Archive for: Tom Clancy

‘Splinter Cell’: Sam Fisher Gets a Partner

There are a couple of new trailers for Tom ,due this August before the fall Call of Duty rush. The game’s two-player co-op mode allows you to play as longtime hero Sam Fisher or his new partner, CIA operative Isaac Briggs. You’re tasked with retrieving a nuclear warhead from a group of terrorists. There are 4 mission types, 14 maps and a two-player split-screen option. +Continue Reading

‘Splinter Cell: Blacklist’ Tries to Save the Wii U

Last year at E3, we saw an excellent preview of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist console game from Ubisoft and, even though we expected to see the title in stores by now, the official release date is now August 20th.

The extra time has given the producers a chance to create a long-rumored version for Nintendo’s new Wii U console, one that creates a “strategic mission interface,” designed to take advantage of that Wii U controller that looks like either a big smartphone or a small iPad, depending on your point of reference. The trailer shows off how the GamePad can be used for trirotor drone control, to operate spy cams, select weapons and gadgets and to mark your targets. +Continue Reading

Splinter Cell & the ‘Fifth Freedom’

In this new trailer for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist, the lady President of the United States grants our hero Sam Fisher the “Fifth Freedom” to take out those nasty terrorists from the Blacklist.

What’s the Fifth Freedom? According to Sam, it’s the “right to defend our laws…by breaking them, to safeguard secrets…by stealing them, to save lives…by taking them, to do whatever it takes to protect our country.” Maybe FDR was keeping that one in his back pocket when he made his 1941 speech about the first four: “freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.” +Continue Reading

Rainbow Six ‘Inspires’ F.E.A.R. Idiots

We need to talk about those Forever Enduring Always Ready clowns down at Fort Stewart, GA, the ones who formed their own militia to fight back against the government. Instead, F.E.A.R. got paranoid about one of their own members and then killed him and his girlfriend. They got busted and Army Pfc. Michael Burnett has decided to cooperate with prosecutors to nail the rest of his crew.

Why do we care? It turns out that F.E.A.R. leader Pvt. Isaac Aguigui used a magazine article about the upcoming Ubisoft game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Patriots as his primary recruiting tool. Or at least, that’s what the prosecutors say. We’re not talking about the actual game, which won’t be released until sometime next year. Not the game itself. An article describing the premise of the game. An article Aguigui believed could start a recruitment process he called “the awakening.” +Continue Reading

Splinter Cell: Killing in Motion

Sam Fisher is back in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, due for release in spring 2013. Now Sam’s the leader of the Special Ops teams that reports only to the President of the United States and he’s tasked with taking out “The Blacklist,” a group of 12 rogue nations that band together to create a series of escalating attacks on U.S. assets.

Ubisoft premiered the game this week at E3 in Los Angeles and the on-site gameplay demo hypes the new “Killing in Motion” feature that allows Sam to accumulate Execute points in hand-to-hand combat and use those points to tag enemies and then kill them all in one fluid motion.

Every time Tom Clancy’s name shows up on one of these products, you have to wonder: does Tom have approval anymore over the brand? Has he ever played Xbox? If so, why doesn’t he use the webcam on his computer to record a Welcome to Blacklist video that Ubisoft can show at these conferences? Last, most important question: do any of the kids who learned his name playing video games ever graduate to buying his books? That’s the kind of thing you wonder about waiting in lines at E3.

+Continue Reading

Ghost Recon: The Movie

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Solider hit stores this week and, instead of just offering the usual gameplay trailers, Ubisoft took that extra step and made an actual 23-minute, full-production movie that acts as a prequel to the game. Ghost Recon Alpha was produced by Ridley Scott’s company, directed by François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, and Ludovic Houplain (the Oscar-winning team behind Logorama) and written by Children of Men screenwriter Tim Sexton.

The movie stars Mark Ivanir, one of those bit part character actors you’re sure to recognize from one of the dozens of movies or TV shows in which he’s appeared and a cameo appearance by Charlotte Rampling. You can even buy your own copy of the movie on Blu-ray.

Ghost Recon Alpha is more entertaining than Battleship but not as good as Act of Valor. We’ll report back soon on the quality of the actual game.

Ghost Recon Goes Multiplayer

Video game sales are cratering this year and part of the reason has to be the lack of quality shooter games. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looks like the most interesting new release since the CoD & Battlefield last fall. Ubisoft just released the multiplayer trailer and it includes plenty of blood spray and exploding heads. The game will allow up to twelve players on two teams of six. Ghost Recon hits stores on May 22nd. +Continue Reading

Checking Out the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Gameplay

Aside from all those books he puts out, Tom Clancy’s a busy guy and you see his name everywhere. He has an Executive Producer credit on SEAL-of-the-moment movie Act of Valor and he’s lent his media brand to Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

It’s been five years since the last Ghost Recon game, an enormous gap that’s allowed Call of Duty and Battlefield to take over the shooter gaming world. The new trailer amps up the killshots in an attempt to generate some attention before the games May 22nd release.

Rainbow 6: Patriots Brings the War Home

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Patriots is due for release until 2013 but a threatened “leak” of gameplay footage inspired Ubisoft to release a couple of trailers.  +Continue Reading

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Game Looks Amazing

This movie-style trailer for the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier game looks better than most actual movies. It’s coming this fall for PC, PS3 and xbox360. (via Kotaku)