Splinter Cell: Conviction

Yes, there is a lot of bland cover based shooting and not enough sneaking, but it did not bother me too much. The single-player story is like a typical action movie - sweeping soundtrack, big scripted set pieces, fancy cinematics, implausible but gripping plot, and a bit too short. It was a bit confusing and difficult to follow, but that's no big deal.

Gameplay is solid but a bit formulaic, with tight linear levels lacking multiple approaches, and dumb AI that would do well to eat more carrots (they can't see in the dark). The stealth mechanics based around shadows and "last known position" work fairly well, but are a bit too arcade for my tastes. Multiplayer matchmaking is dead, which is sad as co-op missions seem like fun.

As for those who keep saying this is much worse than the old games like Chaos theory, I slightly disagree, its not significantly better or worse. I am OK with the slightly more streamlined and faster paced direction they have taken, the difference is not as big as many make it out to be.

As a console port, this is fairly good. There is sadly a checkpoint save system, but it is not as bad as in many other games. Otherwise, there are enough settings, no mouse acceleration and skippable cutscenes. On a geeky side note: the unreal engine used here is excellent as usual (allowing me to sleep my pc while fullscreen and later resume right back into the game in 1 sec).

Worth getting in a sale.