The long-awaited Freelancer mode for Hitman 3 goes live later this month, tasking the world’s blandest professional killer with taking down nefarious organisations one target at a time. To prepare for Freelancer’s launch on January 26th, devs IO Interactive have shared a new trailer that’s essentially just the mission briefing your Agent 47 will see when he begins his bloodthirsty roguelike quest. You can watch the mission briefing below, if you’re feeling suitably assassinatey.
]]>Hitman 3 will be renamed Hitman World Of Assassination, and Hitman 1 and 2 will be delisted from sale. These changes are Io Interactive's solution to the currently messy process of buying Hitman games or working out what you already own. From January 26th, when these changes take effect, there will be just two Hitman packages for sale. This might mean that you're getting some existing content for free, and it will mean that future DLC purchases should cost less.
]]>Good ol’ Ian Hitman is still assassinating away in Hitman 3’s second year of extra stuff to do, and he’s getting ready to huff, puff, and blow some targets away on November 10th. IO Interactive shared their roadmap for what’s ahead this month in Hitman 3, with a new escalation contract that takes its inspiration from one of my kids’ favourite stories, the Three Little Pigs. You can catch up on what’s in store for Ian this month by watching the video below.
]]>Agent 47 is still going freelance, but not this year. IO Interactive have pushed Hitman 3’s planned free Freelancer mode back again, this time to January 26th. The delay was announced along with the reveal of a closed technical test for Freelancer starting early next month. And here I was, thinking that Ian Hitman never missed a target.
]]>Since Google announced they were giving up on Stadia last week, some developers and publishers are taking steps to ensure players don’t lose their progress when the platform shuts down in January. So far, Bungie, IO Interactive and Ubisoft have issued statements to reassure Stadia users that they’re investigating ways to salvage their saves. It’s a welcome development following Google’s sudden shutdown revelation.
]]>The Hitman games are often good and usually fun, it’s fair to say, particularly the recent World Of Assassination trilogy. Ian Hitman’s turn in the two films released about his adventures has been rougher to recommend, though. That’s why it’s simultaneously disappointing and awesome to learn that Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Suicide Squad and – shudder – Slither director James Gunn narrowly missed his target when he pitched a Hitman movie.
]]>It's a big day for splendid sandbox stealth stabber Hitman 3, now entering its second year of content and support. The developers, Io Interactive are going hard out the gate by adding the new Elusive Target Arcade mode and bringing VR support to PC. It's also ending Epic exclusivity today, hitting not only Steam but Game Pass too, with the full trilogy coming to Microsoft's subscription service. Busy busy.
]]>GOG have pulled Hitman from sale. The bald assassin joined the DRM-free digital shop in September, but was met with damning reviews. That's because, while theoretically DRM-free, Hitman relies on online connectivity for a lot of its features to work. In pulling the game offline, GOG apologised, saying that they "shouldn't have released it in its current form."
]]>Good news! Hitman: Game Of The Year Edition is now on GOG and 70% off. Bad news! The game requires an internet connection for so many singleplayer features that customers on the DRM-free digital store are real mad about it.
]]>Assassination sandbox Hitman 3 has gone and made another of its levels available free for a limited time. As it did with the Dubai level back in March, the free Starter Pack version of Hitman 3 is currently giving players access to one of the best levels from the first game in the trilogy. You can murder your way through multiple Sapienza missions from today through July 4th if you own the starter pack or the full Hitman 3 game.
]]>At last! A ranking of all 21 Hitman levels from the World of Assassination trilogy. Did you ask for it? No. Did the editors ask for it? Also, no. But what’s more Hitman than waiting for a loud distraction - the recent redesign of RPS - and using the confusion to slip you something unexpected. Of course, I hope this list doesn’t prove to be an emetic. That’s what Graham likes to call a website ‘no no’.
]]>Assassination experts Io Interactive booted their latest murder man game out the door and are now proudly announcing that Hitman 3, despite some server issues in its first few days, has already recouped its development costs. Folks seem to have having a grand old time in Ian Hitman's latest adventure, which hopefully only spells good news for that James Bond game the studio is set to work on next.
]]>Launch day log in issues aren't a thing I'd expect to hear about surrounding a single player stealth romp but hey, it's 2021. There are no rules. Hitman 3 is out today and it seems that the website meant to import your prior hitmaning progress into the newest murder fest is having a bit of a struggle. That wouldn't be so bad, except waiting to make that import is effectively keeping players from starting in on Hitman 3. Io Interactive say they're on the case.
]]>Ian Hitman's current trilogy of sandbox stealth-o-murder games wraps up today with Hitman 3, which launched just a few minutes ago. As he fights a vast conspiracy, he'll do murders in new levels everywhere from England to Dubai, and get into a few of his trademark daft situations. One mission is just a murder mystery potentially starring Ian, an actual murderer, as the detective. Unfortunately, the promised ability for owners of the previous two games to connect and play them inside 3 is delayed.
]]>Last week, IO Interactive said players would need to own Hitman 2 on the Epic Games Store if they wanted to import its levels to Hitman 3. That was pretty rubbish - for owners of the game on Steam, it meant you either couldn't have those levels, or you'd need to buy it again. Thankfully, IO are looking for a solution, and guarantee players won't need to rebuy the game after all.
"We are continuing to work with our partners to allow PC players who own Hitman 1 or Hitman 2 to import locations from those games at no additional cost," they said on Sunday.
]]>Hitman 3 will no longer offer the ability to import levels from Hitman 2 when it launches later this month, unless players re-purchase Hitman 2 on the Epic Games Store first. Near the bottom of a long and complicated pre-launch guide, developers IO Interactive said the change in plans was "due to various circumstances out of our control." Hitman 1 and 2 were both released on Steam, while Hitman 3 is launching as an Epic Games Store exclusive.
]]>Hitman: Codename 47 was released 20 years ago today. In all that time, IO Interactive have crafted an entertaining seven-game series (not including spin-offs), with the eighth aiming for the heart in January 2021. The subject matter might be grim, but from the very first game, IO Interactive were always happy to fold information and easter eggs into their immersive sim (don't @ me) to a ridiculous degree. The games all have murderdeathkills, but they also have hauntings, mythical creatures, and real-world actors as targets.
I've had a blast digging up some forgotten facts and 47's more bizarre moments (this does mean this list contains some spoilers, so beware). There are so many that this could have been 200 facts for 20 years, but I stuck with 20. It seemed right. Enjoy!
]]>Two different illicit gig economy experiences are yours for free this week on the Epic Games Store, which is currently giving away 2016's stealth assassination game Hitman and a collection of the Shadowrun cyberpunk fantasy RPGs. Sure, basically you're being paid to kill and rob people in both, but you'll go about it in different ways.
]]>Polish that chrome-dome, 47. It's time for your final mission. Announced during Sony's big ol' PlayStation 5 reveal stream, Hitman 3 is gearing up for one last trilogy-ending job next January on Sony's next-gen tellybox as well as PC and Xbox. True to form, our first look at Hitman 3 was an elusive one. A dark forest, sharp suits, high-society, and portrait of the high-collared hairless killer himself.
]]>Wow. Look at that summer sun slapping the face of the planet, like a big 12-hour camera flash. So hot, so clear-skied. A blessed day of walks in the park, trips to the beach, picnics by the litter bins. What a glorious day for wasps it is out there. Let’s all go to the...
Oh right. Forget I said anything. Go back inside, lock the doors, and consider some of these perfect virtual holiday destinations. Please, trust us with your fake vacation. After all, what is a games journalist but a sort of really dodgy travel agent?
]]>When the historians of the future cast their cyber-eyes over the deluge of stupidity we encrusted upon the primitive internet, they will see that our fables, our moral storytelling, was mostly conducted with flashing colours and double-jumps. Yes, videogames have adopted the moralistic finger-wagging of fairytales and Victorian novels, for better or for worse. They have taught us a lot about ourselves and our place in the world. Here are 13 of the "best" moral lessons from PC games. Yes, you may take notes.
]]>Imagine a world without electricity. Horrible. What would we use to blend our smoothies? How would we know when uncle Derek hits the metal bit again in the Sunday game of Operation? Electricity has roughly one dozen uses, and yet it is in the realm of videogames when we see its most fantastical and offensive capabilities brought screaming to life. To celebrate the important role of sassy electrons in your otherwise mundane life of neutrons and - ugh - protons, here are the 8 most shocking uses of electricity in games.
]]>HDR on PC hasn't improved much in 2019. Despite there being more HDR gaming monitors than ever before, the very best gaming monitors for HDR continue to be quite expensive compared to non-HDR monitors, and the situation around Windows 10 support for it is still a bit of a mess. However, provided you're willing to fight through all that, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get an HDR compatible graphics card.
Below, you'll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that have built-in support for HDR, as well as everything you need to know about getting one that also supports Nvidia and AMD's own HDR standards, G-Sync Ultimate and FreeSync 2. I've also put together a list of all the PC games that support HDR as well, so you know exactly which PC games you can start playing in high dynamic range.
]]>Thanks to a peppering of weird bugs over the years, Hitman has seen a few iterations of the killer briefcase come and go. Hitman 2's briefcase bug, often heralded in the form of long GIFs, turns your standard hitman briefcase into a homing missile that spins like a throwing star and bends gently around corners as it follows its prey.
Now, developer IO Interactive have brought back the bug as an unlockable weapon, leading to what is - I think - my favourite ever version of Killer Briefcase weaponry: Absurdly slow and tediously steady. Take a look after the jump.
]]>He's murdered in Miami. Punched lights out in Paris. Slashed throats in Sapienza. It's hard to imagine what chrome-dome killer Agent 47 does on holiday, what with all the globe-trotting he does as part of his nine-to-five. Does he have a nice wee sit in front of the telly, sipping a cuppa, watching Columbo? I like to think so.
His handlers might be planning another season of work for the killer, but 47 could do with a little relief. With word of a secret new game at IO Interactive, Hitman might soon find a partner to share the load of holding up the studio.
]]>This is the shipping forecast; the synopsis at 5pm. Solid Snake just west of cloak room, expected to move towards Sam Fisher on dance floor before midnight. Wrecking Ball from Overwatch, mild at 1am, becoming rabid with lust at 3am. Agent 47 from Hitman: confused, occasional peeping, becoming horny later. Red Prince: cyclonic, mainly drinking alone, peering at Steve from Minecraft with questionable motives, occasionally licking lips.
(Yes. We did a podcast about romantically matchmaking game characters.)
]]>Christmas may be over, but assassination is a dish best served cold, so it's back to Hokkaido we go for a fun seasonal bonus mission for Hitman 2. Today, Io Interactive rolled out a big update for their murder-sandbox, including some new gear for expansion pass holders. The big reason to be excited is the time-limited Snow Festival mission, set in Hitman 1's Hokkaido map. Legacy Pass owners (folks who own the previous Hitman game) get access to it today, and a standalone free trial featuring all of Hokkaido goes live for everyone tomorrow, January 22nd.
]]>IO Interactive, the Danish mob behind Hitman and Kane & Lynch (look, I still swear K&L2 is interesting), today announced they've opened a new studio in Malmö, Sweden. Given that there were ditched by former owners Square Enix and faced an uncertain future only 20 months ago, before going independent, this is a pleasing turnaround. I am glad they're apparently doing well enough to expand, especially as 2018's Hitman 2 is a cracker. Surely now it's time for Kane & Lynch 3, eh? Eh? Anyone? Eh?
]]>In the best possible way, the Hitman series is ridiculous. Its protagonist, Agent 47, is the single most conspicuous person in any crowd. He’s big and bald and white with a bar code prominently tattooed to the back of his head, and not once does this fact deter him from his preferred method of infiltration: wearing a disguise.
These aren’t disguises in the elaborate, Mission: Impossible, we’ll give you an entire fake head sense. No, 47 simply throws on the clothes of whatever guard or unfortunate bystander he’s subdued. And this actually works. In the franchise’s fiction, he’s considered one of the most dangerous people in the entire world, the best of the best. This imposing figure who scarcely bothers to alter his body language, let alone his voice, is a master of disguise. Like its 2016 predecessor, Hitman 2 is quite aware that this concept is absolute nonsense.
]]>As Halloween horrors go, a genetically-engineered megamurderer who knows dozens of ways to kill and will wear your clothes to replace you in your everyday life already seems pretty spooky to me. He's a dark one, that Ian Hitman. But to celebrate the season of Goth Christmas, IO Interactive are making him even spookier with new themed contracts for H1tman and treat-not-tricking everyone by making the full Colorado episode a free trial for the next fortnight. This isn't for keepsies, unlike IO did with some earlier episodes, but it is an opportunity to get spooky for free.
]]>The Humble Monthly continues to impress - today's $12 subscription bundle deal is massive souls-inspired Metroidvania Hollow Knight, murder-sim Hitman and zombie survival sandbox 7 Days To Die. While the third of those doesn't quite fit, the first two are among the best in their genres, though Hitman is arguably a genre unto itself.
That's not even mentioning the other handful of games to be unveiled at the end of the month. Plus, the upcoming Hitman 2 (due November 13th) will integrate with the original game, letting you take on old missions with new gear. Below, some trailers for the current trio of games, and some thoughts on each.
]]>All the missions of Hitman's first season will be updated and playable within Hitman 2, IO Interactive announced today. Which is great. This will give the missions news ways to do murders, as well as a little extra visual fanciness and new modes. Which sounds pretty chuffing great. IO do specify that season one owners will get the revamped counterparts in Hitman 2 for free, so it sounds like newcomers will need to pay for 'em. They call this principle of unified murder "World Of Assassination", which is probably meant to sound grand but does mostly remind me of Truck Simulator's World Of Trucks.
]]>I used to see Agent 47 as a sociopath. “A blank slate”. The ideal state for a video game protagonist. Hitman puts us right in his polished black shoes. A gulf of meaning into which we can project ourselves. 47 has a contract, we have an objective. Our goals are aligned, even if we can’t quite get behind the brutality of it all. Between entrance and exfiltration stretches out a space littered with pistols and piano wire, rat poison and rubber duck bombs, faulty wires and water pumps. What kind of person 47 is, how the cogs behind that barcode turn, is our shout.
]]>Get out yer skinny tie, bald barcode boy. You’re going to Morocco for a two-week holiday. Hitman developers IO Interactive are letting folks download the third level of their innocent waiter simulator as a free trial. The 'Hitman Summer Pack' they call it. That’s nice. But it's only temporary, unlike previous free episodes which we were allowed to download for keepsies. The trial will last until until July 31 whereupon the whole episode will disappear from your library again and dissolve into a nearby crowd. Still, a two week murdercation in North Africa isn't bad. It’s also the best level from Hitman, and don’t let those sordid Sapienza lovers tell you otherwise.
]]>Much like Agent 47, Hitman 2's approach wasn't nearly as stealthy as it hoped to be, but the end results aren't to be sniffed at. Eagle-eyed internet people spotted its logo a few days back, but today Io Interactive officially announced the sequel to 2016's episodic murder-sandbox. Unlike the previous game, this one will be released all in one go (with plans for later expansions) and is available for pre-order, with the deal sweetened by immediate access to the Sniper Assassin co-op mode.
]]>Welcome to leak week, those pre-E3 days more leaky than a colander of leek soup. This time, it’s Warner Brothers. They've only accidentally left a logo for Hitman 2 sitting around in the innards of their website, the big sillies. It’s gone now but was there long enough to be spotted by Twitter persons RobotBrush and Wario64. Hitman developers IO Interactive had been teasing an announcement on June 7 and it looks like this is it. We already knew the bald murderer was going on another set of homicidal holidays when IO confirmed they were working on a new entry last year. But now we know Warner Bros is officially involved too.
]]>The second episode of the fab sneak-o-murder sandbox Hitman is free right now, yours for keepsies if you grab it by April 3rd. This is Ian Hitman's holiday to the sunny Italian seaside town of Sapienza, a colourful maze leading down to beautiful white sands. If you've tried earlier free bits of Hitman but weren't sure about it, do give this a go as Sapienza is so much of an improvement over them.
]]>A few of the things I have had to do in order to get a workable version of HDR (also known as high dynamic range), the new-ish display technology that significantly ramps up brightness, darkness and vibrancy, on my PC (not including the acquisition of a fancy monitor):
- Try four different display cables - Adjust as many as seven different brightness/contrast/colour etc shaders per game. (I have spent long, unhappy hours doing this to date) - Manually turn on HDR on the monitor, manually turn HDR on in Windows then manually turn on HDR in the game settings. Or sometimes HDR off in Windows but on in the game then alt-tab back to Windows and turn HDR on, and off, and on, and off. Or sometimes alt-tab and alt-tab and alt-tab and alt-tab and alt-tab until HDR suddenly, randomly kicks in. When I exit the game, I have to manually turn it all back off again or Windows is unusable. - Install an unfinished preview build of Windows 10 whose HDR isn't totally broken on Nvidia cards. - Almost completely lose my sense of whether anything is actually different after all of this.
The egg yolks in Final Fantasy XV were a bit shinier, though.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>Although they now seem to have landed on their feet, there was a few weeks where we weren't sure what would become of Io Interactive and their revitalised Hitman series after they were cut loose by publisher Square Enix. Now that the dust has settled and everything seems to have resolved itself in the best possible way, Square Enix are ready to talk about what happened behind the scenes. In an interview with Gameindustry.biz, CEO Yosuke Matsuda laid out the facts, at least so far as the company was free to reveal.
In summary: blame Disney. I'm only half joking.
]]>The 'Elusive Target' missions of Hitman, those one-off murders only available for a brief period of actual real time before they vanish forever, return today. That makes them two-off murders, I suppose. The original run of Elusive Targets will start a second run today, offering people who missed them another opportunity. People who tried and failed to kill a target the first time don't get another go and must live with that shame forever, mind.
]]>Amidst the fuss over Hitman's Game of the Year Edition launching yesterday, developers IO Interactive also said a little about something unsurprising but quite welcome: a new Hitman game. Last year's episodic game was a fine return to form for the sandbox stealth-o-murder simulator so I'm certainly glad to see IO continue.
]]>Wonderful murder simulator Hitman today launched its 'Game of the Year' edition, bundling the game's original episodes together with new outfits, weapons, and contracts plus a new bonus campaign. These new bits will be sold separately for people who already own the original game. For all hitmen, whether they get this new package or not, developers IO Interactive have updated the base game with fancy newness including a redesigned UI and improvements to the lighting in levels. Oh and, for hitmen who missed them the first time, the one-off Elusive Contracts will return.
]]>More Hitman is always nice, especially now that Io Interactive are a fully independent studio, no longer shackled to monolithic publishers. Starting their journey into independence, Io are reconfirming their ownership of the license by re-launching 2016's once-episodic murder simulator as the Game Of The Year edition, detailed here, adding a slew of new content including missions and escalation contracts.
Among the juicy extras will be a re-run of the one-time Elusive Targets for anyone who missed them first time round. Hitman will officially be returning on November 7th, and while a full retail price hasn't been announced, existing owners of the game will be able to upgrade to the new edition for $20. Check out the trailer as well as some extra details after the jump.
]]>IO continue to keep Agent 47 in work, despite the final Elusive Contract for Hitman [official site] finishing earlier in the year, and also despite being dumped by Square Enix. This month will see the big baldy assassin hunt down marks in more player-created 'featured contracts', a new challenge pack, and a new set of featured contracts chosen by Hatch, a Hitman speedrunner. Also expect to hear about some "brand new content" near the end of the month.
]]>Oh no, you've tripped the alarm. Now the terrifying RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, knows you're here. It's going to hunt you down and force you to listen to it. Quick! Think of a way out of this, before you hear all about Adam becoming an accidental mass murderer in Dishonored, or John obsessively re-loading his way out of a bad situation. If you don't escape, I'll have to tell you about the time I threw a gun at someone's head in Heat Signature, to absolutely no effect. This week, you see, we're talking about Things Going Wrong.
]]>GOG is having itself a Square Enix sale this week, which means a whole lot more than just Hitman and Tomb Raider for once. In fact, if you were to ask me, some of the most interesting things in this sale are the games you may have completely forgotten existed - like Gex, the gecko with attitude, Pandemonium, in which a lady runs to the right alongside a terrifying jester thing, and Omikron: The Nomad Soul which features a virtual David Bowie.
Oh, and you can get Deus Ex for a couple of quid, and it's the same for any of the original Thief trilogy. The vast majority of the titles are dirt cheap, and you'll be getting the lovely DRM-free versions of the games as is the GOG way.
]]>The final Elusive Target of Hitman Season One [official site] has now been offed but developers IO Interactive are introducing new 'live content' as we hold our collective breath hoping they'll announce a second season. IO have started drafting players to curate playlists of Featured Contracts, which could prove pretty interesting. More live bits are coming this month too, but IO say not to expect a game update in August or September. "That relative calm will give us time to prepare for some exciting announcements," they tease. Is one Hitman Season Two? Please be Season Two.
]]>Ian Hitman today gets to kill Mr Giggles ? as the final one-off 'Elusive Target' of his episodic killing spree in Hitman [official site]. He has ten days to murder the cheery fella before he vanishes forever. IO do explictly call this "the final Elusive Target for Season One", which would suggest that they're still planning a second season now they have split from former owner Square Enix. They've never said they weren't, mind, but it is comforting to hear IO repeat this after the uncertainty when Squeenix dumped them.
]]>The Steam summer sale is in full blaze. For a while it even blazed so hot that the servers went on fire and all the price stickers peeled off the games. Either that or the store just got swamped with cheapskates looking for the best bargains. Cheapskates like you! Well, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up some recommendations - both general tips and some newly added staff choices.
Here are the things you should consider owning in your endless consumeristic lust for a happiness which always seems beyond reach. You're welcome.
