Solid Snake—voiced by a returning David Hayter—will be an Attacker, and will become available to pick in-game once the season—dubbed Operation Silent Hunt—kicks off next month. The character will be a permanent addition to the roster, and will be available in all of its game modes. A second video, showcasing Snake’s various abilities and weapons, gives us a look at what kind of threat he poses on the battlefield.

Solid Snake is armed with a TACIT .45 semi-automatic pistol with an integrated suppressor, the F2 assault rifle with a forearm grip, and the PMR90A2 designated marksman rifle. His main gadget is the Soliton Radar MKIII, which allows him to find nearby enemies and get the drop on them. Snake is also trained in on-site procurement, and can find utility pouches near fallen players. These pouches can be picked up to replenish grenade and gadget uses, extending Snake’s utility throughout a match.

Players might be worried about the Soliton Radar MKIII, since it offers an incredible level of tactical utility thanks to it being a mini-map in a shooter that typically doesn’t have one. However, one of its big drawbacks is that it can only show you the floor that you are currently on. Along with this, while the view is quite detailed in showing you breakable walls and floors, it isn’t as wide, only offering a glimpse into nearby rooms rather than the entire floor.

Year 11 Season 1 will also bring with it a new limited time event game mode, which pits players against each other in a 4v4 infiltration match. The mode revolves around Snake and Zero leading teams of operators to recover stolen data. Metal Gear fans will also be happy to learn that there are new skins for other characters, like Gray Fox for Jackal and Meryl for Ash.

“We’re excited to bring the world of Metal Gear Solid series into Rainbow Six Siege with Season 1’s new Redacted event, a limited‑time 4v4 infiltration mode where Snake and Zero lead a team of elite operators to recover stolen data. Players will also discover exclusive skins such as Jackal as Gray Fox and Ash as Meryl, and we’re thrilled to have David Hayter lend his iconic voice to Snake’s in‑game cues” said creative director Joshua Mills during the announcement. “The team also went a step further with ‘Last Assignment’, a new mission for Dual Front designed as a special nod to long‑time Metal Gear Solid series fans.”

Looking to the future, Year 11 will bring in more content. Season 2, for instance, will feature a remaster of Dokkaebi, changing the operator into a “high-pressure intel-denier Attacker”, complete with a new arsenal. The season will also bring the Calypso Casino as a new map from the classic Rainbow Six Vegas games. Season 3 will introduce a new Defender, along with a new long-term progression system dubbed Operator Mastery. Closing off the year, Season 4 will introduce the Social HUB where players can hang out together in-game.

Dual Front will come with its own bespoke map that features 3 distinct zones: Front A, Front B, and the Neutral zone. Both teams will have to juggle between attacking one Front while defending the other. The Neutral zone acts as more of a free-for-all area where players can use all their abilities against each other.

To facilitate Dual Fronts, the game mode will allow players to pick between both Attacker Operatives as well as Defender ones so that they can make use of the appropriate tactics depending on where they decide to fight.

Interesting, the list of Operators that players can choose from will be a curated one. According to the announcement video, this list will be constantly evolving, offering fresh options and match-ups for player. Players can also decide to try different Operators in the same match thanks to the game mode featuring unlimited respawns.

To win, a team has to make it into the enemy’s objective room, where they can then plant a Sabotage Kit. This kit takes some time to complete the objective, however, and the attacking team will have to defend the Sabotage Kit from their opponents. Doing this once opens up a new objective room, which will once again require the planting and defence of a Sabotage Kit.

After completing the objective twice, the opposing team’s HQ then opens up. Once again completing this objective in the enemy team’s HQ means that your team has won the whole match.

Thanks to the game mode offering a mix of Attacker and Defender Operatives, both teams will be going for similar objectives in each others’ bases. This need to juggle between attacking and defending in the same match is what gives the game mode its Dual Front moniker.

The Neutral zone offers its own twists on the game mode, encouraging flanking and other new tactics, as well as time-limited assignments like hostage extraction. Completing these assignments gives your team a boost. The nature of these boosts will change with every season of Rainbow Six Siege X.

