Heh, I've got Rainbow Six, which I bought here, and both Vegas games.
I've yet to play much of the original. I've actually played more of the demo, and that was ages ago, and the only reason to that I got both the Vegas game, was because of some offer at a couple of local game stores. Bargain bin offers, pick 2/3 games, pay less! So I just absentmindedly picked up those two when I couldn't find something else of interest.

Ahh vegs isn't a bad game really. Its a bad Rainbow Six game certainly but its not a bad game in general. If it was called Terrorist Takedown: Las Vegas, it'd have at least half the negative rep it has.

i'm pretty sure Raven Shield had a planning mode. Though it was also the first game to allow in-mission orders, so you could skip it if you wished and just play it by ear. I think it's considered the best of the "pure" rainbow 6 games. (before they went "action").
I loved R61, but i tried playing R62 a while back and just couldn't get into it for some reason.

I think you're thinking of Lockdown. I distinctly remember Raven Shield having the planning phase, with waypoints and every other kitchen sink in there. However, I played Raven Shield several years after Rogue Spear, so maybe they left something out in there that was in Rogue Spear, but which I don't remember atm :P
I still think you're thinking of Lockdown, which was a huge failure imo. I don't know what possessed Ubisoft to do that POS, when Rainbow Six became a cult classic because of its superiority of tactical gameplay over other games

You're right about Vegas - once I got over it not being even remotely R6-y, I had a huge amount of fun with it and returned to it several times. It's flawed, and generally quite stupid, but enjoyable.
I just wish someone would fill the gap that's been left by the original games - even if they didn't have the budget to give it the full modern FPS production values (understandable), I'd be just as happy with a faux-R6 where the action played out in a similar view to the planning map.

Ground Branch is apparently aiming for a classic Rainbow Six / Rhost Recon type of experience. It still seems to be nowhere near done but if it lives up to the intentions it may well be awesome

Roast Recon!
I dunno, that sounds like a mixed blessing to me. I'm not a huge Ghost Recon fan; it's too trial-and-error for me. It also sounds a bit confusing/confused - to me at least, R6 was all about planning, whereas Ghost Recon was all about improvisation. Not sure how these styles could be blended.

i loved Ravenshield.
i made the UWA map that was released in the platoon mapping competition 3.

Yeah, the Vegas games are a lot more action-y than the "original" R6 series. The focus is a lot more on the shooting than the thinking. That isn't to say that there's no strategic/tactical component, but since you're only taking in one fireteam, there's a lot less to worry about. It's a lot smaller in scope.
I imagine that put off a good number of "purists" but even so, I still found both of the Vegas games to be down right fun. They weren't like the originals, but so what? They were still fun games.

And some of the most fun I've ever had in coop

I don't think I ever played Vegas coop. I did play a lot of competitive, though. Deathmatch and the like. I didn't do too badly. Probably would've done better if I'd thrown away my principles and walked around with a machine gun and heavy, heavy, HEAVY armor like EVERYONE else did. But no, I liked having a character in recon armor with a bullpup assault rifle. Silly, silly me.

We should organise a GOG Rainbow Six multiplayer co-op session. It can house up to 16 players I think. captfitz, sheepdragon and I are besties now, so we'll be in Gold team, mkay? :D

Ahh coop on the hardest difficulty with a group of the right people with voice chat enabled is awesome, you can do perfectly coordinated takedowns of the rooms and it feels more like a proper tactical game than a more regular shooter

Gold... Shiny and easy to spot and shoot at? Sure thing. Good luck. I'll be in some form of camouflage

Grey camo for indoors with some pimped out gold plated covering on the shoulders and knee caps. They will NEVER see you...