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Splinter Cell Blacklist: the king of stealth is back ?

Echo Mirage

Arcane
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Tirra Lirra by the River
Having seen a few youtube walkthroughs I have to agree. There are some points when you can hear the voice actor really trying to reach the vocal depth of Michael Ironside. But since his balls have yet to drop he fails miserably.
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
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Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Oh great, 6th mission is the lamest shit Ive ever played in this franchise (its so bad Im amazed it doesnt have quicktime events). And the story takes a turn for the bad, I mean, reaaaly bad and implausible shit.

Tehran embassy? What's that big problem? It wasn't one of the best levels but it had good parts, there are a lot of hidden passages and it is clearly designed with ghosting in mind unlike conviction. Sure the story is over the top and there is a turret section at the end but it lasts 30s.
Not only that Ipad mini-game is ridiculous, but the whole quarter of the level is you against spec ops dudes in full alert, making ghosting incredibly hard (if not impossible).

I bet they will release a DLC with races like in Need for Speed.

And soccer matches like Pro Evolution Soccer.
 

Liston

Augur
Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Messages
200
Not only that Ipad mini-game is ridiculous, but the whole quarter of the level is you against spec ops dudes in full alert, making ghosting incredibly hard (if not impossible).

I bet they will release a DLC with races like in Need for Speed.

And soccer matches like Pro Evolution Soccer.

I almost ghost it on realistic difficulty, I only knocked out 2 guards one of witch was side objective and could be easily avoided, and I'm by no means a great player and don't have the patience to ghost games like conviction where it is ridiculously difficult (tedious). Enemies are alerted but they still patrol on predetermined routs so that wasn't a big problem, the level has a great number of secret routs which are the key to ghosting. There were only a few parts where it is tediously difficult, at the exit of embassy for example where you only a have a small time window to get into position to escape undetected. But on the other hand it had some good areas where you had to know enemy patrols, use gadgets and find alternative routs ie you must have a plan instead and improvising on the fly doesn't work.

And it's really astonishing how much mini-games and scripted sequences (basically interactive cutscenes) they put in to the game. The worst part is that a lot of them have custom animations, UI and/or areas made only for them, if they used those resources better I'm sure that the game could have had at least 2 more levels.

Overall game have some great parts and some really bad parts (fortunately most of them could be completed quickly) and is definitely miles ahead of conviction. It is really a shame they didn't focus entirely on the stealth.
 

Silva

Arcane
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Have you guys noticed how the enemies setup dont make sense (most of times) in these games ? Playing Chaos Theory again from the beginning and you must infiltrate a small beacon island thats completely dominated by terrorists. When you get inside the goons are alert and patrolling as if expecting opposition from inside the fortress they have already dominated,

THIS DONT MAKE SENSE. REAL LIFE GUARDS DONT ACTUALLY PATROL, BUT READ THE NEWSPAPER, LISTEN THE RADIO OR JUST SLEEP.

At the very least, those guys should be playing poker or drinking or making a barbecue or something, and not be on alert walking circles in courtyards the size of my living room like if searching for cockroaches.



Overall game have some great parts and some really bad parts (fortunately most of them could be completed quickly) and is definitely miles ahead of conviction. It is really a shame they didn't focus entirely on the stealth.
:bro:
 

Silva

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Interesting thing I found out: In mission 1, If you manage to "extract the package" without alerting the guards, the mission just ends normally and you dont neet to go thorugh the Gears of War-shooting gallery part.

Have someone noticed if this repeats in other missions ? It would be ingeniusly awesome if it does.

Thats true C&C stuff, gentleman. In a Splinter Cell game.
 

Echo Mirage

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Tirra Lirra by the River
From reading the you tube comments about mission 6 "the abandoned mill".
If you didn't get caught when he got sick you get a bonus scene
I won't have the game for some time so I can't tell if its true or not.
 

Silva

Arcane
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Jul 17, 2005
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Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Thats awesome. Im replaying it again right now, and will try to do things differently just to see the different possibilities.