]]>Ooh it's all go for Ian Hitman these days. Developers IO Interactive have kept the rights to their stealthy murder series and become an independent studio after former owners Square Enix ditched 'em, a demo of the recent episodic Hitman [official site] arrived yesterday as its prologue chapter became free, and oh! the game is now playable on Mac too. The Mac port by porting house Feral Interactive has launched. If you have Hitman, you already have the Mac version sitting in your Steam library. Easy peasey. Yup, that prologue demo is on Mac too.
]]>The good news keeps on rolling for murder's favourite slaphead. After establishing themselves as an independent company and securing the rights to Hitman, developers IO Interactive have released the prologue chapter of the recent episodic Hitman [official site] for free. Consider it a demonstration. I did think it strange that Square Enix didn't release a demo of the stealth 'em up back before they ditched IO but hey, one's here now. Thanks, independent IO Interactive. Thaioi.
]]>Hitman studio IO Interactive is now independent again, after thirteen years of being owned by Eidos then Square Enix, and they're getting to keep Hitman. The fate of both the Danish studio and their flagship series has been in question since May, when Square Enix announced they were cutting IO loose. While we'd heard that IO might be able to continue Hitman, things looked a bit grim when they laid off some staff shortly after. Now it's a bit more sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.
]]>Hark! It's the sound of our sweet voices taking up an hour of your precious time. The RPS podcast of old, the Electronic Wireless Show, has returned in a fresh new body. We've got news, interviews and silly features, as well as some of the traditional idle chat.
This week, Pip, Adam and I are chatting about Far Cry 5's "Last Supper" image, the recent layoffs at Hitman developer IO Interactive, and enjoying a jaunt through melancholy puzzler Old Man's Journey. There's also some Quickfire Questions with the developers of survival puzzler Rain World, news from Paradox Con and lots more.
]]>In the downward spiral of bad news coming out of Hitman [official site] developer IO Interactive – first that it was being sold by Square Enix, and then that it was laying off staff – there's finally something vaguely positive. It seems that the developer may get to keep making Hitman games after all.
The news emerged from a newly-published transcript of a financial briefing from May 11, the day Squeenix announced the IO sale. It says that the publisher is "negotiating with prospective external investors capable of ensuring" that Agent 47 survives.
]]>Less than one fortnight after Square Enix announced they were ditching IO Interactive, IO have announced a round of layoffs. While that's no surprise, it is certainly a shame. We still don't know what the future holds for the Danish studio, who are best known for their Hitman games, and the path forward is looking bumpy. Squeenix had said they'd try to find new investors in IO to replace them, but we've not yet heard much on how that's working out. Initial impressions: not entirely great. Fingers crossed, everyone.
]]>We are living in a golden age of big-budget PC games that offer us choice and freedom. Be they descendants of the System Shock model - finding a route around a meticulously-crafted, locked-down and hostile place, most recently seen in Prey [official site] - or the roleplaying games based around choice and consequence rather than action alone, they are legion. There are so many, even, that I'm not sure we can fully appreciate how good we've got it.
]]>Square Enix are pulling out of IO Interactive, leaving the future of the Danish studio (and their sandbox murder simulator series Hitman) uncertain as they try to find new investors. Squeenix bought IO in 2009 and, only eight years later, want rid of them for reasons of both business and pleasure -- "to maximize player satisfaction", in their words. It's a bit of a bummer, not least of all because the first season of the episodic new Hitman was great once it got rolling.
]]>I am dad, hear me whinge. Too many games, not enough spare time, for all my non-work hours are spent kissing grazed knees, explaining why you cannot eat the food in that cupboard, constructing awful Lion King dioramas out of toilet roll tubes and being terrified that the next jump from the sofa to the armchair will go fatally wrong. I'm lucky in that my job to some extent involves playing games, so by and large if there's something I really want to check out I can find a way to, but I appreciate that there are many long-time, older or otherwise time-starved readers for whom RPS is a daily tease of wondrous things they cannot play.
Now, clearly I cannot magically truncate The Witcher 3 into three hours for you, but what I can do is suggest a few games from across the length and breadth of recent PC gaming that can either be completed within a few hours or dipped into now and again without being unduly punished because you've lost your muscle-memory.
]]>This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Hitman [official site].
Hitman developer IO Interactive is really good at making believable environments. Did you ever play Kane and Lynch 2? Seriously, its Shanghai is something to behold, a city of broken pavements, back alleys crusted with air-conditioning units and construction sites littered with cellophane-wrapped pallets. It’s a masterpiece of observation, one of the best representations of cities in videogames.
The latest Hitman doesn’t go anywhere so gritty, but it upholds the same values. Its levels are a jetset tour of places you believe could exist, but these aren’t just credible environments, they’re also machines for killing in. And the first season of Hitman closed with one of its best. Hokkaido is at once compact and expansive, melodramatic and credible, and I talked to IO about how it was designed.
THE MECHANIC: There isn’t really one tbh. Actually, maybe that’s the point here? That Hitman’s level design is a holistic marriage of function and form? Anyway, read on!
]]>Alec is away this week. I fear that if he can't find a wifi signal on his travels he might resort to haruspicy to try and find the truths contained within the weekly Steam charts. These round-ups of the ten games with the most cumulative sales over the past week are his obsession and his curse.
This week: while the cat's away...
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
When it was announced that the new Hitman would be released one level at a time, the response was confusion or worry. Now that its first season is complete however, we know that it was a success. More developers should follow suit.
]]>In December, we named Hitman [official site] the best sandbox game of 2016. I hadn't played it at the time, but I have since and, yes, yes. Hitman deserves to be celebrated for its beautiful, detailed worlds. Let's pretend I'm folding this write-up into the calendar entry for the game I missed.
