Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (PlayStation 3)

Sony's online service seems to leave a lot to be desired, just like on the PS2 and that really hurts Rainbow Six Vegas on the PS3. The game is designed as a SP and MP experience but the MP portion of the game is where the nuts and bolts are at, fragging your friends and complete strangers in the game is one of those things that you need a decent online service to enjoy.

Vegas suffers lag, it suffers frequent disconnects and it suffers period on Sony's service, this isn't a fault with the PS3 but Sony themselves (down Sony fanboys, DOWN!)

The game lacks the Xbox Live Vision camera support (no PS3 Eye when the game shipped) and you are stuck in PEC (Persistent Elite Creation) with the pre-rendered options for your characters face. Not too bad, but still not as good as fragging your friends with your own face.

The PS3 version has some exclusive MP maps, or it did have until the Black Pack came out for R6 Vegas and shipped with those exclusive maps (for free) turning the one reason to have the PS3 version into a moot point. The game also has this habit of de-synching Bluetooth headsets and with no way to re-synch whilst playing, it's quit out of the game, synch the headset and waste time getting back in again. Not really decent for seamless online play.

The not-so great visuals on the MP side of the game really show up here on the PS3, which is something that I think hurts Vegas on both systems and whilst it's an instant classic, the game has too many flaws to elevate it to the polish of the 360 version visually and for MP play. With all these things aside it still has the firepower to deliver a corking Single Player experience that features the best cover system in a game (I prefer it over Gears of War to be honest) and some of the most glitzy locations to grace a FPS.

If you don't mind losing the online play (or you're not much of an online gamer) you can enjoy the ride as is, but you'll be missing out on the best side of the game if you do. Vegas is built for co-operative team-based action and communication (headset issues aside). If you can hit the right server on Sony's service and find some people who'll actually play with voice comms and teamwork, it still offers a passable experience marred by the aforementioned glitches and problems with the game.

I still play it (different set of gamer buddies), so don't be put off by my negative comments.

See you in game hopefully.