Ubi Soft announces Splinter Cell
Third person stealth action from the Clancy universe for Xbox and PC this year
Ubi Soft's Montreal-based development studio is working a new game based on the highly detailed geopolitical universe portrayed by writer Tom Clancy. The game, Splinter Cell, is to be a third person stealth action game dealing with issues such as cyber-terrorism, shadow agencies and the ubiquitous covert operations. The game is due for release on Xbox and PC this autumn, with further next generation versions (presumably PS2 and GameCube) pencilled in for 2003. Players of Splinter Cell will take control of Sam Fisher, a black-ops man for NSA sub-agency Third Echelon. Fisher is a Solid Snake-style character capable of infiltrating high-security strongholds and neutralising the enemy using whatever means necessary, and one suspects the game takes its cues in no small amount from Konami's multi-million-selling PlayStation 2 release. Nevertheless, this is an ambitious title for Ubi Soft and the screenshots delivered by the publisher today are very promising, demonstrating some funky infrared image intensification for a start. Texturing seems solid and the game is expected to take advantage of the advanced features available to Xbox developers, such as environmental bump mapping. Splinter Cell will be seen for the first time at E3 in Los Angeles next month. Until then, feast your eyes on the handful of screenshots available. Related Feature - Splinter Cell screenshots