Picked up Hitman 2 for Christmas? You'll get your chance to assassinate the legend that is Sean Bean for a limited time, starting next week.

Bean's mission, The Undying, will be available for 10 days from 17th January. It was last available back when Hitman 2 launched in late 2018.

Set in Miami, mission's target is Bean's character Mark Faba - a former MI5 agent gone rogue, in a nod to his villainous Goldeneye 007 role.

Read more

IO Interactive might be winding down development on Hitman 2 this month, but that doesn't mean the end for its surly assassin; the studio has confirmed that work on its next Hitman game, whatever that might ultimately prove to be, is "well underway".

All this comes via IO's latest blogpost, in which the developer outlined its November content roadmap for Hitman 2. There's a lot going, but perhaps the most significant news is that this month's update, which arrives on the 19th November and marks one year since Hitman 2's release, will be the game's "final major patch".

That, explains IO, is because "after 13 months of full-time support and content for Hitman 2 - at no additional cost (besides what we added through the Expansion Pass), we're now at a place where we are looking increasingly to the future. In real terms, we're moving more and more of the Hitman 2 team to join the next Hitman game, which is well underway."

Read more

You can pop Hitman 2 on the ever-growing list of games getting into the spirit of the spooky season, thanks to a special new Halloween-themed Escalation Contract, coming tomorrow, 22nd October, on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Developer IO Interactive hasn't, admittedly, offered much in the way of details regarding the new Escalation Contract, but we do know that it's a permanent addition to Hitman 2, is set on the Hawke's Bay map, and will offer two unique rewards for those able to complete it, in the form of the tactical wetsuit and bat shuriken.

Oh, and it looks like Agent 47 is getting a pumpkin head for the occasion, based on the atmospheric accompanying event trailer - which is always a win in my book.

Read more

Summer might be on the way out, but Agent 47 will be enjoying a bout of sun, sea, sand, and sneaky stealth slaughter next week, with the arrival of Hitman 2's latest - and final - DLC sandbox location, the Malidives resort of Haven Island.

According to developer IO Interactive's latest blog post, Agent 47 will, following recent events at the Milton-Fitzpatrick bank in New York, be soaking up the tropical heat in disguise as a guest at the privately owned resort - apparently also the headquarters of an organisation known as Haven, the world's "premiere reputation management service".

Alongside the location itself, Hitman's Maldives DLC will feature a new campaign mission, The Last Resort, which sets players the task of eliminating three targets before making their escape. It also brings full Contracts Mode support, over 75 new challenges, 20 levels of Location Mastery, five new Location Master unlocks (four "new and unique items" and a "stylish new suit"), plus seven new Trophies and Achievements.

Read more

Hitman 2 is a fantastic game. But a small, hilarious development quirk discovered after launch - which caused any briefcase tossed by Agent 47 to glide languidly, yet majestically, around corners as it homed in on poor, unsuspecting victims - briefly turned it into the best game. It was a sad day when IO Interactive fixed the issue (if only by upping the speed to make it look marginally less ridiculous), but now the original case is returning, and officially too.

IO has just announced Hitman 2's content roadmap for August and, there, primed for the tail-end of next week, on 8th August, is the reappearance of the much-missed hover-luggage (as seen in the gif below). Now officially titled The Homing Briefcase, it will be made available as an unlockable gadget in the upcoming, and brilliantly named, Best Case Scenario challenge pack.

"With a throwing speed tweaked for maximum style," explains IO of its revamped, and newly slowed death-case, "there is no end to the possibilities this item offers. Of course, it sports the signature MK II look - the ultimate mark of superb craftmanship! Could be used to hide illegal items but that is clearly beside the point."

Read more

Britain might be bathed in the erratic rays of the summer, but IO Interactive is having none of it. Starting tomorrow, 30th July, it's packing Agent 47 off to a desolate corner of snowy Siberia, the setting for Hitman 2's brand-new Sniper Assassin map.

Specifically, Agent 47's latest assignment, titled Crime and Punishment, takes him to the Perm-14 prison complex in order to complete four new objectives. There are two new targets to eliminate - ex-Russian mobster Roman Khabko and former KGB operative (now prison warden) Vitaly Reznikov - and Agent 47 will, according to IO's announcement post, also need to dispatch some Siberian Tigers and start a prison riot to cover his tracks.

Additionally, the Siberia update introduces a range of new Sniper Assassin challenges, helping players on the way toward scoring the new Druzhina 34 ICA Arctic sniper unlock, plus a selection of new trophies and achievements.

Read more

IO Interactive has detailed what's coming up for Hitman 2 over the next month.

In its June roadmap (thanks, PC Gamer), the Hitman 2 report that "a ton of new content is on the horizon for all players" as the month kicks off its new theme, "Greed Kills". As well as a new Challenge Pack, Featured and Escalation Contracts and a new Double Elusive Target, we can also expect new sandbox location, The Bank, to roll out on 25th June.

"'The Bank' will include a new campaign mission titled 'Golden Handshake' and takes Agent 47 to an investment bank in the United States," IO1 explained in the update. "Expect new gameplay opportunities, new challenges to earn location mastery and new unlocks that will change the way you play."

Read more

Hitman 2 has already seen some fantastic additions since release - take hunting down Sean Bean and that snow festival, for example - but the upcoming content looks particularly exciting, as IO Interactive has announced new bank, resort and prison locations. I wonder if you visit them in that order.

In a post on IO Interactive's website, the developer detailed the game's content plans for the upcoming year. This includes new sniper maps, the new locations, special assignment missions and unlockable items such as a flamingo costume. Each of the new locations will add "new targets, challenges and mastery unlocks that can be used in all locations".

Silver players get access to sniper map Hantu Port and The Bank, but you'll need gold to try out The Prison or The Resort.

Read more

Copenhagen-based Hitman developer IO Interactive has announced that it's opening a second development studio, to be situated in Malm , Sweden.

The new studio will, according to CEO Hakan Abrak, operate in tandem with IO's existing team, and will "strengthen [the company's] commitment to deliver exceptional content to the Hitman franchise, community and all our fans".

Establishing a second development studio will also, says Abrak, enable IO to "expand our muscles for creating brand-new and exciting endeavours, new universes, new franchises."

Read more…

IO Interactive's Hitman 2 only launched last week on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, but its very first Elusive Target mission is now go - and beloved actor Sean Bean is the man in players' sights as the contract gets underway.

More accurately, your first Elusive Target in Hitman 2 is Mark Faba, a disgraced former MI5 agent played by Sean Bean. Faba, explains IO, is known as The Undying by those in the know, and is a master of faking his own death. He's been confirmed dead by the International Contract Agency more than a dozen times and, as a result of his impressive disappearing skills, now has an enormous bounty on his head. There's a full briefing in the video below.

Hitman's first Elusive Target challenge sets players, in the role of Agent 47, the task of eliminating Faba after he is "hired by Robert Knox to complete an assassination contract that requires his expert surveillance, infiltration and demolition skills". Faba can be located on Hitman 2's Miami map but, as is always the case with Elusive Target missions, would-be assassins have only a single chance to take their target out.

Read more…