U don't simply uplay - iameven.com
I love Splinter Cell Blacklist, I'm just no fan of its container
People didn't like steam at first either, it was buggy, had and still have DRM and Valve can decide to lock down your account if you don't behave, thereby making you lose your games. Now however, it is awesome; a single access to your games library that follow you and not your computer, awesome discounts and sales, automatic updates and preloading of games so you can start playing immediately after release.
Valve is nearly dominant on digital games distribution on the PC, so I can understand that the competition want a piece of the cake. Usually when a competitor enters the market they do it by giving different or more benefits, making a better deal for the customer, but content is king so this doesn't apply to media creators. If you want to play with Ubisofts toys you have to enter Mordor. And as the meme goes:
So... I get Splinter Cell Blacklist preorder style, like a boss, but it doesn't show up in the library. No sweat, several weeks until release, it will come, surely OP will deliver.
Day before release, my Steam friends announce the game is preloading. No such option in uplay, in fact, still no indication of actually owning the game.
Day of release OP delivers (as I said, no sweat), I'll just set this to downl... 20 GB !!!1 OMG. After installing and playing for a while I discover some interesting color choices:
Game crashes and I decide to take a break.
Day after release I try to play it online with friends. Not working, let's just turn the firewall off and configure the DMZ directly to the computer because who really cares about security when they want to play. Not working.
Day after the day after release. "You must install the patch", friend suggests. No patch on uplay, in fact, no indication of which version is installed and the only option is to uninstall, which I of course don't do. Friend links to patch online, I'll just set this to downl... 2 GB !!!1 WTF. This game is already larger than the operating system. At least it works now.
So, complaining aside, this game is pretty sweet. For some reason action and melee is set to the same button so if a merc is standing right next to a terminal you start hacking instead of taking them out. Which is the wrong priority because the merc kills you. So far I don't have many complaints on the single player campaign. The missions are quite long and awesome with many alternative paths. Nothing quite beats the feeling of finding your way through enemy territories without them knowing you were there. It's also quite fun to sneak up on enemies and start twisting necks. Or putting dogs down with sleeping gas. What I'm not a fan of is Sam Fisher, nor really much of the story at all. For some reason there is still a Sam Fisher in this series, but no Michael Ironside. The new voice actor just sounds, soft. He also makes a lot of choices I wouldn't make, and there is conflict between him and this new character, Briggs, for no apparent reason. Also with Grimsdottir, which I can sort of understand because she kept his daughter hidden from him, but all this conflict makes Sam Fisher sound whiny with a soft voice.
They introduced new characters in Conviction, some code named agents, Archer and Kestrel. They could easily have used one of them and just placed you on new missions. Instead you are in charge and have to make the hard choice of starting or holding a mission. You also have to run around the base and talk with NPCs because this game is nearly without menus, thus making you work harder and wait through conversations to get... menus.
Still, I do love this game and series.