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Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

thorns said:
Hm well, are there still checkpoints in the game or is it just quicksave?

Blim,

Can you answer this? Are there still checkpoints? It would be nice to only have to use the quick save when your having a hard time with an area.
 
Just got back from Gamestop with my copy. I didn't think it was coming out until Thursday. I just so happen to have the day off from work today too! Woo hoo!

Anyone looking for a game later should look for me and my friend.

uno ill nino
&
siamesedreamer

We'll be doing co-op for a while today, but I'm sure we'll have to hit up River Mall at some point.

FUCK YEAH! So glad its finally out. Gonna go play!
 
Man I got screwed.... :(

I didn't reserve the game at my local game store and now no one has the Collector's Edition. I'm going to have to wait a few more days while I order it off the GameStop website.

Ouch $64.99.
 
God, I hope GameRush got my copy in. I'm dying to play this in co-op! I hope next gen means more and more online co-op games for console!
 
Blimblim said:
I'm now half way through the 4th level. At first I did not like it because I though I could not use any killing moves against the
national guard
but then after some frustration I tried using one and it just stuns them without using the knife so everything is perfect. I'm not a big fan of the
infrared cameras
because I like being able to go to one place to another without having to worry about them, but otherwise it's a very nice level. Gotta love the
lift going up while you are mid way to the top of the building
Great game so far, thank god for quick save :)

If I were to give you a hint it would sound like this: The e-beam on the handgun is the single most important piece of hardware you'll need to get through this. Use it on everything.

It's much more subtle than shooting a light or a camera.

Oh And I hope that
the music in the penthouse didn't really irratate you

A really cool move that you've seen in the first trailer of SC3 is in it. Take out your SC-20k and bash a door. Much more tactical and usefull. Before you had to get rid your riffle and then bash the door. The new move is better if a guard is not near by the door and you still want that element of suprise.
 
I could've gotten a copy yesterday, but I wanted to hold out and get the Collector's Edition today (dman you EB Games). My phone was rining off the hook last night and this morning on the way to work via my cellular. People are going ape sh!t over this game. They say the co-op is aweosme and amust be experienced, and the online vs. is even better than the first time. I almosted turned the car around and called in sick, but I'm way behind on my projects.....DAMMMIT!!


I will have my copy less than 3 hours from now. I just need to stop looking at the clock and focus on my work. But Splinter Cell: CT is calling me like Pookie to a crack pipe....

;)
 
Got my CE this morning. That boxart is pretty hot. Much better than the regular edition, anyway.

Can't wait to try co-op and vs. tonight.
 
I need help here!

Is it better to go out now and buy the regular edition for $58.84, that means I will receive it within an hour.

OR

Should I go ahead and order the Collector's Edition off GameStop.com for $64.98 with overnight shipping which means I'll probably get it on Thursday at around noon.
 
First off, lemme say that CO-OP CAN BE DONE VIA SPLIT SCREEN! How fuckin cool is that? I had no idea until I fired up the game today.

That said, I left co-op alone for the time being because I'm waiting for my teammate to explore it with me. So I played some VS instead.

RIVER MALL:

Returning favorite. Its almost exactly how I remember it. Even the little tricks I used in PT still work. Good to see.

DEFTECH BELEW:

Again, just as I remember it. I think a few graphical changes have been made though. The forklift in the main courtyard now has really bright taillights for example. Unfortunately, a couple of my favorite mine placements do not work anymore. For example, the side that has 2 isolated terminals in the same room. I used to put a mine on the side of the computer that was right next to the terminal, and now I can't put one there. You CAN put one on the leg of the table its on though. Kind of a trade-off

NEW MAP (Missile launch):

Very big. A 3-part map that opens up as objectives are completed like the old Warehouse level. A spies paradise though cuz its really really dark. The best part though is that the objectives change in each zone. The first zone has you bombing a control panel, the 2nd has you stealing a harddrive and taking it to a briefcase for storage, and the 3rd zone is still a mystery to me because neither team got that far in any of our games. :)

NEW MAP (Barrels of fun):

Explosive barrels all over the place. I saw one and said to my buddy, "Hey I bet those can be blown up. Check this out." and I took a few paces backward before plugging the barrel.

...BOOM!!!!!

Big explosion goes off and fucking chain-reacts into all the other nearby barrels. I was completely fucked! I was laughing my ass off though. Very dangerous stage. Another really dark one too. Spies seemed to have a lot of little nooks and pathways to escape quickly into.


