I have been waiting for Rainbow Six Vegas to hit PS3 since the first time it got delayed. That was before the PS3 in November. I suffered through a good 7+ continued delays and more that 8 months later the game hits stores.

I haven't played Rainbow Six since RB6:3 came out on PS3 so I'll be doing a lot of comparing to that game.

Graphically the game is stunning. Envirnments look lilke photos. The lighting is spectacular and the characters look great.

Gameplay is difficult (but not too much) and unique (at least for me it seemed fresh). Unlike SOCOM and other tactical games, including previous versions of RB6. You're not constantly being briefed and then inserting into new areas. It is more like several long missions with well spaced checkpoints. The first person prospective works very well.

AI in this game is the best I have ever seen. Your teamates don't feel like extra liabilities. They conduct orders realistically, such as spliting a room in two as they clear it (one controls one side while the other controls the other side. The enemies aren't stupid. They'll try to flank you. They actually come running when they here gunfire, and they will often take the first shot at you.

There are a few single player annoiances however. The biggest one for me is that the voices of teamates and command are very soft and incredibly difficult to hear. There may be a setting to fix this but I haven't really looked for it yet. This makes it incredibly difficult to understand the plot, as that is the only way it is conveyed to you. Also from the little I could hear the voice acting is terrible.

Multiplayer. A word that can make or break a game. And for Rainbow Six it does both. Actually fighting in Rainbow Six online is unbelievably fun. But the navigation to get to a game is painful and seems broken. You can choose to search from a very few number of settings and the game will simply put you in game which is very annoying. I much prefer getting a list of games fitting your search criteria, such as in Resistance and Halo, and then choosing your game. I don't think this would be too difficult to fix and add in, in a future update. Most of the people I've talked to in game agree with me 100% on this. Also I do not like how this game requires a host for games. I don't exactly know how it works so forgive me if I say something dumb. But in Resistance there are dedicated servers so your game expirience isn't dedicated to the speed and strength of your host's connection. I believe that curing the navigation issue and a few other little things could definately make RB6V a better online game then Resistance but right now it isn't.