Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is slated to come out by March 11 this year and will be available for the PC, Xbox 360, and the PS3.

It’s only been a year since the last installment check out this sneak peak.

Found on Flickr:

“I captured Stan with the Xbox camera and used his face for my soldier in Rainbow Six Vegas. In actual gameplay the soldier looks more like a mutant fish-man… Since taken, Soldier Stan has risen to the rank of Staff Sergeant.”

To many in the outside world, your Xbox GamerScore is a digital advertisements of just how pathetic and nerdy you are. But you’re among friends here. We won’t judge. We like having a public display of our gaming successes. Most games reward you for progress, and others give incentive to strive for exceptional levels of gaming, but some achievements are lame, dumb, and insulting. You know what we mean: Those precious points that can only be earned through repetition, pointlessness and teeth-grinding frustration.Here are the 17 worst achievements to be found on the XBox 360.

17. Dead Rising – Clothes Horse – 20 points. While most of Dead Rising’s difficult achievements require Frank to kill zombies en masse, kill zombies in humorous fashion, or save the often-idiotic survivors from imminent death, this achievement is earned by trying on all of the outfits in the mall. Sorry, but I prefer the fresh look of caked-on zombie blood to a new pair of khaki pantaloons.
16. X-Men: The Official Game – The Xavier Institute (Training Missions) – 0 points. If the developers of the game are going to give achievements for completing the simple training missions, then they might as well give you some points. Other wise, don’t bother. No one’s going to look at your list and go “Wow, Jonny beat the training level with Wolverine, he must be a badass.” Bonus suck points go the game for giving you the last 50 points for free after getting all 950 other achievement points.
15. Kameo: Elements of Power – The various time attack, expert level, and co-op achievements – 0 points. On the opposite end of the spectrum from the X-Men Game, Kameo gives achievements but no points for some of the harder challenges in the game. So in other words, what’s friggin’ the point?
14. NHL 2K7 – Quitter – 0 Points. Another 0 point achievement, although this one actually has some value. If you quit 10 online matches, you earn the Quiter achievement, and hopefully no one will ever play fake Hockey with you again.
13. The Outfit – Persistence Counts – 20 points, and Battlestations: Midway – Purple Heart – 10 points. Both of these brilliant achievements give you points for sucking at online play or dying frequently. Seriously, if I just bought one of these games and I’m getting my ass kicked online, I don’t need the whole world to know next time I join a game.
12. Gears of War – The COG tag achievements – 60 total points. Like most people, I love Gears of War. However, I haven’t liked searching for hidden packages since GTA 3, and even then it was more of a chore to get the good weapons in my hideout than anything else. The COG tags seem like nothing more than a throw-in for an otherwise great game, as they don’t really unlock anything other than some points.
11. Gears of War – Series of Tubes – 20 points. A number of online shooters have achievements like this one, which reward the player for hosting matches. The fact that the person hosting the game’s shotgun fires about a half of a second quicker than everyone else’s should be reward enough. They don’t need an achievement for having a bastard host advantage.
10. Star Trek Legacy – Pacifist of Makus and Guerilla in the Mist – 20 Points Each. Both of these achievements are for completing levels in the game and NOT killing anyone. I know the hardcore Star Trek fans will say being peaceful is part of the Star Trek universe or some B.S. like that, but I play video games to fantasize about killing zombies, monsters, aliens, psychopaths, Germans, terrorists, evil cops, Borg, Romulans, Klingons, and cuddly forest animals. They are not my friends!
9. Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth II – 705 total achievement points. Pretty much every game that has come out on the 360 has 1000 points to earn. So it’s baffling as to why the developers of the game didn’t give out the full total. Did someone forget how to add? Did they feel that the game is only 70.5% good? What gives? (Note: The Godfather game also pulled a similar stunt.)
8. Madden NFL ‘07 – Import Draft Class – 10 points. This one is just a shady marketing ploy, as EA is asking the player to import a draft class from their college football game. But the only way to do this is to have also purchased a college football game. I know some people want both the NFL and the NCAA game, but for those of us that don’t, let us get all of the achievements without shelling out another $60.
7. Rainbow Six Vegas – True Identity – 30 points. Similar to the above Madden achievement, this one requires you to take a picture of yourself with the Xbox Live vision cam, and map it to your online avatar. This sucks if you a. don’t want to buy the vision cam, b. are a recognizable celebrity trying to stay anonymous, or c. are butt ugly.
6. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter – Committed (Multiplayer) – 28 points. You get this achievement for playing GRAW for 8 hours straight. If you’re able to do this without taking a bathroom break, eating some pizza, or masturbating in a dark corner, then you’re moving from the realm of hardcore gamer to the realm of the Chinese kid who dropped dead during a marathon session of World of Warcraft.
5. Blitz: The League – Manvalanche – 15 points. I don’t even know what you need to do to get this one, but it sounds more like something Lindsey Lohan might do in her free time, not something I want on my list of achievements.
4. College Hoops 2K7 – Free Throws Are Easy – 25 points. You get this for making 90% of your free throws when shooting 100 or more in the free throw practice mode of this game. Look, if Shaq can’t find the time to learn how to make 50% of his free throws when he’s paid millions of dollars to do it professionally, then I don’t want to spend my time practicing my free throws in a video game when I’m only paid in shame.
3. NBA Live ‘07 – Online With 1,000 People – 100 points. In a brilliant over-estimation of this game’s sales, popularity, and fun factor, EA made it so you can only get this achievement by being online at the same time as 999 other people. Unfortunately, NO ONE got this achievement until a couple of websites organized NBA Live meeting sessions at specific times.
2. Bomberman Act Zero – 1,000,000 Bombs and 1,000,000 Block Break – 50 points each. Bomberman for the 360 is pretty much regarded by the press as a horrible game. Therefore, I haven’t played it, and don’t really know anyone else that has. However, if we assume that the game doesn’t even have load times or breaks, and that you are able to plant 1 bomb per every second, uninterrupted and without ammo limits, it would still take you 11 days, 13 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds of non-stop game play to get this achievement.
1. Final Fantasy XI – Reach Level 75 with each character class – 30 points each. Level 75 is the maximum level attainable in the Final Fantasy MMO. The achievements for this game are for reaching level 75 with each different character class in this game. Not just once, but with all 18 character classes. A recovered Final Fantasy MMO addict in the G4 offices estimated it took him around 700 hours of play time to get ONE character to level 62! Just think about that for a second. If you are one the two people in this world who have all of these achievements, just remember, there’s a beautiful world in real life out there for you to explore, and that Chocobos taste better when roasted with a little garlic and rosemary.

