Rainbow Six 3 ships for Xbox

Ubisoft expanded its Tom Clancy empire further today, when Rainbow Six 3, the latest title inspired by the author's best-selling brand of techno-fiction, shipped.

The Rainbow Six series has long been a favorite of PC gamers. However, Rainbow Six 3 is an original title designed by the makers of Splinter Cell specifically for the Xbox, and features an all-new story line involving deadly intrigue between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

The tactical shooter features another squad of heavily armed special-ops soldiers whom players can issue a complex series of orders. Like its PC counterparts, R63 also features a variety of assault weapons and high-tech devices gamers can test-fire and issue to their commando team. The game also allows four-man co-op missions over a LAN and head-to-head Xbox Live contests with over a dozen other opponents.

Priced at $49.99 and rated "M" for Mature, Rainbow Six 3 is the first console version of the R6 series since the scuttled PlayStation 2 port of Rogue Spear. (A Game Boy Advance adaptation of the game was released in 2002.) PlayStation 2 and GameCube ports of the Xbox R63 are tentatively scheduled for next year.