Review- Rainbow six-Vegas

It is always strange, and we couldn’t stop wondering what Ubisoft saw in the writings of Tom clancy that clicked as potential, ground breaking, video game franchises. Splinter cell, rainbow six, ghost recon. All of these are franchises that rocketed ubisoft on top place of game in industry. The newest game of one of these franchise, Rainbow six:vegas is a game which can’t be counted as degrading the overall quality assurance image of these franchises. In fact, it increases it in some cases.

You play as Logan keller in this game, the leader of the counter terrorist team who is called to operate against terrorists in Mexico (true, the game isn’t only in Vegas and also the beginning is not vegas). What happens after that and how we reach Vegas is the story element and we won’t spoil it for you.

Two most basic things of a game are graphics and gameplay, and this game is excellent on both of these fronts.

The graphics are realistic, very realistic. The flying dust, stunning lightning and shadow effects and great textures create sights to behold.

This game uses UT 3 engine, the same used in Gears of war. But to be true, although it goes down as one of the best looking games out there on PC, it is not as good looking as gears. This may be contributed to the fact that it was Epic themselves who made Gears and to another fact that on PC, there is always a bottom line that if you’re making a PC game, it should run on as many as PCs as you can allow it to. Ubisoft is already getting criticized for using Shader model 3.0 for this game, which makes many Graphics cards unable to play it.

Gameplay, although varying quite much from last Rainbow six, is very satisfying. It is probably the only game which gives you real feeling of being a commando. The animations of taking cover and shooting while hiding, or popping out suddenly and then firing, are just like a trained commando will do.

You can also shoot without coming out, but they will not be accurate. It is just like real life, you don’t where exactly the enemy is , so all you do is to get an idea of his position by his voice and fire blindly. This effect is crafted very nicely, although you won’t be using it pretty much cause of the inaccuracy.

This game do not has any medikit to pick or anything like that. The health replenishes itself after a while, slowly. So there is no need to go mad to find a medipack if you are low on health. This certainly decreases frustration in intense combats. Another effect is that whenever you get hit, the vision gets blurred for a while. So you need to wait until it goes OK to come back in action.

Just like Gears, anything that is between you and enemy is your friend here. You can take cover behind almost anything. And the controls for this are so easy. Just hold the right click and you are covered. Sit down or hide against it, and then use your ammo the way you like.

You won’t be playing alone. You have two buddies with you in almost every level. Everytime anything about AI buddies come and we start to suspect that they will be dumb and won’t be on par. But this times, this is not the case. They are pretty smart in almost everything. They navigate complex paths seamlessly and follow your orders without any double pressing.

Giving them order is one of the easiest things you can do in this ame. Point where you want them to be, and press space bar, they will be there. They take pretty good covers automatically, so don’t worry about there health that much.

There are many other things in the game worth mentioning. Like rope climbing or decending, choosing priority killing for enemies and of course, the weapon modification.

The Multiplayer allows cooperative mode, up to four players. So that creates good fun, and also compensates a bit for short single player part. You can also replay the game in realistic mode, which is much harder than normal.

Then there is normal multiplayer, up to 16 players. Containing almost every type of game. Whether capture the flag or time mode. You can also customize yourself by unlocking new weapons, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

The game features almost every type of real life gun. And you can further customize it, by adding silencer, laser or anything that is available.

And the last thing, but surely one of the best things, is the background score of the game. It is strange in fact. Really dark in earlier ages of the game, and the funky later on. Since you are in casinos, music will be, most of the times, what is being played in casino. Really good score, not if you want to listen alone, but really fits great in setting of game.

With so many plus points, is there anything that goes wrong with this game? Well…nothing is perfect. The biggest flaw of this game is that it requires a very Godly machine if you want to play it in full glory. Ubisoft said that there was no possibility of same experience as of Xbox360 if they didn’t include Shader model 3.0, so we can consider that. But still, there are others who want to play the game, without upgrading to a Rs.15000 ($375) graphic card. Now it is all up to you to think about what was right. To degrade the graphics, and hence experience of game, or to allow some more people to play this game.

Another minus points comes from the fact that you can’t save the game anywhere you want. There are several checkpoints where it will get automatically saved. So, if you die a bit too far away from previous check point, get ready to be frustrated cause now you have to do it all over again.

