
In their latest update, Penny Arcade informs the world that they have switched from
Gears of War to
Rainbow Six Vegas as their game of choice -- though Tycho admits he was against the idea. The reasons for the switch are about what you would expect:
Vegas is what some would call more "hardcore." Kills are near instantaneous, weapon choices are numerous, player counts are higher, the cover system is (arguably) more flexible than
Gears, and
Vegas has a robust persistent online structure. I had a feeling after playing the
Vegas multiplayer demo that it might become the hardcore game of choice, much like
Rainbow Six 3 was on the original Xbox.
However, just because it's more hardcore does not mean that it will be more popular. If that were the case,
Halo 2 would have been
knocked from the Live top spot long ago. Will
Vegas topple the new
Gears behemoth? Well, no. No it won't. There are many reasons for this, but the main reason is that
Vegas simply isn't as accessible as
Gears. Even if pressing "A" can have undesired results in
Gears -- diving from cover instead of rolling around the edge for instance -- it's still a more friendly setup for the masses (compared to
Vegas' use of the left trigger). Also, the weapons of
Vegas can be daunting to the uninitiated, as the advantages of one machine gun over another may elude the average gamer. And of course, there is the quibble that
Vegas looks nowhere near as good as
Gears, despite the fact that they run on the same engine. It seems minor, but graphics alone were enough to turn many of our
readers off of the demo, despite how fun it is to play.
What are your thoughts? Will the hardcore, fast tactics of
Vegas lure you in, or do you prefer the polished, simpler destruction of
Gears?