The Dual Front mode in Rainbow Six Siege X will also make use of all of the other new features coming to the game. This includes the new environmental interaction options offered by things like gas pipes and fire extinguishers, as well as the new movement options offered by the advanced rappelling system.

All of this will be wrapped up in other modern features, including completely redone audio as well as enhanced visuals thanks to improved lighting and shadows, as well as 4K textures.

Rainbow Six Siege X will be a free update for Rainbow Six Siege on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Players new to the game will be able to play for free once the update hits on June 10.

The gameplay reveal trailer gives us a brief glimpse at how Rainbow Six Siege X will play. While the core gunplay will be seeing improvements, there are also plenty of new gameplay additions, including the ability to make use of rappel lines to run along walls, and a new destruction system that opens up more options for players on both the attacking and defending sides.

The new rappelling system will allow players to pull of a series of advanced tactics through the ability to sprint laterally and turn around corners. The new motion capture work done for the rappelling system also ensures that the movement systems will be more realistic than before.

When it comes to the environments, players will have plenty of new options as well. As shown off in the Environmental Destruction video, players can also shoot at interactive objects on walls, like fire extinguishers, to create quick short-term effects like smoke screens. The system is designed to give players the option to create more chokepoints across various levels, with objects like pipes also being usable to take out enemies.

Rainbow Six Siege X is also bringing with it massive visual upgrades to classic maps from Rainbow Six Siege. This includes new modern features like 4K textures, as well as improved lighting and shadows.

When it comes to tackling cheaters and toxicity, Ubisoft has emphasised that it will be doing everything it can to ensure that Rainbow Six Siege X will be free of these elements. In a video, programming team lead Adrian Fraisse spoke about the new R6 ShieldGuard initiative.

“Cheating and toxicity has no place in Siege and we won’t rest until it’s a thing of the past,” said Fraisse. “At SI, we introduced a new initiative, R6 ShieldGuard.”

As part of R6 ShieldGuard, different players will get slightly different executables to launch the game. This is being done in order to prevent tampering, with the game issuing sanctions to the players if tampering is detected.

To further prevent tampering, Rainbow Six Siege X‘s game code will be further encrypted through process dubbed Binary Hardening. With these new features, Ubisoft wants to prevent cheat makers from being able to make viable businesses out of creating cheats for Rainbow Six Siege X.

There will also be an in-game defense system that prevents players from performing behaviours dubbed “impossible” during gameplay. This includes things that go directly against the game’s core mechanics, like sprinting and shooting and the same time.

Rainbow Six Siege X is being developed for PC, pS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It will be released as a free update for Rainbow Six Siege on June 10. Players new to Rainbow Six Siege will be able to pick up the game for free once the update hits.

Though details are vague, there will be “new ways to play, deepened tactical gameplay, refined game feel and major upgrades all around.” The showcase will feature content creators, development team members and players to showcase “all the evolutions” alongside “many more surprises.”

According to Frax, who first leaked the “sequel’s” existence, Siege X will allegedly feature an engine overhaul and updates to the modes and textures. It’s apparently launching “sometime in the future,” likely after Year 10, Season 1, so a shadow drop is unlikely. Never say never, though.

Stay tuned for more details and updates next month. Rainbow Six Siege is available for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It launched in December 2015 and has seen numerous updates, new Operators, and overhauls ever since. The registered player count crossed 80 million in 2022 – the same year the underwhelming spin-off, Rainbow Six Extraction, launched. Check out our review for the latter.

The alleged reveal is coming during the Six Invitational 2025, which ends on February 16th. When it could release is unknown but Frax followed this up with another tweet, reporting that Siege X is actually Rainbow Six Siege 2 and not Year 10 of Siege.

It’s allegedly out “sometime in the future,” with the leaker confident that it arrives after Year 10, Season 1. Whether it will replace the current Siege like Counter-Strike 2 did for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is unknown. Stay tuned for more potential details and updates.

