Let's face it, Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher has traveled a rocky road. For a while he completely disappeared from the console scene. Sure, we saw him every once in a while, lurking in magazines or in a few videos (complete with Emo makeover). Now Sam has reemerged from his beloved shadows, and the developers at Ubisoft are here to share everything about his new abilities and the new features in Splinter Cell Conviction.

Check out the video above for a look at the new "mark and execute" feature as well as the "last known position" silhouette. And, of course, you can just admire Sam being a badass. Get to the watching.

GameStop is giving away the Palazzo Medici with a pre-order of Assassin's Creed 2. The bonus location for the stealth game is available with the purchase of either the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions. Both online and in-store customers will receive the code when the title releases.

The Palazzo Medici Ricardi is, like, a totally famous place and stuff. So, exploring it in the game for treasure is far more liberating and cheaper than flying to Florence and checking out the real thing. We also believe that, in the real building, they won't let you climb up the walls and sneak around.

Game Developer magazine (and its brainy Game Developer Research division) recently published its second annual enumerated accolades for the fine folks who make the games that you crudely jam into your home entertainment consoles -- or, in layman's terms, the "Top 50 Developers 2009" report. The rankings are based on how many games a studio created, the sales for those games, and their metacritic ratings. Quality of box art and amount of 'tude possessed by the games' protagonists, however, were not taken into consideration.

The results are utterly shocking -- for the second year in a row, Nintendo took top honors, with fellow money-printing organization Blizzard taking second place. Ubisoft Montreal skyrocketed from 12th place in the '08 report to third place in the most recent rankings. Regardless of your fanboyism for a certain developer, we think we can all agree -- in such a financially (and employmentmentally) challenging time, we're just glad to hear there's at least 50 game developers that haven't been forced to shut down.

The full list is posted after the jump.

[Thanks, Braz!]

Despite his comfy Jason Bourne-like turtleneck and new 'tude, Sam Fisher hasn't been able to reinvent himself as far as his aging body goes. Splinter Cell: Conviction will see our stealthy superdude slinking around in his 50s, an age mostly associated with dust and Werther's Originals. "He's pretty old, actually," a game dev told VG247 back at E3, further adding that Fisher would definitely be in his 50's for Conviction. Heck, we could only hope to look that good when we hit our 50s!

So, Sam, what's your secret? Centrum Silver?

Update: We spoke with Ubisoft's Michael Beadle who confirmed that Europe is receiving the limited edition listed below. When pried about a release in North America, he could only say "The U.S. has not announced any details about a Limited Edition of Assassin's Creed II."

Fans of Ubisoft's upcoming Assassin's Creed 2 will be able to show just how much they love the game by spending beaucoup bucks, as Kotaku reports the game is getting a rather extensive limited edition. The bundle -- which has been dubbed "the black edition" -- will include not only the game, but also a "holographic signature," 64-page leather-style book (not for recording your creeds, as it'll be filled with concept art and the like), game soundtrack, Ezio figurine, three in-game bonus quests, and some interviews.

It's only been listed in PAL regions so far, with a price of £69.99 in the UK ($115 USD) and $149.95 in Australia ($121 USD), supposedly. We've put in word to Ubisoft to confirm this, and even though a North American limited edition hasn't been announced, It's likely we'll see a similar package. We'll be sure to let you know what we find out.

Assassin's Creed 2 is Patrice Désilets' first sequel. If there's any anxiety or fatigue squirming inside of him, it's well hidden by an infectious enthusiasm and candor. Speaking with us during E3 2009 in Ubisoft's den (and thus, din), the creative director frankly discussed several issues with us, including one which you may have heard about, over and over again:

Joystiq: Do you mind if I go back to Assassin's Creed 1 for just a bit?

Patrice Désilets: Yeah, yeah, no problem.

So, that game comes out. You're reading the reviews and people are complaining about repetition.

Yeah.

What do you feel at this point? Do you agree with them?

Repetition for me is a point of view, really. Like, what is repetitive or not? You know, sometimes you go and play the same game over and over again and you are all right with the repetitiveness of it. And in AC1 some people just couldn't bear it. We listened to them while we were making the second one, but, I wasn't nervous or mad. What I was a little disappointed with was some reviewers, how they treated us. They have the right to their opinions and everything, but I felt like they maybe went too fast. But you know what? I also received [opinions that were] the other way around. People being really happy about the game. Doing it two, three, four, five times.

Sure.

And we sold some eight million copies of it, you know.

Eight million people can't be wrong?

It was no shock to anyone when Splinter Cell: Conviction made an appearance at E3 2009, but the new look and presentation for Sam Fisher's latest action adventure took us all by surprise. Gone is the sulky and in hiding Sam Fisher shown years ago -- replaced by an offensive powerhouse ex-soldier, searching for revenge. Adding elements with appropriate buzzword phrases like projected objectives and dynamic stealth, Ubisoft Montreal hopes to push Sam beyond traditional stealth action titles.

We had a chance to speak one-on-one with Ubisoft Producer Alexandre Parizeau to discuss the evolution of Fisher, how Ubisoft wants to change stealth and to compare Sam to everyone's favorite television hero, Jack Bauer.

When it was first released in 2002, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell focused on the military operations of the fictitious government organization, Third Echelon. Since 2006's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, the story of the franchise has shifted from the overall mission objectives to the character of Sam Fisher himself.

