By WES PLATT
Published June 2, 2003 Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
System: Windows
Company: Red Storm Entertainment
Price: $49.99
The latest installment in the series of games inspired by novelist Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is a fun first-person shooter and tactical-planning exercise.
It also sports improved graphics using the Unreal engine, an assortment of new weapons, and a linear story line that's pretty generic but serves the purpose of tying together 15 challenging missions across the globe.
Rainbow is an international antiterrorist squad. Players assume the role of Rainbow Six, the squad's leader. The story this time around: A bad guy goes after Nazi loot and commits acts of terrorism to accomplish his goals. Rainbow gets the job of foiling his grand scheme.
The game works on two levels. The squad-based first-person shooter aspect is a lot of fun, as you lead the team from the snowy slopes of Switzerland to the tropics of South America, through well-rendered environments against crafty enemies who use more advanced artificial intelligence than the first two installments. You can walk upright, crouch and belly-crawl through meat-packing plants, villas, ski lodges and ransacked prisons. You get to play with weapons ranging from flash-bang grenades to pistols to assault rifles.
If you're not fond of shooters, but have a mind for tactical planning, you can sketch out a plan of attack, assign your team, then watch in observer mode as your orders are carried out. When you're done with the single-player missions, Raven Shield features a multiplayer mode in which you and friends can take on the bad guys and derive satisfaction from shouting "Tango down!" when a terrorist is "neutralized."
Battlefield: 1942
Battlefield: 1942 - The Road to Rome expansion pack
System: Windows
Company: Electronic Arts
Price: $39.99/$19.99
Battlefield: 1942 is plenty of fun. Its new expansion pack, the Road to Rome, does what all good add-ons should: It enhances, throws in some new features and improves on the original.
The original is an amazing World War II game that works best in multiplayer mode, with participants taking sides at Omaha Beach, the Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal and other famous combat sites.
Battlefield: 1942 is all about interactivity. If it shoots, you can pull the trigger. If it moves, you can get behind the wheel. If it flies, you can take off. Players can control everything from tanks to airplanes to battleships or jump into the seat of an antiaircraft gun.
I can't stress enough how much fun that flexibility brings to this game, which also happens to have outstanding graphics and an easy-to-grasp interface. Players can assume roles as medics, scouts, engineers, antitank troops and assault infantrymen.
The Road to Rome adds eight vehicles and missions in Anzio, Monte Cassino and Sicily. It also introduces the French Legionnaires and Italian Army as combatants in the fray.
As gorgeous as the graphics are, with the sprawling, hilly maps to explore, this game still features fairly quick and efficient mission-load times. Single-player isn't nearly as much fun as multiplayer. But if you're a war gaming fan with Internet access, Battlefield: 1942 and its expansion pack are likely to provide hours of fun.
