When Gamestop removed Rainbow Six : Patriots from it's pre-oder store this week, the rumour mill went wild that the much anticipated continuation of the Rainbow Six series had stalled.

Considering that also this week Ubisoft's CEO failed to mention Rainbow Six Patriots at all when talking about Ubisoft's releases, it's hardly surprising that this title with a faltering development phase is being subject to questions about it's future.

What to remember however is that a Ubi Dev mentioned only a few weeks ago that progess was still being made on the title.

We've been around for over a decade now, supporting the Rainbow Six series and if you want to know what we are putting out money on, we're only saying two things : Rainbow fans, fear not....

Next Gen. E3.

As another month slips by with no Rainbow Six Patriot news, in an interview with Polygon, Jade Raymond of Ubisoft slipped in that the multiplayer maps on Rainbow Six Patriots are complete. More news as it trickles in...

Leaked information appears to confirm that Raibow Six Patriots will be heading for Nintendo's WiiU console.

Read more in our Rainbow Six Patriots forums.

Rainbow Six fans received an early New Year bonus from Ubisoft this week when they received Rainbow Six Patriot Download instructions for their pre-orders on the next Rainbow Six title.

Unfortunately this turned out to be an administrative error and fans are now awaiting a credit on their account for the money debited from their accounts!

Check out this box art for Rainbow Six Patriots.

Of course this is an unofficial design, courtesy of reytime.

Do you think this is better than the official boxart? Let is know in our R6 Patriots forums!

It's been very queit on the Rainbow Six Patriots front recently, infact no news since the surprise dev shake up over 6 months ago. That's about to change though with new information leaking out about the new direction for Rainbow Six Patriots.

Rumour has it that Rainbow Six Patriots is going to benefit from a more open gameplay with less on-the-rails action sections, and more open ended gameplay. Players will be able to roam the area picking up intel and planning their own attack options. Additionally missions may have multiple endings, providing replay value for offline campiagn gamers.

We're also expecting to see new and innovative use of the Xbox Kinect including face recognition.

Finally, expect to see a similar app tie in to the Ghost Recon Network, where gamers can continue their Rainbow Six experience while on the move with a fully featured Rainbow Six Patriots app. The Ghost Recon Netwrok app is already a huge success with gamers cusomising weapons and taking part in competions. Ubisoft may have plans to take such an app to the next level with a Rainbow Six Network, possibly even including geolocation features.

Whether or not Rainbow Six Patriots is going to be a next gen title only, or will be released for current gen consoles is open to specualtion. It all sounds extremely positive and exciting, now we just have to wait on an official announcement from Ubisoft!

With little in the way of news or updates on Rainbow Six Patriots, why not turn your attention to Ground Branch, a tactical shooter from John Sondecker. John worked on the original and best Rainbow Six game back in the day, and now he is working on Ground Branch with the main aim of making a quality tactical shooter for gamers.

His Kickstarter is nearing its end date so the final push is on! Head over to the Ground Branch Kickstarter page now and make your no-risk pledge now!

So you want a tactical shooter that requires you to think straight as well as shoot straight, you know, like Rainbow six did?

Well, you're going to want to check this out, Takedown, from Christian Allen, yeh the Ghost Recon guy. Watch his latest video, it's cool.

Six days to go, pledge your support and let's get a true tactical, realistic CQB shooter back on the cards!

Ubisoft is reported to have carried out a major reshuffle of the Rainbow Six Patriots Dev team.

Out go all of the above guys, David Sears (creative director), lead designer Philippe Therien, and animation director Brent George. You might remember those guys from the impressive "The Technology Behind Rainbow Six Patriots" video.

The calm, assured prescence of David Sears and the obvious enthusiam of Therien and George impressed everyone who watched that video and their departure has given rise to some speculation about the future for Rainbow Six Patriots.

As we pondered in our last news post, did the gritty and controversial trailers released thus far go too far? Is Rainbow Six Patriots about to be toned down? The answer may lie with Ubisoft's Jean-Sebastien Decant, the new project Creative Director. Check out what Decant had to say about hardcore gamers when he was tasked with making Driver San Fransisco more accessible last summer.

Worrying, or exciting development? Let us know!

Business Insider thinks that Ubisoft may have gone too far with their graphic and disturbing trailers for Rainbow Six Patriots.

Fortunately for gamers who do not find this type of promotion disturbing, they have kindly embedded similar videos from other games, all one one page, check it out.

