@rockstar428: Hey! That's awesome! Where and what grades are you teaching? I'm an aspiring English teacher myself.
That being said, I have my degree in English and I'm about halfway done in my progress towards obtaining my credential, where I can then warp the minds of the future. I am about to start my first block of directed teaching (student teaching) on Monday. Being eye-candy at Trader Joe's is currently paying all my bills!
Have any of the other winners received their aquariums yet? I feel like a little kid waiting on his porch for one of those x-ray glasses that cost a buttload of box tops.
@Garden_Ninja: I generally played previous SC games the exact way you did. The thing I loved about past SC games was the fact that you could almost always make it through a level without killing anybody, which always tickled my fancy. I think Chris Cooper says it best in The Bourne Identity when he says, "I don't send you to kill. I send you to be invisible." I always thought that the most satisfying way to play the old games would be to show an evil organization how incompetent they were, rather than how vulnerable.
However, in this game, the animations for the melee take downs are so visceral that it just makes it satisfying to just dominate everybody. I do wish that there were separate buttons to distinguish between lethal and non-lethal take downs that they had in previous games, however. It would've been nice to break some limbs to incapacitate an enemy rather than snap some necks.
@Raven_Sword: I don't think there's a sane person who would say that graphics don't matter. Of course graphics matter! If graphics didn't matter, then why bother developing better technology that can render thing-a-ma-bobs quicker or calculate a gazillion of textures a second? However, I think that for most gamers--"hardcore" gamers included--graphics are only a means to an end.
Do the graphics help immerse you in the game world? Think of the first time you saw Uncharted or Gears of War--the engines that powered those games created beautiful worlds--both to look at and to play in. You have the greatest graphics but a terrible framerate, it would adversely affect the enjoyment of the game. If you had terrible graphics, it would keep you from getting immersed into the world. And of course, as technology progresses and graphical fidelity improves, so does our taste.
That being said, I will agree that SC: Conviction's graphics aren't necessarily on par with what is coming out now these days (I heard somewhere in these forums that it's Unreal 2.5), but the graphics don't adversely affect the gameplay so I would say that's it's irrelevant.
Gameplay should be the first priority for gamers. Are you having fun with the game? Great! Are you enjoying the story? Awesome! Are the graphics good? What a bonus!
In regards to your final question, I highly doubt that this is the max of the 360's graphical capabilities, but I do believe that it can't get much better than the 360 version of Crysis or ever meet PS3 exclusives. Game engines are always being tweaked and improved upon (think of the jump from Gears of War 1 to Gears of War 2...and now the Unreal Engine can viably create jungles!), however, so I think will still see really impressive stuff for years to come.
@Raven_Sword said:
" @MB: So, you dont think it makes 360 the worse console if it dosent have the best graphics compared to PS3? "
The fact that the 360 can't produce the same level of graphics that PS3 exclusives doesn't necessarily make it an inferior console. The two systems are trying to achieve different things. Want a Blu-ray player? Get a PS3. Want a great online experience? Get a 360. Beyond that, it's a matter of what exclusive titles you prefer.
@Garden_Ninja: You can mark enemies using the sticky cam, but I haven't seen any airfoil rounds yet. Also, the sticky cams don't release any knock-out gas in this one. Instead, the just BLOW THE EFF UP! It's crazy!
But yeah, most of Sam's attacks are much more aggressive now, which I really think ties in to the story, since he's basically just a pissed off rogue agent with a personal vendetta (remember--he's just found out that his daughter was murdered!). There are non-lethal take downs, however--I believe you just need to have your gun unequipped. There are also unique take downs for both the pistol and the MP5 (I haven't tried using the shotgun), which include lethal and non-lethal versions.
Although you can mark-and-execute your way through the game, I prefer to get up close and personal: There's nothing like dropping a flashbang while hanging from a pipe and then just dropping down to beat down some fools. With the new Krav Maga combat system I feel like Batman with a gun or Solid Snake (cut-scene-CQC-bad-ass Solid Snake, not gameplay-awkward-controls Solid Snake, haha).
As a fan of all previous iterations of past Splinter Cell games, I'll just give a quick pros and cons list from my experience playing the demo: Pros:
Mark and Execute ability is a great addition that makes Splinter Cell much more of an action game
That being said, it's also great that they retain the stealth nature of previous SC games (you don't have to shoot everybody to get through a room, Sam dies rather quickly, etc.)
Great open-ended environments with multiple approaches, entrances, and strategies
Good variety of different tools that add a lot of strategy and fun
New interface really streamlines the action and adds a lot of visual flair to the series
Finally, a variety of animations to melee enemies rather than an open palm slap to the head!
Cons:
For a game that's been in development for years, the game is not as pretty as I thought it would be (lip syncing is awkward, animations are still carry that weird SC "clunkiness")
New shadow mechanic is an interesting way to clear out more of the HUD (no more light meters?!), but can be confusing (sometimes you feel like you're in the shadows but you're not, and it's definitely more difficult to see the environment--particularly where shadow is to keep you in cover)
AI is a little janky (I used sounds from a sticky camera to distract some guards--immediately after they just went back to their original trigger and started their whole dialogue all over again, or when a huge explosions go off in one room with guys screaming "OH SHIT!" and then guards in the adjacent room would completely be ignorant of anything going on--even when there were no doors in between rooms)
THE KNIFE IS GONE! Think of the interrogations!
Overall, I'd say that I had a very positive experience with the demo. The foundations for the mechanics are really sound, and honestly, the cons are just kinds of nit-picks of problems that have been present in a lot of SC games so SC vets should be used to them (although you could argue that by this point they should have addressed those issues in this series...but that's for another discussion). Based off the demo, I think they did a really great job moving the series forward, providing SC vets and newbies alike with exciting stealth-ACTION gameplay. Factor in the co-op and I'm sold!
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