bpcupid

Thanks - All over this tonight!!

I am 14hrs in and have not yet left Miami... I have puzzled through all of the challenges/kills on it and finally feel ready to move on.

I played through the first mission fairly quickly, think its a fun looking map but immediately moved on to Miami so I could begin my 'Kill Sean Bean' (First elusive target) preparation. As someone who spent about 150-200hrs in the first game, I spent a lot of time doing the optional weird and wonderful weekly challenges. They forced you to learn the map in ways you never expected to, by the end I could get anywhere on any map with just the suit and fibre wire. This made the last 5/6 elusive targets an absolute breeze and I want to get Sean Bean so badly I am happy to put the hours into preparation.

So... for me, this approach feels right, and I am glad I have done it. I think its great that all the content is available immediately, but I wouldn't have thought twice on buying at launch if they went episodic again. I plan on moving onto the Columbia map tonight for the first time and starting the process again.

My current thoughts on the game are that it's exactly what I expected. More Hitman, slightly better. PC version optimisation sucks a bit, its the only game with my 1060 6GB where I have to lower the settings to get a steady 60fps at 1080p. I am also frustrated that all my progress from the first game is lost. I played HITMAN on PS4 so I guess I am asking way too much, but from what I understand even for pure PC players losing over 100hrs of progress would suck... but I get the technical aspects as to why it's not possible.

I haven't seen any of the 'challenges' from the first game yet, where every week the Dev (IOI) would load up a new permanent challenge. Hope they come back into play, as previously stated I got a lot out of them. I know the community will be building thousands of them... but the Dev's really do know these maps more intimately and can create some very unique puzzles. I remember in Paris having to find a way of getting the Battleaxe to 3 different targets, without allowing anyone to get suspicious, and get the kills wearing outfits which were unsuitable for carrying the battleaxe.... and the targets were all on 3 different floors and usually had a friend close by. It was great running back and forth, switching outfits to carry the axe, change to get the kill... it was really satisfying to work out & required an insanely intimate knowledge of the map to figure out (without Youtubing it).

Some people complain about the lack of CG sequences as if it speaks to a lower quality product overall... I frankly couldn't care less. The studio suffered major setbacks and brought Hitman 2 back from the brink of death... if a lack of CG cutscenes is the biggest blow to the 'Quality of the overall package' then I don't see why it can't be forgiven and forgotten by even the most enthusiastic CG overs out there.

Can't wait to see what the other maps bring... and I am very excited for the first Elusive target. I just hope they got rid of the 'Restart if no escalation' cheat so people can't scout ahead... let's see some honest success & failures just like our fellow duders will be forced to do on-camera.

Final note to the Dev - Please add a 'No Blood' option so I can play it in front of my kids and tell them that the targets are 'Just Sleeping'... my 3 year old has caught on and doesn't care for it so I can't play it on the big TV with Steam Link anymore... but he does still laugh when I push people into the water 'for a swim'. Yes, I'm a terrible parent.

S'up,

I recently decided to take a trial of XBOX games pass so I could play State Of Decay 2 & give 'Horde Mode' on Gears 4 a shot since the Duders seem to have a whale of a time playing together for the site. Today I still have a few days left but made the decision that I do not wish to pay for membership since I don't own an XBOX and the Games Pass Library for PC is somewhat limited.

Being 32 and having dealt with many memberships (I hold the world record for must accidental subscriptions... then unsubscriptions from Prime), I assumed I would have to cancel the membership entirely the night before my 'Paid membership' period started after 14 days. However after logging in to try and confirm when that would be - I came across this page...

I went through a few links to get here, but by logging into your Microsoft account (forced through EDGE... Urgh...) I found that the Autorenew which they force you into during the sign-up process, taking your card details e.t.c. is actually entirely optional after the fact.

As you can see I 'Turned Off' Autorenew and now I don't have to worry about accidentally subscribing for a month, or 3 when my wife finally asks "What IS that £7.99 is thats going out every month".

As an Aside, if I owned an XBOX I would likely be keeping my subscription up. After the E3 press conference, I quite fancied jumping back into Fallout 4 on my lovely new PC & giving Vermintide a try. But Sadly that part of the Games Pass is XBOX ONE only... so not quite 'Play Anywhere' as is most of the games pass content. But I get it, business and licensing can be complicated so I won't be sending them Angry Tweets, Death threats or sexist remarks on this occasion.

I hope this helps some people, I don't know if when you sign up for a month they force a subscription for a year, but hopefully, this helps someone. I approve of anything which gets rid of that pesky 'Free Trial... but also Autorenew' which has made the likes of Amazon a fortune.

Hey, thanks for the honorary mention! I would have accepted half a point for being half right... but thanks! Hopefully this weeks run will be a little less frustrating to watch than last weeks

So predictions for this week...

