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Former Hitman, Kane and Lynch creators launch Reto-Moto
The founders of Hitman and Kane and Lynch developer IO Interactive have left to form Reto-Moto, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based studio "committed to redefining the online multi-player space." While the team isn't talking about its initial project, a press release announcing the company notes that Reto-Moto is in "active dialogue with strategic industry partners."In a rather incestuous twist, it turns out that Reto-Moto was actually established in 1997, and was the former parent of IO Interactive before it was handed off to Eidos in 2004 as part of a £20 million acquisition. It looks like Thomas Wolfe was wrong; you can go home again.
Tomb Raider comes to online video slot machines. Finally!
If there's one thing we here at Joystiq constantly find ourselves thinking while playing Tomb Raider games, it's "Man, if only this experience could be translated into an online video slot machine." Well someone at Belle Rock Entertainment must have had a window into our souls, because the group has just unveiled Tomb Raider: The Secret of the Sword, a new video slot for their online casinos.The machine isn't based directly on the games, unfortunately. Instead, it promises to "faithfully capture the gripping excitement and suspense of the original movie" with "a glossy 5 reel 30 pay-line multi-faceted package." Fans of the movie will be happy to know that the "randomly triggered Super Mode" and "Global Adventure Bonus" have been faithfully captured here. The Secret of the Sword joins a similar Hitman slot machine in the annals of lame cross-marketing ideas for Eidos products impressive and engaging Eidos slot machine ports.
Download free Drillbit Taylor and Hitman goodies
If you're like us, we need a fresh coat of new gamer picture paint ever once and a while. You know, to keep things fresh and lively. But our only requirement is that all gamer pictures we grab from the XBLM must be free. Call us old fashioned, but that's how we roll. So, we're happy to share with you that two new sets of movie themed gamer pictures (and dashboard themes) are available to U.S. Xbox Live members for free.Right now on the XBLM, you can grab a free Hitman the movie gamer picture pack and theme as well as a free gamer picture and theme from Owen Wilson's comedy Drillbit Taylor. Like we said, all four sets of downloadable goodness are free and are (surprisingly) quite well done. Especially the Drillbit Taylor pack. You'll have to download to see, but for some reason those gamer pictures make us crack up.
Former Hitman devs creating 'high end' casual games
Casual games are not everyone's cup of tea, as evidenced by our controversial inclusion of PopCap puzzler Peggle among Joystiq's top ten titles of 2007. There's no denying, however, that these often bite-sized diversions are as popular as they are addictive, reason enough why many startup studios -- such as newly formed The Game Equation -- swing that way. The Denmark-based studio, established by a pair of programmers who worked on the Hitman franchise in a previous life, aims to develop for the "high end of the casual games industry" with titles that remind them of what it was like playing games when they were youngsters. That's sweet, but what exactly does that mean?The company has pair of puzzle games available already named Deep Blue Sea and Constellations, though at first glance there certainly doesn't appear to be anything particularly evolved about either of these efforts, entertaining as they may be. What is interesting is that in creating the match-3 puzzler Deep Blue Sea, the studio brought on an honest to goodness film and theatre composer, Rasmus Hartvig, to create the game's music, though given the dev's experience with Hitman, a series known for its dramatic scores, The Game Equation's aural emphasis is not wholly unexpected. That's all well and good, and we like good music as much as anyone, but the studio will need to pull out some considerably bigger tricks before we buy into its incongruous idea of high end casual games.
Ebert actually kind of likes Hitman (the movie)
We all know that Roger Ebert, despite his five-digit gamerscore and level 70 night elf rogue, doesn't think video games have, as of yet, risen to the level of "art." But that doesn't mean that he doesn't give a fair shake to video-game based movies. In fact, you could say he almost sort of liked Hitman, saying "Agent 47 has great success with this disguise in Hitman, which is a better movie than I thought it might be."Ebert even goes so far as to give the movie, which earned $21 million in its first five days, 3 out of 4 stars, which is, admittedly, the same score he gave to Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. (In other news: Why do we still pay attention to a man who gave three stars to Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties?)
