Take for example, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow which I just picked up today. The single player game has a just few minor improvements over the original, plus another captivating storyline (at least so far). The new multiplayer mode though is, well, awesome. Pitting 2 vs 2 teams of spies against mercenaries in a game of hide and seek with guns, this is the best application of stealth based gameplay I’ve ever seen. In all single player stealth games, you can always fool the AI and hide out virtually in plain sight from time to time. When you try that against a human opponent, not so much. Every one of the gadgets available to both sides are critical to play, so there’s a pretty steep learning curve but it’s insanely fun. The very first time I played was as the mercs, and one of the spies dropped down out of the darkness behind my teammate and grabbed him to use as a human shield, gun to head. After a few tense moments of staring at each other and dodging around I did the only thing I could: I took the shot and nailed him in the head (the spy that is). And things like that that I’d never experienced before in a multiplayer game just happen all the time. It’s brilliant.