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IESB: Writer hired on for sequel to Hitman movie

by David Hinkle { Jun 24th 2009 at 8:00PM }

As fans of the exploits of one Agent 47, seeing Hitman the movie was like watching a really bad movie. But, Fox liked how much money it made (grossed near $100 million in worldwide box office sales, dontchaknow) -- IESB reports the studio has hired on writer Kyle Ward to pen a sequel, with producers Adrian Askarieh, Daniel Alter and Chuck Gordon returning.

Ward is no stranger to adapting games for film, as he recently penned Kane & Lynch, set to star Bruce Willis and begin filming later this year. Hey. Ward, do us a favor? Before you get to work, make sure you watch a decent film about a hitman first, 'kay?

Livingstone: Kane & Lynch 2 aimed for Sept., more Hitman, Tomb Raider en route

by Ben Gilbert { May 11th 2009 at 11:00AM }

In Mumbai for the Golden Cursor Animation Awards, recently appointed Eidos "life president" Ian Livingstone sat down with the folks at GamingIndians and spilled a full bag of beans. Unsurprisingly, he says the Square Enix acquisition was "a great deal in many ways" and that the various Eidos development studios would remain largely independent. "It's great news for the brand and for the people," he says.

And also, apparently, great for sequels, as Livingstone confirms work on the next Hitman game, a sequel to Kane & Lynch currently targeted for a September release date and -- big shock! -- a re-imagining of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series. "The next Tomb Raider, I think, will surprise a lot of people and reinvigorate the franchise," Livingstone notes, stressing the relevance of game characters in mainstream media these days. Incidentally, he more than intimates that Eidos Montreal is working on Thief 4, though now we know that to be a fact -- the "worst kept secret in the industry," in fact.

Square Enix buyout of Eidos approved

by David Hinkle { Mar 27th 2009 at 1:00PM }

The Square Enix purchase of Eidos will go through, as 85% of the Eidos shareholders voted in favor (big surprise there) of their new overlords at a recent court hearing and passed the motion of acquisition at the EGM afterward. It is estimated that Square Enix will take over operating duties some time in late April, when it's assumed all of Eidos' shares will be delisted.

We imagine Square Enix's first order of business will be to start work on Final Fantasy X3: Lara's Shadow, in which Yuna, Rikku, and Lara work together to solve a mystery surrounding a sunken ship. Also, they try to find Tidus again.

Square Enix explains why it wants Eidos

by Justin McElroy { Feb 16th 2009 at 10:30AM }

Like a middle-aged woman who spends half of Feb. 15 explaining to her mother why a new toilet brush and a night of darts is as much a Valentine's Day as she can expect from Lyle, Square Enix has gone on the record with the precise reasons it has an interest in buying struggling publisher Eidos. In addition to the dev houses included in the deal, the company has its eye on Hitman, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Kane & Lynch.

Meanwhile, and surprising no one, 20-percent Eidos shareholder Warner Bros.* says it's putting its support behind the deal and honestly, it's kind of hard to blame it.

*Did you know Time Warner is our parent company? Well, now you do.

Source -- Warner backs Square Enix's bid for Eidos
Source -- Square Enix Cites "Major" Eidos Franchises

Hitman Reborn! downloadable demo

by Andrew Yoon { Aug 29th 2008 at 9:30PM }

Sorry we're a bit late on this one. We've been hosting it for a while, but only now did we have a chance to put it on the front page. Hopefully, we got this Japanese demo of the Reborn! game just in time for the Labor Day weekend. Enjoy!

1. Download the demo zip file.
2. Extract the contents of the zip file.
3. Connect your PSP to your computer using a USB cable.
4. Go to the PSP/GAME folder.
5. Copy NPJH90007 folder into the GAME directory. Make sure there are no sub-directories in this folder.

Check out our demos site:
demos.pspfanboy.com

[Image Source]

Video comparison shows Dead Rising taken down by Hitman

by Chris Greenhough { Aug 26th 2008 at 10:15PM }

So yeah, we're not even touching this. Not with a twenty-foot damn pole. Some user at GameTrailers compiled this video, featuring a comparison between Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop and the PlayStation 2's Hitman: Blood Money. The point? To show up the supposed lack of NPC zombies in the former, by comparing it to the achievements of a two-year-old game on a technologically inferior system.

The Dead Rising footage used is a touch selective (we've seen screens with a far greater number of zombies), but like we say: we're staying out of this. It isn't going to end well.

Gallery: Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop

[Via Go Nintendo]

Former Hitman, Kane and Lynch creators launch Reto-Moto

by Jason Dobson { Apr 11th 2008 at 4:30PM }

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!

by Kyle Orland { Mar 13th 2008 at 10:15PM }

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

by Dustin Burg { Mar 7th 2008 at 3:00PM }

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

by Jason Dobson { Jan 2nd 2008 at 8:51AM }

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)

by Justin McElroy { Nov 27th 2007 at 10:28AM }

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

by Justin McElroy { Nov 21st 2007 at 5:00PM }

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?

GameTap offering free Hitman games and retrospective in November

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 31st 2007 at 4:46PM }

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

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 11th 2007 at 10:00PM }

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

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 10th 2007 at 8:30PM }

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]