Penguin wrote:Another Red Storm / Tom Clancy series is Rainbow Six series. This one Ive played a lot myself, in a clan as well - older gamers in the 30-50 range - I could still whack many a persons ass in team vs team combat with a few well placed FAMAS rounds in the upper body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Sixhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Six_Vegas"Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is the title of John Clark's position as director of the fictional counter-terrorist unit Rainbow. It is first mentioned in the 1998 novel Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. The book was adapted into a successful series of tactical first-person shooter computer and video games, and is a planned future film tentatively set for release in 2010.[citation needed]
Tom Clancy also features Rainbow in his 2000 novel The Bear and the Dragon."
The novel Rainbow Six describes Rainbow as an international counter-terrorism operation hosted by NATO and funded by money funneled through the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The base of operations for Rainbow is located in Hereford (home to SAS), due to the United Kingdom being one of the most accessible countries in the world and also due to the press constraints that would not be possible to impose in the United States. Most of the characters in Rainbow are American or British, however, the NATO countries of France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Spain, plus Israel have at least one representative each.
In the games, Rainbow is portrayed differently. John Clark is still the leader for most of the series, but he is supported by a set of other key staff and advisors who vary from game to game. As of Rogue Spear, there are around 30 Rainbow operatives. This includes members from NATO countries and from non-NATO countries, along with six female operatives. For each mission, a maximum eight operatives can be deployed and can be split into a maximum of four teams. Weapons, uniforms and equipment are less standardized, and are instead chosen to suit the operative and the mission."
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Rainbow Six and its sequels defined the tactical shooter genre, forcing players to focus more time and effort on stealth, teamwork, and tactics rather than on sheer firepower. With some of the more recent releases; however, the game has taken on more of a "mainstream" first-person shooter approach in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience by moving away from the tactical planning aspect that made the game popular in the first place. This is due to several factors, the most prominent being the buy out of Clancy-owned Red Storm Entertainment by Ubisoft Entertainment.
Though Tom Clancy has no say in the content of the more recent games, Ubisoft Entertainment insists on continuing the use of his name on all former Clancy-owned franchises (Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell) as well as using his name on projects that he was never involved in at all (End War, HAWX) in an attempt to lure in the tactical fans who have long-since abandoned those series." (ie. in the original games 2000-2002/3, the story was a tack-on generic thing involving some ex-nazis organizing terror etc, the main issue was the team based tactical play, and the games were mostly meant as online games. The later games are very different, with the emphasis on storytelling and realistic graphics and smooth visually easy gameplay.)
The newer - Rainbow Six: Las Vegas
"Plot
The player begins the game as newly appointed Rainbow team leader Logan Keller, with two squad mates, Gabriel Nowak and Kan Akahashi, on a mission in a Mexican border town called San Joshua del Mosquiera in the year 2010. Joanna Torres, Rainbow's intelligence officer, briefs them on their mission; their objective is to arrest Irena Morales, a terrorist ringleader. As the team reaches its landing zone in a helicopter, Logan fast-ropes down first, but the helicopter and the rest of the team is forced to retreat as a rocket-propelled grenade barely misses them.
Separated from his squad, Logan fights his way through the terrorist-infested streets and meets up with Gabriel and Kan at an old Spanish church, their alternate landing zone. After infiltrating a train yard and freeing a group of hostages, Rainbow eventually makes their way to a mine where Irena is hiding. After eliminating Irena's guards, one of whom is the infamous Marcelo, they attempt to arrest her; however, Irena triggers a set of hidden explosives, caving in the roof and burying Logan under a pile of rubble. Gabriel and Kan are overwhelmed and captured by terrorist reinforcements.
As Logan regains consciousness, he finds most of his equipment missing (including his goggles, primary weapons, and grenades). Alone, and armed only with his handgun and snake cam at first, Logan fights his way through an abandoned factory, eventually escaping with Joanna in Rainbow's helicopter.
Domingo Chavez has a conversation with the new team leader about the incident, instructing him to handle a new crisis in Las Vegas. Logan objects, insisting that he search for his lost squad mates instead; Chavez, however, surmises that the Las Vegas incident and Irena's activity may be too closely related to be a simple coincidence.
