Category: Games

IO Interactive has announced a new patch for Hitman 3, which prepares the game for its upcoming DLC campaign and fixes several bugs along the way. Measuring in at around 3.5 GB in size on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms, no download is required for people playing the cloud version on Stadia and Nintendo Switch.

Version 3.20 of Hitman 3 invites players to Dubai to indulge in a new three-stage Escalation: The Greed Enumeration and unlock sin-themed rewards as part of the first act in the Seven Deadly Sins expansion. If taking part in greedy assassinations aren’t to your liking, you can dress Agent 47 up for a chocolate-coated chicken egg pursuit as part of the Berlin Egg Hunt seasonal event.

A new Elusive Target will be available to stalk in the Dartmoor level until April 9, and if you’re interested to see just how perfectly IO Interactive has executed its vision for the final chapter in Hitman’s world of assassination trilogy, then you can try a section of the game out for free in a starter pack. The Hitman 3 Starter Pack will unlock the opulent Dubai opening level for free, but it’ll only be available until April 5.

Other technical fixes and tweaks will see Hitman 3 made more stable, while a number of smaller bugs have been addressed such as textures not loading correctly and sound effects not playing when certain weapons were fired. Xbox One, Xbox One S and Xbox One X users can also toggle between an unlocked frame rate or they can lock the game’s visuals to 30 fps. On Xbox One X, Hitman 3 has run at a mostly smooth 60 fps in the unlocked mode.

Each location in Hitman 3 has received a number of minor tweaks as well. A bug in the Dartmoor level that would see bodies catapulted into the air instead of being dumped has been addressed, an issue that could cause 47 to get stuck inside a grape box in Mendoza has been resolved, and Carl Ingram will no longer often repeat a line of dialogue when using the dictaphone.

You can see all the changes, along with some cheeky commentary from IO Interactive, below. For more changes and known issues in the older Hitman games, you can visit the Hitman website for more details.

General Updates

Stability Improvements

• We’ve resolved several issues that could cause the game to crash or, in rare cases, cause endless loading.

Requiem

• The Requiem Pack is back, and included in the H1 GOTY Access Pass. Any HITMAN 3 owners who have installed the H1 GOTY Access Pass will also have access to the three items included in the Requiem Pack.

Trophies/Achievements

• We’ve resolved several issues that could prevent players from unlocking the following trophies; Shortcut Killer, Dune Rider (Dubai), Full House (Dartmoor), Rich Harvest (Mendoza), Future Shock (Chongqing), Pure Poetry (Hantu Port).
• Additionally, fixes for the following challenges that are required to unlock some trophies/achievements have also been implemented: Discover Dubai, Discover Mendoza.
• Players that have been affected should unlock the relevant trophies/achievements when they launch the game after installing the 3.20 patch. We know some players are also having issues with other trophies/achievements. We’re tracking and working on updates for those.

Framerate Unlocked

• Xbox One, Xbox One S and Xbox One X users can now toggle between a locked/ 30fps or unlocked framerate. Locked is the default option. In testing, we’ve hit a very consistent 60 fps on Xbox One X across all three games in the trilogy, with only occasional dips.

Trinity Guns

• We’ve resolved an issue where a white, floating attachment could be seen on the weapons in the Trinity Pack (pre-order bonus)

Leaderboards

• We’ve resolved an issue that could cause players to see erratic leaderboard positions after completing a mission. In some cases, this would show players that they performed worse than the entire leaderboard, i.e 501/500.

Default Disguise

• We’ve resolved an issue that could cause 47 to start in a suit, even when a starting location with a forced disguise was selected. This could cause him to be immediately suspicious in some circumstances.

Silenced Guns

• We’ve resolved an issue that could cause the sound effects of the Bartoli 12G and the Shashka A33 to not play when they are fired by NPC’s.

Wallpop

• We’ve resolved an issue where the ‘Piercing’ perk was not properly displayed on the ICA Bartoli Woodsman Hunting Rifle Covert.

Interaction Font Size

• We’ve added more options for the size of interaction prompts, allowing players to choose from font size 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35. Choosing a larger font size may cause text to overlap in crowded instances, where multiple prompts are on the screen.