]]>UPDATE: I'm still getting the error message but according to the official Hitfolk the issues *should* be subsiding. Good news for pretty much everyone except The Warlord, I guess.
Looks like those of you seeking to hunt down the latest elusive target in Hitman [official site] will have to sit tight for a bit as Valve and the devs work on fixing problems PC users are having connecting to servers.
According to Hitman's official Twitter account:
"We're aware of issues currently affecting our PC players, which appear to be widespread across Steam and cannot be 'fixed' on our end."
]]>Graham: It took me till this past week to finally play Hitman [official site], 2016's rejuvenated dress-up sim/infiltration sim/lets-face-it-murder-sim. I've had a grand time with it for many different reasons (eg. the dress-up, the infiltration, the murders...), and I wanted to gather people together to pick over its pleasures in greater detail. So, Alec and Brendan, I ask you: what's your favourite murder?
]]>The wonderful murder sandbox of Hitman [official site] is now a touch livelier and, if you want, tougher too. A free update launched today adding a new hit set in Sapienza during a concert and a new 'Professional' difficulty setting, along with fixes, tweaks, HDR support, and some other gubbins. That's a good-looking update. I'll get into that soon but first, have a peep at the trailer for new bonus mission 'Landslide', which sends Ian Hitman to Sapienza to whack a politician with mafia ties:
]]>The episodic Hitman [official site] wrapped up its 'first season' last year (read Wot Alec Thinks of the whole thing) but it's not done and dusted. A new 'Professional' difficulty setting will arrive in a free update later this month, publishers Square Enix announced today, to make murder more difficult. Expect guards to be more alert and inquisitive, more trouble disguising yourself, security cameras spotting your shenanigans, only one manual save per mission, and so on.
]]>A good sandbox is defined by the options it gives you to explore, experiment and discover your own solutions to problems. Day fifteen of The RPS Advent Calendar, which highlights our favourite games of the year, brings the best sandbox of 2016...
It's Hitman!
]]>Even many Hitmaniacs are unaware of the untrue story of the series' origins as a Home Alone game. IO Interactive built a prototype including a boy sneaking around his house, creating distractions with a Talkboy, and a ragdoll physics Joe Pesci tumbling down stairs after being clocked with a can of paint. "That's nice," said one Eidos executive, "but what if the man died?" So Kevin McCallister became Ian Hitman and a legend was born. This lie will come full circle next week with the Hitman [official site] December update, which will add a mission to thwart two dastardly thieves in Christmassy Paris.
]]>I still haven't got round to playing it, but it feels good that there's a good Hitman [official site] again. Blood Money is one of my favourite games ever, Absolution was terrible, but the general consensus is that the latest is somewhere between good and great.
A new update for it has just been released which, rather than adding more content, aims to improve what's already there. That includes offline profiles, which allows you to continue using unlockable items earned while online when you're offline.
]]>Hitman [official site] is a third-person action adventure concerning the stealth assassination of various colourful ne'er-do-wells, accomplished via stealing disguises and faking unlikely accidents. Over the past year, it's been released in six discrete episodes, but as of this month its first 'season' is now complete. We've written about episodes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 individually, but here we sum up both the Japan-set episode six and the first year of the game as a whole.
]]>The final episode of Hitman [official site] lands today, bringing an end to "Season One" of the assassination sim. This also puts a bullet to my "I'm waiting til it's all done before I play it" excuse for not yet progressing beyond its tutorial. Now I'm stuck with my other well-worn excuse, that I'm too busy, but the launch trailer which features clips from all its levels does tempt me to make extra efforts to inhabit Agent 47 again.
]]>Ian Hitman is packing his cases. He's checking the list - black suit x2; white shirt x4; y-fronts x8 (you never know, in his line of work); fibre wire - 5 metres etc. - and fretting over whether he should've splashed out on his rifle's lightweight stock option to open up weight allowance for souvenirs. He's off to Hokkaido, Japan for the final episode of the Hitman [official site] season, see. The episode will launch on October 31st, publishers Square Enix just announced. I suppose Halloween is a good time to unleash Ian, a boogeyman to the rich, famous, and arms-dealing.
Or, if you've been protesting this episodic release, hey, that's when the 'full' game is out.
]]>I killed a man by blowing up the smartwatch on his wrist. I 3D printed a mask of another man's face in order to pass through a biometric scanner. Better yet, I carried around a single apricot the whole while.
]]>Episode 5 of Hitman [official site] is now upon us, sending Ian Hitman to Colorado. 'Mother of Rivers', some call the state, which is a lovely nickname. I'm a bit jealous. But he's not here to swim in Little Snake River, Green River, the Rio Grande, or even the mighty Colorado - he's here on neck-snapping business. Episode 5 sends him into a farm compound filled with naughty militia members someone wants whacked. Check it out in the launch trailer:
]]>No sooner than we had finished our thoughts on the last episode of Hitman [official site], was the next episode announced. The adventures of bald death salesman Ian Hitman will continue on a farm in Colorado, where the plucky murderer will have to take out four targets in one go. The farm has been turned into a “private militia training camp”, and your marks all seem to be death specialists too, ranging from experts in “environmental terrorism” to “chemical interrogation”. If only you didn’t have to kill them, Ian could have made some new friends. Oh well.
]]>The episodic murder marathon of Hitman [official site] takes us to a luxury hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, where the rich and privileged are moaning about gourmet food and inadequate room service. We sent Brendan to murder everyone and find out wot he thinks.
