Although Microsoft's main purpose during X02 was publicising the launch of Live, they also took the opportunity to impress upon the onlooking media the quality and quantity of upcoming Xbox titles. There are at the moment over three hundered seperate titles in for the system, and have garnered considerable third party support. This is mostly thanks to an impressive effort in courting developers from around the globe, and is helped along by some outstanding purchases in the form of developers and Bungie, amongst others.

One of the most impressive aspects of the software line up is the number of titles we see emerging that have the potential to be classics - games such as 2, Fable, B.C. and Knights of the Old Republic are as close as guaranteed hits as you can get in this industry. They are, if you like, the gaming equivalents of summer blockbusters. There were also a number of games on show at Seville that showed similiar levels of potential, despite not having perhaps quite the same profile.

Splinter Cell

Tom Clancy's is Ubi Soft's take on the genre. For those of you who loved Metal Gear Solid, but perhaps felt it was a little too arcade-like or else felt the story was an annoyance - take note, because Splinter Cell looks like it could have the answers.

The game uses the next generation Unreal engine, Unreal Warfare, and is played from a third-person perspective. You take control of an American covert operative, working for some shadowy government agency, with a mandate to sneak about and generally skulk in dark corners.

The on show at Seville began with your character standing outside an unassuming building. Sneaking around the side, a back entrance is quickly discovered, and the player makes his way inside. Facing you is a long corridor, with long light fittings breaking up the passage way into light and dark strips. Splinter cell is filled with great lighting, and this is one aspect that seperates this game from the MGS series. MGS, if you recall, never used lighting effectively or in a realistic manner. Splinter Cell, however, allows you to hide in the shadows, as well as manipulate local light levels through switches and shooting out lights. Your character has two special vision modes to give him the edge in the dark - a night vision mode, and thermal imaging mode. Both look pretty darn cool, and seem to form an integral gameplay component rather than a gimick.

Also available to the player are a number of cool gadgets, in the best 007 tradition. Two particular favourites of mine were the optical wire cam, and the sticky cam. The optic wire cam is simply a camera which views the world from the end of an optic cable. You can pass this cable under doors to give you a view of what lies behind before you enter a room - it's really a great touch, and works a little like those camera orbs from Thief II. The sticky cam is simply a camera you can throw and stick to surfaces, which can then be used to give a better perspective on your surroundings.

The graphics in Splinter Cell are superb, and extremely atmospheric. As said previously, lighting plays an integral part of the game, and it has a much more realistic look than MGS, which could look a little too stylized. In the demo the main character wore all black combat clothing, with numerous tool belts and pockets. The main character is also capable of performing a number of excellent maneuvers to complement his gadgets and weapons. He has the ability to suspend himself high up between the walls of a narrow corridor, to let enemies pass unsuspecting beneath, or else drop down on them to break their necks. Hostages can be taken and used as human shields, and of course a whole range of stealth weaponry is available.

Ubi Soft are promising nine massive missions set across twenty-six levels and four countries, and the levels will also include fully interactive elements such as retinal and fingerprint scanners. This is one of the real gems in the European release schedule, and should be released in the come November.