Hey all.

I am new to modern gaming...got my PS3 just 1.5 yrs ago, and before that my only "modern" gaming has been with PC flight sims and PC games like Doom from the late 90s. I'm not at all the best gamer -- I find games at their "normal" difficulty challenging -- the shoe fits well, so I'll wear it... ;-) I say that up front only to hopefully filter/avoid the "man you really suck" comments from 13 yr olds who beat games on their hardest levels in 4 hrs. :D

I am reading mixed reviews all over the place, so I figured I'd craft the question FOR ME... lol. I'm a big fan of the Assassin's creed series -- pretty much all of them, with the AC2 trilogy and AC4 being my favorites. I also liked FarCry 3 a lot, with the exception of it being a 1st person game. From all my reading I also got Hitman Absolution, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Splinter Cell Blacklist (b/c it was the most recent). I usually start a game and play to finish before moving on, but I decided to try all 3 for a few missions to see how they were before moving on with one of them. Metal Gear 4 I dont see as much of a stealth game as it's touted, because most of what I've played so far has been a lot of combat, but its defintiely a good game. With Hitman Absolution, I didnt like the general control mechanics, but got used to it, but then I got really frustrated with the fact that it was hard to be stealthy when after quietly killing someone and taking their disguise, people still immediately became suspicious and you ended up in a shootout anyway (fail). I even put it on easy (which I typically rarely do with games)...maybe I just dont get something, because while I've seen many bad reviews on it, most others seem to like it. I was originally most excited about Hitman after reading what the games were about, but now I'm just glad I only paid $10 for it. So far I like Splinter Cell Blacklist a lot -- and the most of the 3 -- and think I will go with other people's suggestions of playing the older SC games like Chaos theory as well.

So to my question... Is it just Ubisoft that I think makes good games? :) I love the sneaking around/stealth games the most it seems, so since I have no history on the origins of any of these series, or playing stealth games in general other than the AC series, what should I be looking for and am I going about criticizing Hitman all wrong? Are there any other stealth titles (or other Hitman titles even) that I should be looking at that would be good (and not equally annoying)? I realize maybe it's just me and the 13 yr olds are right (I suck), but I'd like to be able to overcome that if possible :D.

Thanks!