By the way, me and my bro are almost finishing coop missions from Grim (the pure ghost ones). So I had a look on the Chaos Theory coop missions and found it really interesting. Is it true that you cant speak loud on the microphone otherwise the enenies can hear you ? It sounds awesome. I found some nice vids. Cant wait to play this after finishing the Blaclist coop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhWvIzuo7KM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X5MvQPOQ14

Is it possible to play this through a fake LAN with Hamachi ?
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
3,059
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Brazil
Divinity: Original Sin
Well. Started playing this game. So now we're obligated to play with friends to fully experience all missions... and bad checkpoint system... shit. Oh, and binary shadow system.

Graphical glitches, making every texture become a psichodelic colorfull nightmare.
 
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Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,778
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
WTf ? Here the game runs perfectly, no gfx glitches or psychedelic shit. Are you sure you have the latest drivers for your board ?

And add me to your friends in Uplay so we can play coop: vini_lessa1979

EDIT: oh, and Im trying to setup a Hamachi fake-lan for playing Chaos Theory coop too. Between Blacklist and Chaos Theory it should be 23 coop missions. If I get this right, I tell you. ;)
 

Direwolf

Arcane
Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
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Location
Pōneke
The game starts ok, but then goes into full retard mode by mission 5. FPS sequences in Baltimore are just icing on the cake of fail and big fuck you to everyone who ever played Splinter Cell games. Which is a shame, because Grim's side missions are genuinely good, if short.
 

SoupNazi

Guest
There's definitely a bunch of improvements:

- jumping over tables, pulling people in from behind cover etc., can sometimes alert guards if there's shit you can break or throw down by doing so (like you vault through a window that has a plant pot on it, you break it, guard gets alerted)
- shadows aren't binary (guards will finally see you up close etc)
- attracting enemies to a single kill area doesn't work in later game, at least on perfectionist (the second guard will expect you and knock you down then shoot you unless you manage to shoot him in the head fast enough)
- enemies now actually check windows, ledges, vents, etc (while patrolling, while in search mode, and while alerted)
- some good ideas in some missions where you lack all the cheat equipment and have to just go through without so much as an indication of whether you're in a shadow or not (should be more of that)
- search routines if you're spotted are much more thorough, guards will often call for backup (so that you can't knock them out while they're looking for you alone), and on the other hand if you try very hard to attract someone into a kill zone, if the guard suspects foul play they won't budge, especially the heavy guys that you can't just shoot / taze from a distance
- ghosting very much possible and even encouraged by higher scores that lets you buy improvements, however on the other side most of the improvements are so shit for a ghost playthrough the motivation isn't all that great (I had everything I wanted/needed fully upgraded halfway into the game) - might however be encouraging for multiplayer play
- the side missions which are fucking great and easily the best part of the entire game

And a bunch of stupid fucking things:

- train section (won't even fucking comment)
- FPS section - I get what they were trying to do but it was still stupid
- drone sections (fucking retards)
- no Ironside and Sam's face doesn't look like Sam's anymore, stupid characters, stupid story, basically anything related to writing is just shit
- even if you alert one area, the moment you reach a checkpoint where Sam closes the door behind him the next area has no idea you're there
- game suffers of the classic "well we can't make it this hard" complex like when you're chasing somebody, even if you lose them for a while they'll just wait around the corner and only keep running once you catch up, or when your plane is getting attacked you have all the time you need to neutralize the hostiles
- fuck the checkpoint system

Overall wouldn't pay $50 for it but if I could get just the side missions and multiplayer for like $20 I'd be fine with that.
 

Silva

Arcane
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Messages
4,778
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Yeah, the meat of the game is really good, even improving on some Chaos Theory aspects. Unfortunately the popamole bits together with poor story and characters make the single-player campaign kind of lame. They should release an expansion/DLC focusing just on the stealth meat and cutting the crap popamole out. Oh, and adding more Grim coop missions too. Those are awesome.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
3,059
Location
Brazil
Divinity: Original Sin
huehue... mine is a not taken from inventory... anyway, updated the drivers and everything is ok now. The game is good, but the lack of in mission saving is frustrating.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
3,059
Location
Brazil
Divinity: Original Sin
In case people can't place his face. Fisher looks exactly like Shepard from Mass Effect.