Visual Fidelity

• We’ve resolved several issues across multiple locations that could cause textures to ‘disappear’ at certain angles, where items would appear to be ‘floating’ or where positioning the camera in a certain position could cause Agent 47 to disappear.

Silenced Weapons

• We’ve ironed out a few inconsistencies with several silenced weapons.
• The HKW21 Pale Homemade Silencer, ICA DTI Stealth, ICA Tactical Shotgun Covert, DAK Gold Covert and DAK Black Covert were all missing the ‘suppressor’ tag in their inventory description.
• Also, the ICA Tactical Shotgun Covert was not being treated as a silenced weapon by NPCs. That’s changed as well now.

Holster Audio

• We’ve resolved an issue that was preventing the ‘holster’ sound effect from triggering.

Normal vs Medium

• We’ve adjusted the text on some of our ‘graphics settings’ descriptions so that they’re consistent between the game and the launcher. Medium is the new normal.

Version ID

• We’ve added an extra line to the settings menu to also display the current version ID of the game. This will help us when troubleshooting issues in development and with players.

Where It’s Due, 3.20

• We have updated the HITMAN 3 credits to reflect the work that has been done since we submitted the game for release. We also correct a few errors and included new members of the team.

Location Changes: Dubai, UAE

Drop The Body

• We’ve resolved an issue where it was not possible to dump bodies off some ledges of the building in Dubai.

Wait, what water?

• We’ve resolved an issue where overflowing the sink in one of the bathrooms in Dubai wouldn’t attract anyone.

Hold Up

• We’ve tweaked the setup of the guard at the VIP balcony in Dubai so that he will enforce trespassing rules. Previously, he would allow 47 to trespass all too easily without consequence.

Repetitive Repetition

• We identified an issue where Carl Ingram would often repeat a line of dialogue when using the dictaphone, so we’ve resolved the issue where Carl Ingram would often repeat a line of dialogue when using the dictaphone.

Location Changes: Dartmoor, England

Safe Space

• We’ve resolved an issue where 47 could be spotted by guards that were outside, when he was inside the greenhouse in Dartmoor.

Body Container

• We’ve resolved an issue with some containers in Dartmoor where a prompt on the side of the container would allow 47 to ‘dump’ the body. He wasn’t supposed to be allowed to do it though, so the body would be launched into the air. We’ve removed the prompt.

Location Changes: Berlin, Germany

Inaccurate Weaponry

• We’ve resolved an issue where the description of the weapons carried by targets in Berlin was not accurate.

UI_CONTRACT_FOX

• We’ve resolved an issue where debug text would appear as an objective after performing specific actions in Berlin.

Unidentified Target

• We’ve resolved an issue that could prevent a target from being displayed in Instinct and their details being added to the Intel menu.

Location Changes: Chongqing, China

This was the Silenced Version

• We’d like to award Reddit user u/StealthyBastard94 the prize for ‘Most Entertaining HITMAN 3 Bug Report’ for March. We’ve now changed the description so that it no longer says that the gun is silenced.

Chongqing Shortcuts

• We’ve resolved an issue where unlocking a shortcut in Chongqing could prevent players from unlocking the associated challenges with all shortcuts.

Chongqing Controller

• We’ve resolved an issue that could cause inconsistencies in the ‘Controller’ Mission Story.

Cover Up

• We’ve removed a piece of cover in Chongqing that was floating.

The Phoenix Discourse

• We’ve resolved an issue where 47 could ‘hack’ a laptop in Chongqing despite not having the proper clearance. We know that’s the whole point of hacking, but it makes sense if you play the game.

Location Changes: Mendoza, Argentina

Security Door

• We’ve resolved an issue in Mendoza where an erroneous objective would appear in the menu after interacting with the security door terminal.

Mendoza Contracts

• We’ve fixed an issue where Contracts created on Mendoza would sometimes fail to load, depending on when they were created.

Grape Box

• We’ve (apparently) resolved an issue that could cause 47 to get stuck inside a grape box in Mendoza.

Security Consistency

• We’ve resolved an issue that could cause some inconsistencies with the locations of the Head of Security and the Sommelier in Mendoza.

Grape Pressure

• We’ve resolved an issue where some bodies could not be contained within the grape presser.

Location Changes: Carpathian Mountains, Romania

Mountain Range

• We’ve resolved an issue that could cause lighting issues in the environment, including the water.

