Hitman 5 clues include film festivals and mysterious photographs
A team of forumites have been hunting down a series of mysterious leads that seem to point to the existence of Hitman 5. A Hitman fan started following up on comments by IO Interactive’s community manager on the Hitman forums. This led him to an ad on the Sundance Film Festival site. He emailed the person who put the ad up, and in response received a photograph of a Hitman script next to a pair of Agent 47′s black gloves. Put on your detective hat and head below to see the image, and some of the clues contained within.
Valve hire Doug Church of Thief, System Shock fame
This kind of industry news happens all the time, and it’s not normally the kind of thing we’d report. This is just too good, though. Valve have confirmed that they’ve hired Doug Church, a games designer who worked on, amongst others, Ultima Underworld, Thief, System Shock and Deus Ex. And Flight Unlimited 2, which was totally amazing by the way.
When Tom spoke to Gabe Newell at great length last year, he discussed Valve’s hiring practices. At the time, Newell mention that: “We have one guy who I think we’re finally going to get to move here that we’ve been pursuing for twelve years now, and we finally have convinced him to join the horde.” PURE SPECULATION from my brain suggests Doug Church might be the guy.
There’s no word on what project Church is working on – and whether it’s something new or something existing – but Gamasutra received confirmation about the hire from Valve’s Doug Lombardi. The imagination runs wild. Hop below for the full section about hiring practices from Tom’s Gabe Newell interviews.
Dragon Age 2 Facebook game is live
Dragon Age: Legends is now out of beta and available to everyone on Facebook. The game acts as a companion to Dragon Age 2, and is set in the same region of the Free Marches. You play as a Templar called Ravi, who must destroy a demonic abomination threatening to obliterate the town of Kaiten with what Bioware are calling “a hedonistic orgy of narcissism and opulence.” Why would you want to stop that?
The story isn’t the only reason to play Dragon Age: Legends, there’s also some loot on offer. There will be five items to unlock for your character in Dragon Age 2, including a couple of ancient ring, a magical pendant, a trophy rack, and more. To play, simply visit the Dragon Age: Legends Facebook page.
Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean preview
Remember the middle ages, where lopping off your enemy’s head was a good way to spend an afternoon? Lego: Pirates of the Carribbean makes decapitation fun again. When little Lego Jack Sparrow has his little Lego head sliced from his little Lego body by a little Lego sword, his little Lego hands go straight to his little Lego neck-hole. It’s the cutest example of horrible murder I’ve ever seen.
Total Fail: Shogun 2 patch locks out players. Gets fixed
If you’re having trouble playing Shogun 2 right now, you’re not alone. A patch that was released in the last hour has just locked out what appears to be the entire playerbase. Currently, if you try and start the game, you’ll be confronted with a Steam error message: Incomplete installation of Total War: SHOGUN 2 (15). A long thread on the Steam forums suggests that it’s not an isolated problem, and CA have already said they’re aware of the issue.
That doesn’t stop it being phenomenally irritating.
UPDATE: And it’s fixed. That was ridiculous.
CCP still crazy, EVE Online devs to duel in chessboxing showdown
We like CCP. We like knowing that a team of madmen in Iceland make a game that embodies the do-anything openness that we associate with the PC. Next weekend at EVE Online’s annual Fanfest convention in Reykjavík, two of CCP’s most daring devs are going to fight one another. Then they’ll play chess. Then they’ll box a little. Then one of them might move a pawn. It’s called chessboxing, and if you think it sounds unexciting, you haven’t watched CCP’s sizzle reel for the event.
And in other PC gaming news…
Welcome to the end of Wednesday. It has been a day of much controversy, from the claims that Ubisoft released a pirated version of their own Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood as a pre-order bonus, to creative director Sion Lenton’s comments about Operation Flashpoint and military sims. There must be something in the water, because even EA got in on the action, referring to World of Warcraft’s story as being like “a shopping list.”
But what other controversies have been erupting in the land of PC gaming? There’s only one way to find out. Below you’ll find a list of everything we haven’t had time to mention so far today. Enjoy!
Operation Flashpoint: Red River creative director doesn’t “get much fun out of military simulations”
Operation Flashpoint: Red River’s creative director, Sion Lenton, thinks military simulations are “immersive” and “realistic” but not necessarily “fun.”
Speaking to PC Gamer, Sion directed gamers yearning for an accurately simulated warzone towards Bohemia Interactive’s ArmA series, and claimed that PC is “Not the market to be in.”
Ooo-rah indeed.
Ubisoft include pirated soundtrack as part of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood digital edition
Those who pre-ordered Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood have recently been claiming their pre-order bonuses, which includes the game’s soundtrack. One eagle-eyed pre-purchaser had a close look at the files, and noticed that they have been encoded by “arsa13″, a user responsible for putting up illegal copies of the soundtrack on Torrent sites, suggesting that the MP3 soundtrack distributed as part of the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is ripped from illegally uploaded files.
Battlefield 3 trailer breaks out the rocket launcher
The new Battlefield 3 trailer has arrived, providing more stupidly pretty in-game footage. It’s part two of the Fault Line series, which follows a team through one of Battlefield 3′s single player missions. In this video the squad is pinned by sniper fire on a rooftop. There’s only one way to deal with snipers, a shoulder mounted rocket launcher, the perfect weapon to show off the full battlefield destructibility of the Frostbite 2 engine. BOOM. Here’s part one.
Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing, an amazing Call of Duty fan film
Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing is a series of top class, fan made Call of Duty videos from the team behind the brilliant Minecraft film, The Last Minecart. The video above is part 3 of the saga. You’ll find parts one and two embedded below.
EA: The Old Republic will be the first MMO with a story, says WoW’s plot is like “a shopping list”
Head of EA Games, Frank Gibeau has being busy talking about The Old Republic’s narrative focus, claiming that The Old Republic is “the first time an MMO has actually had a story.” He goes on to describe how The Old Republic will set itself apart from World of Warcraft, saying that WoW’s plot feels more like a shopping list than a proper narrative.
Prey 2 trailer features live action plane invasion
The first Prey 2 trailer has landed, or rather, taken off. It’s a live action film starring real live human beings set on a plane that comes under attack from alien forces. While there’s no in-game footage, the events of the new trailer match up with a few of Prey 2′s rumoured features, which suggest that Prey 2 could be an open world game set on a seedy cyberpunk planet.
[US Giveaway] Win a free copy of Total War: Shogun 2!
UPDATE: The war is over! Congrats to our ten winners: TJF588, LordNikon452, Gensolo, Gruvsf, BoobieTassels, Mythic, TheStealthyOne, Unitedaf, G00SE216, and jng2058! We’ll be sending you your codes shortly. Thanks to everyone else who entered, and may your strategies serve you well.
War is upon us! Creative Assembly’s epic-scale strategy game (and PCG Editor’s Choice winner) Total War: Shogun 2 is out today, and it’s a big one. To celebrate the arrival of one of the best Total Wars to date, we’re giving away 10 Steam codes that you can use to get started on that enormous 15GB download. Read on to find out how to enter.
And in other PC gaming news…
In the news today, we got to see Batman bat-battering thugs in the first in-game footage of Batman: Arkham City, people got stabbed back to full health in the new Brink trailer, and the Crysis 2 “be fast” trailer flashed before our eyes in an explodey blur of bullets and carefully angled grenade tosses. Oh, and a man super-hurled another man several blocks into a car in the new Prototype 2 trailer. The car also exploded.
The real question is, what else has been exploding today in the world of PC gaming? Find out below in our lovely linky list of news.
