OK, so, Ubisoft about a couple days back sent out word on its forums about the DLC coming in the "early July" (not more specific, sorry) release of Rainbow Six Vegas 2's Fan Pack. There will be several new gameplay details and three maps. It's all free, and will all be available via Ubi's site, Xbox Live Marketplace, or Playstation Network depending on your flavor of platform.

Re: the maps (from Ubi's post).

There are three maps included in the free DLC: Murdertown – Dark, CQB Training – Dark and best of all the much-requested fan favourite Calypso Casino! The three map layouts have not been changed. The re-lit “Dark maps” have a very eerie atmosphere, and may require players to use night vision to spot enemies. Calypso Casino returns with updated lighting and textures. The three maps are playable in all Versus modes and Terrorist Hunt.

As for gameplay, there are new ranks, new A.C.E.S., some rebalancing of weapon characteristics, multiplayer tweaks, and a handy-dandy frag indicator to help you not get your ass blown off. The entire announcement is quoted after the jump, plus the video (hosted at Gametrailers) referenced in the announcement.

Hi everyone,

I am very pleased to announce that Ubisoft will be releasing a Fan Pack to all Rainbow Six fans. I am also here to give you better insight and clarification on what the Fan Pack contains:

The Fan Pack includes an Update for the game and DLC (downloadable content). The first thing that may come to mind is: “Is this free?” Yes it is, including the DLC. This pack will be available via Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network and ubi.com in July 2008. You can find out more about the Fan Pack in this video.

*** Update Features ***

New Ranks
An additional 99 Elite Ranks have been added for bragging rights. For those of you who are already Elite, you may have noticed that your XP continued to accumulate while playing. Once you have the update, your XP will automatically be applied towards the new Elite ranks, so it is possible that you have already ranked up multiple times past Elite.

New A.C.E.S.
A total of 100 A.C.E.S. are available for each category: Marksman, CQB and Assault. Each A.C.E.S. level past 20 will reward you with 5000 XP that applies to your rank. For players who have already reached A.C.E.S. 20 and continued to collect A.C.E.S. points, you will be happy to know that the update will automatically advance you to the level you have earned. For example, if you have enough A.C.E.S. points to reach Marksman 25, you will automatically be at Marksman 25 and earn 25000 (5000 x 5) towards your next Rank.

Grenade Indicator
When you are within the damage radius of a Frag or Incendiary grenade, an indicator will appear on-screen telling you which direction it is. The indicator can show multiple grenades at once.

Weapons & Gadgets Balancing
Here are a couple of notes about Weapons and Gadgets:
• Explosion delay of the incendiary grenade has been increased
• Detonation speed of the C4 has been slightly increased
• Increased the damage of Sniper Rifles at long range
• Increased the base accuracy of the Light Machine Guns
• Adjusted the rate of fire for some of the Assault Rifles, Shotguns and an SMG
• Sped up the time it takes to zoom in & out with weapons, making it more responsive

To better clarify: the zoom for all firearms have been significantly sped-up and you can now fire DURING the zoom transition.

Respawns in Team Deathmatch – Host Option
An added host option has been added for Random Respawns. Random Respawns OFF will play like the classic Versus style where each team spawns in their designated Alpha or Bravo base. Random Respawns ON will have your players spawn randomly throughout the map after they die the first time.

Voice Chat – Host Option
Added as a host option for Player Match & System Link, players now have the option to talk to their team mates while dead.

Score in Deathmatch
Displayed on the bottom left of the HUD in Deathmatch, players can now see their score along with the top opponent’s score.

Team Leader - Spawn Change
Players now respawn next to the leader by default, unless players specifically choose to spawn back at the base.

Show Dead Players in Lobby
Players who no longer have lives remaining will now have a skull icon displayed next to their name in the pause menu.

Terrorist Hunt Spawning
Terrorists will no longer spawn right in front of you or behind you, or in a room you just cleared.

* * * * *

High Stakes Setting
High Stakes is a host option for every Versus mode that really pushes tactical gameplay to the next level. Here’s a detailed description of High Stakes:

Limited HUD (High Stakes)
The Radar is disabled. Enemies will not be visible on the Tactical Map (back button on 360/select button on PS3). Grenade indicator is disabled.

Health System (High Stakes)
Health regen is disabled. If you are shot and close to death, you’ll enter a visual state of critical health (screen turns monochromatic).

Cover System (High Stakes)
The cover system as been changed in High-Stakes mode to encourage players to peek instead of pop-n-shoot. The camera has been moved so your character cannot look past their cover unless they expose themselves around a corner.

Weapons & Gadgets (High Stakes)
Aim Assistance has been completely disabled. Bullet spread has also been increased when not zoomed-in (you will notice your crosshair indicators are much wider when not in zoom). Realistically, a person holding a gun would have better aim when zoomed-in than when he’s walking around. This encourages players to really take aim instead of run-n-gun. Also remember that the zoom time has been sped-up and you can now fire WHILE you zoom in and out. Players now have less ammunition (1 for each gadget you choose and less clips for your guns) so you really need to play conservatively and rely on precision use of ammo.

Kill Camera & Friendly Fire (High Stakes)
Kill Camera is always disabled and Friendly fire is always enabled.