Spike TV's Video Game Awards 2011 next weekend will feature brand new exclusive Rainbow Six Patriots footage, according to current promotionals appearing on TV.

If you have Spike TV in your territory, tune in on Saturday 10th December!

We've added a second collection of Rainbow Six Patriots Wallpapers for your PC desktop to our Rainbow Six Patriots Downloads.

These 4 wallpapers feature hi-res images from official Rainbow Six Patriots media Ubisoft sent us today, enjoy!

Ubisoft today announced six key new features for Rainbow Six Patriots.

Featuring sqaud management, moral dilemas, evolved combat, intense multiplayer and surprise tactics, the features are explained in our Rainbow Six Patriots forum.

With Rainbow Six Patriots on the distant horizon, we thought it was an appropritae moment to take a few minutes and remember what Rainbow Six was all about, back in the day.

This Youtube video manages to capture much of the original Rainbow Six magic, including that amazingly detailed planning phase.

If you find any other good Rainbow Six clips on youttube, please post them up in our forums!

GameInformer have a really great 25 minute video with three of the Rainbow Six Dev team talking about the technology behind Rainbow Six Patriots.

In the video they explain why the AI is going to be extremely realistic, their plans to humanise the characters, and why weapon nuts are going to love this game. They even threw out a challenge that gun nuts will not spot any mistakes in the detailed gun model animations.

"A whole new level of realism"

I can't remember ever seeing such an open and detailed dev interview for a Ubisoft shooter before, definately a promising start for the next Rainbow Six. I'd go further and challenge anybody not to be excited about Raimbow Six Patriots after watching the enthusiasm of these guys (well, two out of three ain't bad), and listening to the new features they have planned for Patriots.

Exciting times for Rainbow Six fans! Leave you comments in our Rainbow Six Partriots forum.

GameInformer have released a 7 minute interview with David Sears of Ubisoft in which he describes the Rainbow Six Legacy and how it will impact on Rainbow Six Patriots game design decisions.

It's a great, open and frank discussion on Ubisoft's plans for Rainbow Six Patriots. Enjoy it here.

After the unofficial leak regarding Rainbow Six Patriots early this week, Ubisoft have now issued a Rainbow Six Patriots Press Release with offical details on the latest game in the Rainbow Six series.

Ubisoft say that in addition to an immersive single-player storyline, Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Patriots will introduce a huge variety of new innovative co-op and multi-player experiences. There are rewards for working as a team and mastering the game's new features that enhance communication and tactical execution between teammates.

Post your thoughs on this announcement in our Rainbow Six Patriots forum.

Recent domain purchases by Ubisoft have revealed what will very likely be the next installment in the Rainbow Six series "Rainbow Six Patriots".

Registered only 3 days ago, rainbowsixpatriots.com will soon be the home of Team Rainbows new official website. The game logo will be all new, using a large digit 6 with the lower curves formed by a pistol.

Further details are due to be revealed very soon in print magazines, with XBox World getting the scoop. Rainbow Six Patriots will be released initially on the XBox 360 and PS3 with PC, PSP Vita and iOS versions to follow.

More details here soon, until then visit our Rainbow Six Patriots Forums. Long Live Rainbow Six!

Sony Ericsson has revealed that Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard is now available on the Xperia Play.

Xperia Play owners in Western Europe will be able to download Shadow Vanguard for free, whether this offer is available in the US I am not sure at this time. Discuss this release and watch the movie in our Shadow Vanguard forums.

An undisclosed source has also revealed some tantalising details.

More info as it appears!

While that assumption seems a stretch, Ubisoft have said the answer will "Blow Your Mind", so something as huge as a new Rainbow Six would certainly achieve mind blowing status! 

We'll post the very latest on this news here tomorrow.

We've posted out Top 3 Reasons Rainbow Six 2011 is Coming in our forums, check it out and get excited!

Thinking back, those were awesome times. Even though we were all slaves to 56k dialup internet using our phone lines, and lag issues were very common thanks to 300+ pings , we just got on with it and enjoyed the games. Rainbow Six was awesome. Great muiltiplayer and an emerging modder community made it an awesome gaming experience.

So what went wrong? Why are we sitting here now with no next gen version of Rainbow Six? Why have all of the successors (arguably) failed to capture everything that the original offered? What happened?

That's exactly the question Interactive are asking this month, What Happened to Rainbow Six? It's a great article, be sure to check it out.

You can play the interactive trailer, check out Shadow Vanguard screenshots and post your thoughts on the first new Rainbow Six game in a long time in our Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard forums now.