Topic 1: Rainbow Six: Las Vegas
Sub Topic(s): Game Play, Graphics and Game Options.
Rainbow Six Las Vegas is by no means a “new” title, now months old. It is however fairly next gen in its graphics and game play. It is built on the Unreal 3 engine. It is very beautiful and smooth. It is the most realistic shooter I have ever seen. It has lush and populated environments, rarely seen. Each location is very unique and has the ever so sought after “lived in” feel.
Rainbow’s campaign takes you through the Mexico’s streets, a train yard and mine, Las Vegas’ streets, casinos, a dam, and research facility as you search for rebel/terrorist leader. Along the ways you blow various things up, defuse bombs and rescue various hostages all paramount in the Clancy anti-terrorist world. The story basically gives you a reason to shoot, move and take cover. Cover is also very innovative in this game. It is one of the very few where you actually “hug” your cover, hide from view then lean, stand or peak and shoot. It is also one of the very few that allow every thing in the environment to be cover. Be it walls, cars or slot machines. If it will stop a bullet you can use it.
The real gem in this game is the online multiplayer. It starts with the generation of your character. Rainbow has its Persistent Elite Creation system, where you can pick for a dozen or so pre-rendered faces or import your own and add all kinds of war paint, camouflage and battle scars. Next you can add a three letter prefix to your gamer tag, some like it to be their clan initials, name initials, something else all together or as those of us in the military sometimes do, assign it the acronym that is our current game rank (i.e. PFC is Private First Class, SSG is Staff Sergeant or 1LT is First Lieutenant). After general creation comes the outfitting of said character. At this time you will find there are numerous locked items ranging from weapons to armor and clothing to camouflage patterns. Each locked item is unlocked by gaining rank. Rank is increased by accumulation of points. Points are earned by completing online games. Game type, length, difficulty, team balance, success and failure all dictate how many points you earn each game. This gives gamers goals to work for and thus longevity to game life. There are many game types to choose from, but there are two major categories to choose from, coop and adversarial. Coop has a story mode where you run through the campaign missions minus the cut scene cinematic. Adversarial has sharpshooter and team sharpshooter, classic death match type game, survival and team survival, last man standing. There are also goal oriented competitive games. They are attack and defend where one team guards “the package” from retrieval. Another is VIP escort, one team protects the VIP and the other try’s to assassinate them. The last two embody the rush to the middle type game where one is retrieval and the other a territory type.
There are a few minor issues with the game. The weapons are wholly satisfying, where each has their own strengths and weakness in relation to each other and them selves. It is outstanding that the majority of the weapons exist on a balanced plane. There are a few “power weapons” that are available to everyone in campaign mode but only to those further up the ranks can have in multiplayer. Now here is the mistake that Joe or Jane Gamer may never have noticed or realized. The issue is that each weapon is described by three statistics; damage, range and accuracy. Now being a self proclaimed weapons nut I know that there is many an ill described weapon in this. Weapons that are of large and powerful caliber being out done in potency by lesser chambered weapons. There is a good number of weapons that their only difference should be aesthetics, cycle rate and dependability (if it was a factor in this game). That brings upon the next real world consistency issue. All but two of the weapons that have selectable cycle rates have only two, single shot and full auto. All most every rifle and sub machine gun featured in this game has an additional fire option of burst (be it two or three rounds). There are also a couple large caliber assault rifles that carry too many rounds and an automatic pistol that doesn’t carry enough. Again these are things that the average gamer may never know. I also feel that there was a place in this game for the M4A1 Carbine and the M249 SAW. I classify these as minor
issues because they do not detract from the game play, consistency of the game or the over all fun.
Topic 2: OB Blue
Sub Topic: Beer
OB Blue is a poor man’s cheap beer only qualified to be a sustainment beer.
OB Blue is unique to South Korea. This GI has only seen them in 1.8 liter bottles, nothing smaller. If had ever drank horse urine, I might relate OB Blue to it.
Topic 3: Gun of the Day!
Sub Topic(s): SCAR Heavy
The Scar-H is a product of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) soliciting for a more suitable weapon. FN USA picked the contract up after submitting the SCAR series weapons. The SCAR-H is an ingenuitive rifle that was designed from scratch, not around an existing weapon type. The rifle is gas operated with short stroke piston action with rotating locking bolt. This makes it less sensitive to adverse conditions and grime. It is also very easy to disassemble and maintain. Minimal tools are required. One unique feature is it’s ability to be completely ambidextrous. The SCAR’s safety and fire selector are so at all times and the charging handle/ejection port is installable on either side of the weapon. As seen in the picture above the SCAR has a full length Picatinny rail to support numerous attachable optics and sighting systems. The SCAR also has fully adjustable collapsing iron sites for redundancy in a pinch. It has a fully adjust able folding butt stock with an adjustable cheek pad for maximum shooter performance. The SCAR-H’s standard caliber is the 7.62mm NATO round as this is the medium caliber round adopted by NATO; it also accepts the provisioned 20 round box magazine. FN also saw fit to manufacture barrels compatible with the Russian 7.62x39mm M43 round; which the weapon can accept AK47 magazines for. At the time of this writing it is also supposed that the next new chambering will be in the 6.8x43mm Remington SPC (special purpose cartridge). The M16 style magazines that house the 6.8mm SPC are already accepted by the SCAR Light and this will give a capacity of 28 rounds. The SCAR series has no provisions for a fire mode other than single shot and auto fire.
The above photograph shows the CQC (close quarters combat) variant of the SCAR-H. This makes a very potent and powerful battle rifle in a compact platform. The SCAR-H CQC effectively brings power to the urban fight.
That's all folks.
Funny thing about the XD is that it is made in Croatia. Most people don't realize that it is just imported by Springfield. It has been in use by the Croatian Army since 1999. It now is widely excepted and even issued in US police departments.
