Q&A: December 4th, 2024

Andylad Asks
There is currently a community online client almost complete that allows players of NFS Carbon to play online multiplayer and provides several game improvements as well as adding and connecting the Rockport map! There is a discord server where the devs are constantly posting their progress and it is set to release on Dec 24th. Are you interested in checking it out?

I'M SORRY, THE WHAT!?

YES.

YES, I AM.

Duncan Gohl Asks
What, in your opinion, makes a good Tom Clancy game? Do any of the modern TC games meet the criteria (examples such as R6 Siege, The Division 2 or Ghost Recon Breakpoint/Wildlands) or has those aspects been lost to time?

I find the Tom Clancy brand to be rather fascinating, and questions like this are actually part of the reason why. Not only could I argue that The Division 2 isn't really a Tom Clancy game, what with its RPG Health Meters and Diablo Loot Drops but with M16s, I could argue that not even Splinter Cell is a definitive Tom Clancy game.

It's been around not much less than I have on this planet, and as a result, much like what I discussed in my "Community's are Individuals" video, what a Tom Clancy game even is to self-proclaimed Tom Clancy fans, is going to vary so wildly, I unfortunately can't instinctively blame its owners Ubisoft for not really knowing what to do with it.

Yes, making Rainbow Six Extraction is easy to mock, but, is it really that much more ridiculous than what the franchise has already done? Like, yeah, they didn't have zombies before, but they already had health regeneration, loot boxes, paid loot boxes, movie tie-in coop missions, neon gun-skins...

Why wouldn't they add Zombie Alien things after that?

Now I'm not going to sit here and claim that I'm a Tom Clancy purist. I've tried reading Rainbow Six, Patriot Games, and Red Storm Rising, and none of them were anything I kept reading after fifty pages.

My Tom Clancy nostalgia bomb was the Rainbow Six Vegas Demo, of which Calypso Casino has been forever imprinted into my deepest memory banks.

Point is, I'm not somebody who is going to say that the last game to ever abide by what makes a Tom Clancy game good was Rainbow Six 3 on PC... however, I do think the frnachise is in depserate need currently of something like Rainbow Six 3 on PC...

Extraction was the exact opposite of that this series currently needs.

Personally, my dream game for the last for years regarding Tom Clancy has been a Rainbow Six Single Player Campaign, whose elevator pitch is Rainbow Six 3's Gameplay + X-COM 2's structure + Cyberpunk 2077's Writing.

I want a game where all the characters can permanently die in any mission, but, they all have relationships that vary according to the players actions. I want a game where between levels your viewing your base through security cameras and recordings, but they also feature story-segments according to what just happened in the missions that take place, and who you chose.

I want a game that has both the immediate intensity of a game like Rainbow Six 3 but with the context and character typically reserved for RPGs and Fantasy games rather than gritty, down to earth, properly realistic first person shooters.

The main thing I think Tom Clancy needs to bring back its unfiltered reality. In plot, in structure, in character... Tom Clancy was traditional Hollywood American Jingoistic slop, but, in gaming, it gave the gaming industry a hard dose of reality at a time when the industry was defined by Quake 2, Star Fox, and Goldeneye.

The original Rainbow Six was a game that didn't care that you were effectively forced to use Silencers in 90% of missions, because in real-life, that's how it'd go.

The original Ghost Recon was a game that didn't care if you were killed by enemies across the map you couldn't even see, because in real life, that's how it'd go.

The original Splinter Cell was a game that didn't care Sam Fisher should be obviously visible to all of his enemies because of his still bright green goggles, that itself was a point of contention between Ubisoft and Tom Clancy himself.

That's when the shift happened.

My point is, after everything Ubisoft has done in recent memory, with and without the Tom Clancy license, and after everything the gaming industry in general has done with Military and First Person Shooters, a game like Rainbow Six 3 but with the characters, writing, and emotional stakes to match its gameplay stakes, would be exactly the kick in the ass this industry needs right now.

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