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Platform PS3, 360, Win Publisher Square Enix Developer IO Interactive Release Date 11/20/2012

Review

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8.5

Hitman: Absolution review: the man comes around

By Arthur Gies on Nov 18, 2012 11.18.12

Death in Hitman is best-served at the hands of a elaborately orchestrated series of events The Hitman series has always been less about wanton violence than one would think, given the whole "predicated on murder-for-hire" thing. Sure, every Hitman title has allowed for emergent gameplay possibilities and a free hand in how you handle your contracts. But the metagame has always been about a perfect hit, ideally achieved without firing a single shot. Hitman: Absolution continues this tradition. It's as much a puzzle game as it is an action title, as you explore each environment figuring out where you can go, what you can do, what accidents you can cause, and where you can hide the bodies. It's one of the few games where restarting a level when you make a mistake makes sense — the...

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Square Enix blames competitive console market for multi-million yen losses

By Emily Gera on May 13, 2013 05.13.13

Square Enix experienced significant losses during this fiscal quarter, blaming the "increasingly competitive and oligopolistic" console market throughout North America and Europe as a primary reason behind its multi-million yen dive. Today the publisher released its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, confirming a net loss of 13,714 million yen. Square Enix acknowledged its restructuring efforts — which recently resulted in large-scale layoffs and the departure of CEO Yoichi Wada — had a hand in these recent losses. "In response to the latest environmental changes in the game industry, the Group has implemented various strategic initiatives such as a change in its development policy, organizational reforms and redesign of some business models. . As a...

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Hitman: Absolution AI developed to create story-driven yet spontaneous combat scenarios

By Alexa Ray Corriea on Mar 28, 2013 03.28.13

Animations for non-player characters in Hitman: Absolution were pre-scripted and story-driven, but still melded with a responsive AI for combat in order to create realistic "breathing" moments, according to members of the development team. Speaking in a panel today at the 2013 Game Developers Conference, IO Interactive senior software engineer Maurizio De Pascale and senior AI programmer Mika Vehkala said each individual NPC's behaviors and responses to player-controlled character Agent 47 were programmed in ways that made sense to the story. "The developers were careful to make sure that each NPC's reaction to Agent 47 had a reason and fit the situation," Vehkala said. Where this feature was not present, the team went back and scripted it in. NPCs will also enter situations if they...

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Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution, Tomb Raider all million-sellers, but miss sales targets

By Samit Sarkar on Mar 26, 2013 03.26.13

Square Enix's three most recent launches of major console titles — Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider — all sold at least a million copies, but missed the company's sales targets, it said today in a presentation to investors. Each title received critical acclaim, but sales in North America and Europe — although by no means poor — did not meet the publisher's expectations for its 2013 fiscal year, which ends March 31. As a result, the company expects to report a $105 million loss for the year. Square Enix launched Sleeping Dogs in August 2012 and has sold approximately 1.75 million copies of United Front Games' open-world crime thriller. Since Hitman: Absolution's release in November 2012, Square Enix has sold about 3.6 million units. And Tomb Raider, which...

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Journey and The Walking Dead win big at the 16th annual DICE awards

By Jenna Pitcher on Feb 08, 2013 02.08.13

At tonight's 16th annual DICE Awards, PlayStation exclusive Journey won eight of its eleven category nominations, including Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction and Outstanding Innovation in Gaming. The Walking Dead won four of its eight nominations, including Adventure Game of the Year, Downloadable Game of the Year and Outstanding Character Performance of protagonist Lee Everett (voiced by Dave Fennoy). Halo 4 won two of six nominated categories, including Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity and Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering. The Academy's Peer Panels evaluated more than 100 games, a peer panel for each category, with 63 nominated for awards. Voting for the awards was online and anonymous. "For the past 16 years, the D.I.C.E. Awards have...