*** DLC ***

THREE FREE MAPS
There are three maps included in the free DLC: Murdertown – Dark, CQB Training – Dark and best of all the much-requested fan favourite Calypso Casino! The three map layouts have not been changed. The re-lit “Dark maps” have a very eerie atmosphere, and may require players to use night vision to spot enemies. Calypso Casino returns with updated lighting and textures. The three maps are playable in all Versus modes and Terrorist Hunt.

This Fan Pack is dedicated to all of you in the Rainbow Six community. Everything in this update and DLC comes directly from you on the forums, private messages to us and even matches the team has played with you all online. We’d like to sincerely thank you for your continued support and feedback. See you online!

Update by Ubi.Vigil:

We're sure some of you are wondering when it will be available on platforms other than UK PS3s. This early release was a result of a miscommunication with Sony, we apologise for any confusion or frustration this sudden release caused. Until the release of the update in other PS3 territories, UK PS3 players will only be able to play with other UK players.

The full Fan pack, including all maps, fixes and changes, will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in early July.

Best Regards,
Ubi.LevelUp - Community Developer
Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Fan Pack Details [Ubisoft Forums via Blue's News]

Fresh off a sendup of Metal Gear come two more amusing trailers flacking Battlefield: Bad Company. One (above) cracks on Gears of War's haunting "Mad World" campaign. The second (below, after the jump) goes after Rainbow Six.

Despite all that has gone on with this game in the past, I kinda do want to see what this one is all about. It gets really enervating playing tactical shooters that faithful adhere to painstaking rules of engagement, when all you want to do is huck a grenade and wade into the firefight. Whether indulging that release is enough to sustain an entire game, I dunno, but I at least wanna see it.

"This is supposed to be a stealth mission!"
"Why?"

You have no idea how many times I have had that same conversation with a game.

Battlefield: Bad Company Trailers Parody Gears of War, Rainbow Six [Joystiq, and thanks to Mike for the YouTube links yesterday.]

According to GI.biz, these are the total lifetime numbers sold as of this month:

Rayman: 22 million

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: 20 million

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: 19 million

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: 16 million

Driver: 14 million

Petz: 13 million

Prince of Persia: 11 million

The Settlers: 7 million

Assassin’s Creed: 6 million

Brothers in Arms: 5 million

Imagine: 4 million

Far Cry: 4 million

Red Steel: 1 million

Tom Clancy series tops 55 million units sold [GI.biz]

Ubisoft also credited a "sharp ramp-up" of its Games For Everyone casual range, which includes Jam Sessions, My Word Coach and My Life Coach, among others, for its profit climb, along with successful launches for Assassin's Creed and its Imagine DS titles for girls.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company now has 14 franchises with unit sales in the multimillions, and plans to launch five new IPs in addition to new casual brands. "Going forward, 2008-09 is set to be another record year for Ubisoft," said Guillemot.

I just thought you might be interested to know that Mike and I met playing Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Lockdown. Funny thing is, we hated each other at first, but somehow ended up falling in love. I was from Georgia and he was from the Bronx. On a leap of faith we met, and we have been together ever since. If it wasn't for Xbox LIVE, our paths would have never crossed. :) We had our daughter—who we thought to be the first Xbox LIVE baby—on September 24, 2007. Maybe she's the first Xbox 360 baby, at least... I AM SO THANKFUL FOR XBOX AND THE ONLINE COMMUNITY! If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have the man of my dreams and a beautiful new baby!

A new Ubisoft site popped up today that seems to be for some yet to be named title. Mousing through the site you come across a number of audio files that seem to indicate that the game is set sometime in the future. There are also biblical references, including to Revelations 6:4 which reads: "And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat theron to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword."

The hidden forums on the site are already buzzing that this could be some sort of post-apocalyptic or just pre-apocalyptic game. The fact that the site references Ghosts, Splinter Cells and other special ops groups has the posters there hoping that this is some sort of mega-game that ties all of the Tom Clancy's franchises together into one final title. Sounds like a really cool idea.

Could this be Firehawk?

Oh and the tags for the site are: "jsf28555833-80604722, rev 64, rev64, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, GRAW, Clancy".

We know most of these already and Rev64 is obviously a tag for the revelations citation. My guess is that the JSF in the tag, and also mentioned in the sound files, refers to the Joint Strike Fighter program, a real-world program that develops advanced war aircraft. Hmm, sounds more and more like Firehawk.

Go on over dig around and then report back here, lets get to the bottom of this. Brian Crecente

JSF28555833-80604722

With some big next-gen releases over the past few days, not to mention the Burger King trio, expect the rest of the week to be light on shipments. Here's what's new and notable this week.

Superman Returns (DS, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360)
Film to game adaptation from the Madden house.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Xbox 360)
Take out terrorists in Sin City!

Capcom Classics Vol. 2 (PS2, Xbox)
Arcade favorites, including Super Street Fighter II, Strider, Magic Sword and more.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine (PC)
The Oblivion expansion pack adds a new faction and gives PC players horse armor!

Tony Hawk's Project 8 (PSP)
More Tony and his tricky buddies on the go.

I'll be picking up the Capcom Classics Collection for my cheap ass retro gaming fix. You guys have any cash leftover this week? If so, what are you getting? Michael McWhertor

EGM Reveals Rainbow Six: Vegas [1UP]