During a one-on-one interview with Ubisoft producer Alexandre Parizeau during E3 2009, we asked why the franchise has shifted focus to the character of Sam. According to Parizeau the answer is simple, after dealing with so much trauma throughout the series, Ubisoft Montreal wanted players to see how Sam's methods have evolved, which led to shaping Conviction's dynamic and offensive stealth gameplay. "He's not going to be the same person when he reacts to situations as he was when he was working for Third Echelon. It's a completely different scenario," Parizeau told us.

After the death of his daughter and the loss of others close to him, it seems that Sam Fisher is a man with nothing to lose -- and if the game continues to impress as it did at E3, Xbox 360 and PC gamers will gain a stellar (timed?) exclusive.

Ubisoft Montreal producer Alexandre Parizeau told Joystiq that gamers should not fear Splinter Cell: Conviction's new 'Mark and Execute' feature. Since first showing off the feature during Microsoft's Pre-E3 media briefing, Parizeau says some gamers fear the game will become too easy. "Have no fear at all," Parizeau told Joystiq during a one-on-one interview during E3 2009. "It's an added tool that lets you do the first step when storming a room or area or a situation. But you'll have all the tools that you used to use as well."

The 'Mark and Execute' feature allows gamers to mark enemies for death and immediately snap to the target, taking them out of the equation in one quick action. Parizeau says the feature was included to change the concept of what stealth has traditionally meant for players. "Stealth -- in the past -- has always treated the same way. It was more like a defensive tool," Parizeau said. "What we wanted to do is give tools to the player to be more on the offensive, but remain stealth." Comparing Sam Fisher to Jack Bauer multiple times during the interview, Parizeau says Ubisoft Montreal's overall goal is to make gamers feel like Fisher is the predator players expect him to be. Sounds like Badass: The Game to us.

Ubisoft has announced that its sequel to last year's multiplatform Shaun White Snowboarding is coming exclusively to Wii. Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal and is planned for a holiday 2009 release.

The move to a single-platform release may seem surprising, but it's made less so when you consider that the Wii version of the first game outsold other versions by nearly a 2:1 margin. We've contacted Ubisoft for comment on the decision and to clarify whether or not this news marks a full-stop for the franchise on other platforms. In the meantime, start waxing those balance boards.

Ubisoft Montreal's Sebastien Puel, producer on Assassin's Creed 2, is in charge of 450 people (still not confirmed if he drives a Dodge Stratus). Those 450 people, however, are in charge of bringing Ezio Auditore de Firenze to life before the Ubisoft-imposed March 10 deadline arrives.

Puel claims the group is roughly three times the size of the original crew of folks employed to create AC1 and that, among those folks, 75 percent have been kept on board from the nascent team. "Making [Assassin's Creed] from A to Z took around four years ... it's a very good thing we are keeping most of the core members who envisioned the first Assassin's Creed," he says, adding that the original team had "thousands of ideas" left out of the original project, ready to be implemented this time around. We've made no secrets about our love for the original and would be lying if we didn't express our excitement over getting to play it in a few weeks at E3 2009. Hopefully not all 450 developers will be demonstrating the game for us.

[Via Videogamer]

It's been quite a while since Far Cry 2 was released on Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC -- 203 days, to be precise, but who's counting? -- and just yesterday Ubisoft released a patch aimed at a game-breaking save problem. And we'd know all about it, as after 25 hours spent terrorizing the African wilderness, we were halted in our tracks by the save file corrupting-bug patched just yesterday.

Our bitterness is somewhat assuaged by the arrival of the promised "Hardcore" multiplayer mode, advertised on the developer's forums back in February. The team has also added the ability to play Rank matches, employing some of the more ... well-developed user maps created over the past half year. Unfortunately, while the (likely malaria infested) save bug has been squashed, the fix isn't retroactive and thus, those who encountered it are out of luck. As for you folks playing FC2 on a PC or PlayStation 3, the patch should be headed your way soon. Not 203 days ago-soon, but soon none the less.

Following an unveiling in Game Informer and the launch of an official website, Assassin's Creed 2 has spawned its first teaser trailer. This is typically a time of great excitement in the build-up to a highly anticipated game; it's when we usually get a sneak peek -- however brief -- at gameplay. Not so for AC2. How would you like some fancy da Vinci-esque sketches of random objects and a narrator who's been paid by the word in cheese?

Here's what we now know, based on the teaser: It's the Renaissance (yep, had that), science is big again, but the real truths? They "lie in the shadows ... written in blood." We're left to wonder if this is some sort of code. Do we need to do something involving shadows (we can handle that) and blood (no way!) in order to see the real teaser? Or, maybe, we simply resign ourselves to the fact we just got handed a heaping plate of letdown.

A trip to the high street may have resulted in an unexpected focus test for one of our tipsters, who says that he was shown very early footage of the next Assassin's Creed. It apparently looked similar to the first game, though set around the 15th century -- a few hundred years later. After the footage played, there was a Q&A session where it was revealed the story would incorporate a family feud and disguises would play a part in the game.

The focus testers were asked to decide on their favorite of three character designs. Each image had different colored costumes and varying numbers of pouches or bags for the main character, though the overall design was the same: Similar to Altair's, but more colorful and fitting for the time period. Under each image was the word "ezio," an Italian name derived from the word for "eagle." Fitting, for the series.

Our tipster also told us that he saw the protagonist swimming during the video -- something we've heard that Altair might've learnt since the first game -- and that he can "use gunpowder to propel items at people." The people conducting the focus test indicated that we might be seeing more of the game at E3 and that it will be in our hands late this year or early next. Of course, we've no way of confirming whether any of this is true, but it all sounds fairly plausable.

[Thanks, James]