Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege News

Rainbow Six Siege: North Star confirmed

After the usual bout of early leaks, Ubisoft is starting to lift the official veil on Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 Season 2. Officially titled North Star, the operation was confirmed with a teaser image today, and given the usual reveal pattern, we should know a lot more about the new season by the end of the week.

The new teaser image features a helicopter flying over a frosty-looking forest with the caption "if you ever need help, just look up." The design of the chopper appears to match the colour scheme used by real-world air-sea rescue helicopters in Canada. As Ubisoft revealed earlier this year, we're getting a new Rainbow Six Siege operator who is from the Nakoda Nations - an Indigenous people based in western Canada (and the US, originally, too) - coming.

Siege is always a leaky ship, and word from leakers suggest that the new op will be a three-speed defender codenamed Thunderbird, equipped by default with a Spear .308 or SPAS-15, a Q-929 or Bearing-9, and an impact grenade or C4.

Read the rest of the story...

Rainbow Six Siege launch bug fix and PC port review

Update 1 Dec, 2015: Rainbox Six Siege is now out in the wild and avalable for purchase, so it's high time to examine the quality of Ubisoft Montreal's PC port and ensure you get that silky smooth 60fps a game such as this requires. Some users are having problem launching the game from Steam though, which seems to be caused by a compatibility issue with UPlay. Until the official sources fix it, here's how to get the game running, courtesy of Steam user Vipr:

Read the rest of the story...

Rainbow Six Siege's system requirements have been revealed

With Rainbow Six Siege launching at the start of December, now would be a good time to make sure you've got a rig that can run it. Conveniently, Ubisoft have just revealed the PC system requirements.

The good news is that they aren't particularly steep, and a broad range of PCs should be able to handle all the explosions, terrorist hunts and firefights that are thrown their way.

Looking for more shooters? Check out our list of the best first person shooters on PC.

Read the rest of the story...

Rainbow Six Siege fan concepts Finka rework, devs think it's awesome

Rainbow Six Siege has been around long enough now that its operators often look completely different than they did at launch. (Heck, now that the Tachanka rework is real, anything is possible.) One fan has even begun designing a fresh set of operator reworks - and the results are so impressive that even the devs are taking notice.

zMin's latest is a Finka rework which replaces her global nanobot boost with a throwable canister that creates an AOE cloud of nanites which remain in place for 10 seconds. This will disable electronics and projectiles that pass through it, and will heal allies within range. "Finka's issue is that using the gadget griefs your teammates," zMin says on Twitter. "With this rework she still keeps her healer and nanobot identity while changing her gadget completely to elevate her role as a support."

Game director Leroy Athanassoff is a "big fan" of this concept, and game designer Emilien Lomet appreciates the presentation, too. "To everyone, be more like zMin. They identify the problem, provide a possible solution to the actual problem, illustrate their solution, and don't waste time arguing hypothetical balance without test and focus on an analytical approach of the design."

Read the rest of the story...

Rainbow Six Siege's events need a rethink

It's happened again. I've booted up Rainbow Six Siege to check out the new Apocalypse limited-time event, and after playing a few matches to complete the associated challenges I'm confident I'll never play it again. That's partly down to the mode itself, which plays pretty similarly to a casual match, but it's also because it's only going to be in the game for the next two weeks before disappearing forever.

The mode itself takes place on an apocalyptic reskin of the map Outback, which boasts a few layout alterations. There's no prep phase, so defenders only have a few seconds to set traps, and there are no reinforcements to stop attackers barreling straight through to the objective within the first 30 seconds - the objective being a jar containing the last remaining plant on Earth. The big idea is that the defenders can carry the plant around the map, cradling it like the jar baby from Death Stranding.

It's a neat twist in theory. Traditionally, Siege matches take the form of an attacking team strategically sweeping across the map, before attempting to plant a defuser and protect it while the timer runs down. A mobile objective gives defenders who prefer the anchor role the freedom to roam, and scrapping the prep phase gives attackers a reprieve from the repetitive process of methodically checking the map for gadgets and opening up reinforced walls.

Read the rest of the story...