life 2 in just two months; much more than either Crysis or Unreal 3 for a similar period.

Though both games were released in the middle of the month, their numbers are clearly less than what EA and Midway had hoped for.

Are gamers abandoning the PC? Without jumping the gun, some believe the PC market is shrinking with exception to a few specific genres like the massively popular World of Warcraft MMO.

Indeed, both Xbox 360 and PS3 offer comparable, if not equal, graphics technology in most cases at a fraction of the cost. What was once the platform for hardcore shooters has seemingly been relegated to second place.