Rainbow Six DVD a first for 'cheaters'

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Here's a look at some hardware and software that's available:

Rainbow Six 3: Official DVD Strategy Guide, by GameTime Entertainment for DVD-enabled computers and home entertainment centers, rated M: content suitable for ages 17 and older, $14.99; and Rainbow Six 3 by Ubi-Soft for Xbox, rated M: content suitable for ages 17 and older, $49.99. Under the "What the heck took so long?" heading, a New York company has transformed the traditionally paper-based strategy guide into a multimedia event.

The cheaters' bible -- I mean strategy guide -- has long given video-game players a way to work through titles' particularly frustrating and time-consuming levels while enjoying a colorful monograph loaded with information and artwork.

GameTime simply has recast the guide from bookshelf clutter to DVD with its first release, which gives the commando in the family helpful solutions for graphically battling violent thugs.

For those unfamiliar with Rainbow Six 3, the squad-controlling first-person shooter has a single-player take on the role of Ding Chavez, the leader of an elite international anti-terrorist unit code-named Rainbow in the year 2007. The player must work through 14 missions ranging from saving hostages to defusing bombs.

The game becomes a multimedia experience with the help of a headset, sold separately, that allows the player to bark out commands to his computer-generated team members.

Thanks to GameTime's digital video guide, a player can pop the disc into any computer or entertainment console with a DVD drive and walk through all the missions of the game while someone else does the hard work.

The presentations are clear and concise, and the narrator-instructor never stumbles while offering a comprehensive overview, including weapons required. Viewers with a separate DVD player hooked up to newer televisions should be able to toggle back and forth easily between Xbox and guide.

One may wonder why someone would pay $49.99 for a game and then spend another $14.99 to cheat his way through it. Well, in this multitasking society in which minutes have become precious commodities, most of us don't have time to lock ourselves in a bunker and completely master a title, especially one as intense and consuming as Rainbow Six 3.