Hitman Absolution

gizmo

With regard to the reviews above, I found the timing of their release to be rather interesting...

It's summed up quite well in this MCV article, well after the edits at least.

Reviews go live for Hitman: Absolution

EDIT: In case people aren't familiar with who owns MCV, it's Intent Media. You know, the guys who were mentioned in Rab Florence's article, again in the context of Squeenix.

pixelburp

gizmo wrote: »

I wasn't specifically referring to Hitman there, it was more a of a general "X game is coming out, just gona wait wait for the Steam sale" comment which is cropping up in nearly every thread these days.

Especially in a case like Hitman, I can't see anything wrong with waiting a awhile for a user reviews to come out and give more info on a game or hell, at this time of year, people having other big releases to get through, but its the idea of specifically wait for a sale with it to come up which gets to me, especially when you consider the following. In the last few weeks we've seen two big games come out (BLOPS2 and Halo 4) which have sold massively yet will continue to be derided by people for a variety of reasons, most notably in this case them not offering anything new and rehashing old formulas. Meanwhile, while console sales for Hitman will no doubt remain high, the very demographic who complain about their platform of choice being neglected, will be sitting around waiting for these new releases to come up in a sale.

As someone else in the Spec Ops thread stated on the subject "steam sales are going to kill this hobby of ours".

Well to be frank, I love gaming and it's my favorite hobby but I simply can't afford to jump out and buy every game I'm keen as mustard to play - I just don't have the money anymore to buy brand-new games out of some sense of solidarity. Look at it this way - if we were talking about Hardware, the WiiU for instance, it's perfectly reasonable to say "well I'm not buying it at launch & at the device's most expensive price, I'll wait til prices drop and people get a handle on the system".

Games are only that kind of crazy money because of Supply & Demand, with the publishers wanting to capture the knee-jerk market; it goes for double at this time of year when I could easily drop the best part of 200 euro on games I may not actually enjoy that much - hell I might not even play them much either. It also doesn't help that demos have become a thing of the past. I'm playing the poverty card, but there it is, that's the reality of the life atm and gaming doesn't seem to have recognized that fact for a lot of people: it has become an expensive addicti..hobby to maintain. If anything it has become more expensive given the fashion for DLC, micro-payments and other ways to squeeze the wallet.

snausages

gizmo wrote: »

With regard to the reviews above, I found the timing of their release to be rather interesting...

It's summed up quite well in this MCV article, well after the edits at least.

Reviews go live for Hitman: Absolution

EDIT: In case people aren't familiar with who owns MCV, it's Intent Media. You know, the guys who were mentioned in Rab Florence's article, again in the context of Squeenix.

"Grumpy Eurogamer"... yet they gave it a 7? This is why the cult of the review score is so absurd. PC Gamer called it a disaster yet gave it a 6.6.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

hitman is 40 euro on gamestop, probably cheaper elsewhere

that is in no way "crazy money"

crazy money for a game would be approaching 100 euro. 40 euro for a game is nothing but excellent value

wnolan1992

Have read a few reviews now (both the positive and "negative), and am still going to take a punt on this.

The sites I read most are giving it fairly positive reviews, and having listened to IGN's Luke Reilly on podcasts and stuff, I'm pretty sure we have similar tastes.

Even the negative reviews wouldn't put me off tbh. They raise some points that are cause for some concern, but nothing that'll makes me THAT worried.

And to break it down to just scores, 6's and 7's are "Good" or "Very good" on most sites, so either these sites are lazy and don't use their full scale, or this is an OK game. Couple that with the smattering of 8's and 9's, then I'm pretty much sold on it.

Won't be getting it for two weeks though, just down to a busy schedule.

v3ttel

pixelburp wrote: »

Well to be frank, I love gaming and it's my favorite hobby but I simply can't afford to jump out and buy every game I'm keen as mustard to play - I just don't have the money anymore to buy brand-new games out of some sense of solidarity. Look at it this way - if we were talking about Hardware, the WiiU for instance, it's perfectly reasonable to say "well I'm not buying it at launch & at the device's most expensive price, I'll wait til prices drop and people get a handle on the system".

Games are only that kind of crazy money because of Supply & Demand, with the publishers wanting to capture the knee-jerk market; it goes for double at this time of year when I could easily drop the best part of 200 euro on games I may not actually enjoy that much - hell I might not even play them much either. It also doesn't help that demos have become a thing of the past. I'm playing the poverty card, but there it is, that's the reality of the life atm and gaming doesn't seem to have recognized that fact for a lot of people: it has become an expensive addicti..hobby to maintain. If anything it has become more expensive given the fashion for DLC, micro-payments and other ways to squeeze the wallet.

