Splinter Cell: Conviction - 9/10
Having never played Splinter Cell before, I thought this had an incredibly intense, suspenseful, and engrossing single-player campaign. The story felt a lot like 24 crossed with the Bourne series. Loved the gameplay mechanics, the excellent balance between stealth and full-out assault, and the way in which you had multiple courses of action. I played it on Realistic difficulty right from the start, and it was extremely fulfilling.
It's not perfect. The XBOX 360 achievement glitches are a pain (biggest one being the "complete on Realistic" not registering despite completing it). The checkpoint system could be tightened a little. I like how it doesn't save after every encounter, making the player move and act more cautiously so as to not repeat huge sections. Also, I noticed a few times where the controls didn't respond correctly, and it got me killed several times (e.g. - shadow takedowns taking multiple presses of the button to engage).