IO Interactive

Kane & Lynch 2

Martyn Zachary 2 Comments

#@$%! Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was announced a while ago, so here we go:

Kane & Lynch 2 Logo

Kane & Lynch 2™: Dog Days is inspired by documentary filmmakers and the user-generated era. Every aspect of the game has been designed to deliver a fresh perspective to the words ‘intensity’ and ‘realism’ in video games.

While Kane & Lynch may have become a suitable pariah for the gaming community (check this GameBomb review out) by exemplifying underhanded press tactics and poor decision-making – something that we also briefly discussed in an early story of ours, Kaned & Lynched – the game is not without merit, and I am one to think a sequel could redeem many of the failings of the first title. (more…)

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Hitman 2, Hitman 5

Martyn Zachary 1 Comment

In an interesting turn of events, MTV Movies Blog reports that Fox has hired Kane & Lynch screenwriter Kyle Ward to pen the next film adaptation of the Hitman game series.

Hitman MovieWhile some cried foul in conjecture to the first adaptation, I wasn’t too disappointed with it personally; In my mind, and from a gamer’s stance, it was far more faithful an adaptation than last year’s Max Payne, for example, and the cinematic approach was largely true to the source material as well.

The more crucial bit of information sprinkled within the news post, however, is that it finally confirms IO Interactive is working on a proper sequel to 2006’s Blood Money after an unfortunate digression in the form of Kane & Lynch.

Richard aptly points out that there remains some confusion as to the series’ numbering in the MTV post: Contracts, after all, hardly counts for number 3 in the series, and we were subsequently unable to decide whether we’d number the game Hitman 1v2 or 2.5; Blood Money, while obviously a clear-cut continuation in the series – including a follow-up to Contracts – is thus harder to position as number 4. Our point is that the 1-4 numbering only works if you exclude the in-game narrative and focus solely on release dates.

…then again, are there really any long-running game series with clear-cut sequels and numbering?

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Kaned & Lynched

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Coming off a succesful string of Hitman games and a notch-better-than-its-reputation Hollywood adaptation, the announcement for an all-new IO Interactive IP seemed to make perfect sense; after all, it’s not difficult to imagine the whole of IO staff trying to think-tank up something (anything!!) different after having stared at virtually nothing but the back of Agent 47’s bald head for six years (from 2000 to 2006) straight…

Enter Kane & Lynch, perhaps the most controversial game release of 2007. The game’s launch was mired in a string of negative, integrity-shattering publicity: The Gerstmanngate, falsified review scores, and ultimately one middle-of-the-road game. Kane & Lynch seemed a little like a fish out of water in a post-Max Payne -world.

Then again, our collective gamer memory is very short indeed, and everything simmers down after a while. That is, until GamesRadar butts in with an attempt at handing down the microphone over to IO, in the form of a confessional interview with Game Director Jens Peter Kurup, who gets to express his feelings over the public reception of the game.

(more…)

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