The elite four breaches the Nintendo GameCube.

There is no I in "team," but there's one in "Six": Rainbow Six. If your teamwork fails in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, the consequences for you are ominous.

Features * 15 levels of play * More than 30 weapons * Two-player split screen action

You play Ding Chavez, leader of the Rainbow team. Ding and his team of three travel the world over to cool off hot situations that threaten to disrupt the oil market and throw the United States into chaos.

As leader, you control your team's every move through giving orders. Other team members can lead the way into new rooms every time, or you can have them follow you. Order them to throw grenades into a room, then follow the grenade up and clear the room of bad guys.

The computer AI does a good job of controlling the specific actions of team members. Sometimes your men are going to be human and miss while firing at enemies. At other times they'll get caught by surprise and get gunned down by a terrorist behind a door. Usually, though, they'll fire dead-on like the elite marksmen they are.

Because of this unpredictability, you as team leader must decide when it's the right time to be the first one in a room. When is the best time to fall back and let your teammates face the bullets? If members of your team perish before the mission ends, you can still complete your mission. However, if you die in the line of fire, the mission is over. (At the start of each new mission, your team comes back to life to help you again.)

Before you start each mission, you get to choose which four weapons you want to take into battle. Choose two types of grenades and two guns. The impressive selection of firearms offers you something special for every mission. Guns are rated by accuracy, damage caused, zoom capabilities and ammunition capacity. You don't want to bring a shotgun to a heavily guarded area, but it can work well for rescue missions.

Graphically, the game doesn't disappoint. With all first-person shooters, it's vital that the setting stays intact when you quickly rotate your view or change your direction. With Rainbow Six 3's smooth frame rate, you can't blame the graphics if you shoot and miss. The game takes a long time to load between missions, but you'll find the gameplay well worth the wait.

A cool feature of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 is that you can team up with a friend in split-screen mode. Select any of the missions in the game and choose your character and weapons. Player one uses the top half of the screen and player two the bottom. Don't get caught in crossfire: As you might imagine, your bullets will damage your partner. That's not nice.

Bottom Line

Rainbow Six 3 puts your leadership skills to the test. Sometimes your hunches will pay off. Other times, you'll wish you had thrown a grenade into a room instead of walking into the line of fire.