Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Gold Pack Edition

Rainbow Six established a landmark in third-person action/strategy that has only just been surpassed by the even more magnificent Hidden & Dangerous. If you haven't tried its brand of team-based manslaughter (or tangoslaughter), then now is your perfect chance as it's bundled with the five extra missions included in the Eagle Watch add-on pack.

Taking control of an elite anti-terrorist squad, you get to plan missions ahead, use stealth, give orders to your team members and indulge in some good old-fashioned shooting skills in a truly tense but enjoyable experience. The AI is not without its problems, especially in the original game: your men fall over each other and the enemy shows an alarming tendency to ignore your presence until you've shot them.

On the other hand, the missions are well-designed, the men you take control of move smoothly and the atmosphere is engrossing (unlike Clancy's books, which aren't). There's no sniping involved, which is a real shame, and your movement is rather limited (no crawling), but somehow the game manages to pull you into the story to the point where all niggles fade away.

The scenery in Eagle Watch is based on real-life locations and looks gorgeous, adding to the replayability value of every mission. At the time of its release, this add-on pack was probably just a little bit too short to make it a really worthwhile purchase. Now, as part of the main game, it fits in snugly.

You have to ask, is it really worth buying this Gold Pack Edition when you can get Hidden & Dangerous for the same price? The answer is not really, especially when you consider that H&D offers a larger variety of missions which all have much more depth. But if you do fancy a change from the WWII scenarios or just can't get enough of team-based games, Rainbow Six will definitely make a great addition to your collection.