U.S. gamers wanting a taste of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell can get it now when purchasing an Xbox at Toys 'R Us. The playable demo will also be available on the DVD of the December issue of Offical Xbox Magazine in North America - reaching stores in about two weeks. The demo offers the third section of the first mission in Tbilisi. As this is very early in the game, no gadgets are available. However, players will have the chance to familiarize themselves with the controls and to try different ways of playing the short mission.

PC gamers wanting to read up on the differences between the console and PC iterations of Splinter Cell will find a wealth of details on the game's official message forum. Topics include graphics, controls, the PC version's release date and more. Visitors registered with ubi.com can post their own questions for the producers of Splinter Cell to answer.

Splinter Cell offers third-person stealth action in which the player controls a field operative of a secretive Black Ops agency geared up to infiltrate high-security strongholds, seize critical intelligence, destroy threatening data and neutralize the enemy - all without leaving a trace. Select the thumbnail below to load the first of 11 screenshots.