If you like taking pot-shots at the bad guys, don’t let this chance go. Log on to Rainbow 6 Vegas, which is the latest game from the Rainbow 6 series. To begin with, the graphics have improved and so has the gameplay. The PC version is almost the same as the Xbox 360 version. The single-player campaign is the same, and the multiplayer features almost all the functionality of the Xbox 360 version.

In the campaign, you play the role of Logan Keller, the leader of one of Rainbow’s elite three-man counter-terrorist assault teams who is called into action after an operation in Mexico goes bad. By the time you’re called in, terrorists have struck the casinos and high-rise hotels of Las Vegas for some reason. It is your job to stop them and ascertain their intentions. This involves the standard McGuffin device that will kill millions and destroy a secret military base hidden inside a massive hydro-electric dam.

In Rainbow 6 Vegas, slabs of concrete are your best friend, along with the edges of doorways, slot machines, the sides of sports utility vehicles (SUVs), and anything else that’s solid, which you can put between yourself and the enemy. Various objects located in and around the casinos make for excellent cover points. In fact, it’s a relatively easy thing to poke your head out from cover, take aim and shoot at some bad guy in the head from a distance of 40 yards and quickly duck behind the slot machine, a car parked nearby or anything that serves your purpose.

The Artificial Intelligence of your squadmates is fairly well-developed. Rainbow 6 Vegas features soldiers who navigate the terrain well, take cover when needed and follow what would normally be considered complicated instructions to the trainees.

One thing, however, which really bothered me is that in the past games, you could save when you wanted and pick things up right before a really hairy situation. In Rainbow 6 Vegas, that is not the case; the game has checkpoints (not unlike other adventure games) that you can load back to when you die. And you are going to die in this game, probably a lot, if you are like me.

The sound more than satisfies as it features a PC Dolby Digital sound. It sounds realistic as well. As far as the graphics are concerned you need to have a very good system with a good AGP card.The graphics are good and till date my favourite. The game should be set to the realistic mode to enjoy it to the fullest.

Minimum system requirements: Operating system: Win XP, Processor: 1.2 GHz, RAM: 512 MB, Video card: 64 MB (2.0 shaders required, AGP Aperture Size ( in BIOS setup) 256Mb), DirectX: DirectX 9.0c, Sound card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible, Free memory on hard drive: 1.5 GB, Accessories: Mouse and keyboard