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This comes straight from UbiSoft:

A new update has been released for Rainbow Six Vegas on the Xbox 360. Here’s a list of what’s been changed in this version:

Bug Fixes:

Gameplay Tweaks:
The weapons have been rebalanced based on the feedback you’ve given us. Thank you for your patience and continued support in making Rainbow Six Vegas the great multiplayer game that it is. Without further delay, here are the changes we’ve brought to the weapons:

Gadgets

The Saturday Showdown continues. Each week we’ll pick a topic, flip a coin to see which OT writer gets which side to debate, and then we present it to you. This week? Whether or not Microsoft should release a new controller with motion-sensitivity.

Ben:
Microsoft is in an awkward place right now: they have the only console that doesn’t have a motion-sensing controller. The Wii is built around motion-sensing, and Sony has their Sixaxis controller featuring their own brand of tilt-control. First, I love the Sixaxis. I think it’s a comfortable controller with a ton of promise. The only problem is that we still haven’t seen it in a game where the tilt-control is really used well. At the moment it feels very tacked-on. That may change in the future of course, but for now there is nothing going on with Sony’s controller technology that would make Microsoft sit up and say “This is something we need.” I love the Wiimote, but the power of that controller is only apparent when you’re playing a game built specifically for it, and in the world of ports I have to wonder how many games are really going to impress us with their use of motion-sensing. Will it be fun here and there? Sure. But I really don’t see it as a threat to Microsoft’s marketshare, or a feature that they should feel they are behind on. I’m open to being proven wrong here; I have a PS3 and would love nothing more to be amazed by a game’s use of the Sixaxis, but so far it’s definitely a gimmick.

Frank:
The big problem with motion-sensitive peripherals in the past was that they were always developed by third parties—by the Pelican, Mad Catz and those other various companies. Naturally, very few of these worked all that well, simply because the games weren’t designed for them to begin with (that and the typical motion sensing third party controller typically emulated the analog stick rather than actually mapping out data in a comprehensive way). However, when the first-party provides such a peripheral, developers are more likely to develop a game that utilizes it. Whether it’s gimmicky or not, it’s up to the developers to fully take advantage of the capability. For Microsoft to provide that capability—especially in a controller that would cost relatively the same amount as the current first-party ones do—would only serve to add extra features to the console, and to expand the possibility of getting ports from other systems. Consider the fact that Metal Gear Solid 4 is going to use quite a few motion sensitivity-based controls. Had Microsoft a controller similar to the SixAxis, the chance of a port would be even more likely—and that’s just one isolated example off the top of my head.

Ben:
In some ways you’re arguing my point for me, Frank. Microsoft has shipped—depending on what numbers you believe—around 10 million 360s so far. At this stage ANY new peripheral is going to be treated like a third-party peripheral. No one is going to have one when it’s first released. That leaves 10 million people who need to be convinced that they need to buy a new $50 or $60 controller. To convince those people you’re going to need a very compelling killer-app, and so far I just don’t see anything like that coming down the line. This is very late in the game to release new controller technology and expect many third-party developers to use it, and use it well. Why make a game with a feature that only a small percentage of gamers will be able to take advantage of? If you release a game that requires the motion-sensing controller, you’re asking consumers to make at least a $100 investment for the controller and the game. The product would have to be one of the premier franchises to get that kind of consumer movement, and I don’t see how Grand Theft Auto or Halo 3 would really benefit from motion-sensing. I just don’t see how Microsoft could sell enough of us on a new controller to make it worthwhile.

