More games, more awesome. These next two were my favourites.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
Definitely one of the big highlights of the show. Splinter Cell was always one of the best stealth-based game series, and this game steps it up even more. In the story, Sam Fisher’s daughter has been killed, turning him into a rogue, unshaven shadow of what he used to be; he’s not nearly as professional as he was, and is much more brutal and unforgiving. The demo we played started out in a market area, and Sam was tasked with infiltrating a mansion to find a man linked to his daughter’s death. The game tells its story in a really unique way; it projects images and text onto the walls and floors surrounding the characters on the fly. It’s a far more engaging experience than just watching opening titles or a cutscene. You really feel like a predator when you’re playing - stalking enemies in the dark as they get more and more unsettled by finding traces you’ve left of your presence is really exciting. In combat, he’s much more desperate and aggressive, especially while interrogating an enemy. He gets very brutal, much moreso than he ever was before. One last feature that was really cool was the “last known position” - when an enemy loses sight of you, a ghost of Sam shows up in the environment that lets you know where they last saw you before you disappeared. This helps a lot in sneaking by them or coming in for an attack. Unfortunately the game has been delayed a few times, and it’s once again been pushed back. The current plan is that it’ll be out on February 23rd of 2010. From what I’ve seen, though, it’s definitely worth waiting for.

Left 4 Dead 2
Anyone who reads me often enough knows that I’m very excited for this game. It was my guilty pleasure of the event, any time I had a few minutes to kill I’d come back and jump into another game with whoever was around. It’s improved on the original in a few key ways. First of all, the game involves a lot more of a story and background for the characters (who are all different from the last game) than Left 4 Dead did. The Director has been beefed up, and how has control of not only the zombies, but wall placement and level layout, as well as daylight/lighting and weather conditions. There are new tiers of guns and pistols, as well as a new item called adrenaline, that gives you a temporary speed/strength boost and lets you run through/knock back the hordes more easily.

As for the enemies, all the old special infected, like boomers, tanks, etc. all make a return, and there are three new types of special infected. CHARGERS sprint at a character, knocking things out of its way to get to them, and keeps them pinned once they hit them (they're absolutely huge, very close to tanks in size). SPITTERS soak the ground with acid, damaging players that walk on it. JOCKEYS jump on a character’s back and “ride” them, running them away from their comrades - and as we all know, the further you are from your fellow survivors, the harder it is to stay alive. Both them and the chargers really separate their victims from the others much like smokers - once they've got you, other zombies close in and fill in the gap, making it really hard to rescue your friends. It definitely steps things up a notch. There are also zombies that wear SWAT suits or HAZMAT suits, making them impervious to certain kinds of damage. The “wandering witch” is also a danger; when it’s bright outside, witches will walk around instead of staying in one place.

Left 4 Dead 2 comes out on November 17th on PC as well as on the Xbox 360.