9/10 - Official Playstation Magazine

http://www.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/2012/10/23/hitman-absolution-review-gets-910-in-official-playstation-magazine-a-peak-for-the-series/

9/10 - OXM

Then again after how well Eidos handled Human Revolution I can't say I'm surprised at all that Hitman delivers faithfully. Super excited to get my hands on it.

pretty early reviews are they not. Game isn't out for like a month

@DelroyLindo said:

pretty early reviews are they not. Game isn't out for like a month

Guess Eidos was super confident that the game would be well received and wanted to drum up hype. I agree it is pretty early though.

I'm surprised Game Informer hasn't given out their 9/10 yet. They usually do a few weeks to a month before others.

Wow that is early, I hope that, that means the game is already gold and maybe an early release, because that would be awesome..

I also like that since it's a web address the game gets a '910'

I have no doubts the game will be good but I really don't care about these OXM and OPSM scores. They are always super early and seem to often be 9/10. :/

It'll hopefully be great. Been a LONG time since I've gotten to play a hitman game. :P

I never doubted Absolution. I've had my steam pre-order in place for awhile now. It always surprised me when people would show concern that this was going to be anything less than a spectacular Hitman game. IO has had quite a few years to think about this game. The only downside is that Jesper Kyd did not score the game but even so I like the music so far. I'm open to a different musical feel. I can't wait!

Am I supposed to trust these two outlets' reviews? Fuck, I need to beat Blood Money before this comes out and I buy it on a whim.

The Official magazines have slightly more credibility than Famitsu and less than IGN. Everything multiplatform is a 9 and everything exclusive is a 10. They live and die by their console holder, their console holder wants sales.

Nice to hear that people like the game, but if IO was really that confident about the game's quality then they'd hand out code to some publications that don't need to plaster "HITMAN 9/10" on their front page to sell at the newstand.

Played it at Eurogamer and I think these reviews seem appropriate. The quality and versatility of the gameplay is incredible. Super excited to get my hands on the full game.

I'm sure the game will be pretty dang good, though it's definitely worth taking review scores from magazines this early with a grain of salt as per usual.

I'm playing Blood Money for the first time, and it's a blast! Shame on me for ignoring this game when it came out. Will most likely get Absolution on launch.

Ehhhh... on the one hand, I don't put a lot of stock in either "Official" magazine. On the other hand, it's a freaking Hitman game, and everything I've seen of it outside of the typical goofy marketing scheme makes it look like an improvement over Blood Money, which was already a massive improvement over previous titles, so I'm still psyched.

Still excited to get the game but considering this is the gen where every flavor of the month and their brother get "9/10's" I'll continue to approach this game optimistically but not with high expectations.

While these are certainly NOT trustworthy publications, I have high hopes for this game and my fingers are crossed that these scores are more or less honest.

If they are able to get review copies out this early then hopefully that's a sign this game won't need any day one patches. While I do look forward to this game I'm not sure I can trust those review scores.

@Brighty said:

Then again after how well Eidos handled Human Revolution I can't say I'm surprised at all that Hitman delivers faithfully. Super excited to get my hands on it.

I thought the games were developed via different studios, human revolution being their Eidos Studios Montreal studio that's located in Montreal... (and that random studio that did the boss sections) and IO Interactive does hitman alone. I guess I'm adverse to publisher influences being talked about since it's almost impossible to know about any of that stuff unless you work at either end of the two. That and emphasis on publishers rather than developers, IO should be getting all your credit on how faithful Hitman seems to be etc.

@Rainbowkisses: I'd hope for the opposite, a game can almost always be improved upon and if there is decently large gap between it being 'done' now and it's release date I'd be surprised or slightly sad if there wasn't a nice patch shortly after release that tweaks some things. The only reason patches should be disliked is when it's indicative of a rushed to release date product that 'needs' those fixes after it's cert process, patches outside of that situation are almost always a good thing. :) Patch me up!

@Sweep said:

Played it at Eurogamer and I think these reviews seem appropriate. The quality and versatility of the gameplay is incredible. Super excited to get my hands on the full game.

Box art quote!

Never played a hitman game before. Would that be a problem if I wanted to start now?

Hitman is gonna be the shit. I couldn't wait for it after seeing that long gameplay video, and these reviews didn't change that.

@Aegon: The problem would be if you didn't start now! (Assuming this turns out to be good.)

Can anyone remember a game this gen that wasn't first party getting a review this early? And maybe not even then?

Weird. So excited for this game though. Huge Hitman fan and seems like they are going to do right by the series, even though that was a bit sketchy for a while.

@Aegon said:

Never played a hitman game before. Would that be a problem if I wanted to start now?

