Vegas 2 can, at times, dip into the monotonous and the AI is spotty, but overall the game delivers a fun experience.

Loved
* Totally Tactics:The thing that separates Rainbow Six from other shooters is its heavy reliance on tactics and this game requires it in spades. You can use a snake cam to peek under doors and mark targets, clear rooms with flash bangs, grenades or smoke and almost have to slowly work your way from cover to cover to methodically clear a room.
* Deep maps All of those tactics would be for naught if it weren’t for the incredibly detailed maps that let you find multiple routes into the same spaces, crawl through windows, and rappel, head first, down buildings. Vegas 2 has one of the most eclectic mix of detailed maps I’ve seen in a shooter.
* Multi multiplayer Not content to include just versus online multiplayer, Vegas 2 also has terrorist hunt which has you trying to find and kill a set number of bad guys in a time limit; and co-op play, which allows you to play through the entire game with a friend. And co-op Rainbow Six can be quite a blast.
* Customisation This Vegas has all of the weapons, camo, clothing and gear as the last, plus a bit more, including 11 new weapons. Another nice touch is the ability to hop into an outfitting menu as you ride in a helicopter to the next mission, without having to stop the briefing. You can also now carry over the experience earned in single player to multiplayer, and vice-versa.

Hated
* Uneven AI: The game’s artificial intelligence, both friendly and enemy, can at times be brilliant, flanking your position, laying down cover fire, clearing a room of bad guys with tactical sweeps. But just when you think you’ve met your match, you’ll run up on an enemy who literally just stands there staring at you until you decide you should probably shoot him.
* A winding tale: There’s something to be said for a game that delivers a lot of substance, but sometimes there’s even more to be said about a producer who knows when to start cutting. Vegas 2’s plot is so convoluted that it can feel monotonous. Worse still, it is so packed with false endings that the real one, which wraps up with an almost humorous monologue, feels flat and anti-climatic when it finally arrives.
* Finishing touches The game doesn’t quite look and feel like a true sequel. The graphics aren’t really improved, with draw distances that can be surprisingly short, and there is still a bit of slow down and stutter at pivotal moments.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a fine addition to the Rainbow Six library, giving gamers a lot of new maps to stalk through, hunched over, with a buddy or on their own. What it doesn’t do, really, is introduce anything new to the formula. There are plenty of neat little tweaks and co-op play, while not fully drop-in, drop-out, is a fantastic addition. But in the end you’re still playing Rainbow Six Vegas, with the same look and feel as the original.

If you weren’t a fan of the original, then Vegas 2 probably isn’t for you. If you were, this is a must buy if for no other reason than to go through the game with a friend in co-op.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, published by Ubisoft and released on March 18. Retails for $US 59.99. Available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, reviewed on Xbox 360. Played single player campaign to completion, tested multiplayer modes. Did not create any baby heads.

Clint is best known for his work on the Splinter Cell series, but nowadays he’s working as Creative Director on Far Cry 2, Ubisoft Montreal’s evolution and re-imagining of Crytek’s franchise.

So, what particular classic early ’80s title made Hocking into the developer he is today? Read on, dear Kotaku-ite…“The first game that ever really inspired me was Broderbund’s Lode Runner on the Commodore Vic 20.

Not only was Lode Runner a fantastic and innovative game for the time, but it had a powerful and easy-to-use level editor, with usability and functionality on par with the best level editors released today – almost 25 years later.

The game was great, but the level editor was what really influenced me. I must have made over a hundred Lode Runner levels – all of them saved on a cassette that you had to manually cue up in the Vic 20’s cassette drive, to load and play.

I learned a great deal about the notion of combining game ingredients and how to build flow into a level – and I wasn’t even a teenager at the time. I still vividly remember the layouts of 4 or 5 of those levels, and I likewise remember some of the techniques I used to design them.

Practically speaking, those techniques are obsolete now, but conceptually some of the principles of design iteration and experimentation became the foundation of many of the things I do professionally today.”

I don’t think so. According to tipster AJ Mitchell, Gametraders in Carillion Arcade, Perth are currently selling copies of the Ubisoft title. If you happen to live nearby, or even in the same state (that’s Western Australia, for the geographically-challenged), best get yourself there as quickly as humanly possible, before they sell out.

I guess not everyone was affected by the stock shortage.

No, the plan was to just give it a go, because I believe everything deserves a fair chance. Except maybe chloroform or blunt head trauma. I don’t have anything against anime – I think it’s great, actually – but I could never summon the desire to give a flying crap, or half a flying crap, about Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z and, of course, Naruto.But Rise of a Ninja so effortlessly combines role-playing with the kinky flavours of Street Fighter II and, oddly, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, that I’ve had to change my seat covers twice because I’ve been subconsciously, and gleefully, wetting myself.

This kind of thing happens to everyone, or so my quickly-diminishing group of friends keeps telling me.

Even more surprising, other than my case of Euphoric Bladder Syndrome, is that Rise of a Ninja is straight out of Ubisoft Montreal (the guys doing Assassin’s Creed, for those of you who, evidently, shouldn’t even be reading this blog). Add cel-shaded graphics to this already tantalising cake, and you’d have to be daft to pass on the game simply because it’s based on a children’s anime, or has insufficient icing.

I’m currently saving 90% of my RPG attention span for Mass Effect, as I have a feeling I’ll need it, but the other 10% has been happy to indulge Rise of a Ninja. I recommend you do the same with you 10% (or more, if you have crazy Naruto love).

In fact, Rise of a Ninja almost perfectly fills the hole in my life left by the Oz delay of Assassin’s Creed.

Feel free to share your experiences with games that looked bad, but played all good-like.

No, we’re not making a demo. This game is more like a sandbox style game where there’s a lot of things, so it’s not a linear mission where you can say, OK, we’re making a demo and we’re giving you this mission…

There’s no way to say, OK, we’re going to cut up this square of the city and give that to you in a demo because then you can’t run around or do the gameplay. There’s no way to really make a demo and i think that’s the same reason game’s like GTA don’t have a demo…

To be fair, sandbox titles Saint’s Row and Crackdown both had demos and a GTA title hasn’t yet hit a next gen online platform. We think we speak for everyone when we say that even Jade’s alleged “hotness” cannot fill the void this leaves in our hearts.

Jade Raymond confirms there will be no Assassin’s Creed demo [maxconsole]