Niantic, the creator of Pokémon Go, has announced that it’s begun testing for its Pikmin AR game in Singapore.

The game, which was only teased for the first time last week, will be released this year globally, but Singaporean players will be the first in the world to try it. No matter where you are, you can pre-register to test the game in when it comes to your region.

We’re excited to announce that, in partnership with @Nintendo, we’ve begun testing our Pikmin-based mobile app in Singapore! Register now to participate in this all-new Pikmin walking experience. https://t.co/mdA6zRTAgj

— Niantic, Inc. (@NianticLabs) March 30, 2021

At time of writing, exactly how the game works is still unknown, with Singaporean player Elias Chew explaining on Twitter that the game displays confidentiality notices when played. Chew did explain to another Twitter user that the game uses a Google Fit step count to grow Pikmin as you walk.

Niantic hasn’t said when the game will be coming to other countries, although it has previously soft-launched both Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in Australia and New Zealand, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it hit those regions earlier than full release.

The Pikmin game is the start of a new partnership between Niantic and Nintendo, who will “jointly develop mobile titles” using Niantic’s AR technology and Nintendo’s characters. The news comes a day after Niantic CEO John Hanke seemed to tease that the company was creating AR glasses to help aid its games.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

The tangled result of taking Tetris and Trackmania Turbo and tossing them into a tumble dryer, Can’t Drive This is a clever and compulsive co-op puzzle racer. With one player literally building a road out of random tiles as the other navigates the chaotic, impromptu track that results, Can’t Drive This is one of the most inventive driving games I’ve played in recent years, although its modest selection of modes makes it a multiplayer experience best enjoyed in short bursts rather than an all-night party classic-in-the-making.

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Replace Tetris’ iconic tetronimoes with assorted chunks of stunt racing track and you’re most of the way to understanding how Can’t Drive This delivers its own brand of puzzle-like track pieces. Every new slab will be something random – one might be a simple square of asphalt while the next has a devilish swinging hammer designed to hamper your progress. However, some may not be square at all – they’ll be 90-degree bends or banked corners that need to be rotated before they’re placed – and others won’t even be asphalt – they’ll be a deep mud pit to mess with your grip or a giant yellow dome to throw you off-course. The variety of tiles and obstacles is decent, although the hydraulic press is a nightmare. While it appears as if you just need to skirt around it, as it slams down it seems to send out a powerful shockwave that knocks trucks from the track without touching them. It was funny at first to watch my teammates struggle to survive it, but ultimately it became regularly irritating.

If You Build It, They’ll Have Fun

Assembling the track in Can’t Drive This is ultimately like trying to piece together a slot car set on the dining table before your little sister drives your favourite car off the end of it. There’s really no time to think it through. The driver can’t simply park and wait for their partner to carefully or artfully string a track together because if the truck stops too long it’ll explode, so reacting to the pieces as they arrive and plonking them down quickly is the only way to succeed as a team.

There are certainly times where it feels like you’re getting shafted with combinations of tiles that are extremely difficult for a driver to deal with – like a series of boost pads into a jump that a driver may find themselves committed to before the builder has even had time to set down a landing area – but with a couch full of players laughing at this predicament it’s generally more funny than aggravating.

However, there were a lot of occasions where I or one of my teammates found ourselves stuck clipping through a guardrail or bogged in a track tile that blinked into existence a fraction too late to let us continue, but a fraction too soon to allow the truck to actually plummet from the sky. It’s an annoying purgatory to be trapped in, particularly when the truck refuses to explode and manually restarting your run from the pause menu is the only solution. This is at its most frustrating with three drivers. Fallen trucks can be resurrected if another player drives through the beacon marking the point on track they perished, but we had a couple of instances where our last surviving driver was fused halfway inside a track tile, unable to revive teammates or proceed.

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Monster Truck Madness

The monster trucks in Can’t Drive This may look toy-like in scale but they handle with a good sense of heft and inertia. The trucks have a decent feeling of mass without being cumbersome, and they’re responsive without feeling overly twitchy or sticky.

There’s also a huge amount of truck customisation on offer but I haven’t really found myself drawn to it. A monster truck with a beard and a cowboy hat is objectively brilliant, I admit, but I can’t help but wonder if Can’t Drive This would’ve been better served with a few more modes or ways to play it than such an extensive range of cosmetics.