It is pretty hard to understand how somebody could be upset at people not paying top dollar (or, say, highest price point for a game), especially at this time of year

There's a huge amount of quality titles just released or soon to be. It's perfectly normal that people prioritise what they want to play because time and money are not infinite for most people. Therefore, something has to wait until either the price comes down or the backlog is cleared.

Perfectly reasonable to wait for a game to come down in price, so A: you can afford it. B: you have time to play it, C: you've seen all the reviews & user reviews.

I'm looking forward to Hitman, but ultimately, I've spent a significant amount on games in the last month or two, so I'll see how cheap I can get this for before making a decision.

gizmo

pixelburp wrote: »

Well to be frank, I love gaming and it's my favorite hobby but I simply can't afford to jump out and buy every game I'm keen as mustard to play - I just don't have the money anymore to buy brand-new games out of some sense of solidarity. Look at it this way - if we were talking about Hardware, the WiiU for instance, it's perfectly reasonable to say "well I'm not buying it at launch & at the device's most expensive price, I'll wait til prices drop and people get a handle on the system".

Oh I totally agree, as I said, it was a general comment aimed at the "Any game released around this time" nature of the original post rather than any specific one. Similarly, with regard to Rooney10's follow up, I have zero problem with either A, B or C scenarios as they weren't what I was referring to.

pixelburp wrote: »

Games are only that kind of crazy money because of Supply & Demand, with the publishers wanting to capture the knee-jerk market; it goes for double at this time of year when I could easily drop the best part of 200 euro on games I may not actually enjoy that much - hell I might not even play them much either. It also doesn't help that demos have become a thing of the past. I'm playing the poverty card, but there it is, that's the reality of the life atm and gaming doesn't seem to have recognized that fact for a lot of people: it has become an expensive addicti..hobby to maintain. If anything it has become more expensive given the fashion for DLC, micro-payments and other ways to squeeze the wallet.

Certainly agree on the demos aspect, with prices at the level they are (while I have no problem with current pricing and will in fact defend it based on historical prices, it still doesn't change the fact it's a lot of money for some folk) it seems strange that the trend for demos is on the decline. Sure it may cost extra but I think it would actually benefit earlier sales as people would be more willing to shell out for a game they're unsure about, case in point, Hitman Absolution

SeantheMan

gizmo wrote: »

I wasn't specifically referring to Hitman there, it was more a of a general "X game is coming out, just gona wait wait for the Steam sale" comment which is cropping up in nearly every thread these days.

Especially in a case like Hitman, I can't see anything wrong with waiting a awhile for a user reviews to come out and give more info on a game or hell, at this time of year, people having other big releases to get through, but its the idea of specifically wait for a sale with it to come up which gets to me, especially when you consider the following. In the last few weeks we've seen two big games come out (BLOPS2 and Halo 4) which have sold massively yet will continue to be derided by people for a variety of reasons, most notably in this case them not offering anything new and rehashing old formulas. Meanwhile, while console sales for Hitman will no doubt remain high, the very demographic who complain about their platform of choice being neglected, will be sitting around waiting for these new releases to come up in a sale.

As someone else in the Spec Ops thread stated on the subject "steam sales are going to kill this hobby of ours".

Although I DO have the disposable income to buy these games as and when I see fit I don't feel the need to.
I WILL buy Hitman and I WILL buy Far Cry 3.
But I am not going to pay 50euro for each this week on Steam, when 3 weeks from now they may be 15-25% off, and if they're not on sale then, well I'll buy them at full price.

I don't wait all year long for STEAM sales, but in this case it's too near to the XMAS one not to wait.

Does that not make sense to you ?

And with regards to people being unsure about a game and it's price-worth, this usually leads some people down the hardy-har route of acquiring it for free, which I avoid.
I will give the developer my coin, but will save myself a few if at all possible.
STEAM is also a better method as it cuts out to the middle men of B&Ms and I'm sure more money goes directly to the publisher/developers

gizmo

SeantheMan wrote: »

Does that not make sense to you ?

And with regards to people being unsure about a game and it's price-worth, this usually leads some people down the hardy-har route of acquiring it for free, which I avoid.
I will give the developer my coin, but will save myself a few if at all possible.
STEAM is also a better method as it cuts out to the middle men of B&Ms and I'm sure more money goes directly to the publisher/developers

Well yes and no. The following is pretty off topic so I'll try to wrap things up fairly sharpish.

