Hitman: Blood Money

"My own education was pretty average."

Square Enix's long-rumoured Hitman HD Collection has finally been unveiled (surprise!) for release on 1st February 2013.

North American gamers get the release on 29th January.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 pack will contain previous games Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman 3: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money.

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It's a murder simulator, right? IO is, quite literally, simulating murder, albeit of the professional variety. But Agent 47 isn't some kind-faced Jean Reno with a plucky Natalie Portman by his side. There are no redeeming features to the bald, bar-coded clone, and yet we still thrill to be placed a few feet behind his head. Disguising, strangling, sneaking and blasting our way through mostly civilian locations to kill whoever has the bounty on their head, along with a sizable handful of their personal entourage.

Trophies for Hitman HD Collection have appeared online.

Square Enix has said its new cloud gaming portal Core Online was born out of a "selfish" but "obvious" desire to get more people playing the company's games.

Square Enix has jumped into cloud gaming with a service of its own called Core Online.

You can use it to play Square Enix games in a browser.

The launch games are IO titles Hitman: Blood Money and Mini Ninjas. Coming soon are Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Tomb Raider Underworld and Gyromancer.

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A trilogy of Hitman games are being packaged together for re-release on PlayStation 3, a retailer listing suggests.

Danish Hitman developer IO Interactive will work on new IP following the completion of Hitman Absolution.

Evidence of a new Hitman game is mounting.

The voice actor who plays Agent 47 in the Hitman series has only gone and confirmed the heavily-rumoured Hitman 5.

"I have been overwhelmingly gratified and humbled by the sheer dedication to the Hitman franchise that the fans have expressed," David Bateson said in an interview with The Gaming Liberty.

"For all the kind things that have been said, I am truly thankful. That kind of dedication and appreciation of the game deserves repayment... with an even more gob smacking instalment in Hitman 5. I don't envy IO Interactive for the pressure they must be under to deliver. I am utterly convinced they will!"

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Danish developer IO Interactive is hard at work on the next game in the popular Hitman series, Eurogamer has learned.

20th Century Fox has revealed plans for a second film based on IO Interactive's spy series Hitman.

All the instalments in the Hitman series are being offered for half-price on Steam this weekend.

The founders of IO Interactive have established a new development studio called Reto-Moto.

Film critic Roger Ebert has used his review of the new Hitman film to revisit his critique of videogames as an art form - or, rather, not being one.

The theory goes that videogames and film have never got on, but in truth they seldom even get to know one another, with countless projects announced and then never heard from again.

Some do though, and one that's gained an uncustomary tangibility is Hitman, which is now visible in an actual trailer with moving bits and acting and all sorts.

Well, there's no dialogue, but there is scene-setting; a hint at an "origins" twang of the plot's bassoon; a lot of slow-motion shots of Agent 47 actor Timothy Olyphant fiddling with guns; and Ave Maria soaring over the top to infuse it all with a bit of class.

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Eidos entered into the killing spirit this morning by unveiling a new compilation of the three most recent Hitman games. This Triple Pack of murder will be available for PC and PS2 on Friday.

New details of the upcoming Hitman film have loomed up like a red laser spot on the chest of a fat banker.

"In the second half of the year we expect to receive further licensing revenues from the film version of Hitman," said Eidos' parent company SCi in its interim results statement. "It has been reported that Deadwood star, Timothy Olyphant will star as Agent 47 in 20th Century Fox's production of the Hitman film. The film will co-star Dougray Scott and will be produced by Luc Besson."

On top of this, Variety reported that Olga Kurylenko (Paris je t'aime), Robert Knepper (Prison Break), Ulrich Thomsen (Festen) and Michael Offei (Casino Royale) will also star in the film.

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Eidos' contract killer steals its second week at the top of the all-formats charts this week, Hitman: Blood Money continuing to fend off the football fever having casually knocked FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 into second place last week.

It's all change at the top this week as Hitman: Blood Money knocks FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 from the number one spot, giving Eidos its second all-formats chart topper of the year.

Eidos has released new patches for the PC versions of Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman: Blood Money.

The TR patch is designed to improve overall performance and gives you a separate walk button with which to control Lara, amongst other things. It's now available for download via 3D Gamers.

The Hitman: Blood Money patch fixes all manner of bugs, including "the low performance problems that have been experienced on some hardware configurations." It's also up on 3D Gamers.

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Hitman is a divisive sod of a franchise. Apologists are quick to express their opinion that unless you play the Hitman games 'the right way' then you're missing not only the fun, but the entire point. The clue is in the title, they're fond of pointing out.

But, put any of the Hitman games in the hands of the average gamer who hasn't been schooled in 'the right way' to play it or given the well-honed 'pitch' by the developer, and the chances are that their experience will be very different from the evangelist. Sure, they'll start off with the best of intentions and try using the fiber wire against unsuspecting foe, swapping outfits and conscientiously hiding bodies. But then they'll inevitably keep getting caught. Out of frustration, more than anything, you'll probably blast your way out of trouble and quickly find out how effective it is. Like any other game, you'll work out the path of least resistance.

Choice words

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Today sees the release of Hitman: Blood Money on PC, PS2, Xbox and Xbox 360 - and to celebrate, Eidos has released a playable demo of the game.

They've also released a patch for it, which is designed to "address the constant low framerate bug that some users have been experiencing on certain hardware configurations," apparently. You can download both the demo and the patch over at 3D Gamers.

Alternatively, Xbox 360 owners can access the demo via Xbox Live - make sure you've got plenty of space on that hard drive though, since it's a hefty 780MB in size.

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Those of you who'd rather play the new Hitman game on Xbox 360 than PC can log onto Marketplace and start downloading your own version of the PC demo released this week.

Eidos and Io have released a playable PC demo of Hitman: Blood Money, which is due out on PS2, Xbox 360, Xbox and PC this Friday, May 26.

For a while it looked like Eidos was attempting to drag the Hitman franchise into the dreaded 'spot-the-difference' annual update territory. That was certainly the original plan, at least, with the latest Agent 47 game initially planned for release last autumn. That would have meant four Hitman titles hitting the shelves inside five years, and delivered within the kind of breakneck development schedule that made Contracts seem a little hurried in places. Fortunately, SCi stepped in, bought Eidos and held the project back fully nine months to ensure the game lived up to its rich potential.

Eidos is planning to release Hitman: Blood Money in Europe on 26th May, the publisher's announced.

Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman: Blood Money have slipped to early 2006, SCi-dos (see what we did there?) has confirmed.

Actor Vin Diesel has signed on to play the lead role of Agent 47 in the forthcoming movie adaptation of Io Interactive's Hitman series - and may also be starring in future games in the franchise.

Agent 47 may have a barcode tattooed on his bonce, but Io has firmly established the silent assassin as one of the most popular gaming icons of this generation. Already onto his fourth adventure, publisher Eidos is currently cranking the PR machine into life ahead of E3, fleshing out the details of the game, along with new screenshots.

Everyone's favourite bald, barcoded bad guy, Agent 47, is back in action later this year, as the Hitman makes his return to our gaming systems on PS2, Xbox and PC. And with the game expected to make its public debut at E3 in just a few day's time, Eidos has released new screenshots of the game which you can sample right here.

UK publisher Eidos has confirmed four key titles going on show at this year's E3, hinting that there could be more announcements to follow.