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"Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory"
Like BBC World News, Ubisoft's "Splinter Cell" fulfills the occasional desire to hear place names like "Kuala Lampur" roll off the tongues of sexy accented voices.

In "Chaos Theory," the third game in the series, more exotic place names are dropped in the first five minutes than a month's worth of the Beeb.  Peruvian terrorists have stolen an important mathematical formula: "Imagine if Che Guevara kidnapped Oppenheimer in 1959," intones one character. Off in Asia, meanwhile, a spitting match develops between China and Japan.

The locations serve as little more than a sexy backdrop for Sam Fisher, the gizmo-loaded NSA agent that players must sneak past a bewildering array of Third World terrorists and other assorted baddies. 

"Chaos Theory" follows the stealthy game play of previous versions: patience trumps gun play, sneakiness is next to godliness and no problem can't be solved by a high-tech gadget.

Helping Fisher stay sneaky are two on-screen gauges.  One to measure the noise of his footsteps as he pads down the dark hallways — bad guys in "Splinter Cell" never turn on the lights — the other to detect whether Fisher strays too far from the shadows. Built-in sensors for heat vision, night vision and Electronically Enhanced Vision also serve a stealthy purpose.

UbiSoft "Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory"

The game looks and more importantly sounds great. Sound has always been one of "Splinter Cell's" main selling points as only makes sense considering the role sound has in a stealth game of this sort.  Actor Michael Ironside once again lends his gravelly voice to Sam Fisher. AmonTobin, a well known British musician, lends sounds and beats that make "Chaos Theory" a techno thriller in every sense of the word.

The only misgiving gamers may have with "Chaos Theory" is that it is little different, in single-player mode at least, from previous "Splinter Cell's."  Levels are bigger and there seems to be more options available for any one situation, but how many dark hallways does Sam Fisher have to navigate before players hang up the night vision goggles?  

Provided those hallways are in Tokyo and not the suburban Staples, it's most likely that Fisher will be padding those hallways for a long time.

"Narc"
The 1980s arcade game original was a cop vs. drug dealers guilty pleasure. The so-called selling point of this remake is so grade school literal that it's shocking that the irony-deficient media and various politicians haven't jumped all over it yet.

In "Narc" players who opt to play the "bad cop" — and who wouldn't — gain special powers when they ingest street drugs. LSD brings on hallucinations that help spot the bad guys.  Crack turns your cop into a "crack" shot. 

There are two points of irony here. First, "Narc" has succeeded in the impossible: They have made taking drugs dull.   

The second point is that the original "Narc," although bloody, painted a stark black and white picture. Cops good, drugs bad. The 21st century "Narc" rips a page out of the "Grand Theft Auto" canon and tries to tell a tale of moral ambivalence set in a sprawling cityscape.  The problem is that the city isn't sprawling in "Narc" and so-called ambivalence means little when the characters are digital cardboard cut-outs.

At least “Narc” is priced right.  $20, the price of two dime-bags, buys you the game.

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