Rainbow Six Siege is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Siege X info

Currently planned (and on track) to be revealed at SI 2025.

A likely release window is Y10S2.

It will include an engine overhaul and a graphical upgrade in textures and models.

Possible that all old events will never come back in Siege X. Only new ones.

— ‘ (@fraxiswinning) February 5, 2025

If you’re in the leak server, the cat is out of the bag.

Siege 2 will be releasing sometime in the future.
I was wrong about ‘Year 10 being Siege X’.

Siege 2 IS Siege X.

— ‘ (@fraxiswinning) February 5, 2025

It is releasing AFTER y10s1.
We don’t know when, assuming y10s2 as the minimum.

— ‘ (@fraxiswinning) February 5, 2025

Rainbow Six Siege originally enabled cross-play between PC, Amazon Luna, and Stadia back in 2021, with PlayStation and Xbox cross-play following the next year. With its upcoming update, however, the multiplayer shooter will finally allow players on PlayStation and Xbox and players on PC to play with and against each other.

As for the mechanics of how cross-play will work, Ubisoft says squads with PC players will always join the PC matchmaking pool. Meanwhile, if you’re a console player playing Ranked, your PC progress rank and console rank will be maintained separately.

Rainbow Six Siege is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Sure enough, we now have Game Pass with its many tiers, Nintendo Switch Online and Expansion Pack, PlayStation Plus and its three tiers, Apple Arcade, Nvidia GeForce Now and EA Play alongside individual subscriptions for games like World of Warcraft, Fortnite, Fallout 76 and so on. This doesn’t count subscriptions to other services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, etc.

Such is the sheer range of subscriptions that “subscription fatigue” is now a thing. Not that this stops publishers, especially the more self-indulgent ones, from pushing them onto players to make extra revenue. Cue Rainbow Six Siege.

“Wait, Rainbow Six Siege?” you’re probably asking. Yes, Siege, the 2015 PvP tactical first-person shooter. It’s still seeing updates – heck, the franchise is entering Season 2 of Year 9 in terms of content – and is currently one of its publisher’s largest and most successful games. Upon revealing all of the changes and content coming soon, the development team announced the R6 Membership during the recent Manchester Major.

That’s right – for just $10 per month or $80 annually, you can receive the premium Battle Pass with 10 Battle levels, a Bravo Pack (valued at over 4500 Credits), an Epic Operator bundle and a time-limited Legendary. Those who hop in from June 11th to 18th also get an Epic Ash Bundle and 600 Credits as a “thank you for joining early.” As you might expect, the announcement has met with some backlash, to the extent that clips are circulating of Manchester’s audience booing.

There are already comparisons to Fortnite Crew, Epic Games’ monthly subscription service for Fortnite, and the value it provides. It also doesn’t help that the Battle Pass’s cosmetics have leaked and received a relatively mixed response, particularly the weapon skins. For many players, the real issue is the sheer lack of content that the next season, Operation New Blood, is offering.

No new map, weapons or Operators unless you count the “remastered” Recruit – who is getting separate offensive and defensive kits – as “new.” Also, balance adjustments to different Operators and some quality of life changes to Stadiums Alpha and Bravo. At least Attrition Arcade is coming back. Hurray.

All this would feel somewhat underwhelming without the announcement of R6 Membership. However, even if the teams working on balance changes and skins are separate, there’s no denying that management opted to dedicate resources to the service and present it up front as a major new feature. Meanwhile, players see less content and existing issues alongside yet another avenue to pay more money in addition to the existing microtransactions and Premium Battle Passes.

When there’s barely any other content to enjoy over the cosmetics, you can hardly blame players for feeling fleeced. It’s been the case for every live service game over the years, and the development team should have realized this sooner.

Furthermore, it’s not like Rainbow Six Siege is necessarily hurting in terms of revenue and resources either. The publisher’s recent financial report revealed that net bookings had grown by over 50 percent this year while boasting “excellent results in terms of acquisition, activity, viewership and monetization this year.” Session days are up by 38 percent year-on-year, while session days per player are up 24 percent. Everything, from the Marketplace beta to the Rainbow Six Invitational, has been received well by those in charge.

