PC

Ghost Recon is another fine Clancy shooter, and should satisfy fans of the series while remaining accessible enough to win a few new fans as well.

Game Description: Ghost Recon is a deadly game of intrigue and military combat, where you control a top-secret military strike force! Interact with dozens of different characters, including specialists that add distinctive weapons to your team.

The ultimate example of a difficult game to review, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell possesses the best of what modern videogames offer as well as some of the worst from the past. Unfortunately in this case, the bad clearly outweighs the good and prevents the game from reaching its full (and considerable) potential.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence

Serious Sam is an interesting little first-person shooter, developed by a little-known Croatian team, that created some buzz on the PC gaming scene and has now made its way to the Xbox. The Xbox edition is actually two games in one: the original Serious Sam, plus Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Suggestive Themes, Violence

Nightfire is exactly what I expected it would be. Full of Bond clichés and all of the predictability one would expect from the franchise, it's an unsurprising yet satisfying revisiting of the GoldenEye 007 gamplay formula.

Gene is right—Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is all about Thanatos. It's all about death, and the destruction and violence that surround it. But this is nothing new to games, and this is nothing new for game reviewers. As Chi brought up in his Dynasty Warriors 3 review, at some point you have to stand back and ask yourself why you receive such enjoyment from this gruesome spectacle.

Game Description: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell grants players access to the highest echelons of national security, where shadowy operatives have the freedom to do whatever it takes to safeguard America. The player controls Sam Fisher, a field operative of a secretive black-ops NSA subagency called Third Echelon. Sam Fisher is geared up to infiltrate high-security strongholds, seize critical intelligence, destroy threatening data, and neutralize the enemy—all without leaving a trace.

But for the first time ever, the developers of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell have tamed light and shadow to not only present the most groundbreaking lighting effects in videogame history, but to have it do their bidding. And they have effectively used light and shadow within the gameplay elements, validating the hard work and beauty of the game.