The Daily Hot Dog

Current Issues 21/2/01:
Rogue Spear
by Michael Kelly

An e-zine covering Computer Games, Websites, and just about anything else.

The Daily Hot Dog (TDHD) is a division of Surfing Hot Dog Co. (SHDC).

About SHDC | About our rating system | TDHD Archives | SHDC

Executive Editor - Alex Dodge

Managing Editor - C. Remmel

Reporters:
Alex Dodge
C. Remmel
Michael Kelly
Michael Weaver

News and Reviews:

Ladies and gentlemen! Children of all ages! We have ourselves a review! But first, a special message to all those devoted fans of the Daily Hot Dog (hee!) who have been checking in every day and every night, desperately waiting for the wise words of our reporters, glued to their seats, you can buy some stuff at Home Depot that will remove the superglue from your chair. On to the review!

-Rogue Spear-
by Michael Kelly

Rogue Spear ("RS") is the sequel to Rainbow Six ("R6"), a counter-terrorist simulation. For more background info, see my review of R6 here.

NOTE: Everything in this review refers to the Macintosh version of Rogue Spear. There may be descrepencies with the PC version.

Not much has changed from R6 to RS. If you liked R6, Rogue Spear is simply more: you get a mission, often involving rescuing hostages from some nasty situation; You then plan out the entire mission beforehand, setting paths for your fire-teams, how fast they walk those paths, and what they do at various points (such as throwing grenades, covering areas, sniping, etc); After this, you proceed to the action phase, where everything actually happens. You can opt to control a team yourself, or simply watch your teams carry out your (hopefully) well-laid plans. Most of the missions are fairly realistic and the plotline is from Tom Clancy himself.

The Good: There are quite a few enhancements to the think-plan-shoot-shoot-shoot routine. The graphics are obvously improved. Your computer-controlled teammates now act more intelligently, not getting caught up in stairwells quite as often, and moving out of your way if you run into them. The terrorist AI is also improved: if you throw a grenade into a room with several tangos (terrorists) in it, they will run out screaming "GRENADE!" (sometimes in German!). Tangos retreat when injured, they call for help, and generally make your life more miserable than ever.

Both you and your enemies benefit from some new weapons, including a whole new category: sniper rifles! Your enemies still have those AK-47s and Uzis, but they now have AK-74s, Steyer Augs, and Dragunov sniper rifles (oh my!). On your side is the Enfield L85A1 mini-assault rifle, UMP 45 (BIG sub-machine gun), and a host of sniper rifles such as (for you gun buffs) Barret M82A1, PSG-1, and Walther WA 2000. You also get a fully automatic shotgun (the SPAS-12), which, although almost completely useless, is fun to shoot ("Take THAT you little <censored> pheasant! HA! HAHAHA!"). You also can choose among different ammo types. For rifles, you have FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) and JHP (Jacketed Hollow Point); for shotguns, you can chose between buckshot, metal slugs, or rubber batons. For a full weapons listing, see http://www.roguespeardatabase.com/_rogue/weapons.shtml.

Rogue Spear also puts more emphasis on multiplayer gaming, with more dedicated multiplayer maps (you can still play any of the single-player maps), some multiplayer-only items (C4 explosive charges, smoke grenades, etc) and allows access to terrorist weapons in multiplayer adversarial games. As with Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear has many single- and multiplayer mods for your shooting-people-with-a-grenade-launcher enjoyment.

The Bad: Sit down before you look at the system system reqs for this baby. Rogue Spear suffers from a general bugginess in many of the higher multiplayer levels, it sometimes crashes inexplicably. Multiplayer games need a good host, or else warping (players being moved around randomly) and lag will be extreme. The graphics, while pretty darned good, are certainly not up to the standards set by Quake III and Unreal Tournament. Also, the missions in Rogue Spear are, in my opinion, much harder than those of Rainbow Six (a plus for you hardcore gamers and a minus for those just learning). This games takes some getting used to.

The Ugl...er, *ahem* the verdict: If you have the machine to handle it, and the patience to get used to the game model and withstand some of the bugs, Rogue Spear is very rewarding. Otherwise, Rainbow Six is still fine. Do your homework on this one: it's not a gauranteed good buy.

Screenshots:
Bunker Fighting: A player shoots out a pillbox in a multiplayer game.
Leaning Combat: A player leans to the side to shoot out a window in a bunker.
More Bunker Fun: Another player crouches under a bunker window, clutching a grenade.
M-16 Muzzle Flash: On a snowy level, the muzzle flash of an M-16 is clearly visible.
Oblivion: Two players on opposing teams look around corners of a building, oblivious to each other's presence.
The Wrong End of the Gun: Staring down the barrel of a rather menacing gun...
Sniping 1: I spot a target with binoculars...
Sniping 2: ...crouch down...
Sniping 3: ...take careful aim...
Sniping 4: ...and POP!

Links:
Planet Rogue Spear: Same thing as Planet Rainbow 6. A good site.
Rogue Spear Database: Another good site regarding Rogue Spear.
Rogue Spear Hub: A new, small, Mac-oriented Rogue Spear site. Maintained by Wrath, from Pirates of The Desktop.
RedStorm Entertainment: Where would we be without RedStorm, the publishers of Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear.

Overall Rating: 4.50
Graphics: 3.50
User Interface: 4.0
Replay: 4.00
Single Player: 3.75
Multiplayer: 4.75
Splat Rating: 4.00

Ladies and gentelmen, (Trumpet sound) The Daily Hot Dog is up and running once more! (Cheer) Under the management of me! C. Remmel! (Really really big cheer, right?) Why C. Remmel? That sounds a whole lot more official than my first name! :) As you can see, this site has undergone a bit of a redesign, and we will be recieving reports again shortly!