Hitman: Blood Money hands-on preview

[Everlost_MI]

Xbox.IGN (http://xbox.ign.com/) has posted a hands-on preview (http://xbox.ign.com/articles/695/695168p1.html) of Hitman: Blood Money that includes new screenshots and in-game videos.

Here's a bit from the article.

Several of the new abilities in Agent 47's arsenal certainly shocked me. IO's assassin is now capable of simple things that before seemed difficult. He can jump from a 20-story balcony to another one with simple, fluid controls and animations. He's capable of climbing on pipes, wall-sliding across dangerous areas, and as a little surprise to us, he's equipped with an arsenal of hand-to-hand grappling moves. For instance, Dan Adams (EIC at IGNPC) and I played the two of the three different versions (Xbox, PS2, and PC) and he almost mistakenly grappled a guard's gun from him, beat him up and shot the second guard to death. Independently I realized the same thing. I beat up a few guys, headbutted one, and found that in contrast to all previous versions, this version provides players with a plethora of disarm and distraction techniques not available in previous games
It sounds like they've really raised the bar in gameplay and graphics for this sequel.

[easi]

Why is everything so far away (May)?? X3, the new Hitman game.. :(

[devicelimit]

X3 is already out.

[Steele Johnson]

Gameplay was already really good in this series. It's nice to see a big graphics upgrade.

I feel like the last few in the series are either underrated or possibly overlooked games. I had a lot of fun playing them. I'll be picking this one up for sure.

[earthworm48]

He means Xmen 3. the film, not the PC game X3: The Reunion.

[Triprotic]

This game looked sweet last year at e3, and it sound like they've really made the most of the time they had since then to make the game much better. I'm definetaly pre-ordering this one :)

[51|RandoM]

It can be fun taking out an entire enemy team with just a golf club.

[Intruder]

Hitman is one series that always pleases, not let down yet by it. Hope this one continues the trend.

[sTubbs]

I want this game. Hand to hand combat was the only thing I felt was missing from the series, and now that it has been added I can not wait to play. As great as the previous games are, 47 always felt a bit too stiff for a world class hitman, but it looks as though that problem has been remedied. The return of the money system is also great. This is pretty much the only reason I have kept my XBOX this long, and it looks as though that was a good choice.

[Triprotic]

47 always felt a bit too stiff for a world class hitman, but it looks as though that problem has been remedied.

I dunno, after compleating the majority of the first hitman with just the knife, 47 seemed like a world class hitman to me :D

[sTubbs]

I dunno, after compleating the majority of the first hitman with just the knife, 47 seemed like a world class hitman to me :D

What I meant is that 47 is absolutely useless in situations that a stereotypical movie super hitman could handle easily. Things like disarms, hand to hand combat, frontal attacks, and so on. After reading some previews, it looks as though IO has remedied this by adding the ability to pull of some really cool sounding close quarters moves. I am particularly excited about being able to walk up to an armed guard, take their weapon, and then headbut them before they know what happened. THAT is the kind of shit sorely missing from the previous games.