I've actually been having some problems with this darn game also.
I bought the game from a local Electronics Boutique store, as the internal packaging had a plastic box with the game cover on the front; inside it had the usual manual with the cd key information, whilst our version over here was in fact a DVD and not a multitude of CDs.
After frantically rushing home to try out the game, my LG4120B drive couldn't read the damn DVD; I thought at the time, perhaps there was something wrong on my end. So I ended up testing it on another PC, the same problem occurred, the drive failed to read the DVD and any of its internal contents as though it never existed.
Whilst being frustrated, I returned to the retail chain the following day and asked for another copy, this time; the drive detected the contents of the DVD and I was able to install it. After installing it, and placing the cd key into the Starforce protection window of the game; it scanned the presence of the disk and attempted to run the game.
When I mean attempted, I mean it ran the game with an open splash screen, then it went completely dark black for a few seconds and after some hard drive noise, the damn game spits itself back into the desktop of the O/S; blabbering about some failure "splintercell.exe has failed"
I thought at the time, it was yet again my system; I doubt very much it was, because the demo worked fine. I changed my highend graphics card, a PowerColor X800 Pro VIVO from Omega Clone (Cat 5.1) Drivers to the current ATI driver version 5.4 I think... still had problems. I updated the game with that stupid 77mb patch and nothing happened. I also ran a full diagnostic from the game's utility and it still failed to run.
Out of pure frustration, I decided to return the damn game and opted for another one
Anyways, sorry for the lengthy ranting; but I guess I could say I'm not particularly happy in terms on how things have turned out. The ability in not being able to play this awesome game.
