Battlefield 2 has it's place. For online FPS action, I don't think it can be beaten. Some of you may prefer CS, others RvS, and others UT, but in terms of scale, quality and downright fun, Battlefield 2 is the ultimate PC game for me. I love it.

However, to say Rainbow Six has had it's day because of this can't be true. For one, Rainbow Six has been immensely popular on XBOX LIVE; as you've said in your post, there have been a good handful of us on here who have had RS3 and BA marathons until the late hours of the morning, never mind the early ones. 5, even 6 in the morning, and we're on our last round of Presidio... do we grenade the doors down the way to our right, go left and sneak up stairs, run round the back and try to flank someone? That's the thing, with Rainbow.... on LIVE with Team Survival it's never boring if you have enough players in. You might be running round a corner and BOOM, there they are, or you might run round the corner and there's no-one there - just like the 67 corners you've previously navigated. Of course, you don't know either way a lot of the time, so the suspense is there. You don't really get that with BF2. Sure you can when you're on your own and it takes you a good 20-30 seconds to capture a flag, but if you work in a squad, you'll capture the base in around 5 seconds!

Also, with a much lower limit on the Rainbow games (16) things are more personal. Sure you can have VoIP and chat to your Squad, but in Rainbow you can chat to EVERYONE. If you kill someone you might get a bit of banter or have a good laugh about things. As with nearly all LIVE games, you can chat fluently with a number of people throughout the game about anything. "Villa won, then? Baros, nice debut goal! You rate him?" You don't get this kind of - dare I say it - intimacy, or small-group proximity.

Plus, Lockdown is the 3rd game in the series (on XBOX), and I know loads of people who play RS3 still, nevermind BA! Lockdown is somewhat different from RS3 and BA, but I think that's a good thing. You can throw grenades on the fly, weapon switching is easier and you can do more faster. Hit detection is more realistic and damage is good. Plus, the P.E.C mode should keep us going to ages. Imagine your ultimate, fully kitted out LVL 40 Combat Medic Vs my LVL 38 Engineer... sure, it's down to skill, but with all the points we'll have earned, imagine how much we'll be able to customise our characters, you don't really get that kind of customisation in BF2!

Rainbow Six, I feel, had years more under it's belt. It's now a fully-fledged, recognised gaming franchise and on LIVE especially people really dig it. The XBOX 360 and PS3 might mean we can have 32-Players, bigger levels, obviously better graphics and sound, but hopefully the core-gameplay, especially online, for me, will stay the same. Sure Lockdown  is a step away from the franchise's roots, but it's a positive one - it'll just take time to get used to. My LIVE Tag is Mr Jetpack - derrived from calling the Rocketmen in Red Alerts 2 'Jetpacks'. I'll be changing it soon because it runs out in late September. Add me, and when Lockdown comes out, we'll get everyone on and have a blast.

As for Rainbow, it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Each title is a guaranteed million-seller, online-console gaming is becoming common-place and there really isn't anything to compete with it - makes sense to keep churning them out! The dedication and extra polish given to Lockdown is evident, and as long as Ubi don't rush Rainbow 5 i'm sure it'll be a hit.