Eidos

It's a shame that given such a potentially provocative issue as the premise of the game, Whiplash chooses to take it nowhere and instead falls back on ineffectual humor, cartoonish violence, and an unimaginative interface.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Violence.

A huge fan of Agent 47, I found myself nodding in agreement after reading Scott's evaluation. The first time I laid hands on a Hitman game was a genuinely unforgettable experience. Contracts delivers more of the same, which is not a bad thing.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs

I did a lot of waiting in Hitman: Contracts. I did a lot of walking, too. That's pretty much the whole game—waiting and walking, walking and waiting. Sounds dull when I put it that way, but I'm telling you, never before have these two seemingly banal acts been fraught with so much simmering tension.

Game Description: Hitman: Contracts takes players back into the world of Agent 47, genetically engineered assassin. In this new game, we find him in a hotel room in Paris. Shot up and full of painkillers, he begins hallucinating. As his mind wanders, we'll travel to the missions that left him in this sorry state. Amazing locations, from a realistic slaughterhouse to incredible recreations of Holland, France, China, England & more Incredible all-new graphics and advanced AI pull you into the world of the assassin.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Fantasy Violence

I was primarily disappointed with Legacy of Kain: Defiance for reasons that Brad lights upon. For me, the game fatally stumbles where it fails to demonstrate any meaningful improvement over its prequels. Despite our general agreement about gameplay however, Brad does gloss over what I felt was a notable triumph—the game's compelling gothic landscape.

Solid gameplay will always trump fancy graphics, but that doesn't mean that 2D titles can get by without any sort of graphical enhancements. But what can be done with a traditional side-scroller like R-Type Final to make it appealing to a new generation of gamers who've probably never even played the original in an arcade? How about, for starters, giving it some sparkling graphics and a quasi-3D engine (similar to the one found in last year's Contra: Shattered Soldier) while retaining all the twitchy trigger-finger gameplay of the originals?

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Violence