Being a big fan of tactical games, Rainbow Six 3 was on my to-get list and just recently I picked up my copy. I had a blast with it and still play it despite the fact that I beat it several times. The weapons were veryy accurate in terms of practicality and functionality; I was very pleased that Ubi Soft actually got the technical information of the actual weapons and implimented them correctly instead of making a messed-up array of weapons like the RCP-90 in Golden Eye (Great weapon for a great game).

The graphics are not bad given the time of RBS3's release. Nothing special about them, but they arn't lacking soo much that one begins to notice it. However, the AI is seriously lacking on both the terrorists and your fellow team mates. When you give Zulu (Attack on your command) commands, they can get stuck in corners walk into the given area and get killed in the process. It's really annoying to move them out of your way too. Several times when clearing rooms they'll either jump out in front of me and take a few rounds to the back or they'll stop in the doorway and start shooting like it was a carnival game.

The terrorist AI is also lacking. I could take out someone with a loud .40 S&W handgun and the nearby terrorist will just scratch his head wondering if it was a firearm or if his stomache just made a noise. Other times the terrorist will try to roll away to safety and instead roll towards you and shoot you while rolling... it's really weird.

What also makes me mad is the fact that you need XBox Live in order to do Co-Op. I'm sorry, but I don't feel like paying money in order to play Co-Op. I think it's rediculous and a money-making scheme dreamed by Tom Clancy or Bill Gates. I was escatic to play Conflict: Desert Storm on Co-Op, why can't other games be the same.

Lastly, I hate it when you can only control yourself and not others, much less give individual orders. It takes away from the controlability from the game, thereby being at the mercy of the AI... and we know how much I love the AI.

But nonetheless, I loved playing this game. My favorite thing to do it use phosphorous on the terrorist and watch them burst into flames. It's a really fun game, but these small errors really do add up to a big deal. However, it is still worth getting.

I was a huge fan of rainbow six on the PC and was pretty excited about the console version. I expected it to be a bit more 'arcadey', but having also got Ghost Recon, also expected a similar level of realism and strategy. But all in all I have to say I was pretty disappointed. On the plus side, the game is really well presented, with some good missions, great graphics, and the sound is superb. But it's the gameplay where it fell down for me. For starters all you have is one group - consisting of 4 men, of which you are one, and can only play one - Ding Chavez. One of the best parts of Rainbow 6 on the PC (and indeed the Ghost Recon games on console) is the ability to send different units off to different areas, storm rooms at the same time from multiple angles and give eachother cover fire. With the console version there is none of this. You don't plot waypoints or anything like that, you literally issue orders on the fly. To be honest, that didn't really bother me too much. In fact I quite liked the added sense of on the spot realism this gave the game. You can issue a variety of commands, most of which can also be issued with a 'go' code, so you can do your thing, and then shout to code for them to execute their orders on demand.

But without the advance planning what you really need is some AI to keep the game realistic, and functioning smoothly. Sadly I found this quite poor. There are many niggly problems that are really detrimantal to the game. For staters when you tell your team to move - they don't move to your crosshairs - they move towards them and then fan out into all kinds of stupid positions even taking fire from bad guys, which they wouldn't have done if they'd have stopped where you asked. In a game that essentially relies on stealth tactics, it's like sending an army of chimps into a hostage situation.. This is incredibly frustrating. Opening doors is also extremely irritating. You can't seem to sneak it open without your team attempting to do something. For example, you press the A button and the D pad to open the door slightly to check for badguys, but when you release it you get a 'ROGER, opening door..' in your ear, and the whole team arrives to open the already semi open door.. Also can anyone explain why you can only order your team to flash or frag rooms that have a door?? There were many occasions where I wanted to order a teammember to frag an open room.

Also, it has to be said that the voice recognition is not great. Sometimes I had to actually check to see if the mic was muted after having said MOVE!! about 5 times. In the end I found it was a little more successful if I faked an american accent. So perhaps you guys will be ok... I also noticed that Zulu go codes can result in odd things with voice recognition. You will set the team up to storm a room on a go code, get to your door, issue the go code and they will just move to you, or try and storm the room from your door.. This was not a problem when using the interface.

Enemy AI is also not as good as it ought to have been. For starters, in a game that is primarily about stealth, they never run for help, nor seem to get particularly alarmed when you plug one of their accomplices nearby. And how come everyone seems to know that you're coming? An enemy will step out from round a corner, you'll shoot him, and he'll run off. 2 minutes later he will step out from round the corner again, seemingly having completely forgotten there was a team of four camouflaged anti terrorist officers kneeling with big guns waiting there.. Snipers are probably the most ludicrous though. Despite the fact that the enemy effectively has no idea that Rainbow are in the building, they appear to be camped out waiting for you - tiny little spots on distant cranes, that shoot you in the head as soon as you step round a corner. The game is furiously difficult in places.

