Splinter Cell: Blacklist trailer explains the game in exhaustive detail

There have been roughly seventy gajillion Blacklist trailers, all of which have merged in my memory into a grimdark blob of third-rate Bauerisms, torture, and static-laden TV screens. This latest one now supersedes its predecessors, by explaining every part of the game systematically over seven minutes. Unfortunately, it's delivered by a wet-blanket cliche of a wise-cracking nerd guy, with a voice so bland that it's impossible to focus on the information he imparts. Hopefully, your eyes will be able to fill in the gaps.

A complete aside: I'm still waiting for a bombastic, hyper-real drama that actually gets the depiction of media right. Skip back to 34 seconds in that video. Real YouTube would be stuck on 301+ views.

As aggressively off-putting as the tone seems to be, I enjoyed the fluid snappity neck action of Conviction. While it bore little resemblance to the original series, it was at least a better mechanical reboot than Hitman: Absolution. Blacklist looks to tread a similar light-footed path, so could well be an enjoyable action title, despite the dumb bits.

It's out August 20th/23rd, depending on the quaint traditions of your country's antiquated physical retailers.

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Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

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