Development began in 2006 with Sam Fisher’s latest installment originally scheduled for release in November, 2007. Ubisoft wasn’t satisfied with the results of the game and went back to the drawing board which meant the release of Splinter Cell Conviction would move forward to Fall of this year. The extra development time allowed Ubisoft Montreal the time to implement a number of new gameplay features for the series.

One of these is the “Mark & Execute” feature allowing Sam to tag an opponent or object and fire at the target automatically. Using logical AI you will prioritize targets, for example, if you enter a room that has two enemies along with a light source and you can target both the light and an enemy. AI will have Fisher eliminate the light source first thing thus preventing the other enemy from detecting your character and provide you the opportunity of taking out the first enemy. There is also the “last known position” feature, that comes into play when you’ve been spotted and breaks the line of sight with the enemy. This produces a silhouette outlining Sam’s last known position that the enemy saw him, allowing him to alter his actions accordingly. Additional new abilities will allow you to shoot while hanging, as well as interrogating enemies using the various environmental objects, such as smashing an enemies head into a mirror.

These new features are detailed in the following video:

Maxime Beland, the creative director of Splinter Cell Conviction said this, “I want people to play my games and finish them. We’re going to have the normal mode for normal gamers, who are going to spend 12 hours playing our game.” Realistic mode will up the difficulty significantly, “You’re going to need stealth, two bullets is going to kill you, the enemies are going to be super-lethal.”

Behind Closed Doors:

Road To E3 Part 1:

Road To E3 Part 2:

Road To E3 Part 3: