“This is a new and highly innovative use of dynamic in-game advertising and really demonstrates the creativity and marketing power of this medium,” said Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive.

He took the words right out of my mouth. Hit the jump for details on the hunt, which runs through August 25th.

Paramount Pictures and Massive Launch First Branded Scavenger Hunt in Ubisoft’s “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2″

In-game scavenger hunt promotes upcoming movie “Tropic Thunder” with interactive experience that engages and rewards gamers.

NEW YORK — Aug. 5, 2008 — Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. and a leading network for video game advertising, Paramount Pictures and Ubisoft Entertainment have teamed up to create a first-of-its-kind dynamic in-game advertising promotion. To promote the upcoming film “Tropic Thunder,” the companies have placed an interactive scavenger hunt in “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” published by Ubisoft, which encourages gamers to actively interact with the dynamic in-game campaign, take action from the clues, and get rewarded at the final stage of the hunt.

“This innovative scavenger hunt enables us to reward our target audience and give them a direct call to action to go see ‘Tropic Thunder,’” said Amy Powell, senior vice president of Interactive Marketing for Paramount Pictures. “We’ve had a track record of success working with Massive since the business started. This is taking our in-game advertising campaigns to the next level by making them interactive and actionable. Gamers are motivated to seek out the next ad, which is an amazing way for us to build awareness and excitement for our new release.”

Gamers see a series of nine branded “clues” within “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” each leading them to the next clue, until they successfully reach the end of the scavenger hunt. Everyone who completes the scavenger hunt will receive an invitation to join Ubisoft’s VIP club and the chance to download a free digital VIP map for “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” and will be entered into two prize drawings. In the first drawing held July 31, 25 winners received a “Tropic Thunder” Gift Pack: two tickets to “Tropic Thunder” and a “Tropic Thunder” T-shirt and hat.* The second drawing, on Aug. 22, will award one grand prize winner an Xbox 360 Elite system as well as a one-year Xbox LIVE subscription and a collection of Ubisoft’s upcoming video game releases.**

“This is a new and highly innovative use of dynamic in-game advertising and really demonstrates the creativity and marketing power of this medium,” said Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive.

The scavenger hunt began on July 18 and will run through Aug. 25 to drive awareness leading up to the movie opening on Aug. 13.

According to a thread over at Ubisoft’s forums, this is exactly what the publisher did with Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. A savvy user opened the latest game executable (v1.03) in a hex editor, and found the tag for a crack group known as “Reloaded“. The patch responsible was once available from Ubisoft’s support site, but has since been removed… which doesn’t look good for the company.

The only official comment so far has come from a community manager:

We’re looking into this further as this was not the UK Support team that posted this, however if it is an executable that does not need the disc I doubt it has come from an external source. There’d be very little point doing so when we already own the original unprotected executeable [sic].

As soon as we find out more about this we’ll let you know.

It makes sense – copy protections such as SafeDisc and SecuROM “wrap” the original game executable so they can load whatever mechanisms they need into memory to analyse the disc, before decrypting the game code and running it. This, however, doesn’t explain the Reloaded tag.

Update: Another comment from the same community manager:

The file was removed from the site over a week ago now and the matter is being thoroughly investigated by senior tech support managers here at Ubisoft.

Needless to say we do not support or condone copy protection circumvention methods like this and this particular incident is in direct conflict with Ubisoft’s policies.

R6Vegas2_Fix.zip is the same as the ReLoaded no-dvd crack
[Ubisoft forums, via Blue's News]

• There are two new OctoCamo patterns available for download on Metal Gear Solid 4. Laughing Camo raises your enemies’ laugh emotion when they spot you; Raging Camo boosts enemies’ rage emotion when they spot you. They’re out as of now, reports Gaming Bits.

• The new Rainbow Six Vegas 2 patch is out and available for download. We tipped you to it last week. This download gives you a map-pack and a game patch with lots of tweaks to gameplay and achievements. It is entirely free also. Enjoy.

• Reader Max W. writes to say that the demo for Mobile Suit Gundam: Operation: Troy is out on the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace. “And it’s awesome”. I’m not in touch with Bash right now to verify, but there’s another freebie to play if you’re on that network. Gundam did wonders for 360’s June sales, as we wrote earlier.

New OctoCamo Patterns Now Available [Gaming Bits]

OK, so, Ubisoft about a couple days back sent out word on its forums about the DLC coming in the “early July” (not more specific, sorry) release of Rainbow Six Vegas 2’s Fan Pack. There will be several new gameplay details and three maps. It’s all free, and will all be available via Ubi’s site, Xbox Live Marketplace, or Playstation Network depending on your flavour of platform.

Re: the maps (from Ubi’s post).

There are three maps included in the free DLC: Murdertown – Dark, CQB Training – Dark and best of all the much-requested fan favourite Calypso Casino! The three map layouts have not been changed. The re-lit “Dark maps” have a very eerie atmosphere, and may require players to use night vision to spot enemies. Calypso Casino returns with updated lighting and textures. The three maps are playable in all Versus modes and Terrorist Hunt.

As for gameplay, there are new ranks, new A.C.E.S., some rebalancing of weapon characteristics, multiplayer tweaks, and a handy-dandy frag indicator to help you not get your arse blown off. The entire announcement is quoted after the jump, plus the video (hosted at Gametrailers) referenced in the announcement.

Hi everyone,

I am very pleased to announce that Ubisoft will be releasing a Fan Pack to all Rainbow Six fans. I am also here to give you better insight and clarification on what the Fan Pack contains:

The Fan Pack includes an Update for the game and DLC (downloadable content). The first thing that may come to mind is: “Is this free?” Yes it is, including the DLC. This pack will be available via Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network and ubi.com in July 2008. You can find out more about the Fan Pack in this video.

