Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Wanted: one co-op partner for Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Must enjoy crashing through doors simultaneously, long walks in the dark, and pretending that one of the character’s is still voiced by Michael Ironside. Preference given to someone that can quote Chaos Theory’s Sam/guard chats and those who would rather muck about with the AI over actually following the mission text. To be in with a chance, watch the video below and apply in the comments.
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I am grumpy. In the world away from my desk and monitors, people have been meeting and playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist and I wasn’t invited. They were probably worried that having someone there who has completed every Splinter Cell, bar that rubbish one set in the prison, would mess up their plans. I might be disrupting their electrical flow of PR by dropping truth EMPs. Like pointing out that Ubisoft don’t understand what “Ghosting” means. They don’t want my truth making their screens all squiggly. The thing is, Ubisoft/The MAN, the video below of the Spies vs Mercs mode might have just won me over.
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Credit where credit’s due: Splinter Cell: Blacklist is looking significantly more like classic SC than Conviction or Double Agent – except, you know, when it’s really, really not. There’s pitch-black darkness and rainy atmosphere and the option to play without killing anybody (though non-lethal roughhousing  is, sadly, quite encouraged), so that’s a good-ish sign. But what of multiplayer? Conviction mystifyingly abandoned the series grimly satisfying, intriguingly asymmetrical Spies vs Mercs showdowns, so it’s good news indeed to hear that clandestine game of cat-and-mouse-and-AK-47 is making a return. Catch it after the break (courtesy of IGN) before it throws down a smoke bomb and places a not-so-gentle hand around your tenderest of neck regions.

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The voice at the beginning of the new Splinter Cell trailer sounds a lot like Jigsaw, the dying/dead/metaphorical villain of the horrifically dull Saw series. This voice is threatening the whole of America though, which means he might not be Jigsaw, who is more likely to spend his time righting individual wrongs, such as finding a chap who inadvertently left the milk out of the fridge and sewing a cow’s udder to his bottom lip while perching him on a machine that converts his bumcheeks into burgers. The rotter! New Sam Fisher will deal with the Splinter Cell baddy and the video suggests he’ll do so by STALKING, STRIKING and SILENCING. He’s also magnetically attracted to helicopters.

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Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell, give me your answer do / I’m half crazy / For half of what you do / It shouldn’t be a stylish barrage / But I’m intrigued by your gameplay styles’ marriage / So you might look sweet / Upon the seat / Of a game machine built for games.

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Our news cousins at VG247 have put together a new Splinter Cell: Blacklist video, with commentary from “cinematic director” David Footman. You can see that below. I have to admit I was a little bored by the last Splinter Cell game, despite its ultra-violence and clever presentation, and I wonder if this new game will be something of a return to form of more workmanlike shadow-lingering. It certainly all looks quite familiar, with hapless guards getting grabbed from behind, and that big American action man dressed in figure-flattering black. Ooh, stealthy.
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Once upon a time, the Ubidelay was a dreaded and ponderous creature – the raging 18-wheeler we just knew would plow into high-profile PC releases at the last possible second, catapulting them clear into the stars of some far off month. But lately, its power has waned. Assassin’s Creed III only stumbled a few weeks behind its console counterparts, and Far Cry 3 didn’t miss a beat at all. Still though, there’s something to be said for “better safe than sorry,” so I checked in with Ubisoft on the status of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. In light of its newly announced August 20th release date, here’s what they told me.

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Have you been eagerly awaiting Sam Fisher’s sneaky, skulky return from wherever he’s been for the past few years? Well, how do you know he’s not already right in your living room? I mean, this man’s a near-future ninja. Look closely: are you sure that’s a lamp, and not a disarmingly spry geriatric infiltration machine with a lampshade expertly positioned atop his head? Here, let’s run a test. Try turning it on. Is the general bulbular region made up of three green lights? Also, did it kill you? Congratulations! You found Sam. Unfortunately, however, it looks like the rest of us are gonna have to wait, as Ubisoft’s sent Splinter Cell: Blacklist behind August’s all-too-distant frontlines. A delay heralding trailer’s after the break, courtesy of IGN.

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Way back when Splinter Cell: Blacklist first leaped into the spotlight, it did so in a fairly strange fashion by, well, leaping into the spotlight. Instead of methodical skulking, we saw fast-paced hulking – in broad, nearly blinding daylight, no less. It felt bizarre, as though Sam had suddenly become some hard-charging young gun in his old age. Recent videos, however, have eased my fear the teensiest of bits on that front – first with some admittedly takedown-heavy stealth, and now by showing us just how much time and effort is going into getting various forms of light and darkness just right.

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Sam Fisher of Men deviates from the assault and battery that didn’t make him famous to demonstrate some of his shadowy, stealthy takedowns. It’s not the kind of stealth that involves shooting a light, becoming one with the darkness and leaving a group of men trying to work out how many terrorists it takes to change a lightbulb – instead, in Blacklist young (old?) Sam crouches behind crates and then punches people in the kidneys when they’re looking the other way. It may be non-lethal but there are going to be a few hospitalisations, that’s for sure.

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As Alec recently pointed out, Sam Fisher isn’t acting much like his old self these days. I mean, he’s technically gotten older, but – based on what we’ve seen so far of Blacklist – he may as well be some testosterone-bloated young gun who doesn’t play by the rules. Shoot this, break the arm of that, hold a man’s quivering neckflesh mere centimeters away from jagged glass’ unforgiving teeth. These are not the actions of a man for whom the stakes used to be “Get noticed and be totally disowned by your organization and country.” Now, though, Ubisoft’s trying to assure potential players that there’s more to the new Sam Fisher than meets the eye. He can still play non-lethal peek-a-boo with the best of them, Blacklist’s creators assert.

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