Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Xbox, 2002)

Yeah, yeah, I know Splinter Cell has been out for some time now, but like watching a movie, this is one of those games that I just never got around to til recently. And I have to say it was one of the most frustrating games I've ever played, with the exception of Ninja Gaiden on XBX of course, now that game is too hard, I think there are only 8 people in the world who actually beat it.

Now I'm not complaining that SC is just too hard (which it is), I'd settle for "extremely challenging". I'm just amazed that SC could be so smart and so dense at the same time. I mean, you make the slightest noise...lets say, brush up against some leaves and before you know it everyone is shooting at you, accurately might I add! But at the same time you could abduct one of two guards while in mid conversation, drag him back a few feet, knock him out and finish off the remaining guy in a similar fashion with none the wiser.

But the thing that just made me want to wield my controller like a morning star flail against my XBX was the checkpoints. At one level in the game I didn't see a check point for almost an hours worth of sneaking around, so you can imagine my anger redoing the same sequence's over and over again due to some stupid mistake or A.I. glitch. And again, at the same time you'll be given as many as 3 checkpoints in the span of 5 minutes play. I like checkpoints, they're wonderful back-ups, but in the end I want the ability to save my game at any point I wish.

Something else I would have liked done...how should I put this safely...umm brighter maps! Yes, I understand our man Fisher does his best work at night, gimmicky goggles and all, but I think it would have been fun to have a few "undercover"/ "out in the streets" levels during the day. Plus it kinda sucks to have all this cool scenery just blotted out by a dull green-gray screen all the time, how do any of these terrorists see where they're going, everything is so dimly lit! Maybe it's just me, but using NV gets old after 10+ hours. Okay okay...that's enough of the bad stuff, don't want any Sam Fisher Fanboys up my ass cause I'm just telling it like it is. (*update* someone over at Ubisoft was paying attention, the new Double Agent has lots of bright/outside levels. About time guys!)

Well what can I say really, this game not only looks amazing (shadows, lighting and textures), sounds great (authentic and original sounds) and has spot on controls, but it's just a joy to play because everything was put together extremely well! The story was plausible and the locales were great. So aside from it's small but forgivable flaws it was good enough for me to go out and pick up Pandora Tomorrow (so far I'm liking it...)