Splinter Cell demo released early

We're not quite sure how it happened, but the embargo on posting the PC demo of Splinter Cell has apparently been lifted while we slept, meaning that somebody broke the rules and we all get the 101MB demo earlier than 5PM today as a result. Some websites appear to have fallen off the face of the web due to demand, too...

Fortunately several are still available, including FileShack, 3D Gamers and AusGamers.

Virtually all we know about the demo has been yanked from the accompanying readme file, as we've yet to try it ourselves, but we can tell you that the system requirements are necessarily steep - you'll find that a PIII-800MHz or equivalent is the minimum spec, with 256MB of RAM, a 32MB video card and DirectX 8.1 also prerequisites. In the 'recommended' column we're looking at a 1GHz chip and a 64MB video card.

Happily on the graphical front, Splinter Cell supports most flavours of GeForce (apart from the original), ATI Radeons from the 8500 upward and even Matrox's Parhelia, with OS support for Windows 98/ME and 2000/XP. We are told these configurations will be maintained for the full game - which is out on January 31st in Europe.

Update - Ubi Soft has informed us that you can download a "correct" version of the demo (which may solve some of the problems we've been hearing about in the above, apparently leaked version) here. Enjoy!