• Format: Nintendo 3DS
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Developer: Ubisoft
• Players: 1 – 2
  
• Site: http://www.nintendo3ds.ubi.com/games/en-GB/home/

Ubisoft have supported the 3DS with a swathe of titles but unfortunately a lot of these games have disappointed, with most being poor ports of older games. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars on the other hand has been built from the ground up for Nintendo’s new console.  And with strategy veteran Julian Gollop of X-COM fame at the helm, things look very promising. So can Shadow Wars really deliver a killer app for the 3DS?

The simple answer is yes. This game is our favourite Nintendo 3DS launch title that we’ve played so far, and is well worth owning the console for. The game is a turn-based strategy affair, with your team taking on 37 varying missions. The Ghost Recon team you control consists of up to six combatants with unique skill sets. You have Duke, the commando of your team, who comes equipped with an assault rifle and shoulder mounted missile launcher. Haze is your sniper, who can choose between having a heavier rifle for extra stopping power, or a lighter rifle for extra mobility. He can also carry AP or EMP grenades. Richter, your heavy gunner, comes equipped with a minigun which causes extra damage, but limits his manoeuvrability.

You also have a medic called Saffron. She can heal each member of your team as well as herself. Banshee, the recon expert, is equipped with a Harry Potter inspired camouflage cloaking system that renders her invisible to all on the battlefield unless an enemy soldier is immediately adjacent to her. If this happens then she will be vulnerable to attack unless you quickly move her out of harms way. Mint makes up the final member of your squad and is an engineer, equipped with an assault rifle as his main weapon. He can also deploy a gun turret or a mobile drone to defend positions on the map. These defences can get damaged but Mint can repair them quite easily, as well as any vehicles.

The game awards PEC points and stars which you receive depending on objectives completeted and the difficulty level that was chosen. The stars are used to upgrade each individual member of your squad at the end of a mission. This awards better equipment and increases the characters’ combat effectiveness.

Your team can get into some pretty sticky situations

Each level involves your squad moving around the game world which is sectioned off into grids like a chess board. You click on each member of your team and the game shows you where you can move and any action you can take, for example, attack an enemy or capture an enemy emplacement. There are plenty of areas for cover that your team can exploit, such as buildings, that ease the damage of enemy fire. This really adds to the tactical element of the gameplay. The game uses simple cellshaded graphics and the 3D effect is used quite sparingly, but that is more to do with the overhead camera angle. It does make you feel more immersed in the battle though, as you watch your little warriors fighting it out.

In addition to the single player campaign there are also skirmish missions which involve various scenarios that your team find themselves in. These are a very pleasing diversion from the main game and are nice short missions compared to the more involved nature of those found in the campaign.

Your team has varying skills that all add to the tactical gameplay

During the campaign you’ll find that if you don’t pay attention and one of your team gets caught in a crossfire, then they will be in real trouble. If they die it’s game over, and you’ll need to start the mission from scratch which can take over an hour in some cases. The lack of checkpoints is frustrating, but it harks back to the good old days of games with a challenge, and the developers have to be applauded for not compromising by making death a simple inconvenience. This sense of dread adds extra tension to the game.

Shadow Wars also includes a multiplayer option, although sadly it is limited to the one system rather than via Wi-Fi or online, which limits its appeal. It can be quite good fun though as you pass the console over to let your friend take their turn.

While playing the game we had a few instances of the screen going black and a warning message telling us that if it happened a lot to contact Nintendo. We checked online and there was a lot of people complaining of the same problem. One solution to this was to turn off the Wi-Fi on the 3DS console. We tried this, and it appeared to fix the problem, but we do hope that Nintendo or Ubisoft releases a patch soon to stop this happening, as at first galnce it looked like our console had a serious problem.

Shadow Wars has a very generous 30 hour plus campaign

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is a terrific strategy game which has that ‘one more go’ addiction factor that makes it hard to put down. The levels are well designed and the game gradually introduces new members to your squad to avoid hitting you with a lot of complications early on, which might put off newcomers to the strategy genre. There are many hours of fun to be had in this game, with nearly 40 hours worth in the single player alone. If you love turn-based strategy games we’re sure you’ll love this one. If you’ve never played one before we urge you to give it a go as this is one of the 3DS’s top titles.

• Format: PS3 (version reviewed), 360, Wii, PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Developer: Ubisoft Romania
• Players: 1 (+Online Multiplayer)
• Site: http://hawxgame.uk.ubi.com/

The original Hawx was a pretty decent action flight sim with a tie-in to the Tom Clancy franchise. This sequel promises a few new features and additions, including a new four player co-op mode. But does this new game satisfy budding Maverick’s or has it’s Goose been well cooked?