Such is the success of Siege that its net bookings stand alongside Assassin’s Creed for its publisher. The peak concurrent player count on Steam isn’t too shabby either, with over 200,000 players on March 17th and a solid 73,587 in the past 24 hours. Even without considering players on Connect and other players, it’s still a solid figure.

If that isn’t enough indication that the game is doing well and very much alive, Redstorm Entertainment’s The Division Heartland was cancelled so it could work on the Rainbow Six franchise. How deeply involved it is with Siege is unknown at this point, but just the fact that the developer has allocated more resources is enough evidence that it sees further opportunities.

So, if it’s doing so well and has the resources, why is the season so barren in content? Why does the development team need to lock content behind a membership to entice players to sign up? Forget about the cadence of content updates – there’s also the question as to why Rainbow Six Siege is making such demands of its players on top of not being free. You can also push for free-to-play-like monetization so much without actually being free-to-play.

Several of these decisions come down to studio management and the leadership above them. The latter has the final say in revenue targets and potentially targeting new avenues to make more money off their player base. Even if Siege is doing exceptionally well, those in charge aren’t just going to sit on their laurels and be satisfied. If anything, it means there’s further opportunity to bleed even more money from players on top of everything else.

This may only really be the beginning from the publisher – lest we forget, Assassin’s Creed Infinity is in the works and promises a dedicated platform for the series’ content. While not confirmed to offer a subscription, it seems like a foregone conclusion.

Then again, there’s a reason the subscription model is becoming even more pervasive as the years go by. There’s the feeling of exclusivity on top of the value; of receiving so many Credits at such a discount alongside cosmetics that won’t be available otherwise. It’s not always about regular content that fundamentally changes the game for some players, and as unappealing as that sounds, the value of money simply varies to such a degree.

If this is your main game, $10 monthly could feel like nothing, even if you’re dishing out cash for other services like PS Plus and Xbox multiplayer. It all adds up over time, sure, but some measure that in terms of hours of gameplay, be it in terms of value or sunk cost. You’ve already spent so much time with the game and amassed an extensive range of skins and Operators – why not splurge a bit more? You’re not playing anything else, right? Then there’s the pressure of “getting the most” out of the subscription by putting more time in, creating a vicious cycle. But you’re still having fun, right? Besides, even if you hate it and swear to uninstall it, you’ll be back.

Any game that’s doing so well shouldn’t have to resort to such measures when it comes to continually generating revenue, but that’s unfortunately not how leadership thinks. For now, R6 Membership will be yet another revenue stream on top of everything else that it can brag about or spin when the next financial report is out, regardless of the state of the game. Maybe things will improve next season, though. Maybe the development team will consider feedback and reassure fans that it’s committed to addressing core issues while still taking more of their money. Either way, the chances of back-pedalling on this are slim.

Given its age, however, many might be wondering when Ubisoft will choose to put out a new mainline Rainbow Six game- though its developers seem to have no intention of making an actual follow-up to Siege, nor do they plan on implementing a major technical overhaul by moving the game to a different engine.

Speaking during a recent group interview at the recent Siege Invitational 2024 event in Brazil, Alexander Karpazis – who’s been creative director on Rainbow Six Siege since 2022 – spoke about the same. Interestingly enough, the thing he touched on first was the multiplayer shooter’s engine, which has been subject to criticism from many in the playerbase who have deemed it to be too aged.

According to Karpazis, however, the Avil Engine – the toolset that Siege is built on – is best-in-class for a PvP shooter, and the development team currently has no intention of shifting the game to a different engine. He went on to refer to games (that he refused to explicitly name) that have attempted to switch engines, only for things to not work out as intended.

“I can confidently say that we have probably one of the best engines in the world when it comes to live PvP shooters,” he said (via PC Gamer). “The team is incredible, and we have a huge engine pipeline team that every single month incrementally improves the way that we can deliver content faster, more robust, more stable, hopefully as much as possible.

