in a shock decision, i have been banned from gmail.
Just because Guns'n'Roses are shite is no reason to ban me for stating the obvious......
i think i will go home...
bastards.....
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
Hitman:Blood Money
One of my favourite game series has been the Hitman franchise, since the sleeper classic of 2000 came out while at Uni. Following Hitman: Contracts (which, despite average reviews I actually liked), the new Hitman (Blood Money) was released for AU last Thurs. While not really a full review, here are a heap of general thoughts on the game having now played through on normal difficulty.
Compared to earlier installments, you have way more close combat options like pushing people over, headbutts, punching, human shield as well as throwing things like kitchen knifes or coins for distraction. The big thing here is in making the assassinations look like accidents (as with Contracts I suppose), but taken to a much higher level. Since discovery of an obviously killed person before you leave drops your rank down from silent assassin, as well as adding to the notoriety system and making you more likely to get recognised if you go for open slaughter. Use of chandeliers, rigged bbqs/stoves, or just pushing someone over a railing are far more valuable tools. In fact, to do the missions properly you may as well leave all of your guns at home and just take fibre wire and syringes.
Custom weapons are also cool - you have one of each class as your favourite (pistol, SMG, assault rifle, sniper, shotty). I took the silverballers and added extended clips, massive silencers, low velocity ammo, laser pointers, mounting rail and a scope. They look insanely riced up and cost about $1,000,000 fully assembled. The M4 was just crazy - basically adding similar (rails, silencer, forward pistol grip, laser, scope, barrel magazine, AP ammo). It looks like you are holding something the size of a car engine. Custom gear has some nice features too - like a foil lined case for smuggling the sniper rifle through x-ray machines.
Notoriety increases when you get noticed for messy/civilian kills. I got my notoriety up a bit high - you are more likely to get recognised by guards, but also civilians. There are even ingame cues like your face on newspapers. I am on the last major level and some tourist spots a paper, looks at me, points at me, says something like 'holy shit' and runs screaming from the building. I thought that was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the system is a little flawed - bribery/identity changes can be purchased post mission. While this setup is kind of cool, the amounts to be paid are always modest compared to your earnings so you are never really FORCED to live with high notoriety.
The combat AI against you is still pretty shit - they will still crowd bottlenecks and you can hose them with machine gun fire. The toughest combat I had in the entire game was when I had my cover blown at a Southern US redneck wedding - EVERY fucker on the level has a revolver or a shotty. Despite lots of drunken random potshots at alligators going on outside, a single pistol round indoors seemed to bring everyone on the level to my side.
Real kudos to some of the programmers - there was some fucking gold level design in there. Beaut casino level, some awesome clifftop mansion in full snow - has a glass floored spa which you can snipe the bottom out of. The heaven & hell nightclub, with toight angel & devil clothing. The mardi gras level they added in an extra game engine piece for - the streets generate a random crowd, so that there are 2000+ characters moving at the same time (according to the designer interview). Looks awesome when you are in amongst it.
I should also mention - this is probably not a game to burn a copy of; there are online profiles for uploading your times/scores when you complete maps. I am currently ranked 43rd globally for the aggregate score of cash earned/Silent Assassin/fastest time on the 4th mission. I don't rank very highly on the others... particularly the steam boat, which was getting awful frustrating to get rid of the entire gang without saving. So I brought my custom full-auto, belt fed, silenced, laser sight, scoped assault rifle and just killed all 200 people on the boat.
End sequence was actually a little surprising – not quite the finish I was expecting, but then the last mission is one that if you were given it first in the game without the lead up (and progressively more impossible missions) would have gone ‘fuck off – he can’t do that’. On the off chance you get the game – I found the ending satisfying because it was different to what was expected, and is worth playing through without knowing what is coming.
Definite thumbs up from me - but then as a fan of the series am probably a little biased.
Compared to earlier installments, you have way more close combat options like pushing people over, headbutts, punching, human shield as well as throwing things like kitchen knifes or coins for distraction. The big thing here is in making the assassinations look like accidents (as with Contracts I suppose), but taken to a much higher level. Since discovery of an obviously killed person before you leave drops your rank down from silent assassin, as well as adding to the notoriety system and making you more likely to get recognised if you go for open slaughter. Use of chandeliers, rigged bbqs/stoves, or just pushing someone over a railing are far more valuable tools. In fact, to do the missions properly you may as well leave all of your guns at home and just take fibre wire and syringes.
Custom weapons are also cool - you have one of each class as your favourite (pistol, SMG, assault rifle, sniper, shotty). I took the silverballers and added extended clips, massive silencers, low velocity ammo, laser pointers, mounting rail and a scope. They look insanely riced up and cost about $1,000,000 fully assembled. The M4 was just crazy - basically adding similar (rails, silencer, forward pistol grip, laser, scope, barrel magazine, AP ammo). It looks like you are holding something the size of a car engine. Custom gear has some nice features too - like a foil lined case for smuggling the sniper rifle through x-ray machines.
Notoriety increases when you get noticed for messy/civilian kills. I got my notoriety up a bit high - you are more likely to get recognised by guards, but also civilians. There are even ingame cues like your face on newspapers. I am on the last major level and some tourist spots a paper, looks at me, points at me, says something like 'holy shit' and runs screaming from the building. I thought that was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the system is a little flawed - bribery/identity changes can be purchased post mission. While this setup is kind of cool, the amounts to be paid are always modest compared to your earnings so you are never really FORCED to live with high notoriety.
The combat AI against you is still pretty shit - they will still crowd bottlenecks and you can hose them with machine gun fire. The toughest combat I had in the entire game was when I had my cover blown at a Southern US redneck wedding - EVERY fucker on the level has a revolver or a shotty. Despite lots of drunken random potshots at alligators going on outside, a single pistol round indoors seemed to bring everyone on the level to my side.
Real kudos to some of the programmers - there was some fucking gold level design in there. Beaut casino level, some awesome clifftop mansion in full snow - has a glass floored spa which you can snipe the bottom out of. The heaven & hell nightclub, with toight angel & devil clothing. The mardi gras level they added in an extra game engine piece for - the streets generate a random crowd, so that there are 2000+ characters moving at the same time (according to the designer interview). Looks awesome when you are in amongst it.
I should also mention - this is probably not a game to burn a copy of; there are online profiles for uploading your times/scores when you complete maps. I am currently ranked 43rd globally for the aggregate score of cash earned/Silent Assassin/fastest time on the 4th mission. I don't rank very highly on the others... particularly the steam boat, which was getting awful frustrating to get rid of the entire gang without saving. So I brought my custom full-auto, belt fed, silenced, laser sight, scoped assault rifle and just killed all 200 people on the boat.
End sequence was actually a little surprising – not quite the finish I was expecting, but then the last mission is one that if you were given it first in the game without the lead up (and progressively more impossible missions) would have gone ‘fuck off – he can’t do that’. On the off chance you get the game – I found the ending satisfying because it was different to what was expected, and is worth playing through without knowing what is coming.
Definite thumbs up from me - but then as a fan of the series am probably a little biased.
Hitman: Blood Money Pics
Will be adding my own screenshots when possible - game looks pretty karse though.
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