While it was admittedly a bit of knee jerk reaction from me, I do dislike the prevalence of the "wait for the sales" comments in so many threads these days. That being said, it is approaching Christmas and there a lot of big games being released so it's hard to ignore the logic of waiting.

However, it's also a perfect example of why I'm quite worried about Steam sales. Valve now have at least two large sales throughout the year and often one or two smaller ones. Commonly (if people are to be believed by what they say online) people start winding down purchases and holding back about a month or so before these sales. Once they're finished, they often comment on how many games they picked up and how they won't need to get new games any time soon. If these are demonstrable trends (it's hard to tell for sure since Valve don't release sales info and similar digital downloads aren't generally tracked by the NPD) then we're looking at a severely reduced period where people actually buy new PC games.

So, tying back into what I said previously, as Steam's popularity increases I'm afraid that these (possible) trends will continue to hamper both future traditional PC releases and PC-orientated titles due to increased potential returns from the consoles which, although home to their own problems, still have an extremely large number of people happy to shell out for the bigger titles on release.

As for the Steam vs. B&M bit, actually I'd say it works out roughly the same for the larger publishers. Steam's upfront take is probably higher than the B&M retailers but that'll be offset by the savings in distribution costs for the publisher.

pixelburp

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

hitman is 40 euro on gamestop, probably cheaper elsewhere

that is in no way "crazy money"

crazy money for a game would be approaching 100 euro. 40 euro for a game is nothing but excellent value

Well I don't have a lot of disposable income these days, so yeah; 40euro is stretching it for a game that I'm not entirely sure I'm going to enjoy that much. As I said, it's not that hard to rack up a huge amount spent on games if you're not careful. It'll probably have to drop below 30 before I could take a punt on it. Bring on the Steam Sales in Jan I'd say.

richymcdermott

http://ie.ign.com/articles/2012/11/19/hitman-absolution-online-pass-ditched-content-free

seems io and square enix ditched the online pass for contracts mode

fair play

johnny_ultimate

gizmo wrote: »

Well yes and no. The following is pretty off topic so I'll try to wrap things up fairly sharpish.

While it was admittedly a bit of knee jerk reaction from me, I do dislike the prevalence of the "wait for the sales" comments in so many threads these days. That being said, it is approaching Christmas and there a lot of big games being released so it's hard to ignore the logic of waiting.

However, it's also a perfect example of why I'm quite worried about Steam sales. Valve now have at least two large sales throughout the year and often one or two smaller ones. Commonly (if people are to be believed by what they say online) people start winding down purchases and holding back about a month or so before these sales. Once they're finished, they often comment on how many games they picked up and how they won't need to get new games any time soon. If these are demonstrable trends (it's hard to tell for sure since Valve don't release sales info and similar digital downloads aren't generally tracked by the NPD) then we're looking at a severely reduced period where people actually buy new PC games.

So, tying back into what I said previously, as Steam's popularity increases I'm afraid that these (possible) trends will continue to hamper both future traditional PC releases and PC-orientated titles due to increased potential returns from the consoles which, although home to their own problems, still have an extremely large number of people happy to shell out for the bigger titles on release.

As for the Steam vs. B&M bit, actually I'd say it works out roughly the same for the larger publishers. Steam's upfront take is probably higher than the B&M retailers but that'll be offset by the savings in distribution costs for the publisher.

While I do feel that we as gamers do have somewhat of a responsibility to support the games we love when we have the financial ability to, I don't think Hitman Absolution is the easiest title to defend in that regard. It is, after all, the fifth entry in a commercially successful series (that has also spawned a film, albeit a dreadful one) and in budgetary and marketing terms probably relatively close to AAA status. We're not exactly dealing with the small, indie underdog here Of course it's always good to see fans of the series supporting a game on release, and we should never begrudge that. But nor should we begrudge those who are a tad cautious (for whatever personal reasons) about a game receiving mixed feedback in the midst of an insanely busy period for new releases. Sometimes 'wait and see' is an appropriate response, and if - as speculation suggests - Absolution is not the series' finest hour, well then the developers are partially to blame for that.

gizmo

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

While I do feel that we as gamers do have somewhat of a responsibility to support the games we love when we have the financial ability to, I don't think Hitman Absolution is the easiest title to defend in that regard. It is, after all, the fifth entry in a commercially successful series (that has also spawned a film, albeit a dreadful one) and in budgetary and marketing terms probably relatively close to AAA status. We're not exactly dealing with the small, indie underdog here Of course it's always good to see fans of the series supporting a game on release, and we should never begrudge that. But nor should we begrudge those who are a tad cautious (for whatever personal reasons) about a game receiving mixed feedback in the midst of an insanely busy period for new releases. Sometimes 'wait and see' is an appropriate response, and if - as speculation suggests - Absolution is not the series' finest hour, well then the developers are partially to blame for that.