Weaponry:

SPY- Optic Camo- Can't run with it on! You have to be crouched and it only lasts a little while. Doesn't seem all that useful right now, but I can imagine scenarios where it could come in handy.

MERC- Melee- OUCH! That new 360 spin move can knock a spy right on their ass. Its awesome. They usually fly back a few feet and get knocked out for a bit, giving you just enough time to put on your gas mask and then hopefully get off some shots.

Gas Mask- Really restricts your vision. Its like going into widescreen mode with a little bit of a blurring effect. Its really cool to put one on though when a spy thinks they can just gas you out. Just remember to take it off ASAP though cuz it runs out. I think that's good though cuz it'll keep things balanced.

Other things I've noticed are that when you die, you respawn with full ammo/gadgets just like in PT, but this time you can only lay so many traps at one time. That kinda sucks IMO. Mercs literally have a mine limit. I think you can only have 3 out at a time. One of the great things about Pandora Tomorrow was that you could counter the Aggro spies by laying mines all over fuck when you kept respawning. This really messes that up. Time will tell how that effects things.



Gonna go play some more. VS is really cool so far and everything I wanted them to do more of with Pandora Tomorrow. I have a feeling that co-op is going to be even better. :D
 
Got the CE a few hours ago.

I've been messing around exploring the new vs. maps and holy shit they're fucking huge. There's one called Orphanage that's a three story mansion. The mercs are definately going to be tested on some of the new maps. They are also a little different as in some you have to bomb an area to open up the next area. One map has a train that comes crashing through a wall to open up the next area.
 
Scoot said:
Mine CE is staying shrink wrapped until people can confirm that the bugs from PT have been finally fixed and ironed out...

Ubi hooked you up? Or you scooted down to the store and bought one? ;)
 
siamesedreamer said:
Got the CE a few hours ago.

I've been messing around exploring the new vs. maps and holy shit they're fucking huge. There's one called Orphanage that's a three story mansion. The mercs are definately going to be tested on some of the new maps. They are also a little different as in some you have to bomb an area to open up the next area. One map has a train that comes crashing through a wall to open up the next area.

Actually Orphanage isn't all that hard for the Mercs. Since it's mainly a donut-shaped mansion with a central court with windows, you can
patrol it from the center AND windows. Have your mines and shit at the edge of the map like where the storage room is.
There's something about Chaos theory though. Communication and strategy is more required for both teams to win. And that's good ;)
 
Uno Ill Nino said:
Other things I've noticed are that when you die, you respawn with full ammo/gadgets just like in PT, but this time you can only lay so many traps at one time. That kinda sucks IMO. Mercs literally have a mine limit. I think you can only have 3 out at a time. One of the great things about Pandora Tomorrow was that you could counter the Aggro spies by laying mines all over fuck when you kept respawning. This really messes that up. Time will tell how that effects things.
Gonna go play some more. VS is really cool so far and everything I wanted them to do more of with Pandora Tomorrow. I have a feeling that co-op is going to be even better. :D

Personally i'm happy with the limit. The game is alot less cheesy now. You need better strategy and less luck wich is a good thing imo.
You are still able to put around 10-15 mines before the game refuses you to put more. It's quite alot.
 
Picked up the game this afternoon. Didn't pre-order so I couldn't get a Collector's Edition. They had TONS of copies in stock for XBox, and the CE for PS2 was behind the counter, but the guy told me they only got two CE sets in stock (for the two people that pre-ordered.)

I don't really mind though; would like have the CE, but it doesn't offer anything game play-related; it just has interviews/movies and such. If it had some exclusive maps, I'd be all over it. :)

The team behind Pandora Tomorrow did the Versus mode, right? It definitely feels like two games in one. It's also slightly disappointing to find that you can do split-screen co-op in SC3 on one system, but playing the spies/mercs mode is still restricted to one player per Xbox.
 
Got my Copy....wanna go thru the single player before i do any multiplayer tho.....although i would like to do some Online Co-op.

crazy that ubisoft could do online co-op yet bungie couldnt.

and yea Lyte Edge...Fuck spending 60 bucks on CE...
 
Dr_Cogent said:
Halo 2 would probably consume more bandwidth since more would probably be going on. But that's just my theory.

This quotes Cogent, but refers to Fixed2BeBroken's troll.

To suggest that Ubi one-upped Bungie in including online co-op in a single player environment is ridiculous. Have you played any Ubi Soft co-op online? The AI is completely static moving on proscribed paths throughout, far different than Halo's AI and far better suited to co-op play.