1. Number of kills? 9
   
2. Will the gang be victims of a grenade for the third week in a row?? Yes - Once again there will be 2+ members of the crew bunched up in a small space and all will die
   
3. Will anyone kill or be killed by melee? Yes
   
4. Will we see anyone kill or be killed within the first five minutes of the first match? Yes
   
5. Any airdrops looted? No
6. Can they go a whole stream without getting killed outside the boundaries? No - Dan will get caught out whilst farting around
7. How many games will be played? 4
   
8. Time to first kill by stream? (specify in format 00:00:00) 00:09:30
9. Will the gang run over anyone and/or get run over? Yes
   
10. Will Dan's actions ever get anyone killed?Yes
11. Will Brad be the first person to die in the stream? No
    
12. Who is the stream host? Jeff
13. Will anyone ever start a firefight after forgetting to switch their weapon to auto? No
14. What weapon will the crew use to get their first kill?M16a4
15. Will they make it into the final five players? Yes - Jeff will be the last man standing
    
16. Will murder be the first word uttered in the stream? If not, what is? Death
17. Will anyone say “weeeeeee!” shortly after ejecting from the plane? Yes - It will be Ben
18. Who will be the stream MVP as judged by me? Alex
19. How many people will be remaining by the time the group first fires on someone or is fired upon? (out of 100) 49
20. If anyone, who crashes or disconnects first? No-one will crash or disconnect

Question for next week...

Who will be the first to make some kind of sexual reference/Double-entendre?

@oursin_360: I would be inclined to agree. But not only is the Ryzen barely matching performance right now (I personally dont care aboit a few FPS at 1080p roght no so like for.like = fine) for my CPU I want something which will handle gaming long term at 4K. Otherwise I might as well go extra cheap now and upgrade both CPU and GPU in 3 years... and CPU's don't upgrade so easily thanks to motherboard's. The argument for Ryzen which is keeping me interested is that the extra cores and threads will do well once fully optimised... AND for future games developed with the architecture in mind, particularly at 4K where Ryzen shows some muscle. 4 core Intel cpu could easily be overshadowed by the 8 core Ryzen for 4K and VR gaming, and since that is the future (and my intention in 2/3 years) I have to consider it. How true this argument is will be apparent in the coming months so we will see. I know lots of people believe more cores makes no difference, but thats an outdated argument which needs to be properly reassessed, and Ryzen gives game developers that chance to see what can be done... in my opinion. I sell night vision for a living and have never built a PC wtf do I know!

Thanks for your input much appreciated.

@alexw00d: conflicting advice is just a lovely difference of opinon for me to pick through and find out what works best for me :). I pick apart what a market see''s wants for a living so this is all great. The Ryzen argument is slightly thinner at the moment but in terms of longevity (which is what I am looking for) IF the updates are up to expectations it could make the difference of a couple years of life. The key is checking out the support it gets over the next few months. Or waiting for Intel to announce their massive 'f$#k you' to the market. Regardless the choice of CPUS out there right now is very rich and whichever way I go it will feel like the right choice.

@monetarydread: Thanks for the input. Reading this in a few places, but also reading for gaming it 'holds its own' against I7 at 1080. No major improvements right now, but 8 core for the price is not bad. Putting together builds for both I7 and Ryzen 1700x on PC part picker and will see what feels right at the time of build. Will be doing precisely 0 workstation stuff with it so seriously considering going for the I7. Have time to see how further bench tests and updates affect the Gamers view of the Ryzen 1700x vs I7. For me I just want to futureproof my CPU as much as possible since my GPU will need upgrading for 4k in 3 years despite how much cash I throw at it.

@monetarydread: Not anecdotal evidence - very relevant personal experience and worth me having in mind while I work through the shopping list. Looking at my budget (which I don't want to inflate too much, New house + Stay at home wife & 2 kids = Sensible spending... this is my treat for getting them a nice house!) it looks like I have to sacrifice either the CPU (i5 instead of a lovely new Ryzen 7) or the GPU (1070 instead of 1080). From what I am seeing from this conversation and other research, an 8 core CPU is more likely to do what I want it to in 5-6 years than any GPU on the market. I know I am living in the 'best case scenario' world, but right now I am leaning towards forking out for a CPU and having great 1080p gaming for 3 years.

However, if I can get all the parts I need for a good deal over easter (Or summer at the rate I keep needing to buy stuff for the house...) then your advice is noted, and if the budget allows I will definitely bump for a 1080.

@rocketskates: Yeah will find 3 or 4 well rated SSD's and find the best deal I can over Easter. 500GB should do it but if there is a good 1TB going will go for it. Thanks