By John Walker on July 24th, 2009 at 12:43 pm.
Well, isn’t everyone tremendously excited about Splinter Cell: Conviction? There was a bit of fatigue setting in when the game was first announced… six hundred years ago, despite Chaos Theory still being well loved. Ubisoft had two factories making it at once, trying to produce one a year, and it didn’t bode well. Then it went quiet and they seemed to have the idea of spending ages on it, to make it really good. Well, it’s looking that way. There’s a new trailer fresh from Comic Con, in which you can enjoy the head-smashing, wall-crashing brutality of a Very Angry Man who wants his missing daughter back.
24/07/2009 at 12:52 Count Zero says:
It’s good to see Sam lost that “urban cool” look with the messanger bag and hip-emo hairstyle he had when this was first announced. The objectives printed on random bits of scenery thing is interesting, but based on the tailer this looks and feels like all the other Splinter Cell game.
24/07/2009 at 12:55 Bobsy says:
@Countzero:
Does it? There’s precisely no sneakitude, black pvc outfits or green glowy goggles. Isn’t that what Splintering Cells are all about?
24/07/2009 at 12:59 Jockie says:
Looks extremely Jason Bourne-esque to me (not in the characters looks, in everything else), which isnt neccessarily a bad thing.
24/07/2009 at 13:01 G says:
Why is it always daughters who go missing in these things?
24/07/2009 at 13:07 Theory says:
This is more Max Payne than Max Payne. If that makes any sense.
24/07/2009 at 13:08 Howard says:
It still astonishes me how bad the 360 can make things look. Badly lit, awful texturing and in need of a whole boat-load of anti-aliasing, this just looks terrible. I suppose there is a chance this will look better on PC, but given Ubisoft’s recent efforts I doubt it.
And that’s before we get into the whole “this looks sod all like Splinter Cell” argument.
Also this vid is just a mash up of things we have seen before leading me to suspect that there is not a great deal of variation in the game or that it is very “interactive cutscene” and QTE heavy.
Sigh…time to reinstall Chaos Theory and raise a toast to it as the last installation in a good franchise…
24/07/2009 at 13:19 MrBejeebus says:
@ Howard, I think maybe its because the video is compressed that the edges are all so rough
Looks ok I spose, but I’m unsure
24/07/2009 at 13:20 bookwormat says:
I think it looks fine.
24/07/2009 at 13:20 FunkyB says:
Bullet-time. Really? Hmm.
I’m interested, but only tangentially. Definitely one to either try a demo (if we get one) or wait till it hits the bargain bin.
24/07/2009 at 13:22 cullnean says:
Less bourne
more Liam neesons Taken, which featured lots of harsh violence and a daughter who was kidnapped.
whats the bets thats the twist?
24/07/2009 at 13:38 kai says:
I hope it’s still a stealth game, because based on the trailer, I’d say it was a third-person shooter.
24/07/2009 at 13:38 Heliocentric says:
Splinter cell always has and always be about giving terrorists suprise hugs. Nothing else matters.
24/07/2009 at 13:42 Dracko says:
Still looks like a horrible pastiche of a genre which the Coen brothers shot the foot off.
And hey, it’s still UbiSoft – the French take on EA – so it will never live up to any promises it hints at.
24/07/2009 at 13:44 Dan says:
His daughter’s not been kidnapped, she’s been killed. This is a pure revenge story.
Looks good to me. Older Splinter Cells were too much like hard work, all effort and no fun. A switch to playing a Bourne-like hero could be just what the series needs, and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of stealthing to do still, it’s just that they’re choosing to focus the marketing on the new gameplay style.
24/07/2009 at 13:53 Kadayi says:
“This is more Max Payne than Max Payne. If that makes any sense”
If your taking about what we’ve seem of MP3 then you’re not wrong. This looks interesting, that on the other hand looks like a disaster…..
24/07/2009 at 14:00 Florensia says:
When I’m in my mid-fifties, I hope to look as young as Sam.
