Game Update or Annoying Marketing Ploy?

So I fired up Marvel: Ultimate Alliance over the weekend to continue the co-op Hard campaign with a buddy of mine. The long-awaited Hero/Villain Packs finally dropped a couple days earlier so the automatic update upon launching the game was expected.

What I didn't expect upon loading my save game was how they "nerfed" so much of the Gear I had already collected. Allow me to explain. M:UA is a pseudo-RPG where you create a custom superhero team from a large roster of famous Marvel comics icons and set them out on missions. Like any good RPG, your team completes quests, earns experiences and gains points that can be used to improve various stats and special abilities. Also like any RPG, you also pick up special items (called Gear), usually from vanquished boss villains, which your heroes can equip. Some of these are hero-specific but many are general use, as they enhance core stats shard by all characters in the game.

After applying the latest game update on Saturday, I pulled up my team inventory screen and found that about 90% of all my general use Gear had their properties altered. Same name, different effects. The real kicker is the properties where changed to enhance specific characters....characters offered in the newly released Hero and Villain Packs!

This has got to be a bug. My friend and I chuckled about it at first, thinking Activision was just pushing their new character packs a bit too hard. But this can't be right. Some very useful items were nerfed and the fact they still have the same name just makes the whole update look extremely sloppy from both a technical and marketing standpoint. I just fired up the Box today and sure enough, the items are still messed.

Granted the game is old news now so maybe many players have moved on permanently to other games. On the heels of an anticipated DLC release, however, you'd think the developers would be on top of this glaring bug a little bit faster. And if it's not a bug? Oh boy. Sad, sad marketing ploy, is all I can say.

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A Night at the Arcade: Pinball FX and Eets

It's been a while since I made one of these XBLA posts, mainly because the last couple releases have been rather weak. I like the idea of a "double bill" release like we saw with last Wednesday's Gyruss and whatever that stupid golf game was. Now Microsoft just has to release a duo of games that are a) not terrible and b) not incredibly retro and ugly.

Today's release of Pinball FX and Eets is a huge improvement. Although I thoroughly suck at playing them, I love digital interpretations of pinball and have some fond memories of playing many freeware pinball classics on the PC "back in the day". Pinball FX plays fairly well. The graphics are attractive and I like the different viewing angles available, not to mention the solid, weighty feel of the ball when it contacts the flippers.

Eets is a cutesy puzzle game which instantly struck me as a cross between Lemmings and The Incredible Machine, with a liberal sprinkling of Alien Hominid art direction. This demos is surprising in that I didn't finish it in 30 seconds before being prompted to pay money for the unlocked version. Fun enough puzzler... just not sure if it's worth 800 MS points.

All of this is still lightweight fare, when you stop to think Microsoft and friends still have juicy must-haves like Castle Crashers and Catan locked away in production still.

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Manhunt: Old Controversy is New Again

Someone is about to get pwned

When you have close friends who are also gamers, they tend to feed your addiction in a variety of ways. They may introduce you to games you might never have considered, join you in rousing deathmatch or co-op or, as in my case, recognize you inner sicko and buy you Manhunt for Xbox.

Thanks, man: you are the best friend a neurotic, shut-in gamer could ever ask for.

I spent a day pondering whether to even mention this game on the blog. It's old, it's "last-gen" and the controversial nature of the content is a moot point, as I like steer clear of mixing politics and morality with games. But last Saturday, after a marathon co-op session of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, I popped in the Manhunt disc expecting nothing more than a one-trick pony. Gore, violence and Rockstar-style stealth gameplay... whatever. Been there and done that. Being that as it may, this "been there, done that" experience had me glued to the screen these past few nights.

My ever insightful, long-winded analysis after the jump...

So yes, this is that "other stealth game" I hinted at in my last post. Before I pitch in my obligatory opinions regarding the violence in Manhunt, I just wanted to talk about the game itself. It's a great stealth game. The stealth label is probably a little too narrow since it incorporates elements of movie thrillers and survival horror games, too. Far from being a standard gaming experience, it's probably one of the most unique titles released in the last few years, on any platform.

The pacing is excellent and the difficulty, while high, ramps up gradually and in tune with my own skills. The interface is a wonder of simplicity and ease of use. And the atmosphere... oh the atmosphere. This game is intense, thanks to top-shelf audio production and the dark, barren art direction.