“The idea of switching engines to something that can be off-the-shelf ready simply doesn’t answer the needs of a really competitive and demanding game like Siege. I’m not going to name names, but you see games that did go through sequels and just completely drop the ball because they have to remake every single thing that they did in that first game.”

He added: “It can be really frustrating, really costly, and in the end, it doesn’t even give you anything that was a benefit. If you know what you have to begin with, and you build it up, that is where we see success. And that is where we know we can take Siege into the future.”

So how long can Ubisoft keep Rainbow Siege Siege going without having to resort to an engine swap or a full-fledged sequel? Well, as far as Karpazis is concerned, the multiplayer shooter can keep going indefinitely.

“We really do know that this is a game that can last forever with the people and the talent and the tools that we have today,” he said.

Members of Rainbow Six Siege’s development team have expressed on numerous occasions that the game is going to stick around for some time to come. In 2021, then-creative director creative director Leroy Athanassof said that a sequel to the game was unnecessary, and that incremental updates and changes made to the existing framework would be a better approach for a game like Siege. Prior to that, in 2019, Alexandre Remy – who was brand director of Rainbow Six at the time – said that there were no plans to work on a sequel.

Rainbow Six Siege is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. As of February 2022, it had crossed 80 million players across all platforms.

METRO EXODUS

The Metro series has always prided itself on pushing the envelope with its visuals, and Metro Exodus certainly didn’t disappoint on that front either. From how spectacularly it realizes all of its many post-apocalyptic environments to how thoroughly it immerses players in its world with its diegetic and detail-oriented aesthetic, Metro Exodus is still one of the best-looking games out there, over four years on from its launch.

DOOM ETERNAL

There aren’t a lot of studios out there who can boast an equal level mastery over both game design and technology as convincingly as id Software can, and DOOM Eternal is a perfect example of that. Not only are its hellish battle arenas a veritable attack on the senses in the best way possible, the game also excels at making every combat encounter feel breathtakingly explosive in a way that very few of its peers are capable of.

HUNT: SHOWDOWN

Crytek is no stranger to developing visually spectacular first person shooters, but Hunt: Showdown in particular deserves a special mention. The game boasts all the technical polish and obsessive attention to detail that you’d expect from a Crytek joint, but on top of that, it’s also uplifted by some of the strongest art design we’ve ever seen in a shooter, allowing its dark fantasy horror world to come to life in spectacular fashion.

RAINBOW SIX SIEGE

Rainbow Six Siege might be nearly a decade old, but that just makes its technical accomplishments that much more impressive. From the destructibility and dynamics of its environments to the impressive coat of polish that encases every inch of the experience, there’s so much about this game that can still easily be described as best-in-class, several years on from its initial release.

CYBERPUNK 2077

Even when Cyberpunk 2077 was as broken as it famously was in the immediate aftermath of its launch, it was still easy to see how impressive it was on a visual level. Now, with three years of updates and improvements under its belt, it’s nothing short of a graphical masterpiece. No matter where you are in Night City, it’s hard not to be taken aback by how gorgeous it looks and the painstaking attention to detail it exhibits on a consistent basis.

WITCHFIRE

Witchfire launched in early access earlier this year after years of anticipation, and instantly impressed the masses in more ways than one- its visuals being chief among them. The dark fantasy aesthetic of the setting alone is enough to elevate Witchfire’s visuals in and of itself, and the fact that the game has the technical chops to be able to properly back its artistic ambitions only makes it that much more an impressive graphical ride.

HALF-LIFE: ALYX

VR may not have managed to permeate the gaming mainstream the way many had hoped it would, but in Half-Life: Alyx, we do have at least one major game that truly demonstrates just what a AAA VR megaton can look like. Not only does the game look excellent on a consistent basis, it’s also crammed full of a level of interactivity and attention to detail that you would think would have necessitated some technical sacrifices in a virtual reality game. That Half-Life: Alyx so confidently has its cake and eats it too probably doesn’t get enough credit.