24/07/2009 at 14:02 unclebulgaria says:
Looks more like Sphincter Cell from this setting …
24/07/2009 at 14:02 Waste_Manager says:
I am excited. fact.
24/07/2009 at 14:32 Serenegoose says:
Isn’t ‘old special forces guy has daughter troubles the plot of Taken? If this manages to be half as good as Taken I’ll speak like Liam Neeson for a day, which is twice the promise it could be because I’m a girl. I’ll do the voice and everything, just like I did when I stopped playing fallout 3 but I still wanted his reassuring warm voice guiding me. I’ve said too much.
24/07/2009 at 14:32 Diogo Ribeiro says:
@G:
Damn straight. It should be more about things that go missing in these daughters, eh? Eh?
24/07/2009 at 14:34 AndrewC says:
…you want your penis to fall off while inside Sam Shepherd’s daughter?
24/07/2009 at 15:11 Heliocentric says:
And in the game?
I… I don’t even want to understand anymore.
24/07/2009 at 15:39 JKjoker says:
Very Angry Man who wants his missing daughter back ?, i thought she was dead, he says she is dead in the trailer, *gasp*, a spoiler!?
the line “Forget what you know about Splinter Cell – IGN” sounds really bad
i agree with Theory, this game looks more like Max Payne than MP3 and even MP2 it just needs an escaping-a-building-catching-fire level
24/07/2009 at 15:47 Charlie says:
I personally didn’t like the Splinter Cell series until the last game which most people said was crap. I think this looks excellent.
24/07/2009 at 15:49 Paul_M says:
I’m looking forward to this evolution of Splinter Cell.
Games don’t just turn to dust when you stop playing them. If you want more of the same then play the old games.
24/07/2009 at 15:53 Novotny says:
Yawn.
24/07/2009 at 15:58 Pavel says:
They sank so low with Double Agent that it can only be better.
24/07/2009 at 16:01 JKjoker says:
@Paul_M: are you sure you know what “evolution” means ? sequels are supposed to “grow” and “improve” existing features and maybe “add” new ones, throwing the old games in the trash and making a completely different thing and reusing only the name of the game and the characters is not evolution, if they want to make a different game then make a NEW franchise
24/07/2009 at 16:07 Vandelay says:
Don’t know where the Bourne comparisons are coming from. The original intention for the game was that it would be Bourne like, i.e about running away, diverting attention, etc. This obviously seemed like hard work to successfully program, so instead they decided to drop the interesting original idea and just make fairly straight forward action game. Maybe good fun, but I’m not expecting the unique experience that this game once looked like it may give before its face lift.
24/07/2009 at 16:07 Hunam says:
Really looking forward to this, even if the stealth has been replaced with action for the most part, but I like action games so fair is fair :)
Only ever played the first one all the way through, not touched 2 or 3 and picked up the PC version of 4 on steam, but that seemed odd, like people tell you to do stuff and I have no reason why or how to do it at all, and the story so far is absurd, he was on some random mission and OH GOD HIS DAUGTHER IS DEAD. Ok… umm… anything else? No…ok.
Is it worth just cutting my losses with this version and trying the alternative Xbox 1 version?
24/07/2009 at 16:12 Vandelay says:
@Hunam – Get Chaos Theory, by far the best iteration of the series. Ignore 2 and 4, as they are made by a different company, much in the same manner of CoD 3 and 5.
24/07/2009 at 16:15 Duckmeister says:
I want to do the torture part to the devs at Ubisoft, but instead of “who killed my daughter” it would be “WHY DID YOU REMOVE SPY. VS MERC, WHAT KIND OF IDIOT WOULD TAKE OUT THE MOST MEMORABLE, MOST PROFITABLE, BEST ASPECT OF THE GAME AND REPLACE IT WITH SOMETHING SO CRAPPY THAT YOU’VE ALIENATED EVERY SPLINTER CELL FAN EVER”.
