Best PC Game
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Read our preview from E3 2004 >>
There were a slew of great PC games at E3, including F.E.A.R., Rome: Total War, and The Sims 2, to name but a few. But our consensus pick for the best PC game of the show came as an easy decision. Splinter Cell 3 is the PC game that blew all of us away, and we freely admit that it came as a total surprise. After all, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow was released less than two months ago, so how could Ubisoft reload so quickly?
It turns out that Splinter Cell 3 is being designed at Ubisoft's Montreal studio, by the same team responsible for the first game. While Ubisoft's Shanghai studio handled the development duties on Pandora Tomorrow, the folks at Montreal went back to the drawing board with a vengeance, and Splinter Cell 3 is the game that they've been secretly working on for two years.
The game has been announced only for the PC so far, and that's probably because of the new cutting-edge graphics engine. It looks amazing--from the gorgeous lighting and shadowing effects to the way Sam Fisher's state-of-the-art bodysuit practically glistens in the rain. Meanwhile, the environments are beautiful, such as the Chinese compound and the lighthouse by the sea that we were shown.
;)
Eye candy aside, what mesmerized us about Splinter Cell 3 is the game's new attitude. In previous games, Sam Fisher was the nice sort of government assassin; he rarely killed unless it was necessary, and most of the time he just knocked people unconscious. But in Splinter Cell 3, the knives come out, literally. The designers have given Fisher a knife and a viciousness not seen before. He can snap necks, slit throats, throw people off cliffs, and more in his quest to secure the safety of the United States. Frankly, we can't wait to play him.
But just when we thought it couldn't get any better, Ubisoft demonstrated the game's cooperative multiplayer mode, which floored us. We watched as two Splinter Cell commandos worked in tandem to infiltrate a building in an audacious bit of teamwork that had to be seen to be believed. Without resorting to violence, the two players were able to climb to the top of the office tower and hack into a computer in a scene reminiscent of Tom Cruise's hanging-by-a-wire act in Mission: Impossible. And the sheer fact that Ubisoft demonstrated all of this to us live impressed us, because the game is playable and it's for real. It's also the best PC game of the show.
The other Best PC Game finalists:
F.E.A.R.
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth
Rome: Total War
The Sims 2
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