BATTLEFIELD 5

For all the problems DICE’s games have launched with over the years, one area that the studio is pretty much always guaranteed to excel in is the visuals. Take Battlefield 5, for instance- a game that divided fans upon release, but in spite of its issues, stands as one of the best-looking shooters you’ll ever play. From the snow-encased Norvik to the war-torn ruins of Devastation to the wide, open spaces of Panzerstorm, every map in Battlefield 5 is gorgeous to behold.

STARFIELD

It’s fair to say that Starfield has plenty of rough edges on the visual and technical fronts, but for all of its many typical Bethesda flaws, it’s still a game that’s capable of taking your breath away with its graphics. Whether you’re looking at the futuristic city of New Atlantis stretching out in front of you or standing on a desolate planet and watching the sun rise over the horizon, from time to time, Starfield showcases just how incredible it can look when it isn’t being bogged down by technical issues.

WOLFENSTEIN 2: THE NEW COLOSSUS

It’s hard to believe that Wolfenstein 2 is over six years old at this point, because even it certainly doesn’t look its age. Though perhaps not as much of a visual stunner as something like DOOM Eternal, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is still a gorgeous game. From the detailed character models to the explosive and gleefully violent combat, there’s plenty about this game that still stands out on a technical level.

FAR CRY 6

Ubisoft has got the balance between scope and visual fidelity down to a science by this point, and Far Cry 6 illustrates that point perfectly. You’d expect that a game as massive and sprawling as this one would have to make significant cutbacks in the graphics department, but that most certainly isn’t the case here. The level of detail and fidelity that Yara’s many biomes boast is partly why exploring Far Cry 6’s enormous map is as engaging as it is.

GTFO

You don’t need a massive budget of dozens of millions to make a visually impressive shooter, as evidenced so convincingly by GTFO. Made by indie Swedish studio 10 Chambers, the co-op horror shooter flexes its technical muscles almost constantly, immersing you in is terrifying reality that much more. GTFO’s impressive visuals alone making it worth checking out, even if its uncompromising approach to difficulty might turn some people off- though of course, for many that’s exactly what makes the game as good as it is.

RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE

The Resident Evil franchise has always been associated with cutting edge visuals, especially in its RE Engine era, and Village, like all of its siblings, demonstrates the series’ graphical mastery every step of the way. Whether it’s the varied and horrific environments of the titular village and the areas surrounding it or the many monstrosities you clash horns with throughout the experience, there’s no shortage of things in Resident Evil Village to remind you of just how impressive a AAA flagship Capcom release can look.

DESTINY 2

As a game that’s over six years old, Destiny 2 maybe doesn’t have the wow factor that many of the other games on this list do, but the fact that it is still comfortably earns itself a spot here is testament to just how good it looks. On a technical level, the looter shooter is one of many fine examples of Bungie’s mastery and knowhow, but it’s with its stellar art design that the game really cements itself in your memory.

DEATHLOOP

Arkane Studios’ games have never really been leaders of the pack with their graphical ambitions, but even though Deathloop isn’t the most technically impressive game you’ll ever play, it’s hard not to be impressed by how good it looks. A lot of that is obviously down to its unique art style and aesthetic, but the game is no slouch on a technical front either. The end product is one that looks significantly better than you’d expect from an Arkane game.

Ram is an attacker operator, equipped with a BU-GI Auto-Breacher gadget. Ram can use her gadget to destroy walls and floors anywhere on the level. Ram is set to be a slow, tanky operator, rated at 1 speed and 3 health, and will be able to equip an R4C or LMG-E as her primary weapon, and an MK1 or ITA12S as her secondary.

Along with the addition of Ram to the game’s roster of operators, Operation Heavy Mettle also brings with it a new commendation system, allowing players to rate each other after a match. Players that rack up a high number of commendations will be rewarded with a legendary Alpha Pack drop when the season ends.

Smaller changes to the game as part of Operation Heavy Mettle include balancing changes for operator Grim, changes to how shotguns work, and a change to how some of the game’s main modes are named. For example, Unranked mode is now called Standard mode, and will not feature operator or map bans.