Stealth games have been around since the ye olde days of the PC, but they are just now startng to innovate and go in new directions. Stealth games such as Metal gear Solid and Splinter Cell had strong reputations for being overly difficult and extremely punishing. However, as gaming evolved so did stealth mechanics and now it's far more accessible than ever before.  

But enough on the past, there is a plethora of new stealth concepts, games and ideas that are going to change the way we think of stealth.

  As we all saw at E3 this year Splinter Cell: Conviction is worlds apart from the previous SC games. With a more open, and hide-in-plain-sight focus SC:C promises to mix up (and hopefully not break) the classic sneaking gameplay. It's also clear that like Conviction, Assassins Creed 2 is going to move into the streets where you must rely on the crowd and the city oppose to the shadows.

It's this mechanic of hiding in plain sight and using the open world as your cover that really excites me. Imagine having a large open city where you can use to evade your captors and hunt them. This would mean that you wouldn't have to play as an incredible badass such as Sam Fisher or Solid Snake. Actually, it could encourage the opposite, focusing more on getting away and hiding than being able to kill everyone in your path (because that is not stealth). This could change the stealth genre to be less Escape From New York and more The Fugitive, and who doesn't love The Fugitive?

 The Stealth genre is certainly one of my favourites and seeing it change is very exciting. I just hope this flood of new ideas keeps on coming.