Maybe Halo 3 will dumb the AI down and then we can play online co-op against things traveling on fixed paths.
FUN
 
Scoot said:
This quotes Cogent, but refers to Fixed2BeBroken's troll.

To suggest that Ubi one-upped Bungie in including online co-op in a single player environment is ridiculous. Have you played any Ubi Soft co-op online? The AI is completely static moving on proscribed paths throughout, far different than Halo's AI and far better suited to co-op play.

Maybe Halo 3 will dumb the AI down and then we can play online co-op against things traveling on fixed paths.
FUN

Crazy that ubisoft could get Online Co-op and Bungie couldnt.
 
Lyte Edge said:
Picked up the game this afternoon. Didn't pre-order so I couldn't get a Collector's Edition. They had TONS of copies in stock for XBox, and the CE for PS2 was behind the counter, but the guy told me they only got two CE sets in stock (for the two people that pre-ordered.)

I don't really mind though; would like have the CE, but it doesn't offer anything game play-related; it just has interviews/movies and such. If it had some exclusive maps, I'd be all over it. :)

The team behind Pandora Tomorrow did the Versus mode, right? It definitely feels like two games in one. It's also slightly disappointing to find that you can do split-screen co-op in SC3 on one system, but playing the spies/mercs mode is still restricted to one player per Xbox.

doesn't the CE have the 3 levels that were from splinter cell expansion? Kola cell and the sub levels or something?
 
Yeah, me and Uno played about three hours on co-op. It took us that long to beat the first level. Its really fun exploring the stage for the first time together. The moves you can do are awesome.

We did have it boot us from Live several times. I'm not sure what the probelm was, but I guess other people are experiencing that as well. Also the framereate really dips horribly from time to time (especially in fire fights).
 
DopeyFish said:
doesn't the CE have the 3 levels that were from splinter cell expansion? Kola cell and the sub levels or something?

crap....are you serious? i thought it was just movies or some crap so i opted not to buy it though i could have.
 
Scoot said:
The game is already freezing? Explain.

I don't think he means freezing. It just suddenly boots you from Live in the middle of the level so you can't play co-op anymore. This also gets rid of your save point. It happened to us three or four times in the three or so hours Uno and I played. Twice it did it just after one of us had shot a sticky camera.
 
siamesedreamer said:
Yeah, me and Uno played about three hours on co-op. It took us that long to beat the first level. Its really fun exploring the stage for the first time together. The moves you can do are awesome.

We did have it boot us from Live several times. I'm not sure what the probelm was, but I guess other people are experiencing that as well. Also the framereate really dips horribly from time to time (especially in fire fights).

Good to know, thanks.
 
CO-OP Impressions:

Framerate gets totally "janky" during firefights. You'll notice this right away. I mean it grinds to a freaking halt. Not really just the framerate either, but the speed of the game too. Kind of a bummer. I'd have settled for less detailed graphics to keep a smooth game.

Guards do not always hear you. Even when you yell. Me and dreamer sat there yelling "HEY DICKHEAD!" at this guard standing 3 feet from us. He didn't hear a thing. Footsteps and other noises are detected like usual though. Gotta keep quiet for the most part.

The tandem moves are fucking cool as hell. The boosts, ladders, rapelling, etc. are all so fun to pull off and they open up new ways of entering situations. Very cool and very welcome addition.

Spies can trade items and weapons. Very cool. Unfortunately we couldn't figure out if you can give eachother ammo though.

Retinal scanners and door keypads can be hacked. Its kinda confusing at first, but once you understand it, it makes total sense.

Got disconnected 3 times. Kinda frustrating, but because it was all new, we didn't mind playing the level over and over.

Would be great if you could save halfway through a mission, then turn off the Xbox and come back later. As it is, I think you can only "quicksave" and retry when you die.

Bashing open doors into guards' faces is sooooo satisfying. And the KNIFE! Oh how the knife kicks ass! On several occassions we would have one guy lure out a guard only to have his throat slashed by another guy standing right outside the doorway. You can't help but feel completely badass when that happens.

Overall, its fun as hell. Despite the problems, its just hella fun to play it with a buddy. I really felt like we were a couple of thieves in the night. Its also worth mentioning that the music is great and makes you feel like you're really creeping around and up to no good. Great stuff. 1 mission down already, 3 to go. Really looking forward to them. :)
 
Yeah, I was referring to the game locking up and booting me out of live. Kinda annoying if you didn't remember to save..

It took me and a friend an hour to do the first co op mission.. not bad!
 