Critics: Hitman film more like Hit-meh
Did you like that headline? Yeah, we did too. It's ironic, because if the critics weighing in on the new Hitman film are any bellwether, it's the only entertaining thing about the movie. Of the 25 reviews of the Timothy Olyphant starrer (released today) only 12% gave the movie a positive review. If you're not so much with the math, that translates to "Not good."One of the few decent reviews comes from Daniel M. Kimmel, who says "There's enough intelligence behind it that you don't feel you're just waiting to hit the reset button," which is a video game metaphor so belabored we feel compelled to dismiss his opinion out of hand. Of the negative reviews, our favorite comes from Dustin Putnam who says "Abysmal in the extreme, Hitman is 100 minutes of soul-crushing nothingness." Wow, is it too late to pre-order tickets?
Boy hires hitman to kill parents after grounding denies PlayStation, TV
We've certainly gotten cranky after being denied some quality gaming time, but 16-year-old Cory Ryder took it to the next level by attempting to hire a hitman to kill his parents after they took away his PlayStation and denied him television. Seems young Cory had been making threats around the house, so his mom hired a cop to pose as a hitter -- and Cory took the bait, offering up his dad's truck as payment. After a couple rounds of "negotiations," the officer revealed himself and arrested Cory for attempted murder, for which he's now awaiting trial. Of course, you'd think that having a hitman conveniently show up after you'd been threatening to kill your parents might set off an alarm or two, but Cory's apparently not the brightest bulb around -- his PlayStation was confiscated due to failing grades.[Via Joystiq]
GameTap offering free Hitman games and retrospective in November
Next month GameTap will offer the adventures of Agent 47 (except for Blood Money) for free on the service in sequential order. Although they say the original game is available Nov. 1, technically it's available for free now. The series' gameplay became far more forgiving as things progressed, so depending on your tolerance for repeating a level over and over again, you may want to wait until Contracts becomes available Nov. 15 for the softest experience. Now - Hitman: Codename 47 is available for free play. Nov. 8 - Hitman 2: Silent Assassin available for free. GameTap begins Hitman Retrospective on their Watch channel. Nov. 15 - Hitman: Contracts available for free. Nov. 21: Hitman movie starring Timothy Olyphant premieres in theaters. GameTap says they have more in store on this, but that's the basics for now. We are curious to see how one of the GameTap retrospectives holds up to the GameTrailer ones we've become enamored with.
Variety confirms Hitman getting 'hard R' rating
Variety confirmed that Hitman is not being watered down and will be in theaters with a "hard R" rating Nov. 21. This is following rumors that Fox executives removed director Xavier Gens from Hitman's post-production and would be watering down the hyper-violent film to a PG-13 rating in an attempt to get the kids. An ironic move considering the studio would have been targeting kids with a movie who aren't old enough to play one of the Mature-rated (17+) Hitman games the film is based on.Variety says both a source close to the project -- they wouldn't be Variety if they didn't have one of those -- and a Fox representative both confirmed that "director Xavier gens is still on board, and the movie will absolutely come out with an R rating." Now we wait and see if the violence is reasonable in keeping with the Hitman games (which the scenes shown in the trailer make us doubt) or if it'll all be over-the-top action insanity making us question what Hollywood has done to the "silent assassin."
