Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent

I am not a Tomb Raider expert - my memories go about as far back as playing the bulk of the original and its sequel at a friend's house, aged something like seven to 10 years old, and attempting to break free of the same demo disc level for a few too many hours on end. But what I've always taken from my fuzzy recollections of late-90s Lara is that one of classic Tomb Raider's defining traits is its precision. Jump exactly here. Land exactly there. Manually press a button to grab the ledge. If you miss you die - or at least get very frustrated. Read more

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory creative director Clint Hocking has suggested that modern-day advances in video game graphics have made it more challenging to develop stealth games. Thanks to the evolution of lighting over the years--like ray and path tracing--Hocking believes that the more nuanced shade and darkness levels present in games make it harder for players to read the digital room and see just how hidden they are when sneaking past enemies."I actually think one of the difficulties with modern stealth games is the sophistication in the rendering has made lighting so much more realistic,"

After regaining its independence from Microsoft, the veteran, esteemed game developer Double Fine has enacted a sweeping round of layoffs. Studio head Tim Schafer said the San Francisco-based studio laid off 23 people this week, which, according to reporter Jason Schreier, amounted to about 25% of the developer's total headcount. "As a small, tightly knit team, these actions are not taken lightly," Schafer said. "Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful move." He added that the cuts were directly related to Double Fine regaining its independence from Microsoft