It’ll be interesting to see how this first production from the new Ubisoft Toronto studio will turn out. (TO is my home town so I won’t call it Ubisuck until I see it ) ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuhfD48VRGE

In my book, Mike Ironside IS Sam Fisher. What a voice! ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlUnTcjlkd8

I really like the look of the gameplay, moving takedowns look great.

Sounds like a passing of the torch voicing Sam. They said no more voice over, it's done live while recording the facial movement and mocap. Maybe they'll have Michael doing something, but doesn't sound like it's going to be him throughout the game. I'm sure this will be more like Conviction than any other SC game, but with added features. Conviction was still a great game though.

Yep: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2190134/

Funny, I didn't recognize him, but that's the guy from the first seasons of Smallville. Played Whitney. Then Flash Gordon on that short lived series on SciFi.
A new Anna too.

I think the gameplay looks typical of console shooters ... mark the targets, push a button, they all fall down and Ubisoft runs away with the money

On the other hand, as an ancient first/third person shooter fan, I still like to have fun so we’ll see how it goes ...

Both GRFS and SCC occupy the same "middle ground" for me: They do certain things very well (the cover system being one) and whereas they are indisputably "dumbed down", action vs tactical versions of the beloved original games, they are not without merit when considered independently of their forebears.

Here's the dealbreaker though: Whatever you think of the game design aspect of these newest incarnations of both series -- and opinions vary wildly -- what I have experienced with both SCC and GRFS is an inexcusable quality of porting for PC, resulting in kludgy or non-existing basic functions at times. On top of this, you have to deal with the utterly cynical, leeching presence of Uplay and all its tentacles.

For the above reasons -- I never thought I'd hear myself say this -- I will not be buying the new Splinter Cell game until such time as all bugs and porting issues have been addressed, as I fully expect this to be yet another lazy, nasty port, regardless of the game's design virtues, of which, as in both SCC and GRFS, there might well be plenty.

What issues do you have in Conviction? I haven't done any co-op on pc, so I can't comment on that, but from what I've seen it runs as well as the 360 version.
I *am* getting tired of different launchers and logins for different publishers though. EA and Ubi need to come back down to earth in that area. At least make it all more seemless with the game.

My issues with Conviction were mainly with coop on PC. Its matchmaking system, especially with Uplay imposed on top of it, was unworkable, required manual opening of ports, etc.

Splinter Cell community developer Zack Cooper (that title actually exists?!), takes us through an alternate play-through of the original gameplay demo ...

I’d take it seriously but Zack keeps distracting me with his douchebag radio DJ voice ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwpUzS8bJgw

I'm so glad they're getting away from the personal storylines from SCDA and Conviction and getting back to business.
April is a long way off.