Rumor: Hitman movie watered down for PG-13
According to website Twitch, Fox Studios pulled the director of the Hitman movie off the project in post-production and will re-edit the film to receive a PG-13 rating. There is no official word yet that this is true, but the story goes director Xavier Gens was yanked off the project because the film he submitted to executives would have guaranteed an R rating. Apparently post-production of the film has now been handed over to Nicolas DeToth, the man who edited the hell out of Live Free or Die Hard to receive a PG-13 rating. Essentially they are turning a hyper-violent (mature?) movie and watering it down for the kids -- if true, there's something wrong in that, on so many levels.Our friends over at Cinematical put it this way: "See, here's how I know Hollywood is a lunatic bin: Whomever hired Mr. Gens for this job had to know two things: 1) The director's first film -- Frontiere(s) -- is so amazingly and powerfully violent that it almost becomes parody. 2) The video game? You know, the one that this new Hitman movie is BASED ON? It's a pretty damn violent game. Like, really violent." Not only is it violent our Cinematical friends, but the games are all rated Mature, the video game industry's version of an R rating. Oh well, guess we'll just skip the movie in the theater and wait for the unrated version on DVD.[Via Cinematical]
Timothy Olyphant talks about playing Agent 47
Actor Timothy Olyphant's take on Agent 47 and the Hitman movie in general is about what you'd expect: Yes, he wants to be respectful of the source material. No, he had no idea that the source material existed before he read the script. (He was a bit busy being in one of the raddest TV shows ever, thank you very much.) He does say, however, that director Xavier Gans was a big fan of Hitman, which is sort of encouraging. In his interview, Olyphant does seem to get that Agent 47 kills people really well, which (pseudo-religious iconography aside) is pretty much the thrust of the character. He also says he sees the titular hitman as a loner who's just starting to question the meaning of his existence. Woah there, slow it down Tim. You don't want to go all Sam Fisher on us.
Joystiq impressions: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
If you're unsure about the nature of content in IO Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, you need only a single glance at the bench you're sitting on in the Eidos E3 demonstration room. Packed beneath a layer of glass you can find either a cache of machine guns and bullets, packets of suspicious white powder (baking powder, perhaps?) or countless rows of hundred-dollar bills. Judging by the brief demonstration of the single-player component of the game, these are all items that have been thoroughly used, abused and stolen by Kane and Lynch at some point in their dubious careers.Despite sharing similar criminal and psychotic tendencies, the eponymous duo don't get along very well. Their brutish behavior and decidedly harsh vocabulary stems from the Hitman developer's desire to keep things "raw and realistic," says product manager Matt Knowles. He sums the game up as "an emotionally intense crime drama," pointing towards a bickering Kane and Lynch as they prepare to enter a vibrant upmarket nightclub. They're certainly dressed for the part, but it soon becomes clear that those snazzy suits conceal a sinister kidnapping plot.%Gallery-4814%
Hitman movie teaser shows promise
The trailer for the upcoming Hitman movie hit the internet yesterday, and we've got the somewhat shoddy YouTube video above for your quick Schubert fix. IGN has some high res Quicktime and Windows Media formats that have less obtrusive watermarks. Timothy Olyphant dons the bar code as Agent 47, and while he's not exactly David Bateson, the voice actor from the games whom the character is also modeled after, we're confident in his potential to nail the part. Our major glimmer of hope that this game-to-film may work is that like Hitman: Blood Money, the iconic "Ellens dritter Gesang" by Franz is present, accounted for, and always as moving and poignant. So, if anyone tries to tell you the song is "Ave Maria", quite simply, they're wrong. Perhaps we're overly optimistic because we were a fan of Blood Money and its well done Achievements, or because we actually thought Kelly was a badass character in The Girl Next Door, but this could go against the trend of game franchises becoming motion pictures.[Via Joystiq. Thanks DjDATZ, Vik, & NitroFrost for being awesome]
Hitman trailer: being bald never looked so good
Leave it to the internets! The Hitman movie trailer that we mentioned will be running in front of Live Free or Die Hard (are we the only ones that still find that title a bit much?) has hit the web. Whattya think? It's a teaser trailer and doesn't show much, but it definitely looks to be true to the games. Plus it has the added bonus of Uwe Boll being completely unattached to it.Check out the trailer over at film site JoBlo.com, and let us know what you think. Timothy Olyphant actually looks pretty decent as Agent 47, especially with that bald head and the barcode tattoo. Combine that with the Silverballer pistols and Ave Maria playing in the background and you get a promising look ... for now.
