devise22

I'm happy with those stipulations, I've hated the fact that all the Battle Royales start with every team in the ring. Loses the sense of drama and pacing Rumble style matches have and doesn't allow the talent that moment/spot when they first come out.

Also as an aside, the Observer Newsletter Awards released recently and my oh my did they really have some justified but strong choices in a few key awards. They absolutely fired some shots with their decisions no doubt, but I'm happy they made some strong choices towards the future of the industry, and what talent is actually representing that. Their decision to give Fiend/Wyatt Most Overrated, Worst Fued/Match and Worst Gimmick has been stirring up some controversy among strictly WWE hardcore fans. I was just so happy to see Eddie Kingston and MJF get the love they deserved tbh. Winning in some categories that really only huge major names win.

Yeah add me to the chorus saying that approaching this Hitman as a purely stealth game is kinda missing the point to a degree. You'll still get some mileage out of the games playing it this way, but it'll probably feel a little flat when you consider the hijinx people generally get up to with the current iteration of this franchise.

Immersive sim is a word used to describe them a lot. A good way I like to think of it is, imagine Vinny playing an open world game. He roleplays his character, goofs around with citizens that only semi engage with them. Hitman is that in a game. Your meant to get in costume and have a little zaney fun, follow people who have changing and dynamic dialogue chains, use goofy melee weapons and cause a stir. Yes sure there is lots of serious stuff, but the tools to treat it like a goofy roleplaying experience are diverse enough in the current Hitman games to such a degree that it is that which causes people to replay levels hundreds of times. It's less about how sneaky or good you can be at something for a lot and more, how silly or different is this thing going to look. Or where is this chain of events going to lead and what kind of ridiculous kill or moment am I going to be able to get out of this.

The AI is also in my opinion the best in games right now, with so many modern games AI systems being underwhelming retreads of Skyrim era video gaming. Seriously I can't say how bummed this last generation of gaming AI was for me from an AAA and open world perspective. Hitmans levels and nuanced AI systems literally blow even Cyberpunk the modern new big next gen hit out of the water, and it's kind of maddening. But I digress; the point I was making is that there is a dense nature to the way the AI and map structure works that leads to a lot of runs turning into just poking and prodding to see what you can/can't get away with or do. It's also why to a good chunk of the audience the story is kind of the last thing we are coming to the game for, despite it actually being pretty good for many folks. The super sneaky super stealthy badass run is always their in most levels, but I think to most it's just one of the many ways to do it as opposed to being the bulk of the game.

Yeah I'm going to get a PS5....eventually. I was all gung ho with money saved to buy a next gen this holiday season, but the shortages; gouging and overall lukewarm nature of the launches in general made me happy I decided to wait until this shortage stuff is gone to get one.

Glad to see them reverse course on this, it would of been silly for PC players to get the short end of the stick here just because of the exclusivity deals that happened with Epic.

As for the above question about this mattering, I'm on console so I'd get them for free to start but I say it matters. I've beaten Hitman 1/2 but having all the levels their and ready to boot up at a reasonable size in 3 is super useful. Hitman is one of those games that even if you don't go back to do a full narrative run, I always find myself booting up once every week or so an old map just for fun to do a run I hadn't yet. I get that for people who maxed all the progressions there may not be an incentive but at the very least you'd be getting your progressions carried over which helps.

I just don't get why given how often Hitman 1/2 go on sale they'd push this so hard. They could literally give all the levels of Hitman 1/2 away for free, and as someone else in this thread mentioned tie the unlocks to their own website/service for progression carry over. I'm sure there may be a technical reason why it's only the Steam unlocks/progression that doesn't carry over as well, but you'd figure the least they could to users who bought 1/2 on Steam is give them the levels for free when they purchase 3 on EGS.

Thanks for a very fun tenure Ben, I'd be lying if I said it didn't suck to see you go, but it'll be exciting to see what comes next. I'll fondly remember a bunch of your content, but my favorite has to be the playthrough of Godhand you and Jason did.

Late to the party but a belated congratulations to you Rorie. You've always been an amazing support staff to deal with over the years, and are a fun addition to the content whenever your on. Best wishes to you both!

@efesell: That's a salient point. This would of a been a huge nightmare if it was retroactive not just for sites like GB but pretty widespread across the streaming community. Even still this is kind of a big move on Capcoms part, and a huge blow to the streaming communities that use patreon or other tiers.

It probably doesn't kill their coverage of Capcom games, it's just now everyone has to tie that video content with a feature that's free. Like it's wild that going forward if GB wanted to do a feature of a full playthrough of any Capcom game it would have to be a free one. So Endurance Run, Quick Look or nothing? Not unless they get permission obviously. Man some crazy news here though.

@kemuri07: While in the political landscape your right, the democrats are absolutely doing better than they were. The actual damage the amount of Trumpism has caused widescale can't be undermentioned. It's a damage that doesn't just go away because he's no longer officially president.

That so many people in the political landscape downplay what these "trolls" have done constantly is concerning. As today has proven, they can commit insurrection and terrorist like behavior without so much as an eyelash or a serious response. The American political system regardless of the fact that the Dems won the election is in a unstable spot. A spot where all Trump has to do is say "No they are wrong." That's it. That's all it takes now. America has not hundreds, not tens of thousands but MILLIONS of people in the Country that literally distrust the very reality that is around them. If you think "it's a little better" because the Senate was pushed in the right lane, great, but the work that needs to be done to delegitimize this cult isn't even remotely close to done yet.

Jack is acting like a upset parent with Trump at this point. What's next no dinner before bed? Ugh. The worst part about this is knowing he'll wind up suspending his account before he's no longer the President officially due to something. Just accept it and get it over with already.