Unless Ubisoft puts the traditional Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory Spy vs. Merc multiplayer mode in any future Splinter Cell title, I will never buy it, and plenty of other Splinter Cell fans never will either.
Ubisoft is a lesson for any developer. Find what you are good at and stick with it. It’s the same thing (but on a much lesser level of sentimentality) as removing Blood Gulch from Halo 3. What the heck?
After Double Agent, I have lost all respect for Ubisoft. They ruined one of the best aspects of Splinter Cell, tried to force the “we know what you like better than you do” mode down our throats, and told us to screw off when we said we wanted Spy vs. Merc back.
Yeah, that’s smart.
24/07/2009 at 16:19 Xercies says:
And I’ll say it gain, this doesn’t look like a stealth game. Some people don’t want to play third person action games! I don’t know what it is about game developers now a days but they seem to be off on there ability to make non-action games.
24/07/2009 at 16:31 dingo says:
His daughter was killed in a driving “accident” and he is out to get the people behind this…
24/07/2009 at 16:33 Joshua says:
I never had played any SC before Double Agent and really liked it. I thought it was a very very cool game. Then I played Chaos Theory and liked that too.
The multi in DA was pure condensed ass, though. Never played it in CT.
Anyway, I’m not too excited about this. I’m gonna skip it. A bunch of the new features (like auto actions by “tagging”) are clearly designed to make the game simpler and more obvious to play, and I liked the “realistic”, observation based mechanics of DA/CT. I was kind of psyched about Conviction when they first announced it, though, because the Fugitive-style in realistic locations seemed like the next logical step after DA.
24/07/2009 at 16:35 Sovietmudkipz says:
He seems a little angry.
24/07/2009 at 16:35 Duckmeister says:
Oh Joshua, you have made the ultimate mistake in playing Double Agent first. Irreparable damage has been done.
24/07/2009 at 16:58 Hunam says:
There are two versions of Double Agent though, it appears the Ps2/Xbox version was Montreal and the 360/PC/PS3 version was done by Shanghai.
I can’t see why they did this at all. From the wiki the Xbox/PS2 has Spy v Spy and the 360/PC/PS3 has spy and mercs.
Urgh, this is all very confusing for someone trying to catch up with the series.
24/07/2009 at 17:17 Paul_M says:
@JKjoker – Well, I’ve just checked and yes, I do know what evolution means. Thank you.
The extent to which you claim SCC has done any of those things is really yet to be seen. It’s hardly “completely different”. Impotent net rage aside, there’s really nothing you can do about it anyway apart from vote with your wallet and then you may well be simply denying yourself the pleasure of a good, albeit, evolved game. You might as well be positive and find things you do like about it.
I’m not in favour of cynical franchise clinging but I don’t really think you can accuse ubi of that in this case.
24/07/2009 at 17:31 Evernight says:
Yeah this game smells alot like the movie Taken – not that that’s a bad thing – that movie rocked! I hope you get to do some rather brutal take-downs and kills like in the movie.
One Hope: BRING BACK THE CHAOS THEORY M-Player! I loved loved loved the asymmetrical competitive modes. My chaos theroy doesn’t even work anymore with my graphics card.
24/07/2009 at 17:33 JKjoker says:
@Paul_M: again with “evolved” stop using that word, im not saying SCC will be a bad game or anything but if they plan to remove key features from the old games then its not splinter cell, just dont call it a sequel
and about “franchise clinging” as you call it, yeah, well, it seems like franchise fans would like the franchise to continue with what the franchise did best and they liked about it, is it such a difficult concept to grasp ?
24/07/2009 at 17:50 tmp says:
perhaps this can offer a perspective of sorts…
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=269
24/07/2009 at 17:51 Jeremy says:
Looks pretty sweet. Probably still won’t get it though, I’ve never been a huge fan of 3rd person shooters. It always seems a better vehicle for sneak games, like Hitman and the original Splinter Cell games. I won’t completely sign off on it yet, the whole pissed off agent thing is always an interesting story to me. Bourne, Taken, etc.