MOST EXCELLENT.

Headed out to Gamespy a bit bummed out over not being able to get the Collector's Edition but low and behold they had a few extra copies they were holding for customers and I scored one. Literally every store in the area was sold out, thank god for befriending the management.

Anyways guys I'll be playing this for quite a while tonight, at least I hope so. If anyone wants to play a round of Mercs Vs. Spied or Co-op (preferred since its new) let's get a game together!

XBL: TekunoRobby
AIM: TekunoRobby
MSN: TekunoRobby
Or you can PM me, looking forward to playing with the GAF crew.
 
OK first impressions.

The game is going to be fun I am sure, but 9.9? When did Ubisoft write the check for that one?

The game hitches significantly when the music kicks in sometimes. I don't ever remember it doing that in the last two games.

Sam Fishers looks in the face look a little cooky. It's not horrible by any means, but Sam has had better days.

The graphics are impressive. I have to learn the new moves. I can't seem to figure out how to zoom my gun in. Am I missing something? Did they cut this from the game?

I liked how Sam stuck to the walls previously. The new animations will take some getting used to.

I like what they have done with the vision modes and the new EMF mode. Very cool.

I could write something more detailed, but I have a life and a job so I will cut this short. All in all - I think I probably will be happy with the game. I have yet to dive into multiplayer even and I am anxious to see that.

I need to better learn the options I have in the game. It seems like things have changed a bit since the last version.
 
Yea, there seem to be a lot more options.

I only played co-op. I was annoyed at first because our first two games locked up, but after that (on a different connection) it was fine. Co-op is about as much fun as I've had in a stealth game. You feel very bad ass as a team. The levels are so large too....not as linear as past games in the least. There are constantly different ways to approach problems. Graphics are amazing and the physics are pretty cool as well.

Can't wait to play again.
 
HokieJoe said:
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but does this game have split-screen co-op on Live?

It has splitscreen AND Live coop, but it's only two players, so no splitscreen on Live.

siamesedreamer said:
Yeah, me and Uno played about three hours on co-op. It took us that long to beat the first level. Its really fun exploring the stage for the first time together. The moves you can do are awesome.

Yeah, my friend and I are about 2.5 hours into the first mission. If there are four missions (with more coming via downloadable content) and each can last a few hours, that's definitely a worthwhile purchase for me right there. The coop stuff is great. The Sam Fisher single player campaign and 2vs2 modes are just bonus.
 
ZOOMING the gun in VS mode requires that you double-click the right analog stick now. And it only works with the assault rifle. No zoom for shotty or SMG.

Don't know about 1P cuz I haven't touched it.

Zoom in CO-OP is just one click, I believe.

Notice that you can hold your breath with the left trigger to aim steady for a second. :)
 
Uno Ill Nino said:
Would be great if you could save halfway through a mission, then turn off the Xbox and come back later. As it is, I think you can only "quicksave" and retry when you die.
You can save in story mode only. These saves are not lost if you are disconnected, you just load it and it automatically asks you if you want to invite the guy who was playing the game with you. It sucks it's only for story mode, but I'm quite sure there will be a patch to fix some of this.
 
pretty cool that the AI isnt cheap anymore where if u get spotted and u run to another area in the dark where the AI cant see you...thier eyes dont magnetically follow you...

more realistic that way.

it was so cheap how in like PT youd get spotted, run in the dark and run around the corner and the AI still knew where u were and where to aim.

Uno Ill Nino said:
ZOOMING the gun in VS mode requires that you double-click the right analog stick now. And it only works with the assault rifle. No zoom for shotty or SMG.

Don't know about 1P cuz I haven't touched it.

Zoom in CO-OP is just one click, I believe.

Notice that you can hold your breath with the left trigger to aim steady for a second. :)

zooming is 1 click in single player and the left trigger has done that since the first SC.
 
Not sure if I'd rate the game a 9.9, since this really is just more of the same, but DAMN if isn't done incredibly well. :)

I haven't even touched multiplayer yet; currently on the fourth level of story mode and am absolutely loving it. The level design, AI behavior, and being able to save ANYWHERE makes single player a hell of a lot more fun now. I didn't care for the single player one bit in Pandora Tomorrow, but I expect to have the game finished within a day or two, and then there's multiplayer to make it last a good long time. :D

Why the hell isn't this game 480p?
 
yea lyte i gotta agree, alot of the things in this game is done so well and alot of the little annoying things have been fixed like the BS Ai and the Automatic door opening and closing retardness.
 
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