  Well, after my FP excitement, I guess it’s the usual time where I tell you about my weekend. Except, here’s the problem: *I did fuck all *I don’t want to talk about the football on Friday or on Saturday morning, where Man U’s decay concerned me for the first time ever *My film watching this weekend extended to Alien and Aliens.
So, apart from the continuing amusement from the Beckham’s (the President-Elect of Real wants him out, he apparently sent a text to Ms. Loos about “crouchless panties”) and Kevin Spacey being mugged in a park in the early morning (out watching badgers like certain MP's, perchance? ), not much to talk about. So, I guess I’ll tell you about my new favourite game – Splinter Cell. Oh, it is good. I like the odd bit of stealthiness, like Metal Gear Solid and Siphon Filter, but considering Siphon Filter was bollocks hard and MGS2 had less stealth, more talk about the nature of choice, I’ve been missing out. However, this is truly great. It looks fantastic, and apart from the usual 3D problems (guns barrels protruding through doors), works well. The sound is fucking great and essential to the game (hear a slight electronic buzz? Be careful, there’s a camera about). It all comes down to the gameplay, though. After the assault course at the start of the game, you’ll find the moves intuitive and be prepared for most of the situations in the game. It does follow the same Metal Gear Solid formula – shooting through a level won’t work because one guard can easily kill you.
There’s a handy light meter to tell you how visible you are and you have to be very careful when moving – the slightest sound can put guards on alert. Although smarter than the MGS guards, there are also some stupid moments – like when two were patrolling a room and kept meeting in the middle to discuss how quiet it was – the guard didn’t notice his mate was missing after I’d pulled him slightly into the corner with a gun against his head.
The level is difficulty is pretty hard, but not too hard – every time you die, you get a slight sense of where you went wrong. One thing I have noticed, anyone who say the advert for it will remember the split-jump, which allowed you to raise yourself in a corridor, held in place by your feet alone. I haven’t found a single situation where crouching around a corner isn’t a better option. 