Upon reaching Las Vegas, Logan is taken outside of the terrorist-controlled Calypso Casino where he meets with his new team: Michael Walters, a British demolitions expert specializing in heavy weapons, and Jung Park, a Korean reconnaissance and electronics expert. The team infiltrates the Calypso Casino, clearing out the terrorists and rescuing a group of hostages from being executed on camera. Once they clear out the Casino, they must rescue Doctor Philip Smythe, a NATO weapons researcher. After a brief gun battle, Rainbow extracts with Doctor Smythe, who tells waiting FBI agents that another weapons researcher, Dr. Williams, has also been captured. Rainbow takes on the case.
Rainbow is taken to the Red Lotus, a Chinese restaurant, in order to rescue reporter Trish Gracy, who was held hostage after an interview went wrong. Once the team clears out the restaurant and rescues Trish, she informs them that the terrorists are using a news van as a communications hub. Rainbow makes their way down Fremont Street and eventually reaches the van. Jung hacks into the system while Logan and Michael fend off a wave of attacking terrorists. Afterwards, Michael places a demolition charge on the van, destroying the hub. The team is then extracted via helicopter and taken to rescue Dr. Williams.
Rainbow is dropped on the Vertigo Spire, a luxury hotel along the likes of the Stratosphere. The team finds and rescues Dr. Williams from the terrorists, and he informs the team of two bombs; a conventional explosive which destroys the top floors of a building across the way, and the other a highly destructive micro-pulse bomb that was placed in the Vertigo, which Michael disarms after the team searches a few floors down from where Dr. Williams was rescued. Rainbow is then extracted to locate Gabriel and Kan.
The team is dispatched to Dante’s Casino, which has hell as its theme, is still under contruction. Logans team lands on the roof and clears it. While clearing the roof, a bell in the tower falls, causing tremendous damage and a fire in the lower floors. In Dante's Arcade, the team finds and frees Gabriel, who is extracted despite his insistence that he fights alongside the squad. While searching the construction area, Rainbow finds Kan engaged in a firefight, who is fatally shot in an attempt to warn the team about an ambush before the team can reach him. Dying, Kan reveals that the attack in Las Vegas is a distraction, and Irena's terrorists are planning a far bigger attack. Although Logan and his team attempt to save him, Kan dies in his arms.
The team proceeds to the theater to hack a terrorist server. Irena's target is revealed to be the Nevada Dam (very similar to the Hoover Dam), a hydroelectric dam on the Colorado River. Rainbow then heads to the roof and extracts.
Rainbow descends onto a bridge in front of the dam where an officer informs Logan of the terrorists' bomb on the bridge in the tourist center. The team makes their way to the second story of the bridge where Michael defuses the bomb with three seconds remaining. They then fast-rope via safety cables to the bottom of the dam and enter the dam to save a hostage who informs them that the dam will buckle under the pressure of the lake. He tells them that they can relieve the pressure by using an emergency release valve. Once the dam pressure crisis is resolved, the team proceeds further into the dam and finds that it is a weapons research lab, where Doctors Smythe and Williams inform the team the terrorists have a micro-pulse missile on top of the dam.
Logan presses forward, confronting Irena Morales herself and fatally wounding her. With her last breath, Irena taunts Logan; while she may die, her partner will continue the fight against Rainbow. Finally, the team heads to the top of the dam and plants a charge on the missile to detonate it in mid-air, without triggering the micro-pulse payload.
Logan receives a transmission from Gabriel, who tells him that he is Irena's mole. Furious, Logan rushes to the chopper to see Jo and Brody Lukin, the pilot, kicked out of the helicopter, Brody unconscious. The team must protect Jo and Brody from a small group of terrorists.
As Logan, Michael and Jung rush to their fallen comrades, Gabriel attempts to escape with an enemy pilot. Logan can let Gabriel escape or he can fire a few shots at the helicopter from a mounted machine gun, which eventually causes it to crash. Logan explains the situation, and the team is sent out to find the organization behind Irena's and Gabriel's terrorist activity. When the mission completes, the words "To Be Continued" appear on the screen, implying a sequel. The credits roll while news is broadcast about the situation. A news clip states that a helicopter had crashed in the lake, but indicated that only the pilot, and not Gabriel, was found"
"Rainbow Six Vegas has won numerous awards, including "Best First-Person Shooter",[9] "Best Xbox 360 First-Person Shooter",[10] "Best Online Game",[11] and "Best Xbox Live Game"[12] in IGN's Best of 2006, as well as an "Editor's Choice Award" from GameSpot. Gaming Target also selected the title as one of "52 Games We will Still Be Playing From 2006".[13] It also received the "Best Online Game" award from OXM in their annual Game of the Year awards."
