A couple of things...

So this new Blogger layout... I like it, so far.  That is to say from the log in screen to this message screen, I haven't explored it yet.  It is also interesting to note that there are changes about to happen at Wikipedia as well.  I wonder if it has anything to do with C.I.S.P.A.?  You know, the bill that passed the other day in the United States to do with the Internet.  Maybe, but I have told you my position on that and that is I could care less either way, I'm on the fence.  I find it funny that those who said S.O.P.A. and P.I.P.A. were a threat to freedom of speech are the same people who secretly want to take that, and other freedoms away.  Here in New Zealand the anti-file sharing law passed about a year or so ago now and the point of it, to try and fight file sharing or piracy, has pretty much fell flat on its ass as only about six people in this country have been prosecuted so far.  Before the bill passed, those who opposed it warned the policing of the law would be like Skynet from the Terminator movies.  They got together in downtown Auckland, in Aotea Square, and said so.  Only about fifteen of them as I recall.  For some reason, nobody else really gave a fuck.  Then later on Kim Dotcom got busted, around the same time as P.I.P.A. and S.O.P.A.... I can't remember which came before what but I know it was around the same time.

What I wanted to tell you all is that I am still alive but I do sincerely think that I might only have from a year to about two or three years at the most (three years is being very hopeful), left, to live.  Yes, the persecution has been a continuously gruelling experience every day for the last ten years and I still know there are ways out.  I think if it had of been anyone else, they would have to be super-human like me to have survived this long.  On the world stage, expect religion to influence more in our lives.  Now, just because I think and say that doesn't mean I am right because I could still be wrong but the writing is already on the wall, I know it.  Certain mind control religious cults are on the rise, on the up and up, and show no signs of slowing down to complete their quest for total control of everything and everyone.

Merry Christmas.

Splinter cell: conviction

So I must be one of the last Xbox 360 owners in the world to have completed this game by now but I did so this afternoon.  I hate having to experience automatic aiming and I hope my console doesn't get banned on Xbox Live because of it.  I don't want to cheat, I want to play the game according to my present skill and if my skill isn't good enough, then I have to improve... BUT NOT BY CHEATING!

The last mission is in the White House.  I doubted that the game before its release about three years ago would take the player there, but it does.  A very exciting mission, that whole level is a bloodbath.  Where else can I get my fantasies about killing the President of the United States?

Your character also visits the Third Echelon headquarters.  Now according to what I know, the N.S.A. is supposed to be all super secret so everyone who has played is left asking themselves whether that building in the game represents their actual headquarters in reality.  Maybe they don't have a headquarters at all?  I just loved spraying a big glass pane with the Third Echelon logo on it with my automatic machine gun inside of there, I also did the same to an American flag.

I think that's about all the spoilers I will reveal about what goes in the game.  Yes there is another Splinter Cell game coming... however it could be canned at any moment due to a five or ten minute phone call filled with atrocious swearing.  Splinter Cell games inspire patriotism in the United States and encourage recruitment within the N.S.A.'s ranks, but it also can serve as propaganda in still a time of war.  Splinter Cell: Conviction is the first game, except the very first Splinter Cell in which you have to infiltrate Langley, that goes where no other has gone before.  Conviction is not a complete stealth game, most of the time you are required to shoot up every tango in your sight.  Three interesting things I picked up about Conviction is the sticky cameras now explode instead of releasing some kind of gas, they play a patriotic song (could be the national anthem of the United States) instead of making a high pitched beep or siren-like sound to lure enemies to any trap and your character, Sam Fisher, does not have the ability to whistle to distract and trap enemies.  Playing through Conviction on the normal difficulty has inspired me to want to play through the older Splinter Cell games again.

So that's that.  Splinter Cell: Retribution is out this year I believe.  You can also read the books too, you should be able to find them in your local bookstore or local library.

Happy gaming.