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Wow! I finally landed the Skull Island Jet Challenge :D. Nobody's ever landed this before, and I'm not surprised. It was incredibly difficult. Thanks to Waken4Productions for the idea (check out his Just Cause 2 videos, they're amazing). All footage is from the PC version with the maximum graphics settings.

Just Cause 2: Best Jet Stunt Ever

I was watching a few Double Agent MP videos today and I seen a number of different things that I liked, and greatly preferred to CT. There's a minor change to poles and zip lines that makes them much more functional; you can grab them from any angle. The best example of what I mean is at 1:36 in THIS video. It just makes them that little bit easier to grab, because you can't just go to the side and miss for example (I'm sure this is already addressed since you're working with a new engine, higher production standards and things, but I want to make sure these kind of things are in place :)). I also noticed that when he jumps off the zipline shortly after, he has free control in the air instead of an inflexible, straight fall with like you have in CT. The mini-map in the top left of the screen and the objective markers which show up through walls also seem very functional and pretty cool, it would be really nice to see those in Project Stealth.

I've also noticed a very cool variation of jumping/neutralising a mercenary at 1:46 in THIS video, where you automatically swing your legs into the head of merc as you grab a ledge, providing they are close enough. There are also dropzones for equipment shown at 2:42, allowing you to restock and change equipment at any time which also sounds pretty interesting. I also like some of the little things in this; when you're moving at the slowest speed, if try to move backwards you actually step backwards instead of turning around; this can be seen at 6:04. Also it may just be me, but the 'jammer' seems like a far more balanced solution than alarm snares in terms of disrupting sound indicators on the HUD. Alarm snares can be placed in any location very easily, almost too easily in my opinion, whereas Jammers seem much more balanced in that the spy must take care to hide them, and physically place them rather than using their gun. Although, a nice addition to the functionality of Jammers would be the ability to throw them onto walls (with realistic range). Also, the fall recovery time also seems much more balanced in DA than CT, as can be seen near the end of the clip. This would remove the need for instant recovery which CT players use to their advantage all the time, so it's important that the recovery time is balanced.

The presence detector (minus the heartbeat/movement effect which crippled DA MP) seems much better than the current sound indicator, in that instead of showing WHERE the sound is coming from, it shows how loud the sound is, which in my opinion could provide a little bit of necessary balancing against the merc. I've always felt that CT's sound detector is overpowered to be honest; I think it's much more interesting, immersive and skilful to make the player listen to their surroundings, rather than telling them exactly where the sound is coming from. The effect can be seen in THIS video at 1:25. The mercs also climb ladders much faster in DA as seen at 1:49, which I think is a big improvement on CT. The sniper rifle at 3:10 definitely seems a lot better. Also, I hope it takes much less time to enter the sniper rifle in PS than it does in CT. The CT sniper is just incredibly clunky compared to those found in more modern games; it's very swingy which caters to analogue control, not mouse control, the scope isn't very good either. I LOVE the statistics shown at the end of the round (they can be seen at the end of the video). Not only do I think that they could be an fun, interesting addition to the game, I think they would actually help players to diagnose how much they're using their equipment, how stealthy they're being, and other useful aspects of their game, allowing them to improve their playstyle if something doesn't seem right. Another thing mentioned in the video is that the rifles have unlimited amounts of ammo, except obviously you still have to reload. I was thinking about this and really, the only times I find myself running short of ammo in CT is if the spies are stupidly running around close up to me in my line of sight. So because of that, in CT it almost feels like mercenaries are punished for having to use up their ammo, because the game forces you to run all the way to an ammo box despite dealing with opposing spies as best as you can. This wastes valuable time, and could potentially cost the mercenaries the round. This begs the question, are ammo boxes really necessary?

There's plenty of other things I've seen in DA that look really good and set it apart from CT in very good ways, but most of these changes and additions have already been mentioned countless times before (escape moves, ghost tutorials, and other things). How do people feel about these aspects of DA being implemented into Project Stealth? Everything's open for discussion :)

UPDATE: Sorry about constantly editing this post for the last hour or so, I just kept getting new ideas and since nobody has posted a reply so far, I hope it's been okay :P

I was thinking about the fact that when you chaff a mine, sometimes you have to use you thermal vision to check it's disabled. Would it not be better for the red light to turn off for proxies/lasers, and maybe for the poison mine to fade to black? That way you can disable mines without mercs spotting you on EMF, or losing sight of the distance by changing to thermal.

