1. Splinter Cell: Blacklist
No quid pro quo in this section. Welcome to pure ranting. Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory were among the best games every made. That's not just my opinion either. Look it up. All three were praised as the best games of their time. All three averaged almost perfect reviews. All three defined stealth action. Even the much less successful Splinter Cell: Double Agent was critically acclaimed and commercially successful on a level that most developers can imagine reaching. So what the hell is wrong with Splinter Cell: Blacklist? Well, take a look at Splinter Cell: Conviction. Notice a difference from that and the original four games? Do you see the ever so tiny change in game mechanic? Do you see how the developer practically threw away the entire stealth aspect of the game in favor of a magical "mark and execute" system of running around metal hallways with boots that apparently add +10 to sneak, and jumping out of cover to hit one button to automatically kill three bad guys. Let me reiterate. The game......played itself for you. A game that was the most successful stealth game ever, reinvented itself as an action shooter that killed the enemies for you. So what's my specific beef with Blacklist? What isn't my beef? First, any game that makes a blatantly desperate attempt to utilize the kinect by talking at it as a distraction tactic deserves to be vomited on by a Philadelphia Mummers parade. The older games already had an option to talk to the enemies to distract them just by hitting a button. What advantage does actually speaking provide? Do you think it will hurt their feelings? Second, Michael Ironsides had stepped down as Sam Fischer, allowing..........Eric Johnson to take his place. Yes, Jessica Simpson's boyfriend is now the voice of America's deadliest man. But those are just me whining. The real problem comes from the new "killing in motion" system. Using this system, players can now hit a single button, while running at full speed, to instantly kill a group of enemies. Now, this sounds similar to Conviction's "mark and execute", but there is one major difference. The player can now do this at full speed. Mark and execute at least required the player locate a tactically sound position, as they must remain stationary. Now, with "killing in motion" the game may as well be Splinter Cell: Call of Duty.