The plot of this sequel involves the Hawx squadron being assigned to the Middle East, where there are insurgents causing all types of problems, and there is the mystery of some missing Russian nuclear weapons to solve. To be honest the plot is pretty forgettable nonsense that evokes Modern Warfare 2, with plenty of over the top sequences and unlikely scenarios. However there are some nice nods to some of Clancy’s other games, such as the Ghost Recon series, which helps tie the Clancy universe together.

The scenery in Hawx 2 is often breathtaking.

The gameplay alternates between traditional dogfighting and bombing missions, that are very similar to the Modern Warfare UAV night time bombing raids, and are equally as much fun. Sometimes you are tasked with taking out tanks, boats or other targets, on the ground or out at sea, which helps add some variety to the proceedings. Nearer the end of the game things get a lot tougher, such as when you have to defend an aircraft carrier against opposing ships, as well as attacking aircraft, and there is also an impressive assault on Moscow which gets the adrenaline pumping.

The UAV bombing missions evoke the Call of Duty Modern Warfare series.

From a visual point of view the game is extremely impressive, with some stunning vistas and landscapes that look just as detailed close up as they do from far up in the sky. The planes all control just as you’d imagine, although to be honest there doesn’t appear to be much to differentiate between any of them. The dogfighting and bombing missions are all very satisfying, and taking down a tricky enemy fighter is especially pleasing. Taking off from a runway or aircraft carrier is relatively easy to master, although landing can be quite tricky, and there were several times when we thought we were on target to land, only to clip the side of the ship we were trying to land on.

This poor collision detection is also evident elsewhere in the game, such as when you are flying close to the ground, and just as you think you are soaring back into the sky, the game decides that you crashed. This can get quite annoying, but on the last mission, which sees you attempting a Star Wars trench run manoeuvre, it gets downright maddening, with your fighter regularly clipping the roof and walls of the tunnel, even though you’re not remotely close to them. Considering the tunnel is straight, this level should be a lot easier than it is, and nearly spoils the good work done in the inspired levels that came before it.

The cockpit view is well realised.

The AI is also a hit or a miss, with the enemies at the start being simple cannon fodder, but then at a certain point in the game, they turn into superhuman and simply untouchable super pilots. You end up simply shooting with your cannon rather than wasting missiles, as enemy planes drop an endless supply of flares to constantly foil your attacks. Enemy fighters also regularly have missiles locked onto you, which you need to avoid by doing the age old loop-the-loop manoeuvre. The trouble is you end up having to do this move most of the time, and resort to using your cannon to take down enemy fighters, as getting a missile lock is near impossible. This means these dogfights can go on for around half an hour. It’s certainly not something you can imagine Tom Cruise struggling with in Top Gun.

Some poor collision detection can make this canyon run really tricky.

The online part of the game has a co-op mode that lets you play some of the single player missions with up to three friends, which is a lot of fun. It is in many ways superior to the single player mode, where your wingmen don’t offer much assistance when you’re up against an aircraft carrier full of enemy fighters. There is also a competitive online dogfighting mode which is much the same as the first game, but with the addition of perks, new planes to unlock, and the obligatory levelling up system. This is available to eight players, but if you are new to the game, it can be quite daunting facing up to fully kitted out ace pilots, and you do find yourself being beaten down by the more experienced players, which may put new players off.

Hawx 2 is probably the top aircraft shooter out at the moment, but there aren’t many games out there to challenge its aerial superiority. It’s a solid game, but the flaws just stop it from being a must have title. It also gets a tad repetitive, but that’s really the genre’s fault rather than the game itself. We’d like to see the series merging with an FPS like Ghost Recon, which would give the game some much needed variety, and take the co-op part of the game to a new level. Imagine a co-op mode much like the Spec Ops part of Modern Warfare 2. But if you’re itching to play an aircraft shooter, then you can’t go wrong with this title. So dig out the aviator shades and get the Top Gun soundtrack on, and take a trip into the Danger Zone!

Virgin Gaming, the bizarre love-child of professional gaming, online poker, and marketing ingenuity, has partnered with Ubisoft to bring their future multiplayer games to the service. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is the first in the line-up, joining other supported games such as Halo, Madden, and FIFA.

The service integrates with the stat-tracking of online PS3 and Xbox 360 games and provides a way for players to arrange tournaments with entry fees and cash prizes. They meet up in their game of choice, compete, and then the stats are automatically pulled from Xbox Live or Playstation Network. The winner takes the pot (minus Virgin’s cut) and the next game begins.