Could anybody upload the driver if they still have it? I want to unlock my FPS in CT Versus :)

If a ranked mode is being made, another interesting category in the rankings could be a 'challenge' section. This would be based upon how many points you have gained from completing challenges. Completing a challenge could give the player a set number of points, which would vary on the difficulty of the challenge. Every time the player completes a challenge, their ranking would increase. These challenges could be completed more than once, allowing the rankings to increase forever. Challenges such as 'complete a round without losing any lives', 'complete all the objectives by yourself', 'disable all defences (hackable cameras etc)' and 'remain undetected' would add replay value to the game, and give players something more to aim for (which may also motivate players into trying different play styles).

Spy Challenges

Artistic (Roll through 100 laser defences)
Betrayal (Ledge grab a mercenary, and throw him onto his team-mate)
Brute Force (Complete a total of 100 objectives)
Commando (Neutralise 25 mercenaries)
Disgrace (Kill a mercenary with his own Mine)
Electrified (Shoot 200 mercenaries with the Sticky Shocker)
Hangman (Perform 25 inverted neck breaks)
Heart Breaker (Detect 25 mercenaries with the Heartbeat Sensor)
Manipulation (Plant 50 Alarm Snares)
Ninja (Remain undetected throughout the match)
Panther (Neutralise a mercenary from a Walljump)
Saviour (Grab a mercenary who has pinned down your team-mate)
Sedatation (Gas two mercanaries with one Sticky Camera)
Snap, Crackle & Pop (Perform 50 neck breaks)
Stalker (Hack 5 mercenary voice-communications)
Strike! (Strike attack a crouching mercenary)
Team Player (Perform 50 co-op interactions)
Technician (Disable all defences - hackable cameras, mines etc)
Till Death Do Us Part (Choke a mercenary to death 5 times)
Vertigo (Perform 25 ledge grabs)

Mercenary Challenges

Beserk (Kill 25 spies with the Beserker move)
Boom, Headshot! (Kill 50 spies with a headshot)
Charge! (Charge down 25 spies)
Double Nade (Kill two spies with one Grenade)
Hero (Kill a spy who has your team-mate in a choke-hold)
Humiliation (Kill 25 spies with the Finisher move)
I See Red... (Detect 25 spies with the Laser)
Laserdeath (Kill 50 spies with the Laser Mine)
Multi-Kill (Kill two spies with one Bullet)
Poison (Kill 50 spies with the Poison Mine)
Proxify (Kill 50 spies with the Proxy Mine)
Resourceful (Refill the supplies of 25 team-mates with the Backpack)
Spy! (Track 25 spies with the Spy Trap)
Turbulence (Detect 100 spies with the Motion Tracking visor)

Global Challenges

Baby Steps (Win 25 rounds)
Blur (Complete a match within 3 minutes)
Godlike (Stay alive throughout a match)
Medic (Heal 50 team-mates)
Unstoppable (Win 2 rounds in a row)

Note: Each progressive challenge can be beaten again, just multiply the number by two. For example, the 'Medic' challenge can be beaten again after healing 100 team-mates.

Just read a preview on Gamespot which you can read and watch HERE, which shows different ways of infiltrating the mansion of the E3 Demo. Each method basically utilises the same techniques, but by watching the video preview you will find a few ways of playing the game discretely. Firstly you can still grab gaurds, take them to a safe place, interrogate them and neutralise them. This suggests that you won't always have to be on the move as the E3 Playthrough portayed.

Another small but rather key thing I noticed about the game is the the level design. When you climb up the wall to the mansion window, you don't have to take out the gaurds using your gun, nor do you have to use the particular window. There is a window further along the ledge which you can use to enter the mansion into cover. I doubt these are the only things that the Dev Team will have implemented to support Full Stealth in Conviction, what do you think?

Update: Found THIS preview on IGN, boosts my confidence a bit more too, don't really get that from reading the comments of senseless trolls on the Ubi forums I suppose :P.