It’s not as good as Morocco. That’s the question that’s probably burning in the minds of all the Hitman faithful, who have been following Agent 47’s deadly trips to Paris, Sapienza and Marrakesh. It was always going to be hard to follow the protests and crowds of North Africa, but it’s the standard I'm now holding the series to. One of the curses of releasing your game in episodes is having to endure as we hacks compare each level piece-by-piece (although, in terms of publicity, this is also an obvious blessing). Suffice to say, the Himmapan Hotel isn’t as interesting a playground as the two previous misadventures. But it’s still pretty good.
]]>The fourth episode of Square Enix’s righteous murder simulator, Hitman [official site], is out today, dispatching Agent 47 to a luxury hotel in Bangkok where he must get killy with the lead singer of overrated indie band 'The Class' and the crooked lawyer representing him. The band are recording their second album, which is likely to be devastatingly bad. They must be stopped. Come see the briefing trailer below.
]]>I keep banging on about it to all who will listen, but like a mid-life-crisiseer and their ridiculous sports car, I am increasingly in love with my new ultrawide monitor. I had to use a standard 1080p one recently - oh the humanity! - and felt as though I was trapped inside a tiny box. 21:9 is the only way to play. At least until 32:9 arrives and I decide that of course I cannot live without that. CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME. Genuinely though, ultrawide is lovely: it really brings games to life.
]]>"Bangkok, Oriental setting," sang Murray Head, "And the city don't know that the city is getting." His prediction was a lot closer to the mark this time. "The crème de la crème of the chess world in a show with everything but Yul Brynner." Replace 'chess' with 'mopey pop rock' and you've basically got the idea of Episode Four of Hitman [official site]. Publishers Square Enix today announced that, on August 16th, Ian Hitman will be jetting off to a luxury hotel outside Bangkok to murder a rubbish rock star and his family's lawyer. But remember: one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.
]]>Ian Hitman is off on his summer sols. He's packed his swimming trunks (with garotte drawstring), his beach ball (infused with francium to explode when hurled into e.g. a water polo match), his goggles (infrared vision obvs), his camera (firing poison darts), and his sunscreen (a slaphead's gotta be careful!) and headed into the Hitman [official site] Summer Bonus Episode, which launched today. It doesn't add new areas but it does re-work Sapienza and Marrakesh a little for two new missions. Someone's filming a sci-fi action movie in Sapienza with a honking great robot, for starters.
]]>The sixth 'Elusive Target' is wandering around in Hitman [official site] for the next three days and - wait, this one is interesting - so is his identical twin. Like other Elusive Targets, Dylan Narváez is only in Hitman for a short while and he'll be gone forever if you skip this or fail to murder him. Unlike other targets, Dylan has an identical twin. If you harm his brother Gonzales, that's it, you've blown it. That's an interesting little wrinkle in something that was becoming formulaic.
]]>The next episode of Hitman [official site] isn't due until later in July, but IO Interactive are ringing in the new month with a little spot of murder. The fifth 'Elusive Target' is here, an arms dealer hanging around Marrakesh for three days before he vanishes forever. Five is a magic number, as it means folks who snuff this chap out and have hit all previous targets can unlock Ian's suit from Hitman Absolution.
]]>Ian Hitman is having a summer staycation in July with the Summer Bonus Episode, publishers Square Enix have announced. Why a staycation? While Hitman [official site] episodes so far have added new areas, the Summer Bonus Episode will revisit Marrakesh and Sapienza for new murdermissions. He'll be offing a mole in Morocco and in Sapienza, well! Seems a film crew is in town with a honking great robot and a knock-off Iron Man, and someone needs to break more than just a leg.
]]>Honestly, you wait ages for one elusive target and then... No, I can't even be bothered to finish that joke. Let's get to the meat of this announcement so you can get on with your life of assassinating targets and polishing your barcode.
The third Hitman's [official site] elusive target - The Prince - is now live in Sapienza. Well, he is unless you've already taken him out, in which case... good job? Leon would be proud. If not, read on for more:
]]>The trend for Hitman's [official site] episodic levels to be grow bigger and more populous with each new installment continues unabated with third map Marrakesh, which is frankly just showing off. There's just no need to emerge from a vast crowd of tourists into a shop populated by hundreds of beautifully-glowing lamps and, from there, into an even larger horde, this time of protesters raging amid coloured smoke. No need whatsoever. Bless 'em for doing it anyway.
]]>It's tough being hip nowadays, what with all the mobile cellular telephones and social medias and streams and memes. Another fad that seems to be becoming increasingly popular is 360 degree "interactive" videogame trailers. I like these and the latest Hitman [official site] number takes us to Marrakesh, should you wish to visit the Moroccan city before getting your hands on Agent 47's latest outing that's out today.
]]>This is your friendly reminder that the second Elusive Target (a limited time, no do-overs mission) should now be live in Hitman [official site]. Unless you've been stupidly efficient and somehow killed whoever it is on spawn already.
Well, I say "whoever it is" but they've called the mission "The Congressman" so I'm guessing you're taking out a congressman and from the picture he seems like a sort of jowly hat-wearer who you might find on a foreign vacation in a Poirot mystery.
]]>You can't start a revolution in Hitman's Marrakesh episode, but Lord knows I have tried. Seeking to create the impression of a brutal state crackdown, I've dressed up as a soldier and opened fire on the crowd from a checkpoint. I've lugged cans of propane right across the map, dropped them near placard-waving civvies and blown everybody up with a silenced pistol. I've sucker-punched foreign officials, hurled bricks at marchers - done whatever I can to transform the level's outpouring of public discontent into a full-blown civil war. And for my troubles I've been treated to an efficient, orderly death and the sight of a dozen, so-called leftwing firebrands cowering in terror as the army closes in. Honestly - is it any wonder you radicals are sweltering beneath capitalism's golden hoof when one little blast cloud is too much to bear?