But it's not all bad. Generally, despite the niggles the game functions really well, (more so if you don't use the headset) and you are rewarded for 'sensible' playing. You can't run around Halo style in Rainbow six, you have to use cover, tread carefully, keep to walls, and not expose the group in wide open spaces. A few shots will kill, so listen to your team mates, and use your different view modes (night vision, and thermal). Whilst it is not as strategic as it's contemporaries, the small level of strategy involved is satisfying enough, particularly when you confuse the enemy by storming a room through two doors etc. Hostages are also dealt with extremely well, you can secure them, or escort them, and the bad guys will not hesitate to kill them if you aren't fast enough.

So all in all, it is more one for those who prefer the arcade side of these style of games than the strategy, and if you can forgive it's shortcomings, it is a good, albeit tough 1st person shooter.

Speaking for single player mode only... While not terrible, I wouldn't say it's great by any means. This is supposed to be a covert action type of game, yet there's nothing covert about it. Most of the time, the terrorists always seem to be camping for you. Then other times, they're incredibly stupid, and will walk right out in front of you after you just got done shooting at them, like they had some sort of short term memory loss. As far as I can tell, it makes no difference how stealthy you try to be... Using suppressed weapons is pointless, because the bad guys will see you just as much, and they will still react the same. This forces you to go blowing through each level using nothing but firepower, which no covert team would ever do behind enemy lines, unless all else failed. Unlike Splinter Cell (the ultimate spec ops game), you never see the bad guys engaged in any kind of real human activities. 90% of the time, they are either standing in one place, mumbling the same 6-8 things, or shooting at you. I find this very unrealistic, as you would not find people being at attention 100% of the time. The beauty of Splinter Cell is how human it is, and how it makes you think. It also heightens your senses with excellent music and sound effects. Though Rainbow is supposedly built around the SC engine, you would never know. There's some mediocre strategy movements you can make with your team, but that's about the most intellectual stimulation you will get with this. In the end, Rainbow becomes a fairly decent target shooting game.

If you just want to shoot at people... Go for it. If you want to have to use your brain, this isn't the game.

Although Halo was awesome, I'd been wanting a game that was more realistic unlike Halo and other mainstream first-person shooters. I am from a military and law enforcment background, so I ordered Ghost Recon on Amazon, but while waiting for it in the mail, I picked up Rainbow Six 3 at my local Babbage's. To make a short story shorter, Rainbow Six 3 has been in the Xbox since long after Ghost Recon arrived.

Rainbow Six 3 has an awesome small arms collection: sub-machine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles; cool semi-auto pistols like the HK USP. It has several types of explosives you can use like claymore mines, flashbangs and grenades like smoke, willy pete, frags and CS.

The gameplay on Rainbow Six is just plain awesome. It's not Halo where you can jump up and expose yourself and live to tell about it. In Rainbow Six, like in real life, if you get shot in the head once, you die. If you get shot a few times in other places, you are either dead or badly wounded. If you move fast and make noise, the enemy knows you're there. If you move slowly and silently, you are undetected. You are able to use real life tactics like quick-peeking around corners, slicing the pie, dynamic entries into rooms, using your team to cover you while you disable a bomb or secure a hostage. And when the gunfight is on, it's a lot of fun. I repeat, it's a lot of fun.

The controls on the game are very responsive. Once I got the input sensitivity adjusted to my liking, the controls became an extension of my hand. Switching weapons and reloading is easy and takes a realistic amounts of time. The graphics are the best I've seen yet on the Xbox in my small collection of games and the games I've rented. You can see shadows of your enemy as you are approaching corners, if you look at a flash bang as it goes off, you are disoriented for about twenty seconds. The sound on the game is awesome. The gunfire, explosions and other sounds are very realistic. On my home theater system, the explosions were just booming through my subwoofer and rocking the house. The communication between team members is adequate.

Occasionally, a team member may do something stupid like run in front of you while your are shooting at a terrorist. And some of the terrorists occasionally use stupid tactics like the kamikaze charge whereafter they quickly become paper weights. These are small faults that do not take away from the overall gameplay.

I say if you are in the market for a first person shooter or a military style game, Rainbow Six 3 is where it's at.

man, these people are slow. they say "roger, mooning now" even if they walk a couple of steps. there are too many stupid mexicans going around saying "POLICIA. POLICIA" they all even look the same, except wearing different clothes. the only best part about this game is when I am in GOD mode.

Don't buy this game!! Buy HALO 2 or HALO!!!!!!!!