The anytime-anywhere nature of the service is pretty different from your occasional sponsored tournament – it almost seems like gambling. In fact, the fee-based, cash-prize tournaments are currently unavailable in 14 U.S. States. Still, with Virgin Gaming just getting its start, there’s a definite buzz surrounding the service. The leaderboards for each game have a few hundred players, and there’s always a handful in Virgin’s lobbies waiting to get a game going. Considering the niche audience for such a service, the numbers are impressive.

Ubisoft’s partnership, considering the Tom Clancy brand’s presence in the tournament scene, is a logical next step for both parties. It’ll be interesting to see how many people are competing for cash when Ghost Recon: Future Soldier hits next year.

Future Soldier looks to be another stand-out title in a strong year for Ubisoft.

Taking an already established brand and making it something even more special isn’t easy, but that is, quite frankly, Ubisoft’s modus operandi. Ghost Recon has been around for many years now, and has achieved success by taking a popular genre, the third person shooter, making it as realistic as possible, and then continuing to improve the franchise with the subsequent iterations.

It isn’t that the games have changed dramatically, it is that the basic formula continues to be improved. We aren’t just talking visuals here, although Future Soldier is absolutely stunning. What we mean is that the basic gameplay continues to advance as new ideas are dreamed up and as the finer points of gameplay are tightened even further. For instance, not only can you take cover in a Gears of War style now, but your cover can also be shot through and ultimately obliterated.

Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2 took us to the near future of 2013. Our Ghosts had a distinct advantage over enemies without training even being taken into account– they had technology on their side. Future Soldier, taking place 10-15 years from today (in our real world), uses even more advancements. Notably, the biggest addition to gameplay is the stealth suit, based on prototype real world technology. What this allows you to do is basically turn invisible. You’ll still be heard, and your effects on the environment will still be noticed (such as foot prints), but you’re still, well, invisible.

Fortunately, Ubisoft was smart enough to realize that this could be an advantage abused, and limited your use of the suit to compensate. When your gun goes off, even though it doesn’t make much sense, your suit will turn visible. Also, the user will have to recharge the suits battery. He would do this by, presumably, shutting it off for a short while.

Another new feature is the ability to call your shots. In the single player campaign, which will run anywhere between 12-15 hours, the demo shows off the user controlled character sneaking up behind his target to apprehend him, all the while his three buddies are picked off with head shots from your own squad. Simple in single player, but in 4 player co-op, it could be a different story. It may be hard to coordinate this scenario, especially if you are not playing with friends willing to experience the game in a similar style as yourself.

If you were lucky enough to snatch up a copy of Splinter Cell: Conviction earlier this year, you’ll automatically be entered into a beta program for Future Solider, though the release of this beta client has yet to be revealed.

Look for Ghost Recon Future Soldier to hit shelves in download for all major consoles including Wii (though ignoring the PC, for some reason), as well as your DS and PSP in early 2011. Trust me. It will be worth waiting for the polish.

• Format: Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PC
• Unleashed: Out Now (PC version out 30/04/10)
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Developer: Ubisoft
• Players: 1 – 2
• Site: http://splintercell.us.ubi.com/conviction/

Brutality is something that a lot of games characters can be quite keen to show off in cut scenes, but when it comes down to gameplay the end result is often just a simple case of point and click shooting adventures. This is definitely not the case with Splinter Cell Conviction, with the mysteriously un-aged Sam Fisher being the very definition of brutal.

Conviction has gutted a lot of what made the landmark series what it is and very bravely refined it to create a different kind of Splinter Cell. You still have the shadows; but instead of being a thin veil to mask your presence, they are now a deadly tool for taking down a room full of thugs. Whilst you can try to sneak by undetected, the game seems to have been designed for you to remove all witnesses if possible. This is reinforced further as Sam can no longer hide bodies, meaning that unless you take a guy out in a secluded area, it is very easy to spook the nasty men with guns.

This is where the heightened brutality comes into play with the genius mark and execute system. Simply put, first you need to take somebody down in hand to hand combat, which rather surprisingly still seems to result in them eating a bullet. This will earn you a mark and execute token, which means you can mark a limited number of enemies patrolling around a room and with the tap of a button, insta-headshot them all.

Mark and Execute - shooting guys in the head on autopilot

Now, this may sound like room clearing on easy mode, but it really doesn’t feel like it in the game. You need to earn each mark and execute with a close quarter take down, and you can only store one at a time meaning you have to think very tactically when you want to use one or save it for what might be around the corner. It becomes very handy for planning your assault or even as a valid escape tactic should you get busted whilst trying to sneak by. It not only serves as an excellent way to even the odds, but also looks unbelievably cool, letting you do things that you see in the movies which would be far too tricky to pull off without a slightly autonomous system.

