Hitman Blood Money!!

Folks, today IO Interactive's latest game from the Hitman series, titled "Hitman: Blood Money" hit the stores across the US (www.hitmanbloodmoney.com). I was a big fan of the earlier games from this series and went to great lengths to crack the earlier 3 games. The first one was called "Codename 47", the second one was called "Silent Assassin" and the third one was called "Hitman Contracts".

So, today, I took time off from work to rush to the nearest Bestbuy store to pick up the latest title "Blood Money". I was so eager to get home and try the game out. Here are my first thoughts about the game -

a) For the first time, I am trying out a Hitman game on my PS2. I played the earlier ones on my Dell laptop with a keyboard and a mouse. Loading a DVD version of the game on my PS2 and playing it on my 27 inches flat screen color TV with a PS2 controller was a different experience all together. I could sit back on my couch, use the L1, L2, L3, R1, R2 & R3 buttons with great effect and I thought I played extremely well the first one hour of the game itself.

b) The soundtrack at the start of the game is not really that impressive. Its kinda tame and not adrenaline pumping at all. There are sections of the game where the music gets you sitting at the edge of your couch but overall, I still rate the sound effect 3 on 10.

c) The graphics are awesome. The level of detail that IO Interactive goes to is breath-taking. While Hitman Contracts was disappointing, Blood Money brings back my faith on IO Interactive with a bang.

d) I managed to crack Stage 1 "Joseph Clarence" without missing a beat. I played exceptionally well and it took me less than an hour to get to the "office of Joseph" and take him out with a single gun shot :-)

I don't know if I have time to play Stage 2 "Hideout" today, but I am excited as hell :-)) Wish me luck, folks!