Interview - Splinter Cell: Conviction

At E3 2009, nobody with a pair of eyes could deny that Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction looked utterly flooring – and it appears to play just as well. Sam Fisher is back and frankly, we're almost positive this will be his finest, most original adventure yet.

After an extended behind-closed-doors demo, IGN AU sat down with Conviction's Creative Director, Maxime Béland, for an in-depth discussion on where the game' concept began, where it's going, the level of immersion and a handful of very cool points on what still needs to be done before Maxime and team will be satisfied. He also drops a few hints about Sam's next steps after the E3 mission – so read on!

[KionicWarlord222]

"Yeah, the sticky camera is back – I know a lot of fans loved it, so now you're going to throw it and the camera's going to go into the sticky cam. What I love about the sticky cam is, yes it's an old gadget that we're bringing back, but it works so well with the Mark and Execute. Now you and throw it, mark enemies with it and then also mark the sticky cam and blow it up, so enemies don't find it! "

You cant have splinter cell without a sticky cam.

Game is being made by gods.

[Applegate]

"At E3 2009, nobody with a pair of eyes could deny that Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction looked utterly flooring"

Trying telling that to them PS3 loyalists.

[cranium]

It's hard saying this without sounding like a fanboy, but Uncharted 2 completely wiped the floor with SC:C graphics-wise at E3. I guess that's why people don't really see this game as a graphics powerhouse.

[The Xbox Empire]

Chubear you've been on edge lately. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and stay in the open zone.

And yes this game is console Exclusive to Xbox 360, meaning it will not be available for PS3.

[beans]

"but Uncharted 2 completely wiped the floor with SC:C graphics-wise"

Maybe in graphics if you prefer it's art style, but other than that SC wiped it in every other area.

[StanLee]

I don't know why PS3 owners are content to wait 12, sometimes 15 months for a game to be released on their console. If I only owned a PS3, I would be very upset. By the time the game is released it has already been spoilt for me a hundred times over. Playing Bioshock 15 months later on the PS3 and having to pay the full retail price was asinine and not at all fair.

[snotter]

Here are a couple of things:

1. Uncharted 2 DOES look better and has much better animations.

2. The only reason you guys want it is because it is console exclusive, you didn't care as much about splinter cell back in the ps2 era, and double agent was pretty bad.

3. You don't need an XBOX360 to play it.

[Traveler]

Oh come on guys, Splinter Cell Conviction will be a great game, but cranium is right, Uncharted 2 wipes the floor with Splinter Cell in the graphics department. Most of the main sites gave Uncharted 2 best graphics/technical achievement of E3.

[XboxUltimateAlliance]

Traveler what does this have to do with Uncharted 2??

2 weeks ago you were "I'm mister unbiased I loved my 360 and PS3", now seems you can't kiss enough PS3 ass and even lurk around Xbox 360 threads saying "omg Uncharted wipes teh floor in graphics" lol

Stay in the open zone or PS3 articles, no one cares for your opinions in a 360 article about Splinter Cell. I dont care about Uncharted as most the world doesnt. Its not even a big franchise many people know about and it has nothing to do with Xbox 360 or Splinter Cell.

Desperate Sony fans stop trolling every 360 article, its so boring now.

[Traveler]

I guess that is just a function of the fact that there seems to be a whole lot of 360 fanboys in every article these days spouting a lot of nonsense. I do like both consoles, but I have never hidden the fact that I like the PS3 more. For someone like me that ownes a PC, PS3 and 360 the 360 exclusive lineup seems kind of weak. Microsoft need to bring more true exclusives to the 360 platform. That, and the hardware reliability issue are their two biggest weaknesses.

Anyway, it was that Applegate guy that made this into a fanboy issue. Don't call out PS3 fans in an article if you don't want PS3 fans to respond.

In any case, I don't think a fanboy as radical as you has much room to talk. You couldn't help yourself from taking a jab at Uncharted, could you. But I wouldn't worry about Uncharted. It's making a solid name for itself.