With these tools in place it means that should your stealthing backfire, you can get out of most situations and execute your plan B fairly fluently and not need to reload an earlier checkpoint. This doesn’t mean that when you are spotted you can outgun enemies as the game still keeps the tradition of Sam Fisher being fairly squishy in the face of gunfire, but it is clearer how to outsmart the enemies with another new tool, Last Known Position.

If you are spotted not being the most subtle person in the world, it is a good idea to disappear into the shadows, round the corner or behind a wall. When you have eluded a guard’s field of vision, your last known position will be projected as a ghostly apparition, and the AI will plan an assault on this area, usually with a mix of suppressing fire and flanking manoeuvres.

Takedowns can also be used with the environment, such as windows and railings

The clever bit in this is that it actually lets you visualise to some extent what the enemy is thinking, allowing for you to come up with your own scheme to out-flank the flankers. At times it feels like Tom and Jerry, with Sam being the mouse that outwits the cat every single time, just with more neck snapping and bullet lobotomies than the lovable children’s cartoon.

The singleplayer campaign sees a bitter and twisted Sam Fisher on a path of revenge for his daughter’s murder, which provides a substantial reason for his new levels of rage and violence. The predator like gameplay is interspersed with some clever plot twists which are often beaten out of people in the new interrogation scenes. Certain characters are singled out as wells of information, allowing them to be grappled and then pummelled off of various surfaces during questioning sessions that make Jack Bauer look like a sugar coated kitten from Santa’s workshop. Locations can be turned into instant torture rooms which allow for heads to be slammed in doors, faces punched through urinals and faces burned on stoves. The only slight disappointment in these scenes are the invisible walls within the interrogation zone, which often feel like a limitation on your sadistic ingenuity when it comes to information extraction.

Co-op deserves a special mention as it might as well be its own game, featuring an entire prequel campaign for you and a mate to play through over Xbox Live or via splitscreen, which is really nice in a world dominated by online gaming. You play as agents Archer and Kestrel wearing more traditional looking Splinter Cell garb, chasing after stolen warheads that sets the background for the main adventure nicely. The controls and new abilities from the singleplayer carry over exactly the same to give another three to four hours of excellent stealth action gameplay.

Objectives are projected onto easy to read places, just to keep you in the loop

Other multiplayer modes include Hunter, seeing the both of you hunting down guards through different environments, Last Stand where both players must fight off waves of enemies as you defend a target, and Face-Off, a battle to kill more henchmen than your fellow player whilst also trying to take them out for extra points.

Splinter Cell Conviction is definitely a new direction for the series, which you need to be prepared for if you intend to slink about like you would in previous titles. The stealth elements are definitely in there, but now focus more on sneaky combat rather than complete evasion. As such, the controls are tighter giving you much more freedom and the new gameplay features really shine through. Criticisms are mainly petty, and a couple more hours of gameplay (you get 6 – 8 in singleplayer, depending on difficulty and your own skill) would have been nice; but make no mistake about it, Splinter Cell is back, more gripping and explosive than ever.

9/10

With the UK release of Splinter Cell Conviction almost ready to leap out of the shadows and stun us all on April 16, Ubisoft has released a final trailer for the game featuring Third Echelon boss, Tom Reed.

In the trailer, Reed gives us a nice monologue justifying what he does and why he isn’t so fond of Fisher, describing that agents on the job should be “foreign policy in action”, no matter what.

The game is looking extremely impressive and the wait for its release, which has seemed like an eternity, will finally end on Friday. Look for our review of the game coming soon.

Short and sweet. Not words that gamers like to associate with demos, but to be fair, they can’t all be like Darksiders and Just Cause 2. However short as it is though, the Splinter Cell: Conviction demo, just released on Xbox Live, makes up for it by being sweeter than 12 sugar packets liberally sprinkled over a slab of milk chocolate.

We’ve seen the videos and heard all of this talk about marking and executing, fisticuffs and rage fuelled trips to the loo, but is it anywhere near as smooth as Ubisoft want us to believe?

The first thing that will strike Splinter Cell veterans is how much the interface has changed. It seems that when Sam left Third Echelon, he also seemed to leave behind the scroll through action menus that laid out all of his options when interacting with items. There are still context sensitive actions, but they are now mapped to face buttons and considerably less fiddly.