Frank:
They’re not necessarily trying to sell it to us. They’d be trying to further entice those who are on the fence. Consider that the Xbox Live Vision was released well after the console had sold, and tons of gamers have purchased that peripheral: many for Rainbow Six: Vegas and tons for Uno—and the Vision even messed up by not shipping with TotemBall (though ultimately that wasn’t all that much of a loss). You can’ t even play a single game of Uno anymore without seeing at least one person with a camera. Plus, consider other late first-party peripherals like the EyeToy for the PS2. Though the install base wasn’t titanic in size, it opened up the console to even more people at a minimal cost for Sony. In the case of the EyeToy, demographics previously unreachable became interested in the unique play offered by the new input medium—specifically, those without the capacity for pressing buttons like the physically disabled, younger children who were simply too young for buttons but could be entertained and motivated by seeing themselves on screen and so forth.

The controller could have the same kind of effect: further opening the platform to more people. As for the demonstration software to go along with this new peripheral, sometimes a smaller title that perfectly uses the functionality can do far more good than a big title that tries to cram it in. All Microsoft would have to do to take advantage of the new controller would be to bundle it with a game that utilizes it at almost no extra cost. Not necessarily a big game, but something that would adequately demonstrate the niche. And for the relatively miniscule cost of tacking on that functionality to the pre-existing 360 controllers, Microsoft could potentially earn itself another drove of customers. The risk is low, and the prospective earnings are pretty high.

So what do you think? Harmless and potentially beneficial addition or useless gimmick?

Single Player

-Fixed bugs with voice recognition
-Fixed a bug that made the game crash when killing Dr. Smythe under a specific circumstance.

Multiplayer

-Getting stuck at briefing screen when joining a match in progress
-Fixed a coop crash when failing a mission numerous times
-Fixed an exploit where observers received same kills as host in terrorist hunt
-Fixed a intermittent coop crash in map Factory
-Fixed a disconnection bug when host changes map
-Fixed a bug with live camera that forced a reboot.
-Fixed an issue with max players not being related to recommended players for maps.
-Added better feedback in the game search menus.
-Fixed a bug with the siege specialist achievement.
-Fixed players crashing when using shield and entering a game with shield restricted.
-Fixed a rare crash when starting a coop story game
-Fixed a bug that made the shield become invisible in certain circumstances.
-Fixed a display bug with weapons disappearing while using shield
-Fixed a crash while using the Live Vision Camera
-Fixed a display bug with the canister in retrieval staying visible after being taken.
-Fixed a random crash for clients in COOP games.
-Fixed a display error that showed 14 players instead of 16 for dedicated servers.
-Fixed a bug with score limits not working properly.
-Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented grenades from being used at game start.
-Fixed a crash through the world bug related to starting COOP games while playing Terrorist Hunt.
-Fixed a crash through the world bug in Casino COOP.
-Fixed a bug with invalid recommended players in COOP maps.
-Fixed a lockup in COOP mode related to clients joining a game late.
-Fixed a bug where a dedicated server set for 16 players only accepted 14.
-Added better feedback in the game search menus
-Remove proximity voice chat from team games.
-Adjust TerroHunt XP based on density setting:
- Fixed bug regarding voice chat – Now voice chat works for all players
- Fixed a crash where clients crash when host change map or quit the game before they have time to load lobby
-Fixed a crash when clientnt selects Option/ Map name either in the lobby or In game
-Fixed a bug related to the infiltration specialist achievement
-Fixed a bug where when score limit is 10 a game does not end when canister is deposited
- Fixed a bug in splitscreen:Crash when player 2 Press ready before player 1 in the login profile menu
- Fixed a bug where game occasionally crashes on boot at the Title Screen.

General

-Fixed some localization errors in Spanish

Integrating Xbox Live Vision functionality to allow face-mapping, Vegas will also include new features such as the ability to ‘tag’ an enemy (which is then assigned to one of the other Rainbow team members), together with new gadgets, and an emphasis on Observe-Plan-Assault (OPA) tactics. Enemy AI will also be improved as a result of the series’ shift onto the next-gen platforms.

In addition to the solo Campaign, Vegas will feature an evolving multiplayer mode where new equipment can be unlocked, though details of the gametypes haven’t been released. The mode will allow for extensive character customisation however, including body armour, weapons, sights, and physical attributes.

Oh, and it’s also the title that sees Ubisoft’s Montreal studio return to the franchise after a brief hiatus.

We’ll have more news shortly…

[via Jon Wilcox@TVG]