Where In The World Is Sam Fisher?
Splinter Cell: Conviction Satellite Searches Malta, Then Washington D.C.
by dkpatriarch
© 2009 David Hilton
UPDATE 28/05/09: The final video trailer (or bullet hole) has led the satellite to Staples Center and Convention Center in Los Angeles, which is also where E3 2009 will be. Our team heading out shortly will investigate and see if they can catch up with the elusive Sam.
Where in the world is Sam?
When I viewed the fist part of the minimalistic new trailer for the long awaited (and long MIA- Missing In Action) Splinter Cell: Conviction game from Ubisoft, I was excited by the locale.
The Maltese Islands in the middle of the Mediterranean are not a bad spot to get lost, hide from the world, and work on a tan. A world-weary Sam Fisher seems to have done just that.
Malta has an incredibly deep and exciting history that has etched itself onto the islands from its Baroque architecture in the capital Valletta, to the medieval alleyways of Mdina, and to the various ancient stone ruins dotted around the rocky land. It’s a perfect place to explore in a video game, in my opinion, and the environment could be a bit reminiscent of the stony Jerusalem level in Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow we had last gen.
Except the Ubidays images for Splinter Cell: Conviction a long time ago featured a bum-like Sam in Washington D.C., American flag waving as the sun set and everything. So it came as no real surprise that the next installment to the drip feed trailer today had the satellite return to American shores and focus on Washington D.C.
My excitement at seeing Malta as a possible location dulled as I realised that this game will probably be among the hordes of games set in the USA.
With any luck there will be multiple locations, but some websites think that there may be an open-world city.
The ironic thing for me is that I’m currently reading James Rollins’ The Last Oracle, which has the super spy (and scientist) Gray Pierce approached by -yes- a bum in the National Mall, near the Smithsonian Castle and down from the capitol building, in Washington D.C. (in other words the exact satellite image the second Conviction clip ends with).
Mind you the bum in the book isn’t the spy and he’s promptly assassinated by a sniper. There is a lot of description of the various museums and buildings though, and to be reluctantly honest, it seems like a cool area for Sam Fisher to also be pan-handling (or whatever he ends up doing).
Still, I hope that Malta isn’t just his cut-scene out of retirement before the game proper and that we do have a variety of locations to play in. Tune in May 28 for the next snippet of the trailer, and E3 for (hopefully) full disclosure.
© 2009 David Hilton
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Filed under: Console gaming, Editorial, Game Impressions, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 3rd Party Games, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | "James Rollins' The Last Oracle, "Splinter Cell: Conviction", Baroque architecture, Malta, Mdina, OXCGN, Ubidays, Ubisoft, Valletta, Washington D.C.
UPDATE 28/05/09: The final video trailer (or bullet hole) has led the satellite to Staples Center and Convention Center in Los Angeles, where E3 2009 will be.
Our team heading out shortly will investigate and see if they can catch up with the elusive Sam.