Totally agree, however I did say above I wasn't using Absolution as an example for the very reasons you've highlighted. Hell, I'm holding off myself until more people have played it and I have a better idea of what to expect. My issue with the original statement and what sparked the rest of the reply was the use of "any game" rather than this particular one.

johnmcdnl

pedatron wrote: »

I like the look of those numbers. A few negative reviews wont throw me anyway. I love hitman, its 35 euro on cdwow and the reviews from the sites i read most are good.

Shut up and take my money!

€20.79 Free Shipping for PC

Can't argue with that

wade_barrett

my friend dewey scored me a copy today and ive played about 3 hours of it so far so good its kinda like hitman evolved its more realistic and so much fun its not linear at all like early reviews said and there are tons of ways to eliminate a target it seems like it will be a long game becouse of exploring and replay ability hitman is back woo hoo !!

Headshot

johnmcdnl wrote: »

€20.79 Free Shipping for PC

Can't argue with that

pity about the online retailer thou

Reekwind

gizmo wrote: »

Reviews go live for Hitman: Absolution

EDIT: In case people aren't familiar with who owns MCV, it's Intent Media. You know, the guys who were mentioned in Rab Florence's article, again in the context of Squeenix.

The updates to that article are hilarious

Edit: The PC Gamer review is interesting. I rate Tom Francis highly as a reviewer

Soby

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

hitman is 40 euro on gamestop, probably cheaper elsewhere

that is in no way "crazy money"

crazy money for a game would be approaching 100 euro. 40 euro for a game is nothing but excellent value

Thats the PC version , 54 for console

Feel free to post prices as you find out about them peeps

otmmyboy2

Freaking pile of crap steam, Its the day of release, Ive got absolution pre loaded on Steam and ive got to wait until midnight PST to play it I may as well have got it for xbox at this rate When will the steam execs notice how much this bugs everyone not living in California and introduce regional unlocking, as it turns midnight in your region the game unlocks, freaking simple! :mad::mad:

Spear

otmmyboy2 wrote: »

Freaking pile of crap steam, Its the day of release, Ive got absolution pre loaded on Steam and ive got to wait until midnight PST to play it I may as well have got it for xbox at this rate When will the steam execs notice how much this bugs everyone not living in California and introduce regional unlocking, as it turns midnight in your region the game unlocks, freaking simple! :mad::mad:

If it's any consolation, unpacking/decrypting the 23 gig install is taking ages even on my daftly overpowered machine.

otmmyboy2

Ah well if nothing else its following tradition, I remember the exact same thing happening when fallout new vegas was released, id built a new desktop just so i was sure id be miles over the sys requirements and once again steam let the side down

johnmcdnl

Headshot wrote: »

pity about the online retailer thou

Why?? Always head about CD Wow but never actually used them?? Have they got a bad name or something?

Headshot

johnmcdnl wrote: »

Why?? Always head about CD Wow but never actually used them?? Have they got a bad name or something?

If you want the game anytime soon dont buy of them

johnmcdnl

Headshot wrote: »

If you want the game anytime soon dont buy of them

Fair enough so

pedatron

Headshot wrote: »

If you want the game anytime soon dont buy of them

BALLS.

calex71

Anyone know what HMV are charging for console versions?

jimbojetdriver

Just got my PS3 version in HMV Blanch for 39.99, and a 5 euro off voucher for the next time spending over 50 euro! GameStop was charging 54.99 for it!

weiland79

It's 54.99 in tesco nutgrove and xtravision for consoles. Tempted to get it for my laptop but I just find gaming on my ps3 much more comfortable.

Zero-Cool

My copy just arrived from Gamesnash, looking forward to throwing my Garrote around some poor fools neck tonight!

calex71

weiland79 wrote: »

It's 54.99 in tesco nutgrove and xtravision for consoles. Tempted to get it for my laptop but I just find gaming on my ps3 much more comfortable.

Worth doing what I did and take a stroll down to HMV in Dundrum, 39.99 there as the poster above mentioned I knew they would be cheaper but was genuinely shocked when I saw it at that price :eek:

Even more shocked when they gave me €35 for trading in Assassin's Creed III I was pleased with the savings so I treated myself to a bus ride home / it's a 20 minute walk :cool:

Did xtravision in Nutgrove even have it ????? I didn't see it on the shelf when I was in.