I have never cared much for Sam Fisher and the whole universe Tom Clancy and Ubisoft built around the character. I liked Hitman quite a bit more, even if the game was much harder and I never got to complete it. But judging by the long development process the most recent Sam Fisher adventure, Splinter Cell: Conviction, had gone through, I was curious to see what the developers at Ubisoft Montreal managed to create.

This means I expect to play the game throughout the weekend, emerging on Monday able to sneak rather than walk my way to work while speaking in the deep tones of Michael Ironside, the man who voices Sam Fisher.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is interesting in its initial stages, although a few strange things happen, some of them detailed in a series of game diaries I have written. There are quite a few changes over the previous Double Agent game. But I don't actually know whether I'll get to finish the single player narrative as the difficulty can always ramp up significantly, mainly when it comes to the stealth sections.

And at specific hours on Saturday and Sunday, I will also be investing time in Neptune's Pride. I have been taken out of one game and I eagerly await to see how the remaining players play it out to the end and I am still heavily engaged in a second one, up to about 40 stars and pushing hard against the player who is just behind me in the rankings.

Unfortunately, I have lost quite a bit of my ships and two fleets in a battle, and need some time to regroup my forces and evaluate where I want to fight and where I need to ease my pressure. Every decision I make feels like it might lead to overall victory or defeat and I sometimes wonder what it would take for online-only games to actually have save points.