Monday, March 06, 2006
01:04 by FoxTwo Since I can't get my hands on the new Everquest 2 expansion Kingdom of Sky, I bought Rainbow Six Lockdown, kind of like a "consolation" game from Tecdrome.
Now I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of Rainbow 6 series, but since a number of years have passed since I've played the original Rainbow 6 (I can't even remember which year it was!), I thought I might as well give it a try and see how far we've come in the intervening years.
What I do remember from the first Rainbow 6, the original, was the incredible tactical play style. Before each mission started you could plan individual member's path through the map, indicate which points they are to stop and wait for your "go-code", and so on.
However, I was a bit disappointed that the latest and greatest Rainbow 6 removed that part. Now the only tactics we have is to order our members to stack up on a door and how to clear it (flashbang, grenade etc). Even so, the choice is damn limited.
All in all, it feels like a simplified version of SWAT 4, and that's saying a lot! I played SWAT, the original too (yeah before SWAT 2, SWAT 3 etc), and even SWAT 4 felt like a dumbed down version. I did remember we have choices of whether to throw a cylume stick into rooms we've cleared, but I don't remember seeing that in SWAT 4.
In both SWAT 4 and Rainbow 6 Lockdown, one thing I thought was glaringly missing was a MAP. Now, again, I can't really remember if we had that option back with the originals so many years ago but I do think we SHOULD be able to bring up an on-screen map so we know where to go. In fact, even the "Current Mission Objective" screen is missing.. sometimes you might save a mission right in the middle, and you need to take off and do something else and come back later. When you do come back chances are you might have forgotten what you needed to do in the first place.
Anyway, it seems to me that nowadays, games are being dumbed down, or being made more "user-friendly" so the casual gamer can get into the thick of things without even reading the manuals. By making it so easy, many elements of what distinguished the games in the first place tend to be lost. It's the same with Operating Systems. Windows get more and more user-friendly, easier and easier to use, and then when something goes wrong, almost nobody knows how to fix it. Games nowadays are also pretty. The graphics in both SWAT 4 and Rainbow 6 Lockdown are incredible. When Oblivion gets released in 2 weeks, those will blow you away, kind of like Half Life 2's.
Oh yeah in case you're wondering, SWAT 4 is actually a better game than Rainbow 6 Lockdown. They have a similar number of weapons to choose from, but more choices of room clearing. You can even split your SWAT members up into teams so you can actually have 1 team stack up on a door, while you and another go stack up on another door, and then you give the go-code, and both burst into the room at the same time, surprising the terrorists.
Can't do that with Rainbow 6 Lockdown, which is a pity. We USED to be able to do that with the original though. SWAT 4 is even more tactical in a sense that sometimes, your objectives are NOT to kill somebody so you have to find non-lethal ways to bring them down. In Rainbow 6 Lockdown, you can just go in with guns blazing.
Ah well, maybe the next sequel(s) will be better... and I don't mean just graphics.
01:04 by FoxTwo Since I can't get my hands on the new Everquest 2 expansion Kingdom of Sky, I bought Rainbow Six Lockdown, kind of like a "consolation" game from Tecdrome.
Now I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of Rainbow 6 series, but since a number of years have passed since I've played the original Rainbow 6 (I can't even remember which year it was!), I thought I might as well give it a try and see how far we've come in the intervening years.
What I do remember from the first Rainbow 6, the original, was the incredible tactical play style. Before each mission started you could plan individual member's path through the map, indicate which points they are to stop and wait for your "go-code", and so on.
However, I was a bit disappointed that the latest and greatest Rainbow 6 removed that part. Now the only tactics we have is to order our members to stack up on a door and how to clear it (flashbang, grenade etc). Even so, the choice is damn limited.
All in all, it feels like a simplified version of SWAT 4, and that's saying a lot! I played SWAT, the original too (yeah before SWAT 2, SWAT 3 etc), and even SWAT 4 felt like a dumbed down version. I did remember we have choices of whether to throw a cylume stick into rooms we've cleared, but I don't remember seeing that in SWAT 4.
In both SWAT 4 and Rainbow 6 Lockdown, one thing I thought was glaringly missing was a MAP. Now, again, I can't really remember if we had that option back with the originals so many years ago but I do think we SHOULD be able to bring up an on-screen map so we know where to go. In fact, even the "Current Mission Objective" screen is missing.. sometimes you might save a mission right in the middle, and you need to take off and do something else and come back later. When you do come back chances are you might have forgotten what you needed to do in the first place.
Anyway, it seems to me that nowadays, games are being dumbed down, or being made more "user-friendly" so the casual gamer can get into the thick of things without even reading the manuals. By making it so easy, many elements of what distinguished the games in the first place tend to be lost. It's the same with Operating Systems. Windows get more and more user-friendly, easier and easier to use, and then when something goes wrong, almost nobody knows how to fix it. Games nowadays are also pretty. The graphics in both SWAT 4 and Rainbow 6 Lockdown are incredible. When Oblivion gets released in 2 weeks, those will blow you away, kind of like Half Life 2's.
Oh yeah in case you're wondering, SWAT 4 is actually a better game than Rainbow 6 Lockdown. They have a similar number of weapons to choose from, but more choices of room clearing. You can even split your SWAT members up into teams so you can actually have 1 team stack up on a door, while you and another go stack up on another door, and then you give the go-code, and both burst into the room at the same time, surprising the terrorists.
Can't do that with Rainbow 6 Lockdown, which is a pity. We USED to be able to do that with the original though. SWAT 4 is even more tactical in a sense that sometimes, your objectives are NOT to kill somebody so you have to find non-lethal ways to bring them down. In Rainbow 6 Lockdown, you can just go in with guns blazing.
Ah well, maybe the next sequel(s) will be better... and I don't mean just graphics.