Forget shooting from the hip, Sam shoots from the elbow

It all seems to be part of this new streamlined edition of Splinter Cell which has made everything a lot simpler, but still manages to hold on to important stealth mechanics. The slightly simplified control scheme is essential because, as we’re sure you can assess from the trailers, Sam Fisher is pissed off. He is angry and likes to react fast to take people down, something that the clunkier control schemes from the rest of the series would have severely hindered. Whereas previous outings have been punishing unless you avoided conflict, Conviction encourages violence and often forces you to make some split second decisions. You don’t always have the luxury of lurking in the shadows to make the perfect plan.

Mark and execute was something that we were originally quite sceptical of. In a blood stained nut shell, it basically lets you mark out up to three enemies, before a single button press lets Fisher take them all out in an instant flurry of suppressed gunshots. It sounds like super auto-aim and a really dumbed down way to skilfully take down guards. We couldn’t have been more wrong.

"Why can't I ever do hugging right!?"

It actually works brilliantly and allows for some interesting ways to silently take down an entire room. In one section of the demo we were unsure how to clear such an area of three guards from our elevated vantage point. Using mark and execute, each unfortunate enemy was tagged for death before we leapt over the railing into the middle of them and watched as Fisher dropped the room in three taps. The system is brilliant, allowing for Jack Bauer like super reflexes, which would be impossible inputting manually with the thumb sticks.

Last known position is another useful tool in Sam’s inventory of stalking and ambush techniques. Should you get spotted it’s no longer a case of insta-fail, game over, bullet sodomy that the series is semi-famous for. Instead a rather ghostly projection of yourself is plonked down where the enemy last saw you, and they will suppress the area with gunfire and attempt to move in on you there. This gives you the opportunity to slip out and counter ambush their ambush attempt, allowing for some nice distraction and deception gameplay that really helps open up your options in a pinch.

The cover system is nice and reactive as Sam will hurl himself in to cover when the left trigger is held down, giving you even more freedom as you don’t need to fumble any other buttons to detach yourself from a surface. A Gears of War style tap of the A button lets Sam move fast between bits of cover too, making it easier to close in on and escape from guards without being detected.

We thought Sam went too far when he made this guy sniff the puddle of wee

Aside from the expected sleuthing and killing that the main game will consist of; at the very start of the demo we also get a taste of the interrogation scenes. You’ve probably already watched a video of the brutal interrogation in the gents where some poor sod gets his head punched through a urinal, but here you get to play it out, moving between different objects to break the guy against. Really it’s just an interactive cut scene, but it’s satisfying in the same way the God of War quick time events are; just a bit more realistic.

The total play time may only come to 15 minutes, but can you really expect more from a demo? It perfectly showcases all of Mr Fisher’s new tricks and makes it very easy for you to look totally awesome pulling them off. There’s just slightly under a month until we get it here in the UK on April 16, but we can guarantee you will want to run through the demo at least twice, just to build your anticipation to trouser soiling levels.

More sexy Sam Fisher shenanigans, this time involving a shotgun that rather curiously does have some stealth properties to it, rather than just being a loud and proud death bringer.

The suppressed Spas-12 shotgun demonstrated in the trailer above comes as a bonus if you decide to pre-order the brilliant looking Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Nothing new seems to be shown off in the video, other than a bit of formerly abandoned, and now bullet bait hostile filled warehouse that we can only assume Mr Fisher will have to traverse on his magical adventure about bloody revenge and improvised espionage.

Whether you pre-order or not, you should be able to pick the game up on Xbox 360 and PC when it is finally released on April 16.

Sneaking and rubber suit enthusiasts rejoice, Splinter Cell Conviction’s co-op mode seems to have a lot of both and looks to pull them off very well.

The co op mode will act as the prologue to Sam Fisher’s main revenge fuelled adventure, where the players control an American and Russian agent on the trail of four ‘advanced warheads’.

The trailer shows two spies wearing more conventional Splinter Cell gear and generally working together to accomplish their mission. It’s looking a lot closer to Chaos Theory’s co op than Double Agent’s.

There are several interesting looking gameplay mechanics in the co op mode that can be pulled off as a team, such as a player with a good vantage point marking out the targets for the other player to shoot, with the brand new mark and execute move shown off in previous trailers.

The game will use a matchmaking system to organise who you fight alongside, but PC users will be disappointed to hear that this is another game that will not be giving us dedicated server support.

Every aspect of the game we have seen so far has impressed us, and as we edge forward to the February 23 release date, we continue to get more and more excited. This looks to be a great game for the first quarter of next year when it will be available on Xbox 360 and PC.