Two new PC games for review, I haven't quite finished either of them, but I am still prepared to review.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (9/10)
The Splinter Cell series of games continue to be on the cutting edge in terms of grapics and lighting effects. These games fall under the "stealth action" genre, and thus the lighting engine is not only pretty to look at, but critical to the gameplay, which demands that you stick to the shadows and out of sight. Gameplay has been expanded since previous titles, adding new attacks, new weapons, and new maneuvers, all of which is animated impressively, another great feature of these games. All in all the game is enjoyable and impressive to look at. The plot isn't as interesting as previous games, and at times the AI enemies can be excessively stupid, but all in all, it's a solid game.
Brothers in Arms : Road To Hill 30 (10/10)
This game was a great relief, coming off the incredibly retarded WWII shooters EA has been putting out lately. Not only does it do a great job simulating WWII infantry combat, it adds some new facets to squad based FPS games, and doesn't fuck up too much in the process. Any game with AI squadmembers runs a major risk of turning into Babysit The AI. Ghost Recon is a great example of this. The teams in Brothers in Arms aren't perfect, and you can't count on them to do too much, but they don't require much babysitting, and are definitely a major help to you, their squad leader. They take cover intelligently, they suppress what you tell them to suppress, they don't wander off. Generally if they die, it's because you told them to go somewhere stupid.
For me, gameplay basically boils down to me running around like a maniac, scouting shit out, finding something that wants to kill me, maneuvring my squads to suppress it, then going in and machine gunning it to death. Sometimes you have a tank at your disposal, in which case I sometimes ride on the tank and use its machine gun on stuff. Flanking is a big part of the game, and while the game suggests it wants you to send in your assault team, generally use both my suppression and assault team for suppression, and do the assaulting myself. They do an admirable job of shooting at stuff, and distracting it, leaving me free to go murder it from behind. Without them there to help, you'd not be able to do many of the missions, at least not with any reliability.