Ok, ok... we still have this elephant in the room that I've refused to address up until now. I'm going to skip the explanation of what this game is about; I assume everyone reading this has an inkling. You play a murderous convict. You are placed in a deadly realty TV-styled snuff film against your will. There are other murderous individuals standing in your way. Go murder them. The game is Violent and Bloody and Brutal, none of which is dampened by the grainy, last-gen graphics. In fact, the grainy videotape effect only enhances the snuff film verité of the proceedings. There simply is no side-stepping the mature nature of Manhunt: it is unflinching in its portrayal of murder and violence. Go look up "Manhunt video game" on YouTube if you have any doubts about this claim.

And that, my friends, is really all that needs to be said. The game is rated M by the ESRB, which prevents its sale to anyone under 17 years of age. The graphic nature of the game is no more reprehensible than what I'd find in a typical R-rated slasher flick, which underage children are supposed to be barred from experiencing as well. (Interesting side note: the creepy "Director" character in the game is voiced, superbly, by veteran actor Brian Cox. Cox played Dr. Hannibal Lektor in a 1986 prequel of sorts to The Silence of the Lambs called, Manhunter. Coinky-dink?)

I stumbled upon a well-written, albeit misguided, review of the game while searching Google. As eloquent as he is, the author has fallen into the sensationalist trap as so many other folks in the media. He doesn't even imply that he thinks Manhunt is a murder simulator, he just flat out states it. His most egregious overstatement, however, is claiming that the game is easy.

Um, I don't know how he plays, but I find Manhunt very challenging. I also find that it scares the shit out of me, in a good way. It's impossible to play this game in a reclined, laid back position. I'm always pitched forward in my seat, eyes wide and muscles tensed. When it's on, it's on. I am in the game. And that's a lot more than can be said for flashier stealth titles like Double Agent (you know I had to stick in that final jab there).

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Tom Clancy Takes on WWIII: EndWar

A story on the Next Generation site revealed the latest Tom Clancy/Ubisoft venture to be a "war strategy game" titled, EndWar. Ubisoft's development branch in Shanghai will be producing the game, which is being touted as the first Tom Clancy title built for next-gen platforms from the "ground up". Details are still sketchy. All we know is that it will be an RTS and is set in the speculative future of a third World War.

I'm casually optimistic about EndWar. On one hand, I suspect it will be a new style RTS, one that eschews base-building and resource gathering in favour of planning attack stratgies and capturing "control points" a la Dawn of War. On the other, the game is being developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, which did only a so-so job with the recent Splinter Cell: Double Agent. That game, while pretty and sometimes gripping, is currently languishing on my shelf in favour of a much older stealth game (more on that later). The Shanghai also doesn't have much of a track record of creating RTS's, if any, so it should be interesting to say the least to see what they come up with. In any case, EndWar has an attractively cryptic website to check out while you wait for the solid previews to roll in.

Source: Next Generation

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Command and Conquer My Box

Uh-oh, I think we have a problem here. I just finished the 2-mission demo of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (C&C3) and it's pretty damn fun. This is coming from a guy who swore off RTS games after Warcraft 3. This is the same guy who cannot memorize a simple build order to save his life or execute any strategy beyond rushing every available unit to his death on the other side of the map. But this demo surprised me with its gorgeous looks and impressive controls, causing me to reconsider my prejudice against real-time base building/tank rushing games. More after the jump...

I'll admit that the presentation of C&C3 really won me over. The production values are sky-high. EA did not skimp on the visuals budget, from the intricate detail of individual units, the dazzling weapon effects and destructible environments to the glorious FMV cutscenes featuring your favourite B-list and has-been/never-been Hollywood stars. My only complain with the handful of cut scenes in the demo is that Grace Park looks like she has a mono-brow in some scenes. And no, Billy Dee Williams was nowhere to be found but I'm sure he will be deliciously cheesy in the final game.

I was also very impressed with the control scheme in the demo. C&C3 is my first exposure to RTS's on the consoles and I'm almost sold on the platform's ability to excel in this genre of gaming. The panning controls are lightning quick, almost on the verge of being too touchy, but I can see why they chose to ramp up the sensitivity of the left thumbstick. The camera zoom and rotation are equally fluid. Selecting and targeting units is awkward, made a little easier with the cursor's "snapping to" effect, but still a far cry from using a mouse. While selecting all units or a single unit is easy enough, it's still incredibly difficult to "click & drag" select with any degree of accuracy. Given the extremely fast pace of this game, every second counts.

