Splinter Cell Essentials

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Sam Fisher survives the squeeze into portability

The designers also had to take some creative steps to get around the PSP's more limited controls. Without a second analog stick, players have to hold down a button to move the camera. In fact, nearly every button has a second function; tap one to put on Fisher's goggles, for example, or hold it down to make him flatten against a wall. And if you nudge the analog stick to start sneaking, you'll keep sneaking no matter how far you push it (ditto for running).

Other trade-offs aside, one of the most important aspects of Splinter Cell will be included on Essentials: the innovative spies-vs.-mercenaries multiplayer mode. It's been pared down to a one-on-one match and can only be played with an Ad Hoc connection (meaning no Internet play), but hey, it's portable. Now if they can just fix the screen brightness (which, in our version, was so dark that it actually made the game hard to play under direct lighting), this could be worth grabbing when it lurches out of the shadows.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.