24/07/2009 at 17:52 Mrs. Manburger McLovefist says:
I agree with the sentiment that Chaos Theory was excellent!
This looks quite different, but the gameplay videos I’ve seen paints a promising picture. It looks very cool and fun. There’s definitively a lot more murdering than in the previous games, though.
24/07/2009 at 18:03 JKjoker says:
@tmp: yeah i remember that one but its now outdated, its missing a few panels when Mr. Potatamoto finds out casual gamers get bored faster and dont spend as much money in games and tries to win their old fans back (last E3 ?)
24/07/2009 at 18:19 Tei says:
I can’t look at a toilet withouth thinkin DOOM3!. Is because these scenes in the game (or whas the techdemo?) with the pinky on the toilet.
24/07/2009 at 18:21 Jazmeister says:
Looks super-fun. Projector gimmick is nice too. Never played Splinter Cell.
24/07/2009 at 18:23 Dood says:
So is TOILET FACE Splinter Cell’s Headslam?
24/07/2009 at 18:42 Aorawn says:
Just to clarify, Sam’s daughter was killed in at the beginning of Double Agent. I realize almost nobody bothered to play DA to the end of the first level and thus cannot be expected to know this, but that’s how it happened.
24/07/2009 at 19:30 PHeMoX says:
It’s an insult to the Splinter Cell series that they’ve deviated this much from the original character… at the same time it’s insulting to even dream of comparing this game to Max Payne.
I may not like the new Max Payne 3 character either and I could probably agree both characters seem to have switched places, but the game Splinter Cell Conviction will be is a universe away from the thriller action shooter Max Payne is.
24/07/2009 at 20:01 Joshua says:
Duckmeister, no damage was done. Not that I give a shit what any of you think really (no offense), but as I pointed out, I did enjoy Chaos Theory as well.
@Paul_M what the hell does “evolved” mean. Just because Ubisoft added a bunch of features and take some away does not mean the game is “evolved.” This is not some sports game where the goal is to simulate real life so every feature that adds to that can be considered a step forward.
24/07/2009 at 22:02 tmp says:
Yup it’s not an exact analogy. But i suspect this new direction has a lot to do with chasing after the market of straight shooter fans, which is likely perceived as bigger and more lucrative target.
24/07/2009 at 22:51 Paul_M says:
@Joshua – goodness, why is evolved such a contentious word all of a sudden. I don’t really see what you’re getting at with the whole “real life” comment. How would you describe it? I just mean it has… changed.. mutated, evolved… What do you want from me? Please try and cool it a little – I fail to see how me calling the game “evolved”, in an oh-so-inflammatory way, apparently, is any different from Joker saying the existing features should “improve”. Healthy scepticism is great but some gamers seem to have blazing outrage as their default settings.
24/07/2009 at 23:42 JKjoker says:
@Paul_M: they are not “evolving” anything, they seem to be following the trend of setting demolition charges on the franchise and then building a gears of war clone in the crater and covering it with left over Splinter Cell guts
24/07/2009 at 23:46 SteveHates says:
This and Mafia 2 are without a doubt the two games I’m looking forward to the most.
And to people bitching about revamps like this being an “insult” to a franchise: your old games are still sitting on your shelf, unmolested. They didn’t cease to exist. Just because the game that’s being made isn’t the one that’s in your head doesn’t mean that anybody is spitting in your face or slapping your grandmother.
24/07/2009 at 23:55 Heliocentric says:
Sometimes “evolution” results in retardation without killing the offspring, the offspring will pass this retardation to its offspring until a poor season or other such challenge results in total failure of that branch of the species.
Evolution in the classical sense can only be judged after the matter, true here too. Don’t tell me you have evolved, tell me you have changed, i’ll decide if this branching is valid.
