Sam Fisher is back, folks and he's really been through a lot (especially after The Big AT Adventure). Those gamers who have experienced earlier Splinter Cell titles are bound to be surprised with what this one has in store.

The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is pissed off because of his daughter's murder and sets out to find the ones responsible. For him, it's personal this time. He breaks free of the clutches of the government agency Third Echelon and no longer answers to anybody, but himself. No rules, no orders... just Sam on his own. Also, he's a lot more aggressive now and will frequently march into action and hand-to-hand combat Bourne-style.

While Sam still relies on the safety of shadows and objects to stay hidden, he'll resort to violence and ferocious execution more often than before. A large part of Conviction and its innovative gameplay, depends on the new-fangled Mark and Execute mechanic.

Fisher tags his targets and at the appropriate moment, players have to press the execute button, which is when Sam leaps out of cover and straight towards his prey. This new moment is a very important aspect of the game. Apart from that, the game's stealth elements have severely been reduced, which means the main character doesn't have numerous meters or special vision to help him skulk around dark corners. It's all more, well, physical, in this installment. Brutal attacks and a variety of moves will be incorporated to allow Sam to make his way through plenty of well-guarded areas.

When progressing through the campaign, gamers are treated to Bourne flavored story-telling (yep, yet another Bourne comparison). In practice, it seems to work quite well with the new Splinter Cell gameplay and appears to add further cinematic flare to the whole ambiance. There's also the so-called projection technology that's actually quite an ingenious way of showing objectives. For instance, during the E3 presentation Sam looks across the street where there's an "Infiltrate the Mansion" sign placed across the building he needs to enter. Looks very cool really. This new feature represents a rather interesting change of overall visual style for the franchise. You can watch it in action in the E3 2009 gameplay trailer (we recommend you download the hi-def version of the movie).

That's sadly all the info we have for you now kids. Except, of course, that Splinter Cell: Conviction is going to be an Xbox 360 exclusive and should hit stores during Fall 2009.