Nic Cage actually doesn't appear in this episode, but that's the first thing that came to my mind.

So it's time for a whole new episode, with Bangkok being released on the 16th of August....AND IT'LL BE SET IN A HOTEL, WOO!

A House of Cards was easily one of my favorite missions in Blood Money, so I hope this comes close to that. The targer will be a rock star named Jordan Cross, who has...uh, provided us with a music video, since we don't have a launch trailer as of yet.

hmmm. Noticed the name Jordan Cross in some of the dialogue watching Brad or Dan run through he elusive target mission today. Maybe there actually is some kind or narrative thread to this game lol. Also, cant wait for the inevitable opportunity on this map to kill the target by shoving him up an elephants ass

I'm crossing my fingers that you'll be able to dress as one of the band members.

Think they'll use the Brad vs. Dan elusive target formula again?

Found that Busey hit to be one of the most entertaining vids i've seen. I really cant get enough of this Hitman nonsense.

@kentpaul: Did you just miss the hours-long stream of them doing The Broker?

Yeah, i did.

Sounds like they did something similar..?

Nice, looking forward to seeing it now

Yes, house of cards was great, and I fondly remeber traditions of the trade from contracts. Hopefully this one will be the size of the hotel in blood money, but actually allow you to visit all floors, instead of like three.

Holding out hope for one of the last two episodes beeing set in a trashy nightclub.

I really wish I had jumped onto the Hitman train from the beginning, especially with all the Elusive Targets. I think that this point I'll just be getting the whole package once the final episodes get released (at least, for this 'season' of content).

The Elusive contracts are great - especially with their little back stories. Hopefully they all unlock at the end of the season. That said, Hitman on its own is pretty content rich and the community made contracts can be varied too. I've played 15 hours and have barely scratched the surface I think - only done Marrakesh once, haven't done the Summer Bonus missions yet either

@cornfed40: there was also dialogue about other targets and places from other maps that I didn't remember hearing before, or maybe I just didn't notice it.

Your title makes me want Nic Cage for an elusive target now. Would be a good follow up to Busey.
Song is pretty good too, almost feel bad you have to kill the singer. Almost.

Busey is a cheap get. That's key.

Unveiling a new mission and target with a music video by the assassination target made up of scenes from the mission and locale itself is pretty amazing. The stuff shown in that video also seems like it's going to be quite varied especially compared to Marrakesh which is probably the lower point of the content so far. Still holding out for a perverted underground club level though. Those have always been my favourite ones.

I'm really quite surprised with how well IO has managed this new iteration of Hitman. Now if only they'd fix a few niggling issues and add some essential features missing from the previous games I'd be even more positive about it.

That looks rad! Cannot wait, i just need mastery level on paris in the meantime

That doesnt matter, Noone recognizes a face in this universe. Im thinking the band just got a new baseplayer ;)

This game continues to surprise and delight me. What a cool way to reveal a level! I second the praise for hotel levels in these games, they have always been really strong.

Also there's some cool hints to this target in the previous episodes:

-Oscar Layette (therapist from Sapienza) mentions Jordan Cross as a former patient
-The photographer in Paris tells Helmut to pose like he did in the Jordan Cross video
-Apparently, there's also numerous phonecall conversations in Paris that seem to mention Cross

One hour to go over here 'till the assumed release. I hope there'll be some skype action from either Dan or Brad in the QL, whenever that gets recorded.

Was playing Hitman. Stopped playing Hitman. Saw that Steam was starting to download some more Hitman. Very excited.

It pre-allocated 40gb on my SSD for some reason but I'm excited!

EDIT: Seems like I'm not the only person this is happening to.

Just finished downloading on Xbox One (~6.3GB), then got "Hitman needs an update (~6.78GB)". Not ideal :/

This isn't downloading fast enough

All patched up and ready to go. Just started haven't finished yet, but man, the game seems like it's running way smoother on PS4? Maybe that's just me?

Just finished it, the environment is back to being a lot more interesting. I found Marrakesh failed to bring me back as much as Paris and Sapienza, this is looking like I will return to this a lot more. I completed it in a pretty mundane way though. I look forward to doing some more exciting methods next time.

I love how committed they are to their music.

This level already feels way denser than Marrakesh. Seems like there's a lot more stuff to use/do. Color me impressed. Very pretty looking level too.

Cannot wait to get off work and download this!

2 jerks hotel employees trapped me in a room by standing in the doorway when i was disguised as them and kept telling me to leave over and over so i had to blow them up with my rubber ducky to get out. i wanted that for the singer. I am not even sure what happened since they did not have dots over their heads and i don't think i bumped into either one when i was actually trying to avoid someone who was going to blow my cover.

I just did this contract today and it's so good. This seems like a more vertical map than Marrakesh and there seem to be some pretty inventive opportunities there just based on what I glanced through when I finished the mission.

It's an ok map, but I think it really missed the opportunity to capitalize on it's Thai setting. I lived in Bangkok for over a year and I was hoping to see some of the more crowded, seedier sides of the city as it's setting, as it could have evoked the Mardi Gras level from Blood Money. Patpong, Khaosan road or Soi Cowboy would all be better settings than a generic hotel that could effectively exist anywhere.

