Mmm I'm bit confused. I'm guessing that you associated Splinter Cell 1-3 as being similar to each other. Then you say that Conviction won't remind you of those games. But it still feels like a Splinter Cell game?

Please elaborate.

Some elements of gameplay outside mark and execute, like sticky cam, peeking under doors, sonar goggles that are reminiscent of night vision goggles, there's even an achievement in one of the deniable ops modes for taking out all enemies on a round without being detected on realistic difficulty. It may not be a whole lot, but it will make me think back to the first three games.

From what I've seen from the gameplay videos, I feel that you're over exagerating (not deliberately or malicously) how reminicent Conviction is. I don't think a few gadgets like the sticky cam, the ability to peak under doors, etc compensate for making Sam even more lethal than the enemies at conventional combat (the whole point of stealth or horror games is to underpower, or over power the enemy, making you rely on unconventional tactics and to instill a sense of fear and suspense).

I mean, I'm going to edit in the two gameplay videos I put up for comparison, but c'mon. Barging into a room with the enemies pointing their guns at you? Really? If it was Chaos Theory you'll go limp the very second you open a crack of that door.

Video starts where I want it to

Hahaha, something (everything) about that clip is hilarious.  Sam Fisher kicks open a door, shattering it (holy shit is he taking steroids?), takes out 2 guys with a shotgun (are we still talking about Splinter Cell?), grabs a guy as a hostage and shoots another guy (oh ok, this is still Splinter Cell), then he throws the guy out the window (wait, when did I turn on Monday Night Smackdown?), jumps out and shimmies over incredibly fast (is he part squirrel?) and then jumps in throat grabs the guy who offers minimal resistance (aka, the guys just stands there not shooting at Sam and not struggling).

I mean, someone else has to find that funny (sad), right?

Great article

In an effort to make it more accessible, Max Beland of Ubisoft Montreal says the studio decided that the best way to improve the stealth gameplay in Splinter Cell: Conviction was to get rid of the stealth gameplay in Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Accessibility is almost as important as gameplay these days. For every hardcore gamer willing to blow an entire night in a marathon gaming session, there are many more who just want to fill in a half-hour while they're waiting for Lost to start. For game publishers who want to play in the big leagues, that's the holy grail: Not a small following of devoted fanatics but a broad, mainstream audience who thinks a game is kinda fun.

So it is that Beland, the creative director on Splinter Cell: Conviction, joined the project in early 2008 with a mandate to "fix the things that weren't happening." Ubisoft had identified some "major issues" with the game at that point and eventually asked the studio to come up with something different, saying it wasn't interested in making another Double Agent or Chaos Theory.

"Although Chaos Theory was an amazing game, I think the issue that Ubisoft identified was that, out of everybody that is attracted by the fantasy of playing Sam Fisher, when they actually get to play it, we lose a lot of people," Beland explained to Edge. "Stealth, I think, has always been delivered as very hardcore gameplay."

"We did a lot of playtesting, a lot of consumer research, we talked to a lot of gamers and there were a lot of themes that were coming back all the time: Stealth is punitive, stealth is slow," he continued. The obvious solution? Kiss that hardcore stealth goodbye.

"Sam's back as the guy that he should have been all along. Sam is a guy who's fast, he's quick on his toes and he can run without making a lot of noise. He can be hanging on a ledge and not have to be moving at one centimeter per minute," Beland said. "Sam is a panther, not a grandmother."

It's impossible to argue with his assertion that stealth gameplay is inherently slow and not particularly appealing to a wide-ranging audience. But I still feel a little sad at the prospect of losing one of the few, and first, "true" stealth games available to fans of the genre. Sam can still shoot out lights and skulk through shadows but when you can just shoot people in the face, what's the point?

Splinter Cell: Conviction was released today for the Xbox 360 and comes out for the PC on April 29.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99944-New-Splinter-Cell-Less-Stealth-More-Accessible

Would fans be Happy if they hear GTA5 will no longer be OPEN WORLD?

Let's see:
* You don't have an XBox 360.

* You declare a franchise whose latest game is only on the XBox 360 to be "dead".  The title is also said to be a major exclusive for the XBox 360.

* You create a post in a forum, on a website, which abounds with fanboys who look for any opportunity to take a shot and take down a console they don't own.

So, put all these together, along with your post, and what do you think?  Why wouldn't I think that you happen to be an upset fanboy who is doing sour grapes trolling?  Not saying that it is, but why wouldn't I think this is, based on the pattern of the posting?

The game is also available on PC.

NOT on the PS3 and posted in the Microsoft forum.  And the poster in question, while own a PC, apparently had decided to get more recent game titles not on the PC, but on the PS3 (Bad Company 2 and Oblivion on PS3, and not PC).  I can edit my original post to say an major release NOT on the PS3, instead of calling it an "exclusive" for accuracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophic_burden_of_proof

Err, I have to be the one that disproves a non-existant accusation? C'mon, fess up. Are you personally accusing me of being a fanboy or not?

I also have no idea what you mean by "The title is also said to be a major exclusive for the XBox 360"

"Splinter Cell- Has Ubisoft Surrendered to Chaos Theory?"

So your whole basis is "You criticized an 360 exclusive"

To be honest, I'm assuming at the momment that Conviction is going to the PS3 anyway. Ubisoft is like EA, Activision, etc. They go for profit, and I'm confident that they're going to make it multiplat later. So I feel as though I'm attacking a multi-plat game, but that's totally way off topic.

Note that I also make no mention of Microsoft or the 360, but I attack Ubisoft. I'll admit that Splinter Cell, even when it was multiplat, was primarily an Xbox centric game, so Xbox has always been a big part of Splinter Cell, both in its good days, and bad. They're not the variable that's causing its demise.

*shrug*

I really don't know where this conversation is going, and I find it ironic that you accuse me (you are) of being a fanboy, yet you're the only one here that can only think of things in terms of console wars, enemies, friends, fanboys, etc.