That brings me to the command bar, which is at once convenient and cumbersome to use. The right trigger, combined with the D-pad, opens up a centralized menu that allows you to build structures, set groups, use powers and create production cues. It's handy enough, until you start getting half a dozen notifications at one time and are stumbling through the various menus on the command bar to find what you're looking for. From what I could tell, the bumper buttons serve no function, which is a complete waste, as I can think of many uses for them. How about a way to cycle through the most recent build notifications or alerts? How about a way to bind a shortcut that allows you to build more of those stupid silos with a single press of a button? Managing saved groups of units is also a pain and could be streamlined further.

I could go on. The controls can stand for some refinement but I'm amazed at how intuitive it is right now. I can see myself being able to execute a general strategy in broad strokes. As for micromanaging groups of units, well... it would take me a lot of practice before the control scheme becomes second nature.

The demo itself is pretty beefy, featuring an excellent tutorial, two sample missions and a couple FMV cut scenes to round things out. Play over Live is available but I haven't tried it out yet. The first mission is extremely hand-holdy. I was actually taking too long to destroy the enemy base and the game mercifully opened access to the Ion Cannon. Selecting it in the command bar produces a gigantic crosshair which I centered over the enemy HQ and fired. It obliterated everything. Hmmm, perhaps this is a late-game weapon, you think?

Overall, I'm impressed by the demo. Reviews for the PC version of C&C3 indicate that the single-player campaigns will collectively take a couple dozen hours to complete, which is a breath of fresh air in this era of ridiculously short single-player games. This game wasn't on my radar before, but now I'm afraid I have yet another AAA title to keep my eyes on.

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The Simpsons Does Warcraft: Semi-Relevant

So I'm feasting on my delicious szechuan chicken with dry spinach tonight and up comes The Simpsons on the trusty idiot box. I've always loved this show but my viewing has dropped off a lot in the last several years. The writing doesn't snap like it used to during the "golden era" of the series and the frenetic pacing has long disappeared.

Occasionally a timely topic will crop up in an episode that keeps the show somewhat relevant. It didn't happen tonight. Tonight's show started off with Marge finally joining the digital age by getting herself an e-mail account. This quickly spirals off into Marge's computer addiction and her discovery of a WoW-like MMORPG. Yes, well sorry to say, but didn't South Park do this several months ago and do it much better?

The accompanying plot line involving Lisa joining a soccer team was much funnier and made me wish they put more attention on that instead.

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Puzzle Quest's Puzzling Marketing Plan

Playing lately? Oh, I've been dabbling all over the place. Up until finishing it on Tuesday, my main squeeze was Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and in between sessions of that I'd dip into Ridge Racer 6, Castlevania: SOTN (to whore up an easy Achievement), Quake 4, Hexic HD, Crackdown and Puzzle Quest.

Puzzle what? Ah yes, well I did take a break from the Box to try out the PC demo for a DS and PSP adventure/puzzle game from Warlords 4 developer, Infinite Interactive. If you're ever dreamed of marrying the soothing "match-3" puzzle mechanics of Bejeweled with the turn-based, RPG-lite trappings of the classic Warlords fantasy games from SSG, you've pretty much found heaven. I don't own any portable game systems, which begs the question of why I was able to play a demo on my PC. Flip that switch and jump to read the rest of this here story!

In a curious move of marketing confusion (or brilliance), Infinite Interactive released a PC-only demo version of Puzzle Quest to whet gamers' appetites for the game's retail release on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Surprisingly, the release date for the full PC version of the game has not been announced. Being a fan of both Bejeweled and the old Warlords titles, I tried out the demo on good faith that I would get a nice 5 or 10 minute diversion from real life. The game turned out to be incredibly fun and kept me up very late on Tuesday night. I was sold on the game and naturally booted back to the main menu, eagerly looking for a "Buy Now" button or some similar option. Imagine my shock when I found no path to purchase available in the demo. In my 20 years of gaming, this was a first!

Disappointed, I wandered over to the PQ official forums to find a healthy thread addressing this very issue. Since both the DS and PSP do not support downloadable content, the PC demo's main purpose was to allow prospective buyers to take a test drive before shelling out the cash for a portable version of the game. Based on the polish and size of the demo -- it's more or less a complete game, with a restrictive level cap and omission of advanced-level content -- a full PC release is inevitable. Or is it? More than a full month after the portable version releases, however, an announcement of the PC game has yet to be made.

