splinter-cell posts

It's the weekend, finally, and after a long work week its time to relax with some shooting in Crysis 2, some sword action in The Sims Medieval and some stealth action in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. What are you playing this weekkend?

• Steam has added a new update to Clones that includes a five level multiplayer map pack.
• Steam also has a new update to Monday Night Combat that includes an adjustment of its All Star Rating system.
• Crysis 2 PC players can now grab a third party software tool for tweaking the game's graphics.
• Some fans have made an impressive Splinter Cell short movie.
• The Metacritic review score site is now offering review scores of game developers.

Steam's big holiday sale continues today with a new batch of price cuts for PC games from now until 1 pm Eastern time Sunday. In addition to today's Steam deals, GamersGate ends its daily sales event with Men of War Red Tide for just $5.49. Also the streaming PC game service OnLive has put several games on sale for as much as 75 percent off from now until January 2.

The games on sale today on Steam today are as follows:

Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition - $7.50
Splinter Cell series - Save 50 percent off all games in the series or save 60 percent off of Splinter Cell Conviction if you own Splinter Cell Double Agent.
Red Faction series - save 75 percent off all games in series.
X Superbox (all games in the X space sim series) - $19.99
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 - $29.99
Dragon Age series - save 50 percent off all games in series
Monkey Island Special Edition 1/2 - $3.75
Altitude - $2.49
Shank - $7.49
Flatout series - save 90 percent off all games in series
Civilization V - $37.49
Tropico 3 Gold Edition - $6

It's a rare thing to see a video game development studio in the early stages but a new YouTube video does that as it shows off the recently opened Ubisoft Toronto offices. The video shows off the open office space of the studio which currently has about 80 people employed but has plans to expand to 800 team members in the next several years.

As previously announced, the new Ubisoft Toronto offices is being head up by original Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond. The team is currently working on the sixth game in the Splinter Cell stealth action game series as well as another unnamed but original game property.

Last May Clint Hocking, a long time employee of Ubisoft's Montreal studio announced that he was leaving Ubisoft after nine years. Hocking, who was creative director of 2008's open world first person shooter Far Cry 2, didn't give any word on what he would be doing next.

While we still don't know what he will be doing next, we do know what developer he will be working with. GameSpot has confirmed that Hocking is now working with LucasArts as the creative director of an unannounced title for the San Fransisco-based company. Currently LucasArts' only known internally developed game is Star Wars The Force Unleashed II which is currently set for an October 26 release date.

[Via Joystiq]

Splinter Cell Conviction has just been released but developer/publisher Ubisoft already has big plans for the stealth action game series going forward. Gamasutra reports that the publisher's newest development studio in Toronto will be the new home of the Splinter Cell franchise. Details of the game itself are being kept under wraps The studio also has another unnamed game in the works.

Ubisoft Toronto was launched in 2009 and is headed up by Jaye Raymond, who gained fame as the producer of the first Assassin's Creed game. The Toronto studio is expected to hire as many as 800 employees over the next 10 years.

More and more publishers are launching their own online stores to allow for downloads of their various games. This week Ubisoft relaunced their own online store which offers both downloads and mail order retail box copies of their PC games for sale.

In order to celebrate the store's relaunch, Ubisoft has some special deals this week for PC gamers. One is that if you buy and download one of a select list of full priced PC games you can pick from one of several $10 Ubisoft games to download for free. They also have a new PC bundle deal with four Splinter Cell games, including the new Splinter Cell Conviction, on sale for $75.99.

One of the better first person shooters in recent years was Far Cry 2. The 2008 released game from Ubisoft's Montreal studio combined open world action with first person shooting in a complex storyline set in Africa. This week the game's creative director Clint Hocking announced on his personal blog site his decision to leave the Ubisoft Montreal offices after nine years.

Hocking first started work as a level designer for the original Splinter Cell and became the lead level designer for Splinter Cell Chaos Theory before getting the nod to be the creative director on Far Cry 2. In his blog post Hocking gave no hint of what he plans to do next. His departure from Ubisoft seems to be amicable with Hocking stating, "I am too comfortable. I am too content. And I know where that can lead for me."

Ubisoft's upcoming stealth action game Splinter Cell Conviction is still coming to the PC platform but it will be two weeks later than the Xbox 360 version. At the time we reported on this news a few weeks ago no reason was given for the delay. Now Eurogamer reports that a Ubisoft rep has given them a reason.

However it has nothing to do with Ubisoft's recent decision to require their current and future PC games have an "always on' link to the internet in order to be paid. The publisher rep states, "The reason that has been given for the delay is that the extra time was need to polish and debug the game.' We hope the extra two weeks is worth it.

Even though Ubisoft is putting most of its marketing muscle behind the Xbox 360 port of Splinter Cell Conviction, there is a PC version coming out. Now Direct2Drive is offering folks who pre-order the downloadable version of the stealth action game a free PC game title. Yep, you can get the original Splinter Cell game (a $9.95 value) when you purchase the newest entry in the series for $59.95

Direct2Drive is also offering a Digital Deluxe version of the game for $64.95. In addition to the game and the free original Splinter Cell title, the Deluxe version adds the Infiltration gameplay mode, the in-game Shadow Armor and three extra weapons to the title.

Ubisoft's upcoming and long awaited stealth action game Splinter Cell Conviction will, as some of you may know, include a separate co-op campaign that won't actually feature game's long time lead character Sam Fisher. This week Ubisoft revealed some specific info about the new co-op mode in a developer-created Q&A.

Some of the items brought up include if the PC version of the game will have dedicated server support for co-op (no, although we don't think many people will complain this time). There also won't be a replay mode or a spectator mode. So what will it have? Check out the full developer submitted Q&A after the jump

Download HD Splinter Cell Conviction Co-op Gameplay Walkthrough Video (408 MB)
Download HD Splinter Cell Conviction Co-op Campaign Trailer (443 MB)
Check out all Splinter Cell Conviction downloads