Don't let it stop you. In fact I still reccomend Blood Money if you have the time and interest. I'm sure it's cheap now and it's one of the very best games this gen, one of my favorites of all time.

Have these magazines ever scored under 9?

@Brodehouse said:

The Official magazines have slightly more credibility than Famitsu and less than IGN. Everything multiplatform is a 9 and everything exclusive is a 10. They live and die by their console holder, their console holder wants sales.

Wait what, IGN is the absolute bottom of the barrel, Famitsu is okay. I am not getting this positioning :P I think you mean more than IGN and less than Famitsu

@zeekthegeek said:

@Brodehouse said:

The Official magazines have slightly more credibility than Famitsu and less than IGN. Everything multiplatform is a 9 and everything exclusive is a 10. They live and die by their console holder, their console holder wants sales.

Wait what, IGN is the absolute bottom of the barrel, Famitsu is okay. I am not getting this positioning :P I think you mean more than IGN and less than Famitsu

Dude Famitsu is notoriously bad. Like straight up bought reviews. People talk about that with IGN and stuff but seriously among the press Famitsu's bought reviews are pretty much a known thing.

Don't need no review for this game. I'm going in cold.

If Hitman: Absolution is anything like Blood Money, I don't really need to see any reviews for it. I know it's going to be great.

If Hitman: Absolution is anything like Blood Money, I don't really need to see any reviews for it. I know it's going to be great.

Impossible to trust reviews that are this early. The only reason these publications are allowed to publish their reviews is under the condition that they are good. If there was a chance the review would be bad, they would be forced to wait until the embargo is up like everyone else.

@Jrinswand said:

If Hitman: Absolution is anything like Blood Money, I don't really need to see any reviews for it. I know it's going to be great.

Agreed. Despite not being super great at the game, I enjoyed it.

@Brodehouse said:

The Official magazines have slightly more credibility than Famitsu and less than IGN. Everything multiplatform is a 9 and everything exclusive is a 10. They live and die by their console holder, their console holder wants sales.

Wait what, IGN is the absolute bottom of the barrel, Famitsu is okay. I am not getting this positioning :P I think you mean more than IGN and less than Famitsu

@DJJoeJoe said:

@Brighty said:

Then again after how well Eidos handled Human Revolution I can't say I'm surprised at all that Hitman delivers faithfully. Super excited to get my hands on it.

I thought the games were developed via different studios, human revolution being their Eidos Studios Montreal studio that's located in Montreal... (and that random studio that did the boss sections) and IO Interactive does hitman alone. I guess I'm adverse to publisher influences being talked about since it's almost impossible to know about any of that stuff unless you work at either end of the two. That and emphasis on publishers rather than developers, IO should be getting all your credit on how faithful Hitman seems to be etc.

I think what @Brighty is referring to is the Square Enix/Eidos method of "keep them flush with cash and see what happens" game development. Human Revolution was a ballin' Deus Ex game precisely because the publisher didn't interfere and made sure the team had what they needed. If that's the kind of support that they showed IO Interactive, then it's a no brainer that Absolution is going to moonwalk people's faces off.

If you're reading a review a month before the game comes out, they're either bribed (if you're realistic) or the review was green-lit specificlaly for being good (hilariously optimistic).

I'm sure it'll be an entertaining game, i just miss Vivienne as Diana & Kyd, those idiots almost lost Bateson too, 'playing hard to get' my ass..

& i really hope they have gun draw animations in there, silly how guns just zaps into 47's hand.

2 Mags get the chance to review Hitman early....people enter thread...WTF GAME MUST BE POOP BRIBED TO HELL....I love the internet

My most anticipated game of the year by far!

@SASnake said:

2 Mags get the chance to review Hitman early....people enter thread...WTF GAME MUST BE POOP BRIBED TO HELL....I love the internet

Poop bribed?

I still remember the early review of Dragon Age 2 by PC Gamer that gave the game a 94% and said it was, "possibly the game of the decade."

It's almost like people have had experiences with early reviews before, and are basing their opinions on these previous experiences. Weird, I know.

@Viking_Funeral said:

@SASnake said:

2 Mags get the chance to review Hitman early....people enter thread...WTF GAME MUST BE POOP BRIBED TO HELL....I love the internet

Poop bribed?

I still remember the early review of Dragon Age 2 by PC Gamer that gave the game a 94% and said it was, "possibly the game of the decade."

It's almost like people have had experiences with early reviews before, and are basing their opinions on these previous experiences. Weird, I know.

is there evidence of bribery? or maybe the reviewer enjoyed it? People make accusations based on nothing but liable.