*** Update Features ***

New Ranks
An additional 99 Elite Ranks have been added for bragging rights. For those of you who are already Elite, you may have noticed that your XP continued to accumulate while playing. Once you have the update, your XP will automatically be applied towards the new Elite ranks, so it is possible that you have already ranked up multiple times past Elite.

New A.C.E.S.
A total of 100 A.C.E.S. are available for each category: Marksman, CQB and Assault. Each A.C.E.S. level past 20 will reward you with 5000 XP that applies to your rank. For players who have already reached A.C.E.S. 20 and continued to collect A.C.E.S. points, you will be happy to know that the update will automatically advance you to the level you have earned. For example, if you have enough A.C.E.S. points to reach Marksman 25, you will automatically be at Marksman 25 and earn 25000 (5000 x 5) towards your next Rank.

Grenade Indicator
When you are within the damage radius of a Frag or Incendiary grenade, an indicator will appear on-screen telling you which direction it is. The indicator can show multiple grenades at once.

Weapons & Gadgets Balancing
Here are a couple of notes about Weapons and Gadgets:
• Explosion delay of the incendiary grenade has been increased
• Detonation speed of the C4 has been slightly increased
• Increased the damage of Sniper Rifles at long range
• Increased the base accuracy of the Light Machine Guns
• Adjusted the rate of fire for some of the Assault Rifles, Shotguns and an SMG
• Sped up the time it takes to zoom in & out with weapons, making it more responsive

To better clarify: the zoom for all firearms have been significantly sped-up and you can now fire DURING the zoom transition.

Respawns in Team Deathmatch – Host Option
An added host option has been added for Random Respawns. Random Respawns OFF will play like the classic Versus style where each team spawns in their designated Alpha or Bravo base. Random Respawns ON will have your players spawn randomly throughout the map after they die the first time.

Voice Chat – Host Option
Added as a host option for Player Match & System Link, players now have the option to talk to their team mates while dead.

Score in Deathmatch
Displayed on the bottom left of the HUD in Deathmatch, players can now see their score along with the top opponent’s score.

Team Leader – Spawn Change
Players now respawn next to the leader by default, unless players specifically choose to spawn back at the base.

Show Dead Players in Lobby
Players who no longer have lives remaining will now have a skull icon displayed next to their name in the pause menu.

Terrorist Hunt Spawning
Terrorists will no longer spawn right in front of you or behind you, or in a room you just cleared.

* * * * *

High Stakes Setting
High Stakes is a host option for every Versus mode that really pushes tactical gameplay to the next level. Here’s a detailed description of High Stakes:

Limited HUD (High Stakes)
The Radar is disabled. Enemies will not be visible on the Tactical Map (back button on 360/select button on PS3). Grenade indicator is disabled.

Health System (High Stakes)
Health regen is disabled. If you are shot and close to death, you’ll enter a visual state of critical health (screen turns monochromatic).

Cover System (High Stakes)
The cover system as been changed in High-Stakes mode to encourage players to peek instead of pop-n-shoot. The camera has been moved so your character cannot look past their cover unless they expose themselves around a corner.

Weapons & Gadgets (High Stakes)
Aim Assistance has been completely disabled. Bullet spread has also been increased when not zoomed-in (you will notice your crosshair indicators are much wider when not in zoom). Realistically, a person holding a gun would have better aim when zoomed-in than when he’s walking around. This encourages players to really take aim instead of run-n-gun. Also remember that the zoom time has been sped-up and you can now fire WHILE you zoom in and out. Players now have less ammunition (1 for each gadget you choose and less clips for your guns) so you really need to play conservatively and rely on precision use of ammo.

Kill Camera & Friendly Fire (High Stakes)
Kill Camera is always disabled and Friendly fire is always enabled.

*** DLC ***

THREE FREE MAPS
There are three maps included in the free DLC: Murdertown – Dark, CQB Training – Dark and best of all the much-requested fan favourite Calypso Casino! The three map layouts have not been changed. The re-lit “Dark maps” have a very eerie atmosphere, and may require players to use night vision to spot enemies. Calypso Casino returns with updated lighting and textures. The three maps are playable in all Versus modes and Terrorist Hunt.

This Fan Pack is dedicated to all of you in the Rainbow Six community. Everything in this update and DLC comes directly from you on the forums,
private messages to us and even matches the team has played with you all online. We’d like to sincerely thank you for your continued support and feedback. See you online!

Update by Ubi.Vigil:

We’re sure some of you are wondering when it will be available on platforms other than UK PS3s. This early release was a result of a miscommunication with Sony, we apologise for any confusion or frustration this sudden release caused. Until the release of the update in other PS3 territories, UK PS3 players will only be able to play with other UK players.

The full Fan pack, including all maps, fixes and changes, will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in early July.

Best Regards,
Ubi.LevelUp – Community Developer
Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Fan Pack Details [Ubisoft Forums via Blue's News]

“We’re pleased to have Call of Duty 4 leading the way in the FPS genre, with recent launches such as Army of Two and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 failing to inspire. Call of Duty 4 has been a phenomenal success for us and reflects Activision’s commitment to creating truly ground-breaking games.”

I’d say this was a pretty damn cocky statement, but last night at Walmart a group of college kids nearly repeated the sentiment exactly, saying that after playing Call of Duty 4, Army of Two and Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 just didn’t come close. Eerie. With over a million people playing online any given day, a good chunk of the population playing Halo 3, and GTA IV around the corner, things are looking pretty saturated in the Xbox 360 online shooter department.

Activision: Vegas, Army of Two “failing to inspire” [CVG]