25/07/2009 at 00:06 JKjoker says:
@SteveHates: sigh, again, SCC could be the BEST game of the last 15 years and it still wouldn’t be a Splinter Cell sequel without favoring stealth
calling it a sequel without the key features is not an insult to the franchise, its an insult to the fans its luring in with a name that means something and delivering something completely different
25/07/2009 at 00:10 Paul_M says:
@Heliocentric – By your definition, evolution may be positive or negative. You may of course interpret the word as you wish but other definitions exist outside of the “classical sense” and are equally as valid. Can we perhaps lay this irrelevant and tired pedantic discussion to rest?
25/07/2009 at 00:14 Heliocentric says:
Evolving is changing without dying/being unable to replicate. But, the customer will decide if the sales are bad. Thats all i mean, i’m actually excited as the real splinter cell developers have yet to screw up.
I don’t like dow2 for example, but it wasn’t an abortive game, just not to my taste. I still care about the work of relic, i still care about ubi montreal’s work.
25/07/2009 at 00:29 Goomich says:
“Winner of OVER 12 E3 awards”? They can’t count to 13, or 14 in Ubi?
25/07/2009 at 00:37 Heliocentric says:
They won the pi award and 9 others. Handing out a specific value is hard.
25/07/2009 at 01:20 Baggy says:
I hate to see the death of another stealth game. There are so few carrying the torch these days.
25/07/2009 at 02:17 JKjoker says:
@Goomich: you think E3 awards have any value whatsoever ? they might as well say “ranks n°3 in the hypetrometer!!!!” it doesnt mean anything, the “game of the year” awards also mean nothing but at least i could say the ppl that hand those awards at least have the whole game on their hands, whoever handed the E3 award just watched trailers/techdemos
25/07/2009 at 02:27 Psychopomp says:
I remember when being good at Splinter Cell meant you didn’t so much as touch a single person.
25/07/2009 at 04:02 净化工程 says:
This article proceeds of a lot of!
25/07/2009 at 05:21 Wooly says:
Looks nice, but I miss the glowy green goggles… :<
25/07/2009 at 14:01 Nafe says:
Wowzers. There’s an awful lot of false sense of entitlement going on in this thread.
I really enjoyed Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory and to a lesser extent Double Agent. I’m looking forward to this and hopefully it’ll be good – we’ll see.
I do find it tremendously amusing the people getting all wound up about it being called a sequel. It is one because they say it is one, it’s their intellectual property so they can do whatever they want. They could make a Sam Fisher tennis game and it’d still be a sequel. The only thing that’s relevant is whether it’s entertaining, currently I think it looks like it will be but we shall see.
25/07/2009 at 14:18 Radiant says:
Yeah hopefully this is good.
I don’t understand people who just want the same game as Chaos Theory but shiny.
Yes Chaos Theory is good but it hasn’t gone anywhere it still is a good game.
Hopefully this will be good too.
25/07/2009 at 14:19 Dan says:
Looking forward to this one. Could be the game Bourne Conspiracy should have been.
25/07/2009 at 14:20 Radiant says:
And who exactly is such a die hard /splinter cell/ fan that they get up in arms that “omg holyshit sam is younger!” or “omg rape the Queen where are the googles?”.
Just applaud a studio trying to take a risk by doing something different.
25/07/2009 at 14:28 Funky Badger says:
Played Double Agent on the PS2 and it was great – some of Ironside’s best work. Got a copy on the Xbox360 and it was a big pile of pants.
Chaso Theory on the PS2 was also excellent (that one didn’t have the 3 alams and you’er dead thing, right?)
Plus, nearly all of them had a level on a ship. Which is great. There should be more games with levels on ships. What, oh… apparently all games already have levels on ships. Stand down, people.
Bit of a shame Hobo with an Attitude had to die though, that looked intermaresting.
25/07/2009 at 14:34 Flappybat says:
Why all the moaning about changing the genre slightly? You can’t make the same game fifty times (unless it’s a sports game). It’s just like the new Bond.
