Splinter Cell Conviction and the 4th wall

In an interview with the lead designer of Splinter Cell Conviction, the topic of how the story and objectives will be shown on walls via lights or a movie projector style. It was said that he wanted to have a more compelling story line than anything seen before in the stealth action genre. Clearly saying that he trying to hit the story telling level of the MGS series.

So the Question is, Will this breaking of the forth wall of story telling be the thing that makes Splinter Cell the premire stealth action game?

Second Question is, If this story telling style is done well do you think other games will adopt it such as Metal Gear?

Here is the video:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/50616.html

To be honest, I'm not really feeling the projection style objectives. I'd much prefer if I was told over a radio or if it appeared on the HUD as on-screen text.

I'm actually really digging that style. It reminds me of Heroes, or more specifically Fringe, and from what I've seen so far it is much more visually appealing to me than text on a HUD.

I think that the novelity might wear off if I play through it more than once. Hopefully there is an arcade mode in which you can turn them off

I like to think that Sam is going crazy and thats what its all about.

The presentation is cool, but I've never liked Splinter Cell for it's gameplay and I've never liked Tom Clancy's (The brand. *wink*) game stories.

You're using the term "fourth wall" incorrectly. The information is displayed on the walls, yes, but Sam isn't aware of them. But, specificaly, breaking the fourth wall would be if Sam was talking to you, the player, about the imaginary stuff being displayed on screen, or what he thinks you should make him do next. Or, just further cemeting the fact that everything that's going on in the game is cheesy, and fictional (they aren't trying to do that, they're trying to immerse you into it's fiction, not poke fun at it).

Anyone who wants more HUD elements can go fuck themselves as far as I'm concerned. Projecting mission objectives and cinematics onto the walls of the games are brilliant, and the game wouldn't be worth a second look if they simply put that mission text on screen directly, or cut-away to cinematics, or had the plot points revealed over radio.

Also, Lyphen's right, this is a misuse of the concept 'fourth-wall breaking'

I agree with Echelon, though its became a discussion of semantics more than anything.

It can be said the gameplay is breaking the fourth wall, or at very least its subversive.

This type of exposistion should be used with his game and then never again! Looks really cool but never again

I'd just say it's a more organic way to display information.It's the same thing as Dead Space (why is his health on the back, he can't see that! Or...why does he need an inventory screen for his pockets!). It may not be realistic, but it's using game assets in a smart way, to show what would normaly be in a HUD or pause screen (which is not part of the game world at all).

But I don't mean to derail this. I'm not entirely optimistic about the games' story, but I certainly hope it would turn into a convoluted mess like MGS. Something like Sam being a cloned triple agent who's faking a daughter in order to discover hidden information about some other nuclear device that's worse than a sub...would throw me off.

Looks amazing. I personally was a huge fan of the slow, high-risk stealth gameplay but people are understandably wanting something faster so I welcome the change. The marking, projections, and interrogations look great. I can't imagine anyone -not- wanting to take each person and bash their face into every possible surface. Can't wait.

My only qualm is the 'last known location' thing. If I saw Sam Fisher hop out a window, I wouldn't expect him to come in on that same window. I would look for all possible entries and cover them. It's not a final build, sure, so hopefully I'll see some enemy teamwork or some smarter search tactics in later iterations.

Woo! Loving this game so far =)

I think it just shows his craziness and whatnot.
Truth be said, things like this are something that you might see to be annoying while watching it, but in playing it's not a big deal at all.

When it comes to the hud, you can have it in two ways--- none or make it feel like it should be their.  Not going to elaborate on none, but examples of it feeling natural are a clusterfuck hud in a space combat sim or even in halo's as everything is slightly curved in the manner of a helmet.

And this isn't somethign I see becoming a trend.  It's going to be a neat feature and exclusive to splinter cell.  Think of it like boarding in halo.  Very cool, but not many other games will use it.

---Also guys, this game's graphics are fucking awesome

We need to remember that we're judging this off a gameplay demo. Once you actually get the game at home and play it, it may be totally immersive.