Ubisoft Delves Into The Black Ops

The 'I could kill you with my little finger' club just got a new member. Snake, Gabe - meet Sam Fisher.

The Tom Clancy games have always tried to be as true to life as possible. Combining real world events and locales, as well as real technology - it was only a matter of time before all of this was combined in an espionage game, Splinter Cell. As an operative with the government special forces unit, The Third Echelon, Sam has the ultimate clearance to use any means necessary to ensure the safety of the United States of America.

Sam's job isn't easy. In the E3 demo, Russians have taken control of an arsenal of nuclear missiles. Sam must get through the complex and disable the threat. Of course, running around in the open with guns blazing like a jackass is a sure-fire way to kill yourself and wipe out the eastern seaboard, making stealth the most important aspect of the game.

The gadgets and skills Sam gets to use are enough to make even Snake jealous. For example, in the demo Sam comes across a door requiring a key code to enter. Normal game logic tells you to find a guy with the code. However, by slipping on the thermo goggles, Sam can look at the residual heat on the keypad. Sam can also use fiber optic cables, shimmy up walls, and other cool stuff I'm not going to tell you about (have to give you something to gape over).