On the forums, Infinite Interactive founder, Steve Fawkner, references a binding publishing contract that precludes the release of Puzzle Quest on the PC, nay, even any mention of when the game may even be available for the PC market, if ever. This suggests that Nintendo and Sony negotiated at the very least a limited exclusivity deal for the game to prevent PC sales from cutting into the DS and PSP's share of the pie.

We live in a multi-platform world now, so I say fair enough. Time-sensitive exclusives are nothing new and I understand the desire for gaming giants like Nintendo and Sony to seek them out. What has really irked me as a gamer is the appalling lack of information provided in the demo. I've been accustomed to seeing splash page after splash page in my demos that provide promotional copy on the game's features, price and release dates. It's very much expected now. There is none of this in the Puzzle Quest demo or in the official website (forums notwithstanding). This has caused unnecessary confusion, disappointment and I'm quite sure, more than a few lost sales.

It's also sad to see a developer like Steve Fawkner, a gaming veteran of the past 20 years, so hamstrung by what looks to be a very restrictive publishing deal. I mean, the man couldn't even disclose if a PC version of PQ would be coming, let alone when. I would have expected the creator of the venerable Warlords series to have a bit more clout in the industry than this.

How all this relates to the 360... well, it doesn't really, although there were speculations of an eventual Xbox Live Arcade release alongside all the talk of the PC version of the game. Should we be holding our collective breath? As addictive as it's been, Puzzle Quest is still a "casual", light-weight game that will be easily swept away by the crushing tsunami of A-list titles coming out this year. For a 800 point download, I'd give it another shot on the 360. It's just a shame I can't enjoy the full-featured game on my PC TODAY. (They could've gotten away with selling it for more, too)

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Never Too Much Too Human

IGN strikes again with a hands-on scoop of the suddenly sexy Too Human.

This game is sounding more and more like a sci-fi, next-gen treatment of Diablo. All this talk of loot drops, skill trees and leveling... it's enough to make this gamer swoon. One interesting bit in the article is the overview of the control scheme. Because Silicon Knights is automating camera control, the right analog stick will be used to perform melee attacks. That's right: moving the stick determines not only the direction of your attack but the type of attack you will perform. It's pretty nifty and very tempting to think of all the attack combos that could be pulled off using this system.

But I talk too much. Read the preview, salivate over the juicy new screenshots and see you in the next post.

Source: IGN

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Too Human Too Sexy for E3

About a month ago I listened to an EGM podcast dedicated to Denis Dyak and his long-winded, whiney and convoluted defense of his company's (Silicon Knights) crappy Too Human demo at last year's E3. "Game previews are pointless", "The gaming press is not 100% objective" and "E3 sucks for developers" were some of his key (and paraphrased) sentiments expressed in his hour-long showdown with the EGM podcasters.

I had come across tidbits of info about this game before but didn't know much about it aside that it was a third-person action/adventure game set in a sci-fi universe. To educate myself on the controversy, I found the E3 video of the game demo and indeed, I was stunned by the lackluster quality of everything show in the demo and my sympathies were torn between the EGM editor who slammed the shit out of Too Human based only on this sad demo and Deni Dyak, the game's creative director who has laboured over this game since the early 1990s. Ouch.

But that was then, this is now. It's already frickin' mid-April and there is a new, updated preview of this ambitious Xbox 360 exclusive title. Xbox 360 Fanboy posted up the video link yesterday and it has made me forget about Silicon Knights' E3 fiasco completely.
More blah-blah after the jump...

Did you watch the video? Pretty impressive, to say the least. Admittedly, the very mention of 4-player co-op put the game in my SOLD bin immediately. This video shows so much more of what the game is about and it is looking like a very epic blend of some of my favourite gaming formulas. Shall we do the lazy comparisons of existing games in our description of Too Human? Sure, let's give it a whirl:

Too Human is Diablo-meets-God of War-meets-Devil May Cry-meets-Marvel Ultimate Alliance with a epic storytelling flavour of Lord of the Rings mixed with traditional Norse mythology.

The game looks fantastic. The world (and the 360 in particular) cannot have enough addictive action-RPG games. Although a few things still look sketchy, like the dual-firearm combat and the actual range of character customization options, Too Human is shaping up to be a heavy-hitter and yet another title to watch for in late 2007.

Source: IGN via Xbox 360 Fanboy

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Mammoth Left 4 Dead Hands-On Preview

Left4Dead411, a fan site dedicated to the upcoming zombie apocalypse co-op shooter, Left 4 Dead, recently posted a massive hands-on preview of their play experience as the human survivors. I just finished reading Cell by Stephen King and I am totally in the mood for the undead. Granted, the deadly threat in that novel were not undead, simply re-programmed humans, but that's just one of many twists Mr. King decided to throw into the familiar zombie genre to shake things up.

By the same token, developer Turtle Rock Studio looks ready to take survival gaming to the next level, focusing on effective team cooperation and an innovative feature that allows human players to take control of designated "boss infected" zombies and work against the team of human survivors. I have a a review of the preview after the jump!

I was excited about this game. Now that I've digested Left4Dead411's humongous, glowing preview, I am even more eager to get my hands on it. The Zombie Renaissance is still in full swing, as far as I'm concerned. Bring on the 4-player co-op action. Bring on the enhanced Source engine. Bring on the randomly generated hordes of flesh-hungry zombies and their Boss Inflicted masters.

The preview goes into great depth, covering everything from weapons, the health/respawn system, level descriptions and the visceral impact of feeling like you are a star in the latest zombie horror film. It's a long read but well worth your time if you're starved for information on this game. I know I was. The announcement for the Halo 3 beta came and went; I couldn't be bothered to repeat the news on PMB. Nothing against Halo, I just prefer to talk about games that either a) interest me completely, or b) are not being talked about by everyone on the planet. My only gripes with this preview were the incessant and unnecessary comparisons made with Counter-Strike (of all games!) and the writer's orgasmic gushing about the game. They had nary a negative comment to make in the preview. And I'm curious: what exactly is a "pure gaming experience"?

I have some minor reservations. We still need to wait for their Part 2 of their hands-on preview, where they will spend quality time playing as the zombie boss characters. Mixing in player input with AI is not a new thing in gaming (think FPS deathmatch bots) but in this kind of scenario, it is very unique. I have worries about how badly a skillful bunch of zombie players can imbalance a game and make it harder for the human survivors than it needs to be. Based on the current preview, the AI hordes alone pose an insane level of challenge. Obviously I look forward to seeing how it all develops.

Left 4 Dead is scheduled for a later 2007 release. Hopefully it will carve out a nice little niche for itself amid the clamor of A-list titles. *Sigh* ... yet one more quality Xbox game to blow my hard-earned cash on. Woe is me...

Source: Left 4 Dead 411 via Destructoid

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"Boom Boom" Rockets XBLA Today

Being so unplugged from the games news in the last week and a bit, I didn't even realize it was New Release Day on Xbox Live Arcade until late this morning. After viewing another unsatisfactory episode of Lost on the Box, I absently checked the Marketplace and was pleasantly surprised to find Boom Boom Rocket available for download. My thoughts on this game and other junk after the fabled jump!

Boom Boom Rocket (BBR) is the latest release from Bizarre Creations, creators of the unassuming shooter hit, Geometry Wars. It's another entry in the popular "musical rhythm" genre of games. In light of the major release of a certain other rhythm game, BBR really comes across as a poor man's alternative. In other words, publisher EA and Microsoft's timing could have been a little better. Or maybe, given the prohibitive barrier to entry of Guitar Hero 2 (GH2) ($90!), their timing could not be more perfect, especially for gamers on a budget like myself.

I traditionally avoid these rhythm games and as a result my skills with timing button presses to flashing lights and music are appropriately crude. A round with BBR on "Easy" was fun enough but I can't say I was wow'ed by the music or the games raison d'etre. Exploding fireworks in time to a song is stretching the gaming analogy a lot more than say, well, actually playing a guitar to popular rock tunes. While waiting for bodywork repairs I strolled into Best Buy this afternoon and took Guitar Hero 2 for a spin... and after stumbling through Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box, I was sold. The guitar controller may have cramped my left hand a little, but I still wanted to play more.

This difference in impact between BBR and GH2 pretty much underlies the separation between retail and XBLA games. One guarantees a full gaming experience while the other serves as an entertaining diversion.

My hope in the coming week is that my gaming bud, Heero yuy sr, can score a copy of GH2 (despite the cost, it's selling like hotcakes) and invite me over for an all-night jam session.

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The Lull

Faithful readers, I am back from my long weekend on The Island and a rather uneventful week in gamedom. Just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive. It really was a dull week, with hardly any substantial news hitting the Intertubes and very few new games in rotation on my box.