I have been following up on Conviction for a while now, and I thought I would check out Gamestation and Play.com to see if they posted the release date, I wasn't disappointed :).

The Xbox 360 release date hasn't been updated yet (they still say it was released five days ago :P) but the PC release date has been updated to the 31st of October, 2009. Click here for proof.

On Play.com the release date is different, they say it will be released on the 25th of October for the Xbox 360/PC. Click here for proof. Apparently you get a torch too, sounds exciting :D.

[Splinter Cell Conviction.]

To anybody who watched it, how awesome was that? That motion controller everyone has been wondering about, we're the controller, this kind of thing has been done with Eyetoy before, but not to the extent of what I seen today, it was amazing.

But the main reason I watched it was for Splinter Cell Conviction. Not only did we see a trailer for the game, but we also saw a few minutes of gameplay, played live, and I have to say it looks amazing! If I was sceptical before (which I think we all were) I don't think we have anything to worry about now. It seems to me like it's kind of similar to a free roaming game, but not exactly; you can travel through this sort of city, and there seems to be a lot of diversity in how you can go about that. One thing that was really cool was when Sam walks along a side walk near the sea, however at the end of it there's a gaurd in the way of the building he must access. So the guy playing jumps over to hang on the ledge, shimmies along and pulls him over, and then he's in! I am very thankful for the changes that they have made, it seems to me that you can implement even more stealth into your play style than ever before, but if you don't want to do it like that, then the possibilities of assault look awesome. When you use a gun it's got this kind of stylised automated aim system, which for a game like this seems appropriate to me. I feel that no longer will you have to slowly turn towards a guy trying to aim at him, from what I could tell it's very fast paced, and it wouldn't be inappropriate to relate the pace to that of the Bourne series, this game just looks amazing!

But past the premise of the game, the technology looks fantastic. The graphics are great, as are the animations, and it seems to have a lot more feel to it than the lifeless demo of the old Conviction. There's an animation or two that felt a bit weightless to me, but I'm sure that Montreal will iron that out. It's out in fall this year and I can't wait :). In my opinion, this could have the best Single Player yet, but we still need to hear more about the multiplayer, as that is where the real replay value of this game will come to life.

Update: IGN has got an article up, interesting read. It also has uploaded gameplay videos showing what was shown as E3, they've edited it a bit and it's footage of the live playthrough that was done at E3, but it's the same level and the same method used to traverse it :). It is also mentioned that there is an extended walkthrough at www.splintercell.com in that IGN Video, but it's not up yet, that could be either the whole level as we saw in the press conference, or maybe even more footage that we haven't seen before!

Article - http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/988/988445p1.html
Gamespots Article (more information) - http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6210610/splinter-cell-conviction-updated-impressions?tag=top_stories;story;1
Trailer shown at E3 Press Conference - http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/902601/tom-clancys-splinter-cell-conviction/videos/splintercell_trl_e3_060109.html
Gameplay shown at E3 Press Conference - http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/902601/tom-clancys-splinter-cell-conviction/videos/splintercell_conviction_e3_gameply_052909.html
Gameplay shown at E3 Press Conference (with IGN commentary) - http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/902601/tom-clancys-splinter-cell-conviction/videos/splintercell_videopreview_.html
The E3 Live Footage Trailer/Gameplay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2gp3upKEz0
Ubisoft Interviews Before E3 - http://splintercell.uk.ubi.com/conviction/#/conviction_goes_to_e3_part_1/
Extended Gameplay (Login to Ubisoft) - http://splintercell.uk.ubi.com/conviction/#/gameplay_reveal_video/
Gamespot interview and playthrough - http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6211058/?tag=top_stories;play_btn;4

I think the spies could gain one of the co-operative moves from Splinter Cell Chaos Theory co-operative mode. At certain places in the maps you play on, you would have the ability to lower your team-mate down things like for example, vents. You could even have the ability to lower your team-mate off the edges of surfaces to lower ground. This would allow you to access places in the map more quickly than travelling there yourself, or have the ability to hack certain objectives with more ease.

