Actually Eddie, i' d really like your impressions of the demo if you' d be so kind...
I have the game but i' ve heard bad things about the demo.
More than glad Majik. Sorry it took me a while, demo froze while I was hacking the compy in the tent.
Visuals I' ll start with these first. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous in detail. SC:DA doesn' t have that graphical steroid look of " Gears" . However it' s the attention to detail that impresses me. Everything from the sweat beads rolling down Sam' s head, to the smoke and dust effects from grenades/explosions/helecopters. Sam' s animation (which was superb in SC:CS) has been stepped up another level, showing signs of age. (Not being able to leap entire warheads in one bound anymore
.)
Controls Nothing new here, just as fluid and intuitive as Chaos Theory. I will say this though. It' s incredibly easy for me to get a hang of the controls because I' m in love with Chaos Theory, but the number of commands & where they are will prove daunting to those who haven' t dealt with Splinter Cell before.
Sound I was terrified when I first heard the ad' s, & some guy that sounded like the movie ratings man said " I am Sam Fisher" . That had me seriously worried, but Michael Ironside is back, and as awesome as ever. The diologue is seamless, no matter what particular choice you make. (more on that in a minute) The ambient noise is almost more immersing than your direct gunfire & voice command, the distant gunshots/screaming/explosions really make the situation seem out of your hands.
Gameplay Gameplay is a serious departure for the better. I had the daylit African level, same as the folks at whatever con this was shown at, & I was suprised to see that stealth really wasn' t on my side in this situation. Gone were my NVG' s, replaced with sweet shades that tinted your screen differently. Also, I relied almost entirely on hard cover for my concealment, not a single shadow. It really made me think (I' ve been on a shooter binge for those who don' t know, so it took me 2 or 3 tries to get back in the mindset.
)The choices they made you take in the demo really had me thinking. When it got to the " snipe one guy or the other" portion of the program, I could already tell it' d have some replay value.
One small complaint. The AI' s resting position is still that crouched arms-over-head squatting thingy. I' ve never seen anybody do that in my life!
IMO it' s the best of the series.
...
Yeah... I drew all that from the demo.
I' ll revise if needed in a few days. My copy is shipping via Ebay!!!