[Why dis]

I see we're at the *BASH THE 360 LINEUP BECAUSE PS3 HAS NOTHING REALLY TO OFFER* stage

[RockmanII7]

doesn't this belong in the open fourm. Remember if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

[Grown Folks Talk]

Nobody cared about Splinter Cell in the PS2 era because compared to the Xbox versions, they were crap. Same reason Sony fans rave about Socom. Ghost Recon sucked compared to the Xbox versions as well.

[Whut]

ubisoft montreal keeps getting better and better by the year.In looking foward for this.

[Atomic]

false
Ubisoft is definitely the most misguided developer in recent years
Assassin's creed
Far Cry 2
Prince of Persia
all those games have a major common flaw: the absence of compelling level design
Ubisoft forgot to hire level designers in their teams.

[kaveti6616]

Assassin's Creed is a sandbox game. I wouldn't expect you to understand what that means, but a sandbox game doesn't have levels. As for misguided, it's funny because all of the games you mentioned have gotten pretty decent reviews.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Hell yeah

[Atomic]

this game looks unremarkable , dull and pedestrian, i mean seriously this kind of game was done to death and it's looks similar to the Bourne game, stop and pop, repeat.

>below: nasim who????
now people are not allowed to have an opinion about a game unless it's positive?
this is how i feel about this game, sue me.

[Stevie Ray Vaughan]

Nasim please go away.

[Traveler]

Everybody's nasim...

Give me a break.

[pansenbaer]

^^^

It's about time someone said it! Everytime a PS3 fan says something good about the PS3 or bad about the 360, it is this 'Nasim' character. From what I've gathered, he was the biggest troll this site had seen, apparently. I have this feeling he doesn't even come here anymore. That would be awesome.

[DARK WITNESS]

thats prob true, but it is kind of funny too...

still, ps3 3 fans do the same labelling all 360 supporters as POG. it makes me laugh both ways, lol

[cmrbe]

worked wonders for this game.

Can't wait to play it on my PC.

Edit: Lol!. Jason what was that about?. You make it sound like i am playing it on the PC to stick it to MS or something lol!. If i wanted to do that i would get a pirated Windows as well as this game but no i won't do that.

I only said that i will play it on my PC because i don't have a x360 as people here know that i don't have a x360.

Edit2: Necro. So now i am a troll if i say i can't wait to play it on my PC?. LMAO!!. What do you want me to do?. Buy a x360 to play this game when i already have a rig that i can play Crysis on middle settings?. Take a chill pill.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

I can't wait ether, I just cant decide if I want to play it on Windows Vista or Windows 7. I'll probably go for Windows 7, to bad I can't play this on a MAC or a PC running Linux.

[II Necroplasm II]

The infamous trolling line "Can't wait to play it on my PC" lol.

But enjoy it when you get it :)

[Traveler]

Didn't you know, cmrbe, it hurts 360 fanboys' feelings if you mention the PC. They'd rather just pretend that it doesn't exist.

[XboxUltimateAlliance]

That pic made me ROFL.

[cmrbe]

Well i don't know why they would be hurt with the PC. According to most of them i bought my PC from MS as apparently its a MS platform even though i bought my PC from HP lol!.

I honestly didn't mean any malice with my post as i am looking forward to SC because the delay did it wonders which is great. I couldn't just say i can't wait to play it as people here know that i don't have a x360 however i do have a PC.

[the worst]

just modded your 360
download and play it for free
like me

who needs a PC

[Arnon]

Soo... then why did you say "I cant wait to play it on PC."? Why not just, "I cant wait to play it!". I mean you obviously knew it would piss people off, which is probably the main reason you posted it.

[Stevie Ray Vaughan]

This interview makes the game sound very promising. I reckon it'll be a day one purchase for me as long as there is multiplayer. Which there is! Day one

[ricardo45]

This game looks pretty cool. the splinter cell series usually is fun(especially chaos theory)

[Toenado]

This game is one of the reasons I finally bought a 360. There are just too many good games to not own both systems.

[KionicWarlord222]

*sniffs*

mmm...What`s that scent?

*sniffs*

Oh nothing victory.

[Campy da Camper]

Sam was my hero right after I had to say goodbye to Gabe. Snake's obviously the sheet but Fisher is right up there with him.

Plus, the online? Dropping from the ceiling then hearing that satisfying "snap" as you just killed a merc....man, the hours I spent doing that. The satisfaction of a blind grenade into a vent that takes out a spy....man, I would take SC multiplayer over Call of Duty anyday.

