‘Hitman: Sniper’ gets plenty of zombies — human and otherwise — in free update

By Gabe Gurwin Published June 2, 2016

Hitman: Sniper - Death Valley Challenge Mode Launch Trailer

March’s Hitman reboot and its ongoing episodic releases may have gotten Agent 47 the most attention this year, but Square Enix is hoping you haven’t forgotten about last year’s mobile shooter,

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Hitman: Sniper. If it has been a while since you’ve opened the app, the new “Death Valley” update should get you back in the headshotting spirit — only this time, you’re shooting zombies.

“Set in an abandoned military base, players will have to defend lone survivor Ben (named after the winner of the PAX East 2016 tournament) from a swarming horde of undead,” Square Enix says in the official announcement.

The launch trailer is appropriately cheesy, with a goofy movie narrator explaining that you’ll die “every time” — you never really win the zombie against zombies. It’s not actually you who will be dying, though, but the aforementioned Ben Randomoff as “random car guy.”

He has not a care in the world but fixing his broken down automobile, and seems completely oblivious to the dozens of zombies moving in to eat his brains. These include not only zombies and “bigger zombies,” but also “monkey zombies.” This isn’t the first time a game has given us undead primates: Call of Duty: Black Ops II featured the terrifying creatures in 2012.

While the update is free, you’ll also be able to spend some real cash if you want to get the Jaeger sniper rifle seen in this year’s PC and console Hitman. Its blue-gray finish is certainly enticing, but we suggest you try out the free guns, first.

It’s content might be completely different from anything the Hitman series has offered to date, but the level of cheese still feels like a perfect fit for the series. After all, you can’t take these games seriously, nor should you try, when they let you kill a target with an explosive golf ball.

Hitman: Sniper‘s “Death Valley” update is now available on iOS, with an Android release to follow shortly.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Square Enix is releasing a free AI-driven mystery game next week

square enix free ai tech preview the portopia serial murder case

As tools like ChatGPT become more powerful and popular in the mainstream, the potential of an advanced AI in a video game that can naturally understand and respond to player instructions has emerged. Now, Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix is testing the waters of this technology with a new, free game launching on Steam next week called Square Enix AI Tech Preview: The Portopia Serial Murder Case.
SQUARE ENIX AI Tech Preview: THE PORTOPIA SERIAL MURDER CASE【English】
Releasing on April 24, this tech preview is based on Enix's 1983 murder mystery adventure game The Portopia Serial Murder Case. It recreates that game, replacing the restrictive noun- and verb-based commands of the original with an AI partner that players can speak to. Using natural language processing and understanding, that partner will take the player's commands and respond accordingly.
This version of The Portopia Serial Murder Case has the potential to feel less restrictive than the original, as it may understand what the player wants to do even if they don't type in the exact command from the original verbatim. This AI tech preview even supports automatic speech recognition, so players can speak to the AI rather than typing commands if they want.
One thing it doesn't have is natural language generation to reply to questions that it doesn't have a prewritten response for. Square Enix explains on the game's website that Square Enix AI Tech Preview: The Portopia Serial Murder Case originally did feature this technology, but the developers in its AI Division decided not to include it at release "because there remains a risk of the AI generating unethical replies." However, Square Enix says it might reintroduce this feature to the tech preview "as soon as our research succeeds in creating an environment in which players can enjoy the experience with peace of mind."

Don't expect your AI partner to defy your instructions and tell you that it wants to be human. Still, this is definitely one of the most intriguing uses of advanced language-based AI in a video game yet. Square Enix AI Tech Preview: The Portopia Serial Murder Case will be free to play on April 24 via Steam.

Gaming

Sonic Frontiers is getting a free update this week, including new modes

Sonic holds his heels during a midair trick in Photo Mode.

Sonic Frontiers will receive its first of three planned updates on Wednesday, March 22. The free DLC -- dubbed Sights, Sound, and Speed -- has a load of new features, including Photo Mode, Jukebox, and new challenge modes.

Sega previously detailed its plans to support Sonic Frontiers in the long term last November, but it didn't share a timeline for when the updates were coming. Now that first wave is finally here, giving the game it's first significant update since it launched last year.

Gaming

Despite divisive dialogue, Forspoken gets a lot right about open-world games

Frey jumps in a magical New York City in Forspoken.

Games can learn a lot from Forspoken’s traversal mechanics, but you probably wouldn't glean that from the discussion surrounding it right now.
A lot of the chatter around Forspoken has been quite negative due to its lackluster story, but there are still things that the Square Enix and Luminous Productions game does quite well. Primarily, exploring the vast and beautiful open world of Athia is quite enjoyable because of all the helpful mobility options Frey has at her disposal. As Forspoken does some critical aspects of gameplay well, it’s a shame that the conversation surrounding it primarily focuses on the shortcomings of the game’s writing.
Forspoken Deep Dive | Exploring Athia
Yes, the story pacing and writing are its weak point, but that’s also not the only thing Forspoken has to offer. Good or bad, every game brings something to the table that both developers and players can learn from. The whole industry would benefit if we were willing to engage with what works in games like Forspoken as much as we discuss what doesn't.
What Forspoken gets right
After slogging through several hours of linear story content, Forspoken finally opens up, and players can truly get a feel for its traversal mechanics and its open world. That’s when they’ll discover the game’s real magic. Frey feels weighty like a human character would in a game like Uncharted, but can reach higher speeds by dashing around with her Flow ability.
This gives the game a great sense of momentum, as every step feels satisfying and powerful as Frey speeds up. She’ll naturally parkour over smaller objects too, so forward movement isn’t inhibited by the environment too often. This only becomes more of the case as the game continues, as players can eventually unlock magical abilities like Zip to grapple or swing upwards, Glide to surf across the water, and Float to glide and break Frey’s fall in the air.
Forspoken makes traversal more involved than just pushing forward and holding the circle button. As part of open-world exploration, players can encounter Fountains that will give them abilities like Soar, Shimmy, Rush, and Scale. These give players movement boosts like more jumps or a momentary speed boost if they time button presses correctly. While it’s only a recurring timed button press, it adds some depth to traversal that ensures that the player will pay attention to the game and everything they see in its world.

The only thing holding a player’s movement back is the stamina bar and the number of skills Frey has at her disposal. Even then, that helps pace out explorations and gives players a tangible feeling of progression as it increases throughout the game, making them feel quite strong. At its best, Forspoken is actually a lot like the imaginary AAA Avatar: The Last Airbender game that I’ve always wanted, using multiple element-based abilities to feel powerful as I traversed its large landscapes.
Couple all of that with a satisfying open-world design that ensures that you’ll always gain something useful from whatever you encounter, and Forspoken’s traversal and open-world mechanics become something that other games can learn from.
Give games a chance
Because Forspoken is frontloaded with a focus on its divisive story and dialogue, the gameplay aspects of it aren’t getting the time of day they deserve currently. And as it's an open-world action-adventure RPG, it's a pretty big oversight to not consider what the playable aspect of this game does quite well because of a couple of awkward banter exchanges, some of which are optional.