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"  Splinter Cell: Blacklist will see a departure for series lead Sam Fisher, with the role being played by newcomer Eric Johnson instead of the fan-favourite Michael Ironside. Why? Ubisoft is using cutting-edge performance capture techniques from its Toronto studio, which records actors&amp;#039; voice and movement at the same time, for vastly improved cutscenes. While the 63-year-old Ironside still had the voice and persona of Sam Fisher, he doesn&amp;#039;t have the physicality that is required for the expanded role.   When it came to choosing a new Fisher, game director Patrick Redding said they needed a new actor that &amp;quot;had it all&amp;quot; to play Sam Fisher in this new performance process. &amp;quot;What makes [Johnson] a good Sam Fisher is what would make any actor good for any part, frankly,&amp;quot; Redding told Digital Spy. &amp;quot;Because of the new performance pipeline that we&amp;#039;re using, we needed an actor that could embody the physicality and the voice and the personality and the expressiveness of that character on every conceivable challenge.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Just as you would if you were casting an actor to play a character on a live action television series or in a film or on stage, you need to go for someone who&amp;#039;s the complete package. &amp;quot;That made it necessary for us to look for an actor that had it all, and I think Eric does.&amp;quot;      Eric Johnson had worked with Michael Ironside before Splinter Cell Blacklist. Ironside was shooting a film he was directing in Johnson&amp;#039;s home town called The Arrangement, giving the 18-year-old one of his first acting roles, which &amp;quot;meant the world&amp;quot; to him, and saw Ironside becoming a &amp;quot;tremendous mentor&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Getting to be involved in this franchise and picking up the mantle and taking over from somebody I respected that much is a huge honour,&amp;quot; said Johnson. &amp;quot;My awareness of the game was high, and getting this opportunity was absolutely awesome. It&amp;#039;s a huge game, it&amp;#039;s a huge franchise - you don&amp;#039;t get to play a superhero like this everyday.&amp;quot; While Johnson now takes the reins, Ironside was involved in the changeover, allowing him to share &amp;quot;invaluable&amp;quot; advice. &amp;quot;Having him and being able to talk to him about his experience, where he&amp;#039;s taken the character, and what was fundamental to him, was great,&amp;quot; Johnson explained.  &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s been such a huge part of this franchise. So much of the character of Sam is what he&amp;#039;s brought to the table. Being able to take that and roll it into this new way has been great.&amp;quot; One of the biggest takeaways was Fisher&amp;#039;s dry sense of humour, something that Ironside had introduced to add &amp;quot;that level of humanity&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;I think the only thing I can equate it to is coming in and being the new James Bond, or something like that,&amp;quot; Johnson said. &amp;quot;James Bond is an iconic character, and everybody has their own spin on it, but it shares certain things about the character that have remained true from the beginning. &amp;quot;For me that was important. I think for everybody involved in every aspect of the game, there&amp;#039;s things about this game that are iconic that the fans love, that are really the totems of the game. &amp;quot;When you think of Splinter Cell, this is what it is. Trying to keep those things in there but also servicing the script and the story as it happens. It really becomes, like I said, it&amp;#039;s an evolution.&amp;quot;  Eric Johnson explained that performance capture is a far more effective way for actors to emotionally place themselves in the script, compared to an isolated recording booth. &amp;quot;There was a frustration level even for Michael [Ironside] at times, because there would be a disconnect from what he was doing and was happening on screen,&amp;quot; he explained. &amp;quot;The difference of me talking to you [at different distances is different]; we&amp;#039;re going to have a different kind of conversation than when you&amp;#039;re in a voice booth. &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t get those differences, because you don&amp;#039;t know. It&amp;#039;s not a lack of ability, it&amp;#039;s a lack of knowledge. Nobody knows.&amp;quot; Johnson described the process of recording performance capture as being similar to working in theatre, where much of the environment is &amp;quot;in your head&amp;quot;.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s chicken wire and boards, so there&amp;#039;s a theatrical element to that, where you&amp;#039;re creating that reality on the stage,&amp;quot; he explained. While the acting stage here is simple, the benefit is that there&amp;#039;s less restrictions compared to TV and film, where camera positions - such as for close-ups, for example - would restrict where actors could move. &amp;quot;I was actually surprised at what a free space it is to perform, in the sense that they can move the camera anywhere, you&amp;#039;re not limited by that,&amp;quot; said Johnson. &amp;quot;You can do a more natural performance because you weren&amp;#039;t required to open up for the camera, because they can put it anywhere, they can move a table, all afterwards they can do what they want. It can end up being instinctive and natural.&amp;quot; Splinter Cell: Blacklist will be available on Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U from August 23 in Europe and August 30 in North America. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a484537/splinter-cell-blacklist-eric-johnson-on-being-the-new-sam-fisher/>