First Look: Hitman 4

[Cole]

Well Pc Gamer has something on Hitman 4: Blood Money. Some things to satisfy.
I will quote Pc Gamer as this certainly made me happy
"Tying the whole experince togeather is BLood Money's proprietary new 3D engine. I'm telling you, when IO first fired up the game I thought I was looking at Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. It's that good -- but only on the PC. As usual, the console versions will be missing on much of the detail and gloss."
So the gfx will be great for the PC..which is a plus.

Also you can use money to buy weapons, upgrade weapons, and possibly even get information that could help you out for your next kill.

Anyway hopefully it will turn out to be great.

 

[Axyon]

It's all looking very nice, and I especially like how guns can be upgraded in 50 different ways. That's crazy, yet so brilliant.

 

[Reginald]

Not really a first look... we had a huge 5 page spanning thread before E3

Anyway, seeing as it's buried, here are some pics:

Playboy Pigs? ^

Reason enough alone to buy this game ^

Will we get an SDK?

Video: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/706/706008/vids_1.html

IGN E3 Impressions:

E3 2005: Hitman Blood Money Update
The ass-kickin assassin is anything but asstastic.
by Tom McNamara

May 18, 2005 - Ever since Hitman 2, I've been fascinated and impressed by the franchise, and it looks like Blood Money will continue the hotness, if the presentation we got today is any indication. The mission areas are still huge, the possibilities even more varied, and 47's acrobatic abilities even more amazing. The guy is going to give the Prince of Persia a run for his money. Since we had that big preview just a week and a half ago, there isn't a whole lot new to say, but 47 is a guy who just loves attention.

This demo took place in a casino, which highlights something I've always like about the Hitman series--you'll get real-world locations and scenarios, where you have to deal with the general public and lots of innocent bystanders. There are no convenient story excuses for populating the place with nothing but people to shoot at. 47 has to do some real dirty work while dealing with the genuine threat of getting caught and killed.

But he has some nice tricks up his sleeve. He can shove people over ledges, roll their bodies over low walls, stuff them into meat lockers, and more. He can hide a smallish weapon behind him, rather than having to holster a pistol or walk with an unconcealed rifle. He does have a sniper rifle, but it fits neatly into a briefcase. It's also has a silencer so as not to disturb one guy while you're popping someone else fifty yards away.

It was quite impressive watching one IO Interactive guy plow his way through the hotel and casino while another rep narrated the goings on. 47 showed off an amazing variety of play, from climbing above an elevator and garroting someone below, to blowing up a dozen witnesses with a remote detonator, to breaking people's necks, using body shields, knocking people out and generally making a terror of himself. You can still go for the Silent Assassin rating, but there's a lot more room for straightforward shooting than before, even as you leap from ledge to ledge, work your way secretly through crowds of civilians, and trick people into giving you access to helpful vantage points and access points.

The game has also gotten some subtle facelift action to keep it current with today's standard for high-profile games. Normal mapping has been implemented, and 47 has a much more detailed face. Shadows and light have been upgraded with some nice effects, textures look great, and animation is as smooth as ever. With all that said, Blood Money will have to go out of its way to suck.

 

[jimbo118]

yeah i heard that the pc version would have all the bells and whistles, ps3.0 support, normal mapping etc, shame my x800xt doesnt support ps3.0, i hope they have ps2.0 support and not just 1 and 3 like sc:ct.

really looking forward to this, the trailer was awesome.
new trailer
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/hitman4/media.html


another shaky cam vid
http://www.nvnews.net/articles/e3_2005/hitman.html
watch the guards using 'jump out' shots @ 47
OXM preview

cool details:

If the assassination biz is all about making a buck at the end of the day,the numbers speak for themselves:The most recent hitman game is Contracts,Sold only half as many copies as its predecessor,Silent Assasin. In talking with the developer Io Interactive the enthusiasm for building a bigger and better htiman is obvious ''it'll be cool to pop someone on a sunny day,instead of always in the dark'' exclaims Rasmus Kjaer Io's creative director.

Contracts sure was grim in several senses the creepy dream smeared enviornments;brutally bloody vibe and recycled from the first hitman game made it as missions progress a picture-in-picture window pops up to inform you of key events and opinions. In a paris opera house, for example your tasked with taking out a singer during rehearsals and the PiP window shows you when the singer is being ''shot'' with a prop gun during a scene. You can substitute a real gun for the prop or lurk in the eaves and plug him with a sniper rifle using the sound of the fake shot to cover your own. Or take a handful of other suitably grisly approaches.

''Blood Money'' also factors into opening up the game for a broader audience. 47 can spend his earnings on obvious accoutrements like better weapons, but he can also buy advance intel for missions. In another level set in a Playboy-like mansion in the rockies,your target sits in a glass bottomed hot tub where the floor provides a view of slopes below. Spending some cash will let you know that a dramatic and relativley easy way to complete this hit is to shoot out the bottom of the hot tub from the area below the room, sending the victim and his companions plummeting to there doom(and revealing a truly deadly architectural flaw). That also illiustrates another key improvement-47's notoriety.

The hot-tub method will be percieved as an accident, so newspaper reports afterwards(which you get to peruse as a nifty post-mission summary) tell the tale the way, and 47 can stroll incognito into his next mission. But if ,say,you rush through that opera house, blazing away at everything that moves, 47's picture will be all over the news and in his next sortie, bystanders will panic and flee....unless you spend that blood money to hush up the reporters and victims. A more standard ,freely, maneuverable camera will also make the action easier to manage for newbies, as will a new,super-easy Rookie mode. But professionals can still expect fistfuls of challenges and lots of tweaks aimed at them ''We're going back to the big, epic story that everyone missed in Contracts'' reports Rasmus Hojengaard, Io's game director , but he remains mysterious about any specifics , saying only that it unfolds in an FBI interview with 47. As the feds quiz him about his hits-the game's 13 missions-you head out play through them.

Other sharp additions include hiding bodies in crates and freezers, pushing victims and bodies over ledges ''instant'' stealth kills in elevators (47 lurks on the roof pulls thems up with this garrote and and voila!) and guards who are smart enough to investigate and dispose of weapons and discovered corpses. Visually the game looks alot like Chaos Theory with gorgeous bloom lighting and organic shadows. With all that going for him, 47 should be back in peak form for Blood Money

sorry for hijacking your thread.

 

[StardogChampion]

Man, that gamespot video wins the "worst edited video ever" award.

The game looks like it's going to be at least as good as the previous games.

 

[Doppelgofer]

never could get into the other hitman games...doubt i will this

 

[Sparta]

Awesome, I hope its more like Hitman 2 then 3, Contracts totally blew the big one whereas Hitman 2 was pure fun

 

[Reginald]

I didn't like the psuedo horror of Contracts. Going into a room to assasinate a guy where all over the floor are bits of dead child doesn't really cut it.

And let's hope there are more naked women in this one. I remember that in the 2 and 3, there was a worrying number of naked men everywhere and when they went to the toilet there was...[*snip*]

 

[G-Dub]

Awesome, I hope its more like Hitman 2 then 3, Contracts totally blew the big one whereas Hitman 2 was pure fun

Yeah I had a chance at getting in to no. 2 but Contracts never even got a look in.

 

[Asknoone]

Awesome.

 

[Adrien C]

They should be a penaly for people that blast away the level (like me), it's way just to easy.

 

[Axyon]

They should be a penaly for people that blast away the level (like me), it's way just to easy.

That's the whole point of the notoriety meter - people will recognise you in later missions, or to prevent that you'll have to spend loads of money to keep people quiet.