I do have a problem with how limited this level feels. My favorite thing about prior hotel levels was how they hid useful things in the rooms, and while that seems to be the case here, I still am not sure I can reach those rooms without going all the way to the one master keycard I found. Makes my options feel kinda confined.

This level seems neat but I'm not a huge fan of how every room is locked behind a master key card. I also didn't find very many weapons or items of any kind while playing today. Lot of empty places. One of the wings of the hotel even has an entire top floor where there is only one guy standing around.

Yeah, same here. I was never a big Hitman fan back in the day but the older games seemed okay from what I remember. This new Hitman seems kind of amazing in all the right ways. I really hope they keep this going, and the dynamic duo of Brad and Dan keep making videos on it. I think I'm gonna jump in once this season is wrapped up and mess around until they come out with new stuff. They've got an awesome template here so they can probably keep it going as long as they want to keep making regular content. I'd almost rather they do this than release a new game every 3-4 years or whatever they used to do.

I just realised I forgot to say, play the drums its fucking hilarious.

The exterminator opportunity is the way to go.

Finished the main assassinations once, this one was pretty fun:

For Jordan, I stole the hot mic and then overloaded it, electrocuting him during the recording session.

For the other guy, I stole the note from the band's room disguised as one of Jordan's bodyguards and then delivered the note to reception. I followed him down to the basement, took a fire axe off the wall in full view of a security guard (I guess bodyguards are allowed to carry around fire axes) and then flung it right into the dude's back when inside the laundry room. Casually left through a basement emergency exit.

I really prefer this level type over the sprawl of Marrakesh or Sapienza for example. Much more intricate and feels like there are so many eyes on you at all times. I agree with the comments above that they must be learning from the elusive targets and be ensuring that it's not just a case of finding that one disguise that means you can go anywhere.

Also..... DRUM SOLO!!!! I was worried he'd pick up the sticks and it would turn into a shootout, but oh no, 47 ROCKS!!

Okay, so this level has some really cool plot moments and trigger-able events. The SA opportunity at the end of this video is satisfying both in a story sense and a gameplay sense.

major spoilers for this level below:

I like the opportunities in this map but I don't know that I like this map. The verticality is okay but I really dislike how the map is split on the higher levels. So far for me I think:

Paris > Sapienza > Thailand > Marrakesh

Haven't spent a lot of time on Marrakesh or Thailand yet though.

I'm glad these episodes are staggered out, because the difficulty balancing between this and Marrakesh seems really uneven. Marrakesh posed a bit of a challenge considering how densely packed it was. Bangkok, on the other hand, took the least amount of effort out of any episode thus far.

For Jordan, I dressed up as the drummer and noticed the target walk into a sound booth alone. I followed him in and blapped him in the back of the head. No mess, no fuss. Waltzed right out of there with no one the wiser.

Got a house keeping disguise and told the lawyer his suite was ready. He went to inspect each room. There was a few moments where his security guard was left behind as he moved from one room into the next, so I strangled him, then went behind the Lawyer as he was inspecting a toilet and drowned him to death.

Casually walked out of the hotel and sailed away on my boat.

Kind of let down by this episode, I hope the next provides a better challenge.

I just got to this one finally. So there was some cool and fun stuff, but going as the drummer made it pretty easy, if well done. My favorite part there was when I shot a fire extinguisher upstairs to lure a guard into that empty museum type area and get his uniform.

Then the "fixer" target was kind of bland as far as his set up and regular back and forth. I put a mine on the wall in the area he sits hangs out at outside and just as he got into that area his body guard says "what's that?", then "I think it's a weapon" then an explosion. Both die and I can't see the explosion but I get to see the bodyguard fly up and back and get caught on the umbrella in an awesome rag doll.

I thought the level was straightforward. A lot of areas were gated off cleanly in ways and it was not that exciting.

I really enjoyed this level, but I need to play it again - I got through it in 20 minutes on my first try without any deaths or reloads which is a first for me in this game.

I knew there would be a sniper opportunity before starting the level since they gave you a large storage area in your suit, so I packed my silencer sniper. I load up the level, get my suite key card, and check out by balcony and see a perfect shot for Ken Morgan. Get my sniper, shoot him in the face, and leave the room. Probably took 3 minutes from the initial load.

I then walked around a bit and overheard people talking about the drummer. I didn't watch the quick look, but I saw the header image of 47 on the drums, so I knew I had to follow that opportunity. Successfully followed it to the end where you push that dipshit Cross of the roof.

I first seemed real positive of this map but then after I made the post earlier in this thread I took a look at the challenge list and a lot of the assassination stuff wasn't as great as I'd hoped. I returned to it again today and my attitude has flipped back to positive. There's a lot of cool stuff in this and a lot more of the challenges in the other categories open up assassination opportunities. It's a lot more cryptic to work out than the other missions especially the easter eggs, I only worked out the Elephants one and I got the Tuppance and La Cucuracha ones by luck. I had to look up the rest. In the previous missions I pretty much guessed or worked out the easter eggs myself. It makes it a lot more fun once you get the crazy ones but initially it made the map seem overly limited.