Ubisoft Toronto developing Splinter Cell Remake

Splinter Cell remake at Ubisoft Toronto

Ubisoft has officially announced a remake of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and that it’s being led by Ubisoft Toronto using the Snowdrop engine, which powers most of Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy titles today.

“…a remake takes what you’d do in a remaster and goes a little bit further with it,” said Producer Matt West in a published Q&A, adding that the original had “a lot that was amazing and revolutionary”.

• Splinter Cell first launched in November 2002
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist was the last major entry
• Michael Ironside voiced Sam Fisher until Blacklist
• Ubisoft Toronto is currently hiring for the project

OG remake: They also want to “make sure the spirit of the early games remains intact,” but the team is building from the ground up in terms of visuals and “some of the design elements” but it’ll remain linear.

Pure stealth: “It’s safe to say a lot of us on the team are stealth purists, and we're behind that level of seriousness when it comes to those kinds of mechanics,” added Creative Director Chris Auty in the lengthy Q&A.

What are House of the Dead’s bosses (mostly) named after?

a) Rock Stars
b) Famous Sculptors
c) Tarot Cards
d) Constellations 

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Elden Ring network test datamine spoilers

A new threat on the horizon for those anxiously waiting for Elden Ring as the network test for the game has been datamined, and as a result a ton of major story spoilers are now on the loose.

The cause was ‘jailbroken’ PlayStation 4 hardware that led to people gaining access to last month’s network test. It’s therefore advised to be careful where you browse to stay spoiler-free.

Early 2022: Over 3,000 voice files, characters models, animation data, and dialogue scripts from quests have leaked. Elden Ring is scheduled to release on February 25, 2022, so there’s still a wait to go.

San Andreas: Modders meanwhile have managed to swap in the character model of Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas into the dark fantasy world, because why the hell not?

Final Fantasy XIV congestion update

Square Enix has issued an update on the heavy network congestion that Final Fantasy XIV is still struggling to deal with since the launch of the much anticipated Endwalker expansion.

They’ve pledged additional game time as compensation for all subscribers to the MMO adding an additional 14 days free to the extra 7 days already given out, which goes to all players.

Sales stop: Both the Starter Edition and Complete Edition have been temporarily suspended from sale to help keep server peak hours down, and they’ve also stopped any new Free Trial registrations.

Login fixes: These will be “phased in over the next few days” with retail partners. The infamous Error 2002 is also said to have been isolated and a fix included with Patch 6.01 that’s scheduled for December 21.

Pink & Blue DualSense Controllers

Need more colourful DualSense pads? Sony has the NOVA Pink and the Starlight Blue wireless controllers on the way for PlayStation 5 with pre-orders open on Amazon.

The only difference between these two is their colours as they join an ever-growing list of official DualSense options. They’re priced at £64.99 and are due for release on January 14, 2022.

Murder Diaries 3 – Santa’s Trail of Blood Giveaway for the Nintendo Switch

A Christmas flavoured mystery with a stocking full of insanity in our Murder Diaries 3 – Santa's Trail of Blood Giveaway, and we’ve got festive keys for the Nintendo Switch.

You’ll be a free-floating ghost-like being exploring the world and finding memory fragments all to the narration of a young man as he slides ever more into madness. Merry Christmas!

• Pokémon Legends: Arceus gets all-new teaser as the latest video looks at “new faces” from the Hisui Region
• Weekend long Pokémon GO Community Day full schedule revealed by Niantic for December 18 & 19
• Thalamus Digital announces Commodore 64 games will be coming to Nintendo Switch with details in 2022
• CD Projekt settles paying $1.85m in class-action brought against them by shareholders over Cyberpunk 2077
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ nude crackdown as Version 2.0.4 will be fixing the naked NPC incidents

What are House of the Dead’s bosses (mostly) named after?

ANSWER: Tarot Cards!

Out of all the words to describe House of the Dead, smart isn’t one of them. A classic of light gun gunplay, its absurd violence, and hammy voice acting made it a classic of dumb entertainment. But even House of the Dead can be smarter than you’d expect.

Throughout the mainline series, the game’s bosses were named after cards in the tarot deck. It’s why in a game full of unethical science experiments you get boss names like Hierophant, Hangedman, and Moon. The exception to this naming rule is House of the Dead: Overkill’s mundane boss names, but we guess tarot would be jarring with Overkill’s grindhouse approach.

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey. If you have any feedback or news tips for the team, please email us!