Hitman - Blood Money

Hitman: Blood Money is a stealth game developed by IO Interactive, published by Eidos Interactive and directed by Rasmus Højengaard. It is the fourth entry in the Hitman game series and was released on May 26, 2006 in Europe and on May 30, 2006 in the United States for the PlayStation 2, Xboxand Xbox 360 video game consoles and the Microsoft Windows operating system. The game is also available through OnLive. A Mobile Phone version under the same name was also released but with drastically different gameplay, graphics and overall style.

The story follows the life of professional hitman, Agent 47, as narrated in cutscenes by a former director of the FBI to a journalist who is interviewing him. The wheelchair-using ex-director recounts how his agency tracked 47 over a two-year period. The game also marks 47's arrival to the United States, and differs from the original three in that several contracts are carried out in civilian areas, as opposed to the "covert ops" settings of Codename 47, Silent Assassin, and Contracts. The game was a commercial success, selling more than 2.1 million units, and a sequel has been confirmed to be in the works by Eidos Interactive.

Read more »

Fallout 3

Bethesda's Fallout 3 not only outshone the studio's previous game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in just about every way, it accomplished the impressive task of satisfying most non-extremist-level fans of Black Isle's venerable Fallout series. Creating a vast world that is a convincing representation of a dismal, post-nuclear wasteland while also being consistently compelling is no mean feat, but here it is.

The sheer amount of content in Fallout 3 is extremely impressive, considering what a consistent level of quality it maintains - and how much of it a player is likely to completely miss, based on the choices made, the NPCs killed, the routes traveled, and any number of other variables. The main storyline pales in comparison to the larger breadth of experiences to be had throughout, and the vast wasteland begs to be lived in.

To sweeten the deal for PC gamers, Bethesda has also released the G.E.C.K., an end user editing tool that can author any type of single-player content featured in Fallout 3 - which will surely extend the title's already-considerable shelf life.

Read more »

Left 4 Dead

There may be no other game released this year that can promise as consistently a thrilling and hilarious multiplayer experience as this. Out of Valve's ongoing attempts to bridge the gap between its highly-tuned single-player titles and the necessarily chaotic nature of multiplayer gaming comes Left 4 Dead, whose AI director and tight four-player cooperative play create a team-based atmosphere that is both coherent and unpredictable, even upon multiple playthings of the same campaign.

Hitting the right notes between necessary player-to-player interaction and the independence demanded by a first-person shooter, Left 4 Dead is possibly the most accurate video game representation of the classic cinematic zombie invasion to date, even as its antagonists operate quite differently to their traditionally sluggish filmy counterparts. Much of this is due to the group dynamics that the game fosters, coaxing out emergent archetypes like "that idiot who accidentally makes a noise and alerts the entire horde" or "the sole survivor who somehow staves off wave after wave and makes it to the chopper."

On top of that, the seemingly endless supply of brief character quips continues Valve's recent trend of summoning up surprising depth to characters who exist outside of any substantial defined narrative.

Read more »