[RockmanII7]

Why is the open section well mannered and gamer section a flame war?

[kaveti6616]

First off, I'm not a fanboy. I only own a 360 and I am glad this game is coming for 360. But I have to get a few things straight. I don't think that just because a game is coming to your preferred console that you have make it out to be better than other games that aren't coming to the 360.

I think the 360 has a lot of graphical potential, certainly more than what is shown in Splinter Cell Conviction. Splinter Cell Conviction runs on heavily modified Unreal Engine 2.5. The Xbox 360 can push out at maximum 500 million polygons per second. We are not even seeing anything close to that in Splinter Cell Conviction. We are probably seeing around 125 million polygons per second, if even that.

My main gripe about the graphics of this game is that it is undoubtedly going to be a kickass game. Without a doubt it looks fast-paced and absorbing. So you guys have to understand that when a fun game like this comes out, graphics may seem irrelevant but I really want to see the game excel in all areas. And to that end, it really "grinds my gears" when developers use the unreal engine as often as they do. Certainly, Epic has every right to use it, but why the hell does a company as large and robust and popular as Ubisoft resort to using a middleware engine? We must ask ourselves, why?

Microsoft should definitely take these developers aside, first party and third party, and give them some incentive to use that new proprietary engine they've been building for the xbox 360. I'm tired of PS3 fanboys coming to these boards and telling 360 gamers how much better the PS3 games look. And the worst thing about a guy who thinks he's always right is when he's right. These PS3 fanboys have yet to be proven wrong. The 360 has a lot more power than this. Twice as many polygons per second as the PS3 proves that the 360 can step toe to toe with the PS3, but these third party developers have no inclination, no ambition, no incentive to work harder on polishing the 360 games. Games on the 360 can look terrible and be basically broken and still sell millions of copies. So all of that incentive to strive for a better product is gone because the reward is given with so little effort.

I'm not saying the developers at Ubisoft are lazy bums. They've made some of the funnest, most intriguing games this generation, but what is up? I expect a lot more right now from MS, the company that touts itself as being the worlds most popular software provider.

We're seeing strides in Forza 3 (despite the DVD9 limitations). But we need more. The 360 hasn't been tapped out by a REAL engine. It's been tapped out because of this middleware bullcrap called the Unreal Engine.

So, again, Splinter Cell Conviction could be a very awesome game. And to be honest, it doesn't look terrible graphically until you compare it to the games on the PS3, but the fact is that Ubisoft could have done better visually.

[DARK WITNESS]

nice post and well said. I can understand why some people may think your trying to troll or something, but i think you have given a very honest and realistic view of the way things are at the moment.

I to think the 360 is capable of a lot more then we have seen and think its down alot more to the engines and over use of unreal.

it does seem strange that ubi would use unreal for SC, when they have the engine that they made farcry2 with, which had some of the best graphics we have seen on the system so far and also the AC engine ( again i have forgotten the name ) but that was also one of the best games we have seen visually this gen.

totally agree with your points. bubbles to you man.

[Paradicia]

I enjoyed reading your post. I know you are concerned about the fact that their using UE2.5 but don't worry Montreal have modified it so far its basically like there own 'in-house' proprietary engine hence they actually renamed it 'LEAD'. Remember they have been using UE2.5 since since making with Chaos Theory so they have definitely gained all the ins and outs about how it works and scales. I wouldn't worrty about the graphics too much. We have yet to see the rest of the game. I like how Ubisoft are keeping a few surprises in store for the fans and not showing every level in the game like some developers around. We have only seen practically a 5 minute section out of a 12 hours + game so there will be plenty of eye candy awaiting for sure.

[Arnon]

http://au.xbox360.ign.com/d...

I honestly think this looks beautiful.

[dantheman1515]

Please have co-op!!!! And bring back the hardcore splinter cell multiplayer.

[interrergator]

idk about u guys arguing which game is better i just cant wait till fall to play all these games i got a big list of games i want im glad they pushed some back in 2010 lol.

[SpoonyRedMage]

Games looking great. Ubisoft are one of my favourite publishers nowadays, can't wait for COP: The Recruit either.