Rainbow Six has become synonymous with excellence in multiplayer mayhem and the latest instalment is no different. I got invited into a game out of the blue and managed to have the best statistics and capture the intelligence all in one go, so I’d like to announce my retirement from R6V2 as the greatest ever to play it.

In all seriousness I have enjoyed many aspects of R6V2 but the A.C.E.S system is my favourite addition as being rewarded for everything you do across ever single aspect of the game is a master stroke in my mind, especially due to my enjoyment of the offline modes. Many games reward your online dedication but R6V2 rewards you across the board so the A.C.E.S system gets the very first “Seven Thumbs Up” award from me.

Over the last few days however my gaming has taken an old school flavour as I spent some time cleaning up my hard drives. Imagine Homer with the suction-blower in the basement giving it a once over then dusting his hands in completion... that was the state of my hard drives. Two games that caught my eye for some quality time with “old friends”, were SimTower and The Dark Queen of Krynn.

DQOK was the final instalment of the Dragonlance trilogy from the “Gold Box” series of AD&D classics from the early 90’s. I believe it was the first VGA game of the series too, so players were treated with excellent visuals for their time in what use to be a fairly crude looking title. As the third in the series you began the game well into the AD&D levels system so the characters were mighty but of course this was offset with some evil enemies.... VERY evil enemies. To this day I have an unnatural hatred for Aurak Draconians!! I played through another quarter or so of the game which leaves me with about half of it to go so eventually I will battle the Queen of Darkness. I’m taking bets for 2014!!

SimTower was a game where you had to design and run a multi-purpose skyscraper, adding things like hotel rooms, condos and offices to generate income. An extremely important aspect of the game was the management of elevators as patrons who had to wait too long to get to their destination got extremely angry and never revisit your tower. As you tick off certain criteria your tower gains an addition star to its rating, unlocking more facilities but bringing with it more challenges such as fire and terrorist attacks. It is a game I still enjoy so I have played a little too much of it over the last few days but it’s always enjoyable to reminisce with the good ol’ games.

Speaking of reminiscing, I am playing not one but two games of netball this week. Last night I filled in at a mixed netball competition down at Willoughby that Stu’s sisters play in. Other than the brutal landing that asphalt gives it was a load of fun. It is always great to watch guys who have never played having a good laugh with their wives and girlfriends by attempting to play. It is all about the fun and so the umpiring it a little lax but who cares, it’s a social comp. 

My next game is anything but social. The remnants of the NSW men's side are playing the NSW Swifts in a training game tomorrow night before the start of the new ANZ Championship on the weekend. I am so glad to see the game beomce professional for the girls as it should have happened years ago. This game will be extremely fast and competitive and as we blokes are not up the the awesome fitness of the girls I think we might be in for a hiding. Still it should be great fun regardless of the score. GO SWIFTS in 08!!