If Marrakesh isn't quite the open world insurrection simulator I was rather unrealistically and very callously looking forward to, it's an absolute playpen for fans of the game's Contracts mode.
]]>The third episode of the new Hitman [official site] will launch next Tuesday, May 31st, Square Enix have announced. Ian Hitman's next assignment will take him to the city of Marrakesh in Morocco, where someone wants a banker and a general dead. Given how much of an improvement the second episode was over the first, this is jolly exciting.
]]>Hitman [official site] recently introduced 'Elusive Targets', people with contracts on their heads who'll only appear in the game for a short period of actual real time before vanishing forever, and who will also vanish if you fluff the assassination. Alex Spencer flipping loved the tension that brought, but I saw a fair few people note they didn't even know it was coming. Well then! Consider this one week's notice that the second Elusive Target will be strolling around sunny Sapienza next Friday. He's a Congressman.
Only 53% of attempts last time were successful, you know.
]]>This weekend saw the first Elusive Target in Hitman, a limited-time event that drops a new doomed soul into one of the game's sprawling locations and gives you a single chance to bump them off. Within the modular structure of this Hitman game – which is constantly adding to the content available in its monthly-release levels – that's not too unusual, but the way Elusive Target bends the rules of the game turns it into something genuinely fresh and exciting.
So let's talk about my own experience a little to show why. It's early Sunday afternoon and I'm eagerly ushering the final hungover remnants of last night's Eurovision party out the front door. Over on Hitman's menu screen, a clock is ticking down. Two hours remaining to find Sergei Larin, an infamous art forger, and dispatch him in whatever way suits.
]]>The first 'Elusive Target' is now roaming the world of Hitman [official site], for 48 hours only. Miss this window or screw it up and he'll be gone forever, living happily unmurdered - and you don't want that, do you? The wait for Hitman's second episode was well worth it, but the plan is for bits of "live content" like this to help keep the game interesting in-between and onwards.
]]>This is more like it. This is so much more like it that it feels like the gap year abroad next to that disappointing overnight stop in Paris. In Sapienza, a colourful and complex Italian town, IO's new Hitman [official site] has found the ideal location for a spot of sightseeing and silent slaughter. I've spent more than ten hours playing and feel like I'm still scratching the surface, and almost every hit has been a complete joy.
]]>After the flashbulbs and pulsing techno of Paris, Hitman [official site] Episode 2's Sapienza level feels like a holiday – the kind of holiday John Le Carre writes about, in which lingering over your espresso is tantamount to painting a bullseye on your back. Set on the Italian coast, the chapter opens with Agent 47 idling on a bench opposite a fortified mansion belonging to your target, a bioweapons scientist whose latest creation must be nipped in the bud. Under an archway to your left, two sheepish flower delivery drivers are tending to an unconscious cyclist. Somewhere behind you, a couple of heavyset gentlemen chat quietly about a secret laboratory. Off to the right, a woman in the street bellows up at her partner, a sous-chef who is late for work in the mansion's kitchen.
It's a world of threads begging to be yanked on, the better to hoist somebody by the neck, but what's your hurry? You've got your paper and the sun is out. With its postcard locales and indulgent pacing, Hitman has always been something of a tourism simulator, and in Sapienza, IO has conjured up the perfect ambience – bottomless blue skies, dusky cobblestones and guidebook hotspots roamed by sweaty foreigners in ridiculous shorts.
]]>Ian Hitman is currently packing a bag for his holiday to Italy in Episode Two on the 26th, but more Hitman [official site] is already here. Update 1.03 launched today, bringing more improvements to loading times, more responsive menus, and bug fixes such as "47 no longer drops a body immediately after starting to drag it." Oh, and it adds The Vampire Magician Challenge Pack, which dares Ian to commit ten murderous challenges wearing the vampire magician costume. He is, I stress, neither vampiric not magical. Murder would be no challenge for an actual vampire magician.
]]>Hitman? I don't know, man. Are you a hit, man, or a miss, man? Tell me if you can, man. Are you a beat or a beater, a sneaker or stabber, episodic or early access, treasure or stress like a shirt of hess - ian - scratch at my neck, man
may be it's that we don't know yet we might have a clue after Ep Two
So all hands on deck, pack your trunks in your trunk your needle-o in your Speedo your Silverballers in your swingball set ready go daddy-o (look out below!) to hit the hacienda in Sapienza on April 26th, hepcats.
]]>We already knew that Valve was planning something called Steam Desktop Theater, in which non-VR games could be used within their Vive headset (and, indeed, any other headsets which end up supporting the SteamVR APIs), but I wasn't expecting to see it until the first giant boxes full of matte-black hardware arrived at pre-orderers' houses.
Turns out that Valve snuck out a beta update to Steam over the weekend, part of which was an early version of Desktop Theater. In like Flynn, me. The good news: it works. The bad news: I'm now more certain than ever that the hardware needs another generation or two before it's truly ready for the world.
]]>Fans Of Things Not Staying Exactly The Same All The Time will be glad to hear that the latest weekly Steam top ten is quite a changed one from the previous week. A new number one, surprise re-entries and a loosening of Ubisoft's chokehold on the charts.
]]>As the popularity of The Division [official site] continues to grow, following a launch week that saw it break all sorts of records, its game director appears to have abandoned the post apocalyptic New York City playground for pastures new. Ryan Bernard, whose CV also includes work on the likes of EverQuest 2 and Warhammer Online, has left Ubisoft to join Hitman developer IO Interactive.
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