And he now has a normandy and have to talk with the crew... Ayway, sam's face is based on his face from conviction, as is anna grimsdottir. Conviction was released as a reboot to splinter cell, though they keep the storyline of the old games canon.

The reason the developer gave regarding the lack of michael ironside is proven unfounded by this game: They said the actor in cutscene doing the voice at the same moment he was making mo-cap, and you see the cutscenes in the game and the character look wax doll without facial expressions, and I bet that if they hired ironside to redub those scenes, it would be infinitely better.

Anyway, this game is a lot like conviction, even light sahdow system is the same, except for black and white thing, now it's just like double agent.
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
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Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Replaying Chaos Theory here. Oh man, I wish they do a true sequel for it someday, just addin the open-levels of Blacklist and the updated gfx, and keeping everything else from CT (specially the slow pace and greater realism). It would be awesome.

By the way, is there some gfx upgrade mods for Chaos Theory ? At least its textures could receive a help these days.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Replaying Chaos Theory here. Oh man, I wish they do a true sequel for it someday, just addin the open-levels of Blacklist and the updated gfx, and keeping everything else from CT (specially the slow pace and greater realism). It would be awesome.

By the way, is there some gfx upgrade mods for Chaos Theory ? At least its textures could receive a help these days.
Man, I'm tempted to try Blacklist. Is there any level in it that come even closer to the awesomeness of the bank in Chaos Theory?
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,778
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Replaying Chaos Theory here. Oh man, I wish they do a true sequel for it someday, just addin the open-levels of Blacklist and the updated gfx, and keeping everything else from CT (specially the slow pace and greater realism). It would be awesome.

By the way, is there some gfx upgrade mods for Chaos Theory ? At least its textures could receive a help these days.
Man, I'm tempted to try Blacklist. Is there any level in it that come even closer to the awesomeness of the bank in Chaos Theory?
Totally. Most levels in Blacklist are awesome, actually. Even if the pace is faster than CT, the stealth elements, great level design and atmosphere are definitely there. The problem are the crap story and specially the popamole portions, which are positioned generally at the end of missions (imagine CT´s Penthouse mission´s micro-puzzle at the end, but swap the switch activating by Gears of War-like obligatory firefight or God of War-like quicktime events..). Take a look at this one, for eg. (notice how the "wet atmosfere" resembles the 1st mission in Chaos Theory):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0OClbzljV8


EDIT: and I just found out something in Chaos Theory - the in-game options dont allow shaders 3.0 to function together with AA by default, but you can use the Nvidia control to force Antialiasing back in the game, and together with other options like ultra quality textures, etc. the game gets more prettier than the default. :)
 
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potatojohn

Arcane
Joined
Jan 2, 2012
Messages
2,646
It's an unredeemable turd.

Dude sees me in full light, but can't SEE me because I'm in cover.
XtmBqgm.jpg


Check out these amazing nexgen graphics. bioluminescent corpses (and clothes), and surfaces made out of a material that absorbs all light from the fixture in the other room.
mzsjL6p.png
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,778
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
potatojohn said:
It's an unredeemable turd.

Dude sees me in full light, but can't SEE me because I'm in cover.
Chaos Theory is exactly the same. Just press the body to wall button and puff! enemies dont see you even in enough light.

2gtw5xu.jpg


29ylfet.jpg



Also, are you purposefully running it on low gfx quality ? Because your screens look ugly like hell, and here in my rig it looks beautifull, exactly like this:

tom-clancys-splinter-cell-blacklist-screenshot-1.jpg


Blacklist_DX11_game_2013_08_24_03_33_02_494.jpg
 
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sexbad?

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sexbad
Codex USB, 2014
Also, are you purposefully running it on low gfx quality ? Because your screens look ugly like hell, and here in my rig it looks beautifull, exactly like this:
Knowing that it's a Ubisoft game, it probably won't run properly on select capable computers.
 

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