A
ssassination is a risky business (or so we’re told), but as the saying goes,
the bigger the risk, the sweeter the reward. And in Hitman: Blood Money,
the tasks are difficult, but the rewards are oh, so delectable.
In the fourth installment of the popular Hitman series, you once again take
up the garrote wire of the enigmatic Agent 47. Missions take you from the
wetlands of Louisiana to the glittering lights of Sin City in pursuit of hapless
perverts and politicians with the right price on their heads. And while we cer-
tainly take great pleasure in offing these scumbags, it’s only because we know
they’re deserving of their fate.
The open-ended mission design that’s been a hallmark of the series is back
and has been nicely refined. Each of the game’s 13 missions offers at least a
dozen stylish ways of completing various goals and killing people. We injected
doughnuts with poison, shot dogs with animal tranquilizer darts, and sabotaged
circuit breakers to confuse guards, all in the same job! Not only does each level
boast a ton of replayability because of the multitude of ways to complete a mis-
sion, but each one is littered with memorable gaming moments, including many
classics. Stalking a man in a giant red bird costume through a dense crowd at
Mardi Gras and crashing a Hell-themed dance orgy are experiences you won’t
soon forget.
Each mission is as hard as you want it to be. You must plan carefully to
avoid killing innocents. Sneaking past guard patrols will give you a higher
success rating, which translates into more money, which you can use for truly
useful weapon upgrades. Reckless shooting also works, but you’ll likely get
your ass handed to you by the brutally smart AI. Our only complaints are that
dragging bodies around is tedious, and some kill maneuvers take awhile, leav-
ing you vulnerable.
An overarching plot ties the game together, but you don’t have to follow
it to get the gist of the story. And honestly, who cares? This game delivers the
goods without a story, thanks to the vibrant levels and awesome
gameplay. The icing on the
cake is that it’s not plagued
by the control problems that
mar other console ports.Hitman: Blood Money
Whacking people has never been this much fun
B
attlefield 2 won our 2005 Game Of The Year award for one simple rea-
son—our entire game-playing staff was completely absorbed by the
game for the second half of last year. After more than a year of regular play,
however, Kubra Dam and Dalian Plant were getting a little tiring. That’s
where the BF2 booster packs come in.
Unlike full-blown expansions, which offer new weapons and tons of new
content, the booster packs simply add a few new maps and vehicles to the
basic BF2 experience. Euro Forces, the first $10 booster pack to Battlefied 2,
added a new European front in the form of three new maps, but they didn’t see
regular play on many servers. Armored Fury adds three damn-near-perfect new
maps that focus on a North American invasion by aggressor nations.
The beauty of these new maps is that they place you in familiar subur-
ban and rural locations within the U.S., and they focus heavily on open-field
armored combat. Operation Road Rage is the fight for a key cloverleaf on
an eastern Interstate. Operation Harvest places you in the rolling fields
of Amish country, and Midnight Sun forces you to defend an Alaskan port
against an invading force.
The focus on vehicular combat is immediately apparent. Between
the flags you must capture and hold to win, there are wide-open fields.
However, chokepoints abound, making it possible for infantry grunts to
defend flags, while the heavy armor pushes forward on offense. These
maps are well balanced and fun, and have earned spots alongside Sharqi
Peninsula and Strike at Karkand as our favorites.
It’s not all about the ground-pounders, though. The new scout choppers
pack an infantry-killing punch, but are better used for their additional tricks.
With seats for two passengers and the pilot—as well as a radar scan simi-
lar to the UAV drone—the small choppers let you move your men anywhere
on the map in a hurry. The ground-attack planes, including the classic A-10
Warthog, are capable of shattering an armored column, but are vulnerable
to the anti-air stations spread liberally throughout all three environments.
On average, there’s one AA placement per flag to give foot soldiers a better
chance against air assets.
For anyone still playing
Battlefield 2, these three maps
are well worth your $10.
—WILL SMITHBattlefield 2: Armored Fury
Three new maps bring back the Battlefield magic
This couch potato obviously didn’t see the reflection of an omi-
nous bald man in his TV screen.Capturing a cloverleaf can be a substantial challenge, even
if you have tons of tanks.9
HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY
$40, http://www.hitmanbloodmoney.com,
ESRB: MBF2: ARMORED FURY
$10, http://www.battlefield2.com,
ESRB: T9
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