25/07/2009 at 14:35 tmp says:
Wouldn’t say making yet another regular shooter actually counts as ‘doing something different’ though. If anything it’s ‘doing less different’ in attempt to appeal to bigger market.
You’re basically asking to applaud conformity and that… well, is it really worth a praise?
25/07/2009 at 15:01 SuperDuperMature says:
I miss the “reluctantly aging badass” over this Anakin-opening-a-can-of-whoopass-on-tuskan-raiders nerdrage Sam.
But whatever. Hey they added VATS which is cool so you can experience the cinematic action of a guy going Bam Bam Bam and dropping 3 guys in a heartbeat. Because games should be like movies.
25/07/2009 at 16:32 Dreamhacker says:
I cannot help but look forward to this. Ubisoft has me hopelessly addicted to Splinter Cell…
25/07/2009 at 17:14 Radiant says:
@TMP where else could you go with splinter cell after all the sequels?
You can’t really do the same game again with new locations without tomb raidering yourself.
Look at Halo after 3 sequels pretty much exactly the same they threw out an RTS.
An rts splinter cell wouldn’t be much different then the spy levels in red alert 2.
I just want the game to be a solid ‘whatever it is they are doing with it’.
You know without turning it into a Wanted: weapons of fate clone.
25/07/2009 at 17:15 Radiant says:
Thanks atlantic power leveling! I am special; I appreciate the recognition.
25/07/2009 at 20:39 Psychopomp says:
@Nafe
There was no other stealth game like Splinter Cell. They gave us the masterpiece that is Chaos Theory, then decide “FUCK STEALTH PEW PEW!” We’re not “entitled,” we’re angry that we lost another great franchise to the sales monster.
@TMP where else could you go with splinter cell after all the sequels?
You can’t really do the same game again with new locations without tomb raidering yourself.
Well, see, the Tomb Raider controls were shit, and they absolutely refused to improve on the formula.
Splinter Cell is smooth as butter, and all we want is more Chaos Theory. When we heard a new Splinter Cell from the good studio was being made, we didn’t think “I WANT TO SMASH HEADS ON TOILETS.”
25/07/2009 at 21:24 Nafe says:
Well the “entitlement” comes from a company developing a game and you expecting it will fit certain criteria. I think it looks like an entertaining game and I’ll reserve judgement till arrives.
I can appreciate being disappointed that it’s not going to be the game that you hoped it would be, but being angry about it? Totally unjustified in my opinion.
25/07/2009 at 22:39 Volrath says:
Looks like shit, just another franchise raped by Ubisoft. Deus Ex and Thief are next.
25/07/2009 at 22:43 Volrath says:
Of course one could argue that Deus Ex and Thief were already raped so, eh never mind.
25/07/2009 at 22:44 Oak says:
If you tolerate this, then your beloved FPS-RPG hybrids will be next.
25/07/2009 at 22:52 tmp says:
Anywhere. My point was, the particular direction they did pick was the most obvious and safe route they could pick for such tired IP. It had nothing to do with willing to take risks or doing something indeed different, which made the praise misguided.
26/07/2009 at 12:52 DK says:
I hope it turns out that his daughters death actually was an accident. There’s noone to blame and he’s been going on a rampage and killing people for nothing.
Also, it’s more Max Payne than Max Payne 3 – screw Rockstar dragging down another franchise.
26/07/2009 at 21:58 Psychopomp says:
“I can appreciate being disappointed that it’s not going to be the game that you hoped it would be, but being angry about it?”
We’re angry because Splinter Cell was the last of the good straight-forward stealth games
That’s it
THERE’S NO MORE.
26/07/2009 at 21:59 Psychopomp says:
“My point was, the particular direction they did pick was the most obvious and safe route they could pick for such tired IP.”
That’s the thing, though. Most of us just wanted Chaos Theory 2, not The Bourne Conspiricell
27/07/2009 at 20:31 Biz says:
The game is no longer coming out for PC
27/07/2009 at 22:05 Biz says:
nevermind
gamespot lied