Now I feel confident in dropping 64.19 USD on this game. Glad to hear it's what a hitman game should be.

@SASnake said:

@Viking_Funeral said:

@SASnake said:

2 Mags get the chance to review Hitman early....people enter thread...WTF GAME MUST BE POOP BRIBED TO HELL....I love the internet

Poop bribed?

I still remember the early review of Dragon Age 2 by PC Gamer that gave the game a 94% and said it was, "possibly the game of the decade."

It's almost like people have had experiences with early reviews before, and are basing their opinions on these previous experiences. Weird, I know.

is there evidence of bribery? or maybe the reviewer enjoyed it? People make accusations based on nothing but liable.

A) It's libel, not liable.

B) It's also not libel, as that's defamation by written word.

C) Legal, court ready evidence is not necessary for perception of a tendency.

D) A reviewers job is not to report his own opinion of a game, but give the reader/consumer a critique of the game and an observation on how it will be received by consumers. Calling Dragon Age 2 "the game of the decade" is about the opposite of public opinion as you could get on that game. If that man wasn't fired for incompetence, then surely there were some backroom dealings. I don't see this game having that kind of backlash, but it's still a prudent position to take these early reviews with a grain of salt.

@Viking_Funeral said:

@SASnake said:

@Viking_Funeral said:

@SASnake said:

2 Mags get the chance to review Hitman early....people enter thread...WTF GAME MUST BE POOP BRIBED TO HELL....I love the internet

Poop bribed?

I still remember the early review of Dragon Age 2 by PC Gamer that gave the game a 94% and said it was, "possibly the game of the decade."

It's almost like people have had experiences with early reviews before, and are basing their opinions on these previous experiences. Weird, I know.

is there evidence of bribery? or maybe the reviewer enjoyed it? People make accusations based on nothing but liable.

A) It's libel, not liable.

B) It's also not libel, as that's defamation by written word.

C) Legal, court ready evidence is not necessary for perception of a tendency.

D) A reviewers job is not to report his own opinion of a game, but give the reader/consumer a critique of the game and an observation on how it will be received by consumers. Calling Dragon Age 2 "the game of the decade" is about the opposite of public opinion as you could get on that game. If that man wasn't fired for incompetence, then surely there were some backroom dealings. I don't see this game having that kind of backlash, but it's still a prudent position to take these early reviews with a grain of salt.

A) oh god your one of those kinda guys

B) Is that not what people writing on a forum are doing?

C) Who mentioned legal court shit?

D) Yeah...cause thats EXACTLY what reviewers do these days right?

E) I can tell your one of these people that likes to talk down to others and act all high and mighty, good for you

@SASnake: At least he's making a logical argument, where as you clearly have no idea what you're are talking about and so you incite anti-intellectualism in order to discredit his valid points.

@RollingZeppelin said:

@SASnake: At least he's making a logical argument, where as you clearly have no idea what you're are talking about and so you incite anti-intellectualism in order to discredit his valid points.

yeah...clearly

@SASnake said:

is there evidence of bribery? or maybe the reviewer enjoyed it? People make accusations based on nothing but liable.

You mean 'libel'?

Posted in Neogaf:

PC Gamer Review

62/100 - A passable stealth game, but one that betrays almost everything that, until now, has made Hitman great.

Pros

- Nice looking locations

- Contracts mode is good, although not an adequate replacement of a proper Hitman game

- "One very good mission" near the end, but still not as good or as free as Blood Money

Cons

- No saving, checkpoint system is awful - even an AI glitch can lead to you having to restart the level, also doesn't save data such as disguises or items you've left, and guards killed will respawn

- Focus on (embarrassingly bad) story over gameplay

- PC performance was awful, they tried out on 3 different PCs - two can run Skyrim smoothly yet get 15fps in Hitman on minimal settings, with occasional freezes of over a second, and load times of over a minute

- A lot of gameplay involves you getting to a door to trigger a cutscene

- The amount of kills you have control over how they're executed is about 25%, even then it's not as expansive as Blood Money

- Equipment system - can't choose weapons in main missions, or carry weapons over between missions

- Guard AI is strange, they will sometimes detect you walking where commando rolling wouldn't get you detected

- "Sneak by covering your face" idea is laughable

- DRM on Contracts mode - can't play any contracts, even your own, offline

@PieGuy: Sounds like a bad port. To be honest I didnt think Blood Money was a good port either.

Sucks that they butchered the one definining thing the franchise had going for it though.

I don't have a doubt that this game will be good, but early reviews mean jack shit. They are almost always biased so the developers will send them more (this is the main thing that keeps a magazine alive in 2012).