Since its release last November, Rainbow Six Vegas has become one of the most popular games on Xbox Live. Rainbow Six games have always been fairly popular as multiplayer games, but Vegas delivered a new level of cutthroat tactical action along with great visuals on the Xbox 360, as well as plenty of cool maps and game modes. Well, good news, Rainbow fans, because Vegas' multiplayer suite will get a bit bigger later this month with the release of Player's Pack Red Edition, a downloadable content pack that will be sold through Xbox Live Marketplace. The Player's Pack Red Edition will serve up five new maps and two new gameplay modes for Vegas. We recently tested them out in some intense online sessions against Ubisoft, so read on for the details!

　　The Player's Pack Red Edition is just a convoluted way to say even more Rainbow Six Vegas goodness.

　　The first of the new modes we played was assassination. This mode will seem familiar if you ever played Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. In assassination, one player on the defending team is randomly selected to play as the VIP and must be safely escorted by his teammates to a spot on the other side of the map. The attacking team wins if it kills the VIP. To make things more difficult for the defending team, the VIP is armed with only an automatic pistol and lacks body armor. In fact, the VIP is easy to spot because he looks like a typical middle-aged, middle-management office type with his white-collar shirt and slacks. As you can imagine, he sticks out in a crowd of heavily armed commandos dressed in olive-green camouflage.

　　Assassination will require a fair amount of coordination on both teams because letting the VIP wander around by himself is a sure recipe for disaster for the defenders, while the attackers need to work together to locate the VIP and deal with his escorts while also making sure he doesn't slip past. This was all the more difficult on the first map that we played on, Marshalling Yard, which is a huge map that sports large outdoor areas along with plenty of indoor action. The defenders start outdoors in the rail yard, with the many railcars offering a fair amount of cover. Then they must go through a huge building, only to emerge in another large rail yard for the final sprint to the end. One thing to be careful of are snipers positioned on the rooftops of the main building.

　　The next map was Doscala Restaurant, which is set on the streets of Las Vegas. The restaurant is multilevel and designed for close-quarters action. However, the battle can spill out into the streets, as well as a parking structure across from the restaurant. In terms of size, Doscala is smaller than Marshalling Yard, but that should concentrate the action quite a bit because there isn't a lot of room to maneuver. In assassination mode, the VIP doesn't have to go very far--just through the restaurant, across the street, and through the parking garage. However, getting across the street is tricky because the hunters can use the long line of sights to deny easy crossing. Smoke grenades should come in useful here, which means that you will actually have a reason to equip them in multiplayer. And here's a good place to note that all of the new maps can be used for any of the gameplay modes found in Vegas, which means not just the two new modes but also all of the existing modes.

　　The last completely "new" map is Roof, which is set in a coffee factory in Mexico. We used Roof to try out the second new gameplay mode: total conquest. It turns out that total conquest is a lot like the territories mode found in Halo 2. Scattered around the level are three radar installations that can be captured. If your team controls a radar installation, you begin to earn control points. The more radar installations that you control, the faster you accumulate points. The first team to hit the designated victory level wins. So to be successful in total conquest, your team is going to have to spread over the map. There's also going to be a lot of give and take between each of the points. With Roof, conquest mode is a bit difficult because two of the radar installations are inside the huge coffee factory while a third is outside.

　　One random sap gets to play as the VIP in assassination mode. Have fun with that.

　　The other new maps in the content pack are actually remixes of existing maps. Border Town - Redux is a twist on the popular Border Town, but it's centered a lot more on the church than before. In a mode like total conquest, the control of the church and its roof becomes absolutely vital because whoever owns the roof can snipe or toss grenades at those below. The redux version also has a dusk lighting scheme, making it difficult to see at times. You'll want to alternate between thermal or night and regular vision, depending on where you're at in the level. Finally, the last map in the content pack is Kill House - Redux, a variation on the popular Kill House training level. The main difference we noted is that the weather and visibility are a lot better in the redux vision, which makes it easier to spot someone, particularly someone trying to hide atop a roof. While hardly a "pretty" level, Kill House does look a bit more colorful now that you can see around it.

　　So there you have all five maps and two modes in the Player's Pack Red Edition. Given the huge popularity of Rainbow Six Vegas and the appetite for new content, this is probably a must-have purchase if you like to play the game on Xbox Live or if you want to keep up with the rest of the crowd. The new levels feel like a good fit to the existing ones, and the new modes offer plenty of tension and fun. The pack will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace on April 18. Ubisoft has not yet announced a price.