Some confirmed info on Absolution:

David Bateson will not be voicing Agent 47.[9][10][11]
Agent 47's handler, Diana Burnwood, has a "close relationship" with 47 in Absolution.[12]
The main antagonist is revealed to be Blake Dexter, a new character to the series. The character will be voiced by Keith Carradine.[12]
The game is only going to be set in the United States, with one portion taking place in Chicago.[13]
The game will be released around 2012.[14]
Players will be able to set up elaborate traps.[15]
A new mode, called "Instinct", works much like the detective mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum.[16]
Map screen is replaced by the aforementioned "Instinct" mode.[16][17]
Players will no longer be able to manually save the game.[18][19]
Players will be able to utilize a "tag and kill" mechanism during Instinct mode that is similar to the one in Red Dead Redemption.[20]
The game will feature some scripted action sequences and smaller sandbox levels that are divided by checkpoints.[21][11]
The original soundtrack for the game is composed by Peter Kyed and Peter Peter, replacing the game's previous composer, Jesper Kyd.[11]

:sadvaultboy:

That info svcks about Absolution, well I guess I'll have to get it used then.

I really don't think the game will be very good. It'll just be another run-of-the-mill shooter. Too bad... I want another Silent Assassin more than anything. :/

I love SA through to Blood Money, but I've only attempted to play Codename 47 once, and I couldn't get used to the controls. I didn't even get through the tutorial

http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae289/MarkTheMayer/Funny%20Motivational%20Images/1271406215565.jpg

Okay, I lied, I'm pissed.

Note to game developers: every time you force a checkpoint based system into a PC game, it makes me want to punch puppies.

Please. Think of the puppies.

Like many here i love the hitman series, great games with excellent replayability and attention to detail, but i must admit i have very little hope of the next one being any good or staying true to the series, too much time has passed since blood-money, there is no guarentee the same talented people will be working on it, and much of what i read about it sounds terrible.



That's just killed all interest i had in the next Hitman.

so are they making hitman or splinter cell conviction

Checkpoints? Scripted action sequences? Smaller sandbox levels?

Way to ruin a perfect game.

It svcked how that one went down, too...he was fully expecting to voice him again, but the company didn't even ask. Just replaced him without so much as sending an email.

I love Blood Money, and it sounds like Absolution intends to remove or drastically change everything that made that game great.

This is how I feel. I never played, but read about, the PC only Hitman games, but I enjoyed the Hitman trilogy, and this just pisses me off. Absolution seems to 'dumb down' Hitman in a large way. I don't mind simplifying things, but I feel like Absolution is going to be the kind of game that is being developed by the guys who only saw the terrible movie of the game.

I agree, Absolution just sounds like a super flashy stealth game instead of what it should been, a better version of Blood Money. I would've been fine with another Blood Money, with the only changes being improved graphics and improved AI. Instead they are going the wrong direction, I guess we can blame Square Enix for those problems.

Imagine if we could have Blood money with improved graphics/AI and dev tools to make our own custom missions... Best game evar.

I wouldn't blame Square-Enix for that. IOI changed over the past few years and is no longer the company it used to be, several IOI founders left the company back in 2008 to go to their Reto-Moto company instead (which is working on Heros & Generals). These changes happened before Square-Enix bought Eidos.

If that is the case then in my opinion the hitman series that i loved to play died a while back without me knowing, key employees leaving a company are really hard for the average gamer to keep a track of, it's not like a book author where you know that you either do like or don't like their work, with games no matter who comes or goes the company gets to keep the series name, and there lies the problem, you don't know what you're getting half the time, because if the talented people that made the game great have gone, it's unlikely the average game purchaser will know or realise until they buy the game.

I really should make more of an effort to at least get to know the names of the people responsible for my favourite games, so that when they leave a company i can say "ah, ok, not going to buy that because i know the only part of the series left is the name".

In the old days i think that game developers used to be a little more visible than they are now, nowadays it seems like the big companies want to hide them away, makes sense from their point of view i guess, that way when they leave consumers don't lose confidence even if there is every reason for that confidence to vanish along with the leaving employee.

Absolutely. This is definitely the worst part about the whole shenanigan. I'm not one to usually hold video game morals but I'm probably not going to get this because they've been dikes

I'm like the Colonel. http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4471/deathglare.jpg. I'm not...

Oh hell.

What bull-[censored] this is. It seemed like with Blood Money, IO finally hit their stride with the series! Money to buy weapons and upgrades! Customizable guns! Notoriety to encourage you to play with subtlety. Planting explosives anywhere (and in briefcases), setting traps, using poisons, and environment based ways to kill your target on every level. Multiple targets to whack every mission! And in those sprawling huge levels that largely left you to your own devices in figuring out how to accomplish your tasks that made the series great. And now, it seems like they're throwing it all away. And didn't even have the decency to hire Bateson to voice 47.

What are they planning on doing, making it closer to those stupid movies that nobody liked?