Rainbow Six Siege: Black Ice update with free map and two DLC operators released

Ubisoft has released the first major update for tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege, including two new Operator characters available to season pass holders for the next week, a new map available to all players for free and a ton of new tweaks and weapon skins.

The new map takes place on a luxury yacht that has frozen over after striking an iceberg in the Baffin Bay off Greenland. The Black Ice update's two new playable Operators are called Frost and Buck, who are defensive and offensive characters respectively.

Frost's ability is to lay down a device that is effectively a bear trap, trapping the legs of opposing players, while Buck has a 12-gauge shotgun attachment for his primary weapon, allowing him to switch between short- and long-range attacks quickly. For season pass holders the Operators unlock instantly, and they will get access to them for the next seven days (ending 9 February) before they're made available to all players, who can unlock them with in-game experience points.

As well as three new weapon skins, the update also adds a new spectator cam that will allow an eleventh player in custom games to act as a spectator able to see the game from any player's perspective, complete with player outlines visible through walls and additional camera angles that give a floor-by-floor overview of any level.

A large number of tweaks to balancing, general gameplay, level design, the UI, playlists and fixes for bugs, have also been included in the patch. You can read the complete patch notes here.

Rainbow Six: Siege was released in early December on PS4, Xbox One and PC. You can read our review of the game here.

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