Rainbow Six Siege

[Neil]

Picked this up cheap before I ran out of cash, it's been out a few months now so can be got for a nice price.

It's pretty bloody good! A fried always tried to get me to play terrorist hunt on R6 Vegas, but I could never quite get into it. I'm loving this as a change of pace while i take a break from Dark Souls, though.

The game comes down to attacking or defending. With the afore-mentioned terrorist hunt, you either fortify a position against four waves of bots, or storm one.

Multiplayer is the same, but 5 v 5 players. You either safeguard a hostage or bomb etc, or attempt to storm in.

At the start of a defending phase, everyone runs around setting up barricades and booby traps, while the attackers use drones to try and see what's going on.

It's a fairly simple concept at heart, but brings a great level of strategy and freedom to the usual FPS setting.

The damage model means you get fucked up fast, and if you die, you're out. So it's really quite tense, as you hunker in, listening for sound cues around you, trying to anticipate one of a myriad number of ways people might be coming at you.

I'm having a lot of fun with this, and as I say, the strategy is deep, and adds a lot to it. It's the sort of game where you will keep slowly getting better, as you learn the maps, realise where the cameras are, the breaching points etc. Well worth picking up at its reduced price.

(Xbox One version also gets you the 360 versions of R6 Vegas 1 & 2, which I assume are backwards compatible.)

[Neil]

Oh yeah, there's a variety of operators you unlock, all with different gadgets and weapons. So you can have a heartbeat monitor, a big breaching sledge and so on, all divvied up between attacking and defending roles.

The destructible environments are great, you can shoot out certain types of floors and stuff.  Or you can make a hole through a barrier, then hide behind it for cover. You can also rappel down buildings upside down before swinging through the windows.  Fun stuff!

[lazarou]

Got this on PC a while ago, it's a long way from the old R6 games but still excellent fun in its own right. I wouldn't say it was worth it at full price, but closer to the $30 mark it's an solid little tactical shooter.

Haven't really had the time for the main modes yet, but it's always fun to drop in for a bit of terrorist hunt action. The matchmaking can be a bit of a pain in the arse when it comes to finding a group, especially on higher difficulties, but once you get in it's an absolute blast.

I love the terrain destruction in this. Everything's so close-quarters that shooting open new lines of sight through walls can be hugely advantageous and it's never not fun just blind-firing in the direction of those steps you just heard and watching the walls just blast apart. And speaking of steps, this is another one where the sound design is fantastic, which adds to the whole thing immeasurably. Once you get a feel for it you'll be able to get a good idea of where everyone is just from the floorboards.

[Neil]

It does a great job with the whole "easy to learn, hard to master" thing. At first multiplayer seemed a bit daunting, but I picked it up really quickly, even though I was worried everyone would be amazing at this point in its life cycle.

It really allows for a great deal of creativity in how you play. Sometimes I just stay outside, and run about spotting people with my drone, which tends to make them all freak out and forget about guarding their positions. It's a shame no one on my friends list plays it, as it woe clearly be completely amazing with 5 people all using mics. Hopefully I'll pick up some new contacts as I move into ranked play.

There's just so many ways to get in and out of the environments; I makes for - at it's best - some thrillingly tense moments.

Map knowledge is gong to make a big difference to my effectiveness as well, but yeah, really having great fun with this, and its a joy to play a shooter than brings so much strategy and tension to the table.

[Pit-Pat]

I've been playing this on PS4 fairly solidly (which for me is once or twice a week) since I got it just after Christmas.

I've found it's hooked me in a way that CoD doesn't at all, in that I play it because I enjoy getting better and having occasional great rounds, rather than because I want to unlock the next weapon or skin or whatever. It's unquestionably one of the best FPS's I've played in a long time and has definitely proved itself worth the money (I paid £35 I think but, given the hours I've put in, would probably have been happy paying full price).

[Neil]

Sooooo good when you get a great team. Five of us where just beasting for ages there, worked like a well-oiled machine, even without headsets. Flying up the sides of buildings and quickly storming in, or locking down areas to defend with utter precision. Almost qualify for ranked play now, yippee. Got all the situations finished as well.

It's real edge of the seat stuff at its best. Especially when you come up against an evenly matched team, and it goes to overtime.