Say for example you are in Clubhouse, on the roof. There could be a hole in the wall of the building so that you can get under the floor from the roof, but the drop is high. This would require you to lower your team-mate, which gives the player quicker access to get below the floorboards of the first floor, but decreases the amount of time you have to split up and do things by yourself. This would mean you have to judge what is the best option based on your current situation.

There may be a hack in Jacuzzi that you want to access from the top floor of Lunch Room, so that you can hack Jacuzzi and then rise up to Lunch Room to hack the laptop in there and protect your friend with ease. However, when hacking while being lowered, the team-mate lowering you is exposed, and it's harder for you to escape. This again could arise some important tactical decisions.

What do you think?

Post any cool videos? Got a base of viewers that you wish to expand? Or maybe you just want to be in with it and post your account for the fuck of it :P. Well I'm posting mine, I stunt, record (with the replay tool then do my own camera angles using them) and edit GTAStunting videos and have been editing with Vegas for about 2 years :>.

http://uk.youtube.com/user/justanotheraccount

I think we should have some multiplayer maps that play a little like co-op missions, but in a SvM environment. Take for example Lighthouse in Single Player on CT, on this map Sam keeps moving forward to his objectives and meets NPC's along the way, and he has a few options. He can kill them, knock them out, or use tactical stealth so that he doesn't cross their path. Imagine mercs in these maps in the same situation as the NPC's. They would have limited access to gadgets at first - only things like torches to pick up as a light source, and a gun or two to make sure the spies don't cross their path, but as the spies do progress through the map, the mercs equipment starts to become a little more advanced, a bit more - end of Bathhouse advanced.

Edited in after comment by Frvge:
The stages don't have to be too limited in terms of space, but the spies have to progress with their weaknesses too. The spies advantage is not really their gadgets, but more the environment at their disposal. The less equipment the mercs have to use against the spies, the less environment the spies have to use against the mercs. Then as the stages progress mercs get more equipment, but the spies have more environment to use against them. This would make the way the spies use their environment more interesting, and considering the equipment available for the mercs and the environment at the spies disposal become more advanced as the stages progress, this interest would continue to exist.

Continuation of original post:
Lets say for example you disable the mercs and the area is clear, you move on to the next stage and the mercs can spectate you both as you make your way there, or if the spies sneak their way past the mercs they will respawn at the next area, but as the spies are already there they have seamlessly made their way into the next stage.

This is a completely new mode, which at the moment I haven't put much thought into at all, it was a spur of the moment thing after a long night of fun ;D. Although, I would like to hear your thoughts, would you find this an interesting take as an alternative to standard SvM, or do you think it would start to become a little samey just like normal co-op game, due to the mission like structure. I personally don't think so, since the A.I would become G.I, Genuine Intelligence. This would mean the oppositions tactics really would change every time, and I think it would be very interesting, thoughts?

Remember all those times that you rolled off something towards the height of a vent, but you will grab on instead? What about all those times you jumped off something into the height of a vent... but you grabbed on instead? I suggest that this should be fixed by doing the following:

Any falling animation (From jumps, Rolling down etc.) that passes a vent should give you the option to press the spacebar (Jump button, Pull ups etc.) at the height of that vent, this would initiate the following outcomes, if not timed correctly these outcomes will not occure. When the falling animation (falling from jumps, ceilings, and other things when your arms outstrech in the fall) occurs, you would press the spacebar at the height of the vent (the middle area) and softly land in the vent, arms outstreched to help pull you in. If you fall in the rolling animation you would press the spacebar at the height of the vent (the middle area), your hands would strech out to grip at the interior of the vent and use that grip to pull you in, this would cause you to roll again which makes a noise, unlike the other animation.

Any height gaining animation (Jumping, Wallrunning, Coop) that gains into the height of vents should give you the option to press the spacebar (Jump button, Pull ups etc.) at the height of that vent, this would initiate the following outcome, if not timed correctly the outcome will not occure. Your hands would strech out to grip at the interior of the vent, pulling you in not softly, but you would not roll. This means unlike the rolling falling animation, there is only slight sound occurance.

I can't think of any similar situation like loosing or gaining height past a vent, but if there is one the same rule should apply. Also ofcourse, you would have to be directly by the vent for this to work, and I also think that you should not stop stationary after this animation or any animation, always let the movement continue to flow, thoughts?