"Rainbow Six: Vegas includes dynamic real world advertising on billboards and lighted posters in certain areas. Some dynamic advertising requires that the player be connected to the internet, although the single-player campaign displays advertisements to the player on billboards by default, particularly Axe bodyspray."Sequel, Las Vegas 2:
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The setting for the game initially begins in Pic des Pyréneés, France, though the story promptly moves five years forward to Las Vegas, United States of America on July 2, 2010, the same day of Logan Keller's arrival to Las Vegas in Rainbow Six: Vegas. Terrorists have seized control of Las Vegas to instill widespread panic in both the public as well as law enforcement agencies, such as the National Security Agency, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Rainbow, as well as local SWAT. As the plot unfolds, however, the setting moves away from Las Vegas to other places, such as a small town in Nevada, unlike in the first Rainbow Six: Vegas, which was mainly in Las Vegas."
"The game begins in 2005, one year before the bioterrorist events of Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. Rainbow deploys Bishop to a science observatory in Píc des Pyreneés, France for an operation in which EU hostages must be rescued. Under his leadership are Logan Keller and Gabriel Nowak; Nowak and Keller have recently joined Rainbow, according to Ding Chavez/Six, who refers to them as recruits."
End War:
"Tom Clancy's EndWar is a real-time tactics game designed by Ubisoft Shanghai for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows platforms. "
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In 2011, the United States and the European Union sign the historic SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield) Treaty, agreeing to co-develop technologies for a comprehensive, interlocking anti-ballistic missile system. Left out of the treaty, Russia accelerates development of its own system. SLAMS is activated in 2014. The US and EU launch test salvos against each other, which the SLAMS weapons completely destroy. Emboldened by the success of the tests, the US and EU pronounce "the end of strategic nuclear war," and the world celebrates a new age of peace and security.
However, in 2015 it is found that major oil companies have overstated the amount of recoverable oil reserves. Energy security becomes the explicit priority of governments around the world. Russia, being the world's number one supplier of natural gas and crude oil, has its economy skyrocket up with the energy crisis, spending its oil profits on modernizing its armed forces and utilizing its new-found power to influence world events. A nuclear war occurs between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2016, killing 20 million, further compounding the energy crisis and greatly destabilising the nations of Europe. With crude oil now at 800 dollars a barrel, the alliance of individual countries of the European Union are forced to band together to consolidate political, economic and military power in the face of growing global security, environmental and economic concerns. Morphing to become the new superpower of the "European Federation" (EF) in 2018, most of the wealthy Western Europe is now recognized as an independent state in its own right. Britain and Ireland decline membership while Switzerland remains neutral. The US and EF regard each other's power as a threat to their own, the now fractured former allies embark on a costly space arms race with each other.
The militarisation of space reaches its peak in 2018, when the United States reveals plans to launch the "Freedom Star" space station into high orbit by 2020, in an effort to regain its position as the premier world superpower. While partly designed for civilian research purposes, the station will also house three companies of U.S. Marines, who can deploy anywhere on Earth within 90 minutes. International reaction is extremely negative, to say the least. The EF and Russia in particular despise the development, seeing it as a way the US could use to neutralise their portion of anti-ballistic defences and upset the balance of power. They withdraw from the already divided NATO in protest. In 2020, when the final module of the Freedom Star is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center amid international outcry, it comes as little surprise when a group of terrorists attack the launch site. In investigating the source of the attack, the US, the EF, and Russia find themselves at odds, rolling with unstoppable momentum toward full-scale global war.[4][5]"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EndWar#Story"Locations
The game will take place in the same universe as Ghost Recon, H.A.W.X., Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell.
In an IGN interview, De Plater said the setting of EndWar (as a possible series) is a global battle, but the first installment is focused on the North Atlantic theatre of battle, Europe, Russia and North America. Players will hear reports of events in other parts of the world.[6]
[edit] Characters
A TeamXbox Article confirms that Captain Scott Mitchell (voiced by Steven J. Blum in the demo) of the Ghost Recon series survives the events of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and leads the JSF as a General. Creative Director Michael de Plater has revealed that the Ghost Recon team will be the Special Forces team for the United States, Rainbow Six characters will be promoted as special European Federation commanders, and Third Echelon will provide battlefield intelligence, along with special units such as snipers.[7] During the Ubidays 2008 conference, it was revealed that units appearing in the upcoming Tom Clancy game H.A.W.X. will also be available in EndWar.
The United States President in the novelization of the game is David Becerra, who is described as being the first Hispanic President."