Alltern8 writer Adam Babloyan had the opportunity to put questions to the Ubisoft Montreal Team about the new Tom Clancy Game Splinter Cell Conviction

Alltern8: As I understand it, Splinter Cell: Conviction is Ubisoft Montreal’s first “next-gen” iteration in the series (the previous 360/PS3/PC Splinter Cell title being developed by Ubisoft Shanghai). How has this noticeable jump in the technology available to you impacted Conviction?

Ubisoft: Absolutely. Of course, it’s not the studio’s first next gen title; we can draw on the experiences of people working on great franchises such as Rainbow Six and Assassins Creed while we make our choices about how to best utilise the power of the X360. We’ve put a lot of that power into more detailed and subtle lighting, better effects and technical features such as Ambient Occlusion, enhancing the AI and physics systems. We can really push a lot further creating a more detailed, dynamic and beautiful world than ever before.

Alltern8: Since Splinter Cell’s inception in 2001, the traditional turnaround rate for a new title in the series has been a little over a year. However, it’s been 4 years since the release of the last Splinter Cell game, Double Agent. What’s taking Conviction so long?

Ubisoft: In short, we want to make sure that Conviction is a great entry in the series and lives up to your expectations. However, we also want to make sure that we don’t do exactly the same thing over and over; we want to innovate and push the fantasy into new territory. Whenever you are trying to innovate like that you have the risk that what you’re trying doesn’t work – however we weren’t going to let that happen with Splinter Cell Conviction, so we made sure we took our time and got it right.