Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
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| Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear | |
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| Developer(s) | Red Storm Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Red Storm Entertainment |
| Platform(s) | PC, Mac OS, Dreamcast, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance |
| Release date | Windows [1] USA August 31, 1999 PAL August 31, 1999 Dreamcast [2] USA November 20, 2000 PAL 2000 PlayStation [3] USA March 28, 2001 PAL May 25, 2001 Macintosh USA 2001 Game Boy Advance [4] USA March 18, 2002 PAL March 22, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Tactical shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T OFLC: MA15+ |
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear is a tactical first-person shooter computer game developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Rainbow Six game based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name.
Rogue Spear is based on the same game-engine and features gameplay and presentation similar to that of the original Rainbow Six. The game pits the counter-terrorist unit, RAINBOW, against global terrorist organizations that in some cases have taken hostages or have armed themselves with weapons of mass destruction. Rogue Spear, like its predecessor, puts focus on realism, planning, strategy, and teamwork rather than arcade-style shoot-em-ups such as Doom. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear was released for the PC on September 22, 1999, with versions for the Mac OS (2000), Dreamcast (2000), PlayStation (2001) and Game Boy Advance (2002) released later.
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[edit] Plot
The year is 2001.
Although a good deal of the game consists of "stand-alone" missions with no connection to each other, Rogue Spear does feature several missions revolving around a central plotline concerning a plot by Russian Mob boss Maxim Kutkin and international arms dealer Samed Vezirzade. Together, they manufacture and distribute nuclear weapons on the international black market, aided by Kutkin's acquired ownership of a nuclear power plant following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The term "Rogue Spear" refers to the possession of nuclear weapons by a non-state entity.
[edit] Multiplayer
Rogue Spear's multiplayer mode consisted of three main playing fields: GameSpy Arcade , MSN Gaming Zone and MPlayer.com. MPlayer.com was later purchased by Gamespy. The multiplayer game achieved a certain degree of success boasting several thousand players playing at once. After the acquisition of MPlayer.com by GameSpy Arcade, MSN Gaming Zone became the more popular of the two until Microsoft shut down the MSN Gaming Zone's CD-ROM match-making service on June 19th 2006.
As well as pick up games, a higher level of play was reached by players who participated in ladder play. Several websites throughout the game's lifespan provided this service with the two most notable being Clanladder (CL) and Xtreme Gaming Network (XGN). While both of these websites provided a ranking system, they also provided anti-cheat applications. As is true in most online video games, cheating was a consistent problem. The first major cheat programmer for multiplayer Rogue Spear was a person with the alias of VeRTigO. VeRTigO was most famous for creating anti-cheat patches for his own cheats known as the Ice anti-cheat patches. VeRTigO and one of his associates, Nemo, would create cheats and patches for both Rogue Spear and several other game in the Rainbow 6 series. These patches were accepted in many online ladder systems, and were used regularly for clan matches. He would then sell the cracks, or cheats to his own patches for cash on both an individual basis as well as in group packages for clans. Some other notable ladder websites that were popular in their time for Rogue Spear were XL2000 (XL2k) and Close Quarters Combat (CQC) for MPlayer users, as well as Cyber Sports Ladder (CSL) for MSN Gaming Zone users after the fall of Clanladder and XGN. On Gamespy, there was the International Gaming Syndicate (IGS) until eventual cheating caused a split in the community causing one half to join and form Battle Quest League (BQL). Eventually the rampant cheating and massive corruption of the ladder services as well as the release of newer games ended the popularity of Rogue Spear multiplayer ladder play.
These ladder systems provided both one on one deathmatch as well as team deathmatch where players banded together in clans and fought matches which ranged anywhere from two-on-two to eight-on-eight. However, eight-on-eight often posed lag problems due to the way game hosting worked. One player would act as the host of the game (rather than a designated third party server) and all others would connect to the host's one computer over a specified port. This format of multiplayer setup caused two problems. Firstly, it was prone to causing lag, a delay in the sending and receiving of packets, which caused for time and spatial distortion in game physics. Secondly, in the opinion of many players, the host had an advantage because of this. Many times a player would be shot and killed without ever seeing his enemy due to high latency times. It was noticed that the hosts of the game were much more prone to do this. This was referred to as "hosting" or "getting hosted." Often, teams would take turns, allowing a member from each team to host their team's map. Sometimes, especially during tournament matches, a neutral host would be called upon to host the entirety of the match. A neutral host would be a person hosting the game with a good connection and this person would not be a player in the match, when the round began the neutral host would kill his or her character with a grenade.
[edit] Add-Ons
[edit] Urban Operations
Rogue Spear Mission Pack: Urban Operations, released on April 4, 2000, was the first expansion for Rogue Spear. It was developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It added 8 new maps and 5 classic Rainbow Six maps from the original Rainbow Six game, as well as 3 new weapons
Also, Urban Operations has been re-released by KAMA Digital Entertainment in South Korea - this new edition included two exclusive missions and two new weapons. It was sort of a prequel to Take Down.
[edit] Addition of Mod System
With the release of Urban Ops, a built-in "Mod System" was added to manage user-made "Mods" or modifications to the game. Previous releases of the Rainbow Six series did not have this system, and using a mod required overwriting existing game content. With the mod system, mods could be used without overwriting, as they were installed into a separate folder within the installation and could be turned on or off. When a mod was activated, it's content would take priority over the default game content. This allowed the addition and/or customization of all game content, allowing new operatives, weapons, maps, missions, etc. to be added. Red Storm also released "unsupported" plugins for 3D Studio MAX and Photoshop, to aid in the creation of new content. This greatly enhanced the popularity and replay value of the series for some time, as hundreds of "Modding teams" within a large modding community released new mods constantly. (Cocobolo Ops, Nishi's Model Mod, The Rooster's Nest, Gravedigger) Police and Military organizations also sought the customizable game engine for training purposes, due to the realism of planning and mission strategy. Because of these effects, a mod management system was later added to Red Storm's Ghost Recon series as well, although it was somewhat more restrictive.
[edit] Covert Ops Essentials
Rainbow Six: Covert Ops, is a stand-alone expansion pack of Rogue Spear. The training simulator was developed by Magic Lantern Playware six of the levels were done by Zombie Studios and three of the levels were done by Red Storm Entertainment. It was published by Red Storm Entertainment. It was released on September 28, 2000. It included only 9 new missions, due to the fact that the product was primarily developed as an educational program on real life counter-terrorism history and tactics.
[edit] Black Thorn
Rogue Spear: Black Thorn was developed by Red Storm Entertainment, published by Ubisoft, and released as a stand-alone Add-On on December 15, 2001. Black Thorn featured 9 new single-player maps (originally it'd have been 10 but one was cut after the September 11, 2001 attacks[citation needed]). This delayed the original date of September 15, 2001. 6 new multiplayer maps, 10 new weapons, and a new multiplayer variation on the "Lone Wolf" game type in which one player takes on everyone else; the winner of the round then becomes the new "Lone Wolf". The plot features a mentally disturbed ex-SAS operative challenging Team Rainbow with reenactments of real-life terrorist attacks, such as the Entebbe crisis and the Japanese Embassy Siege
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ PC Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
- ^ DC Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
- ^ PS Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
- ^ GBA Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
[edit] External links
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