I'm still chipping away at Double Agent and chipping is as apt a verb as any for describing my current love/hate relationship with this game. I'd like to quickly soften my criticism I made last week and say that yes, while SC:DA has horribly blatant trial-and-error game design, it is no more frustrating than the challenging Thief titles I spoke highly of. Those old games were a bitch and a half to complete too. Lots of blood and sweat. All I can definitely say for stealth games a they exist now: You Had Better Include a Save-Anywhere System!

As for the lack of new gaming activity, I really am holding out for my Next Big Purchase, also known as Mass Effect, which won't grace our consoles until early June.

To tide me over, I've been considering taking a romp through Dead Rising or creating my ultimate superhero team in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The latter idea was planted by one of my old friends, gamer and comic book fan. I've already perused a couple video reviews and slowly warming up my wallet for a possible purchase. I know that it would provide much local co-op action. I'm just not sold on the action-RPG balance it presents. It seems weighted far more towards the action (the mindless button-mashing variety) than any kind of serious character development or addictive loot-drop system. It's a shame a demo isn't available to try out.

Well I won't lose sleep over it. As always I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have about this game. Full-price worthy? Discount? Rental only? Or fuggedaboudit?

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Stealth... Or Trial & Error?

It's a glorious start to another glorious week here at PMB. Nothing like some sunshine to take the sting off the innate shitty-ness that is a Monday morning...

What did you all play over the weekend? My games du jour were Castlevania: SOTN (yes, I'm finally warming up to it) and last week's bargain highlight, Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

SCDA is a stealth-shooter game and one tough mofo. It represents a slight departure in the prolific Splinter Cell series, improving in some ways but also staying rigidly true to the series formula... much to their detriment, I should add. It got me thinking about the qualities that make a great stealth game. SCDA captures some of these things and really drops the ball on the others. Read on for my psuedo-intellectual spiel...

It's been a few years since I played the original Splinter Cell and even longer since I experienced the masters of modern "sneakers", Thief (1 & 2). As different in tone and style as the Thief games are from Splinter Cell, I couldn't help but feel that Ubisoft, with now 4 games into their SC franchise, has NOT played enough Thief. They need to seriously study that game to learn what a true stealth action game is all about.

My #1 complaint with the original Splinter Cell was that it was too linear and forced players to "solve" the missions like a puzzle, instead of as a dynamic, espionage situation. You had to go one way, do a certain sequence of things and do it within a certain amount of time. None of that is bad in of itself, but Splinter Cell made you feel like you were being forced down a magic solution-path and did not reward creative approaches to mission objectives. Roughly 4 years later, I'd expected the SC developers to have brought in some "next-gen" game mechanics for Double Agent for the 360. Let's just say I was very disappointed.

Let's forget for a moment the few new wrinkles that have been added to SCDA. Spying for both the NSA and the terrorists is a very cool idea, as you need to balance your objectives and retain enough trust from both factions. What isn't cool with the game so far are the smaller levels and an even stricter adherence to linearity than ever before. It sometimes feels like a classic adventure game making the awkward transition into the stealth genre, what with the inclusion of mini-games for everything (lockpicking, safe-cracking, hacking...even pulling a goddamn parachute string) and the very contained nature of the maps. The game has been feeling like a string of "stealth vignettes". I'm following that "one right path" again and after progressing through each locked door, I'm presented with yet another puzzle that needs to be solved in a prescribed manner before I can move on. One wrong move, and half your secondary objectives could be blown. The missions become a grind of trial & error, saving and reloading.

Granted, the game is still fun and compelling to play. The artificial challenge makes me want to complete the missions almost in spite. This is simply the wrong way to make a stealth game. The more I play Double Agent the more I realize how well Looking Glass Studios nailed (and defined) the stealth genre back in 1998 with their Thief games. Those classics rewarded exploration, good reconnaissance, timely and skillful use of your tools and allowed you to approach you objectives from various angles. You can give Sam Fisher all the do-hickeys and fancy moves you like: he still can't touch Garrett in terms of pure elegance and efficiency.

The Splinter Cell games are still top quality despite all of my complaints. The graphics are excellent, the moves are cool and it really does make me feel like a super spy. The series just needs to evolve and utilize better AI and level design, or it could easily devolve into a thinly disguised puzzle-adventure game rather than the nail-biting stealth thriller it was meant to be.

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