Splinter Cell:Blacklist or HItman:Absolution?

Yeah, I had no idea there was so much love for Blacklist. After Splinter Cell Conviction, my mind was pretty set on never bothering with the franchise again.

I love Blacklist. I think it got overshadowed by GTA V and whatever else came out around that time. Loved the single player, co-op missions and online modes. I’m just really disappointed it didn’t sell well enough for them to make any DLC for it as I would’ve loved to continue playing it but you can only play the same five maps so many times.

I thought there was DLC for Blacklist. Didn’t Ubisoft sell a set of maps you could play in a variety of modes, including a really cool yacht map?

-Tom

I suppose so, but that was all preorder DLC for co-op missions and possibly from the LE/CE. But none that they actually made after the game shipped.

Yeah, the Homeland DLC added a single player map or two. They put them on sale as well so I grab them for when they are just a few bucks.

Conviction was the last one I played. Infact it was the first one I’d played since the first two. I enjoyed my time with it and it wasn’t awful enough to turn me off of the series. Infact I even meant to go back and finish all of those standalone mission things.

What about the game turned you off of the series?

“It can’t be anyone from the inside; it’s gotta be Fisher!”

“Still don’t see Fisher. Are we sure he’s here, in Third Echelon?”

“No sign of hostile activity. Fisher wouldn’t try his luck here, that’d be fuckin’ crazy!”

“It’s gotta be Fisher!”

“Target is hiding. Be smart! Fisher’s a pro.”

When Fisher comes through here, he’s gonna be hit by so many rounds he’s gonna turn to soup."

“No sign of Fisher. I heard he kicked ass at Third Echelon, so we’d better get ready.”

“Area secure. Are we sure that Fisher’s in the Lincoln Memorial Zone?”

“Fisher’s on the loose! Fuck, you guys, we’re ready for war, and he’s gonna make fools of us again!”

“Show me how you did it back at the airfield, Fisher! Come Get Me!”

“First you left us at the Airfield, then you come to the fair? Come on, Fisher, it can’t be!!”

“You guys, if you see Fisher, shoot to kill. The guy’s an ex-SEAL, for fuck’s sake.”

“That’s right, Fisher, you’d better hide after what you did to Lambert!”

“Alright people, this is very simple. Some of you may have heard that Sam Fisher is somewhere around here.”

“Watch your back, guys - it looks like we might have a hostile. His name might be… fucking Fisher!”

(Yes, these are actual quotes from the game).

I just got so tired of hearing it. I never ever want to be affiliated with anything resembling Splinter Cell after that. It was just a constant barrage of belligerent white noise from bad guys who were going to get Fischer. I’ve never experienced anything like it any other video game, ever.

For those that weren’t bothered by it, I don’t even know what to say. My mind can’t even conceive of how anyone could not be bothered by it. So I guess I’ll never understand.

Mandatory reading.

I enjoyed Conviction, but Blacklist is a better game. With minimal enemy callouts.

Thanks for that. Some parts I said “hallelujah” on:

In Conviction’s case, enemy dialogue interacts with the rest of the game by fucking ruining it.

They do have a nice little trick of using dialogue unique to the current level; this probably isn’t too hard, as long as the same enemy personas don’t appear in different levels. Unfortunately, the implementation is blunt, and your enemies’ preoccupation with setting is just strange. “You’re gonna die here in this museum!” they shout, as if museums were the worst place to die. “This isn’t going to be like the airfield!” someone yells, a few levels after the airfield. Why do you think it’s different? Because I’m about to kill a noisy jackass at the Washington Monument rather than an airfield?

How could bad dialogue be a minor issue, when it undermines every situation in the game? The plot loses credibility when your enemies act like morons. The combat/stealthing scenarios you find yourself in stop making sense when your opponents are eager to tell you where they are.

Error.

Does not compute.

Kirk Hamilton (writer for Kotaku) actually typed in all the quotes in the game that mention Fischer:

Fisher-fest.

“You’ll die on your knees, like a scientist!”

Has any action game done NPC “filler” dialogue as well as the NOLF games?

Which I always found pretty funny, as the origin of ghosting was ‘giving away your position’, lol.

I think I have a game-adapted brain that filters out all NPC-quips. It’s the only way to play AAA games, especially ones with only 3 different things to say (Dishonored…), or any RTS game ever (“Reporting”). But I can completely see your point. Now that you’ve recalled it, I remember being highly annoyed by the NPC speak in it. But when I posted last all I could remember was stealthing about the place, and I liked doing that.

That blog post is great. I enjoyed reading it. It’s also a shame to see them compromising their design (i.e lots of fucks) due to ratings boards :(

Can you explain this more? It sounds interesting. I’m not aware of the origin of the term ‘ghosting’, especially with Thief.

Hahah this was a hilarious read, thanks. I knew there were many stupid quotes but I had no idea there were that many. The guy who does CAD comic even made one about this but I can’t find it at the moment. Anyway, what really prevented me from playing the game was the terrible black and white filter when you were hidden. Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking.

Pod: I believe that term comes from online fps gaming where one guy gives info on his teammates’ position to his friends on the other team, usually via out of game voice comms.

That’s the one, I forgot PA made and not the CAD guy :).

Ah.

Are we sure they’re the same though? There’s the ghosting you’re talking about, where a dead/spectating person talks out-of-game to their teammates. And then there’s ghosting a level. I think both are separate derivations but just happen to be the same word? We need a linguist, STAT.

Yeah, you’re right. Ghosting in stealth games means completing a level without getting spotted or leaving any trace of your presence there. They just happen to be the word, but I don’t know which one was ‘invented’ first.

Well, despite Blacklist taking 12 hours to download and another hour and a half to patch (really, Ubisoft, was it necessary to have your updater download and install 3 separate patches on 3 separate launches?), I’m glad I bought it. Of course I’ve barely had time to play it before going away for the weekend…

So you all convinced me to get Blacklist (now on steam daily deal). Do I want deluxe and the DLC, or does it ruin the main game by giving me OP weapons etc?