Splinter Cell: Double Agent Preview

The PSP version

Despite being hardcore PC gamers, we know that a large chunk of you own PSPs, and you're sure to be interested in the portable version of the game. The first question is obviously going to be, how on earth do you control it without two analogue sticks? This is an interesting question, and the answer is that the face buttons take on some of the tasks of movement. The left analogue slider will be used for aiming. How well this will work we're really not sure, but we have to say we're sceptical about it right now.

The game is titled Splinter Cell Essentials, and contains nine maps, seven of which are new and two of which we've seen before. The game takes place in quite a wide timescale, with one of the missions taking place before Sam has even joined the NSA, and some of the missions taking place in the same timeframe and storyline as Double Agent.

The interface has come in for a couple of small changes. To give you an extra clue as to where people are - presumably, to help mitigate the control scheme and smaller display - there are now two new sound meters on the screen, one on the left and one on the right. These should give you an indication of where noise is coming from, helping you get the drop on your enemies.

The one thing that's impressive about this version is that, regardless of the controls, the game looks pretty close to the main console versions. There is the same variety of gameplay and level design, and all the things you can do on the PC you can do on the PSP, too - whether it's crawling along pipes, playing with guards by picking off all their mates and leaving them wondering what on earth just happened, or picking locks and making distractions.

The graphics also look pretty damn good too, with environments and characters looking faithful to the original game.

Essentials is out on the 31st of March, and could give us an advance preview of the story to come in Double Agent. We'll be waiting in the shadows in the dark alleyway next to our local games retailer...