I had a brilliant idea just spark in my head, 'Visit the Location' Mode.

This would essentially be the Film Makers Paridise. 'Visit the Location' would allow a complete freeroam of maps, and much more. Give the Film Makers many options, freecam, no HUD, weather adjustment, ability to place props, record 'demos' of their action so they can come back to the scenes they have created and edit them later using many different camera angles that would be acheivable through this method, and things like that. You would spawn like normal, 2 spies and 2 mercanaries (possibly 3 depending on the choice PS team makes) and each player would be able to use these tools at their own discretion.

Let me give you a scenario, we are playing Vertigo Plaza on this mode, one of the mercanaries decides to pop into freecam mode and the 2 spy players and 1 mercanary meet up and discuss their film idea and then they organise how everything is going to happen. Then the freecam mercanary gets in position, ready to record the action. He decides to turn the HUD off and change the weather to a night time scene, allowing for a darker feel to his movie. Reason he wants the darker feel is the storyline is one of the spies is a Double Agent, working for the mercanaries, giving the mercanaries details of the spys details, and eventually the Double Agent will be foiled in his plot by the legitamate spy.

You see you would be able to record ideas like this and have so many possibilties in this mode :D. Maybe you could have a feature where the freecam guy presses a button, this would make a countdown like '3, 2, 1, ACTION!' so he can syncronize the scene correctly. Maybe beforehand, you could set paramaters so if a spy steps over a boundary you have placed, your angle switches to a angle you have predetermined earlier and saved, which would be triggered by passing these certain points. But you wouldn't be able to see these when recording, only your actors would be able to see the paramaters you have placed, this is so they can have a better idea of what exactly they have to do, yet the cameraman can record without having to see these making the scene look fucked up. I think this would fucking own, don't you? :D.

Another thing about 'demos' is, we should really be able to record 'demos' of normal matches too, it would make stealth movies of matches etc. SO much more interesting, I'd love to see a feature like this.

I dunno about you people elsewhere but 40 minutes for us guys in the UK!

What you all getting, I know this is all a bit off topic but hey, it's Christmas :D.

Im getting Guitar Hero 3 and Skate on Xbox 360, Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 on PC, and some other stuff :D.

I was looking at a HL2 mod which is unreleased as of now... but it has a very good system to do with modelling and I thought the team might like to know.

Basically, what they do is anyone just makes a model of certain types, they will name something to model, in simple terms, for example in PS it could be 'Night vision goggles' and anyone can see in a list what needs to be modelled and submit a model they have made, if the team likes it they can use it, and if not they don't use it, and these models could come from anyone.

There could be a database system which this mod doesn't use, this bit is my idea, you could have a FTP server or something like that, have folders named 'Characters' 'Equipment' 'Lights' etc. and people could upload a model into these folders, this way all the team could just download any new entries and check them out easily.

The modification which uses this system gets lots and lots of models in every week and I think it could be sucessful on this modification too, what do you think?

Okay I'm back again hi :D.

But that's besides the point, or is it? I went on CT today to try and get back into it, to find I was overwhelmed by how experienced some players have become. So like some other games have used I was thinking, you could optionally match someone to a player of their skill sets, I wouldn't make it compulsary, or have something that actually marks that persons skill, like Halo 3, just something they could optionally select to find a match with someone they can easily work with.

But as I said this could be optional, so say they want to play with some more experienced guys and learn community tactics, or just get in straight off the bat, they could search matches as normal, ways this could be implented is Quick Match > Matchmaking. Custom Match > Your choice. What do you think, personally I think it could work but ofcourse, im not the one making the game :P.

I think the best solution would be to have the host select what kind of skill his server is. People do it in server names, might as well officially support it with an additional descriptor of the server and free up the name for something meaningful.

The above is a brilliant idea too!

You know me, teh ston3 :D. I can do all of the other section, and possibly concept art.... get back to me ;)
Sig for contact info, i made a menu select sound if you want to hear it
EDIT- Exact info

Sound engineers:
Task: Creating music and sound effects.

Testers:
Task: Testing pre-release versions.

Recorders:
Task: Creating concept footage for the modellers from the original Versus Mode.

Concept Artist:
Task: Creating visuals for the modellers to work to