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Japan Review Check: God/Fate Paradox, Hitman: Absolution

By Kevin Gifford on Jan 16, 2013 01.16.13

Here's a quick summary of the console titles coming out next week in Japan, courtesy of the review pages of Famitsu magazine. Perhaps the most unusual (or, at least, goofy) title due out is Genkai Tokki Monster Monpiece, a PlayStation Vita game from Compile Heart. A card-themed strategy role-playing game, the title attracted some attention because of the way you power up the "monster girl"-styled cards in your deck. How do you do it? Well, like this. (The video isn't strictly Not Safe For Work, but you probably wouldn't want to be caught viewing it regardless.) "You advance one step with each turn, which gives his game a different sort of tactical approach from other card-based titles," Famitsu wrote, awarding it 33 points out of 40. "From the color-based Aura Bonuses to fusing cards...

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GDC 2013 announces talks for Halo 4, Kixeye and Hitman: Absolution

By Tracey Lien on Dec 11, 2012 12.11.12

Halo 4's lead designer, Kixeye's CEO and IO Interactive's technical producer will be giving talks at next year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, GDC organizers announced today. 343 Industries' Scott Warner will be giving a talk titled The Design of New Enemies of Halo 4 where he dissects the development of the game's Promethean enemies and talks about what it was like to work on such a well-known series after Bungie. Will Harbin, the CEO of social game developer Kixeye, will give a talk titled Death to Downloads where he champions browser-based games and speaks of Kixeye's success in the field. IO Interactive's technical producer Michael Buttner's talk, Reinforcing Learning Based Character Locomotion in Hitman: Absolution, will touch on topics like animation and gameplay...

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Hitman: Absolution getting a patch next week to fix crash issues

By Tracey Lien on Dec 04, 2012 12.04.12

Hitman: Absolution will receive a patch sometime next week to resolve its crash issues, which were not only causing the game to crash at random but also causing save games to corrupt. Posting to the official Eidos Forums, a member of Eidos said that a patch for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will be releasing sometime in the week beginning Dec. 10. The exact date is yet to be confirmed because the patch is still undergoing testing. The patch is meant to resolve all the crash issues that have been reported and a full patch list will be released soon. Eidos says it will continue to monitor player feedback. A patch for the PC version of the game was released last week.

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Hitman cyberbullying game pulled by Square Enix, company apologizes

By Dave Tach on Dec 04, 2012 12.04.12

Square Enix apologized for a game that tasks players with assassinating their Facebook friends and providing ad hominem insults to justify the killing. Launched today as a promotion for Hitman: Absolution, Hire Hitman immediately garnered controversy because of the insults' personal nature and was taken down within hours. Created by U.K. advertising firm Ralph, Hire Hitman offered canned insults for male and female hits. The game allowed you to pick a Facebook friend, select a number of identifying characteristics — including "her small tits" and "his tiny penis" — and then send a video to the friend's Facebook wall, reports Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Reached for comment, a Square Enix official apologized for the app, saying it "went wide of the mark." "Earlier today we launched an...

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Hitman: Absolution drops online pass code for Contracts Mode in North America, still free elsewhere

By Megan Farokhmanesh on Nov 16, 2012 11.16.12

Hitman: Absolution, the latest in the series from IO Interactive, will allow players free access to the game's online Contracts Mode, according to a post on the game's official Tumblr. The mode will automatically appear for North American players in the game's main menu. According to the post, the mode was originally planned to be available through a code in the game's box. "We really want to make it available to anybody that plays the game," the post reads, "so we want to take a new approach." Contracts Mode will still be free for those in other regions; however, they'll have to follow the company's original plan. Redeemable codes will be available inside the game box, or as a free download through the online store. Agent 47 returns in Hitman: Absolution, the fifth entry in the...

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Sleeping Dogs costume pack adds Hitman, Deus Ex, Just Cause characters

By Samit Sarkar on Nov 12, 2012 11.12.12

Hitman: Absolution Releases
North America
  • PlayStation 3
    • Released 11/20/2012
    • Publisher Square Enix
    • Developer IO Interactive
    • Score 8.5
  • Xbox 360
    • Released 11/20/2012
    • Publisher Square Enix
    • Developer IO Interactive
    • Score 8.5
  • Windows
    • Released 11/20/2012
    • Publisher Square Enix
    • Developer IO Interactive
    • Score 8.5
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