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As it stands, there are three different multiplayer modes: Yardage, where up to three drivers and one builder attempt to simply go the furthest distance they can before all trucks either careen off the track or explode; Game of Drones, where two drivers and two builders partner up to collect an increasing number of floating cubes randomly scattered around an initial hub zone; and Capture the Egg, where two teams – each featuring a driver and a builder – square off in a capture the flag scenario.

The frantic and unforgiving Yardage feels like the core Can’t Drive This experience, but I think I actually prefer Game of Drones; tracking down all the cubes requires building in all four compass directions rather than relentlessly trying to power forwards, and there’s slightly more time to rebuild around errors – you just need to avoid the EMP mines dropped by the drone that will disable trucks and potentially send them spearing off the track or into an obstacle to become stuck and blow up.

That’s it, though, and once we’d dabbled in each mode for a while sessions of Can’t Drive This would begin to lose a bit of momentum. There’s a fourth mode purely for solo players where you need to both build the road and drive it yourself as it subsequently assembles in front of you, but if this is the only way you’d be planning to play Can’t Drive This I’d recommend against picking it up. Lone Racer really loses a lot of steam after a dozen or so attempts.

Following player feedback, Ubisoft is changing Reda’s Shop in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The update for the shop will go live on March 30 and will make it easier to buy new items without spending all the opals you’ve discovered.

In Valhalla, Reda joins your settlement upon the completion of securing an alliance with Ledecestrescire. For opals, an in-game currency you can find by exploring the world, Reda will sell you unique weapons, armor, and cosmetics that rotate out of his shop on a weekly basis. Up till now, he’d sell you three new items each week. The March 30 update will increase that number to six.

This update also corresponds to a change in Reda’s stock. So starting March 30, you’ll have a limited window to purchase six new items. They’re listed below:

• Black Raven (Back Tattoo)
• Helhest (Horse)
• Niflheim Helmet
• Unicorn Figurehead
• Blood Eagle Totem
• Ukonvasara (Hammer)

Additionally, the update changes how many opals you need to buy certain items from Reda. The price of longship items, settlement items, and tattoos will all be decreased to 35 opals starting March 30.

“We will continue to monitor discussions about Reda’s shop and will implement potential further changes based on your feedback,” Ubisoft writes in a blog post.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, PC, and Stadia. The game is scheduled to get its first major post-launch DLC expansion, Wrath of the Druids, on April 29.

There’s still some time to grab the free Amazon Prime games for March–including the huge library of SNK classics–but if you’ve already done that, you can check out what’s next. Amazon has revealed April’s free Amazon Prime games, which are available through April 30 and include five excellent titles: The Escapists, Moving Out, Move or Die: Couch Party Edition, Aces of the Luftwaffe: Squadron, and Before I Forget.

The Escapists is one of the biggest Prime Gaming offerings available during April. A prison-escape simulator, you’ll take the role of a prisoner with one goal in mind: get the heck out. There are a lot of different ways you can go about breaking out, but you’ll have to avoid the stringent eyes of the guards as you plan out and execute your escape.

In The Escapists, you’re on your own, but you’ll be joined by your friends in the moving-out simulator, Moving Out. You and up to three friends tackle various moving jobs around the neighborhood, working together to transport bigger items out of the house and into the truck. You’ll want to finish jobs as fast as you can as your score is dependent on your speed.

For more multiplayer action, Move or Die has you covered. Fast-paced and absolutely absurd, Move or Die pits you against your friends in a competitive match that changes its mechanics every 20 seconds. If you love your friends, you’ll likely hate them after everything is said and done–like any good party game. Those who like tense gameplay like that will also find it in bullet-hell shooter, Aces of the Luftwaffe: Squadron, while those who prefer a slower, story-based experience will find a lot to enjoy in Before I Forget.

While the free games are great, there is also quite a bit of free in-game loot for a variety of games. Prime subscribers can expect free loot, including a costume and 6,500 Kudos for Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Ubisoft games Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor also get some loot, and you can expect the next drop for battle-royale shooter Apex Legends as well.

April 2021 free Prime Gaming titles

Available throughout April

• The Escapists
• Moving Out
• Move or Die: Couch Party Edition
• Aces of the Luftwaffe: Squadron
• Before I Forget