GameTap 'leaks' franchises coming to service
In one of the funnier announcements we've ever seen, GameTap's forums released (and we've confirmed that it's legit) a bevy of franchises coming to the service. Although no release dates have been given -- except for Hitman: Codename 47 coming this Thursday -- we do have the list of franchises expected on the service very soon. Hitman Thief BloodRayne The Legacy of Kain They also announced that Wing Commander IV is coming (the one with Mark Hamill and Thomas "Hey, McFly" Wilson as Maniac). As much as we enjoy getting our GameTap info through forum posts like this, we don't expect it to become a habit -- but it was fun.
Rumor: Hitman film trailer premiering with Die Hard
A trailer for the film adaptation of Hitman will be shown in the previews preceding Live Free or Die Hard, opening this Wednesday, according to reputable film site ComingSoon.net. The movie, starring Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47, began filming on March 27.No official confirmation has been made from distributor Twentieth Century Fox, but the action-packed Bruce Willis vehicle would be a perfect fit for the trailer and is also distributed by Fox. If true, look for the teaser to find its way on the internet likely by Wednesday afternoon.
Three Hitman hits chopped up and stuffed in a box
Agent 47 is about to get all bundled up and enter the frigid climate of retail to make even more of a killing as his last three adventures get bundled into one compilation called Hitman Trilogy. The game will include Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money. and will retail on PS2 and PC for the worthwhile price of $29.99, now if they'll allow the Blood Money control scheme to be used in the other two titles, that would be sweet. The game ships June 20 (today).A bonus disc comes in the box which has a "preview" of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, IO Interactive's latest title which features a mercenary and his lovable psychotic associate. IO Interactive is a company that really doesn't get the attention it deserves. The Hitman series has been a sleeper hit for the company and they were also the developers behind the excellent Freedom Fighters. As much as we like Agent 47, and wish all the best for Kane and Lynch, another chance at Freedom Fighters would be a nice surprise.
Hitman plot publicized, Agent 47 pursues 'damaged' girl
Twentieth Century Fox has released the plot synopsis for the Hitman movie, revealing that a pinch of double-0 instinct has been added to Agent 47's cold-blooded repertoire. In between dodging Interpol and pursuing those who've betrayed him, ol' 47 notices some "unfamiliar emotions" bubbling up from the nether region. Even a supposedly enhanced clone ain't immune to a "beautiful, damaged" girl, it would seem.Hitman is starting to sound a lot like star Timothy Olyphant's last flick Catch & Release, in which he falls for a woman damaged by the death and secrets of her fiancé. Uh-oh Mr. Bullock, you been typecast.
Virtually Overlooked: Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode isn't exactly a great game. In fact, it's more like an awkward agglomeration of a lot of not-that-great games into one game that is mostly mediocre. But somehow, out of its many imperfect elements, it manages to deliver an impressively James-Bond cool story that motivates players to continue the experience.
Low install base to blame for no Eidos titles?
Eidos is, of course, referring to itself in the subject line. See, most of their PS3 titles aren't planned for release until 2008. That sucks. Why? They blame the low install base of the new console. Eidos may have new Tomb Raider, Hitman, and a possible Just Cause sequel in the works for the mid-2008 fiscal period.Eidos CEO Jane Cavanagh made these comments: "We believe that PlayStation 3 will be a successful platform, and are developing technology and products for this console...However, as we do not believe that the installed base will be high enough until the second half of our 2008 financial year, most of our major product releases on the PlayStation 3 platform are not scheduled before that date."To me, this says that Eidos doesn't have much faith in its games. They don't think they'll sell well, or they don't think they'll be nearly enough to move systems. Granted, they shouldn't think too highly of themselves, but no game developer should be complacent enough to make games that are "just okay". They need to work on something that will move systems! Something every dev should strive for! Revolution! ...Or, you know, get pumped up and stuff.