The final words are- if you have the hardware to run it, go get it. Even if you didn’t like earlier Rainbow six games, give it a shot. And if you liked, we don’t need to say buy it, do we?

Review- Call of Juarez

It is rare that I get an urge a hell lot about any game. As u may have seen, my reviews are short, if not one of the shortest out there.
But this time, it is different. Being completed Call of Juarez, I am dying to write about it. It may happen that ultimately I will end up not writing much, but still, I intend to make my thoughts clear.
In a few words- this game is awesome. Techland has made a game which can stand on par with the best ones out there, in any sense.
The question is- how?
The impression we get from a game is from presentation, and Call of Juarez has top notch production values, no two words about it. On the loading screen of the first level, you get introduction to the one of the character you will be playing- Billy, from himself. As soon as you listen the voice, game puts right into the setting. Whoever did Billy's voice over (it turns out to be David E. Taylor), did a fantastic job (and same goes for all voice overs of the game). Billy is a Mexican boy, who is on the run after leaving home because of his stepfather. When the game begins, you are near your your hometown called 'Hope' (but as Billy's says- 'pretty much the most hopeless town I have ever seen').
As soon as you see your hometown, one thing you just can't remain without thinking is that it looks gorgeous.



Hope is gorgeous

After a while, you will miss a blow job (really) and well known western style action will kick in. And after that, there is no stopping. The game is a non stop action ride after that point for most of the time.

After a few stages, you will be introduced to the second avatar of you. Reverand ray, a father in church of hope, finds his brother dead and somehow, it all comes to you. He thinks you have killed his brother. He will leave the obvious merciful image of a father and will become 'wrath of God'. The transformation of a father in a death angel is sudden, but wonderfully executed. Marc Alaimo has done hell of a voice over. The things he says are awesome. The voice really feels like voices of a death angel. He is fearsome, no doubt about that. Reverend ray, in my opinion, is one of the best game characters ever made. He (and that obviously means you) will hold gun in one hand a bible in other, only to read phrases from bible on dying thugs. This might not sound that interesting this way, but indeed is.
So, you are now after Billy (catching yourself is awesome, believe me). Game will process like this for quite a while now. You on the run, and you then catching yourself. There is something really interesting in the way these sequences are executed. Billy is all the way a fearful, scared guy (even his primary weapon is a whip) and Reverend ray is probably the most bad ass guy out there. So when you complete a level as Billy, you will be hiding from enemies, more in a stealth way. And then when you do it as Reverend ray, you will be a killing machine. There is something really satisfying about killing those bastards we were running scared of a while ago.

OK-OK. I forgot, I should not spoil the game for you. But one question which surely will come in your mind, that what is Juarez then? Well, Juarez is a legend in game (which actually will turn out something else in later stages of the game) who had a great treasure of gold, which Billy's mother described as-

There is one candle and three graves,
the gold of Juarez belongs only to the brave.

You sure want to know about graphics (and I have already given a hint). Graphics are breath taking, to say the least. As game progresses, they only improve. Jungle are rendered flawlessly. HDR creates almost real lightning effects and shadows are as perfect as they can be in any game. Jungles are lush and are full of flowers, butterflies and wolves. Dust is in the air everywhere and water is simply great. Simply put, these are one of the best graphics out there.



And in later stages of the game, you will be treated with even more beautiful vistas, when the game puts you into the desert, where the Gold of Juarez lies. This desert is so beautifully rendered that one can only admire the greatness of Techland's Chrome engine.




And then there is this awesome gameplay, which constitutes of horse-riding, dual gun fighting, slo-mo kind of effects and even killing by a whip. And all of them are executed wonderfully (although the horse riding can be a bit frustrating sometimes). The best part is that changing characters do not affects flow of story at all. The game does have many mini quests, which include crazy quests like watering a fire, bringing a eagle feather from insane heights and even killing rabbits!
Game is long enough. There are 15 episodes and each should take around one hour, with some being shorter or longer.
So all in all, Call of Juarez is an awesome game which succeeds in almost everything it tries hands in. A must have for every gamer out there, but with only one warning- get a good gaming comp first.