And the world did let out a collective gasp of apathy, as Kane & Lynch 3 began to look increasingly plausible

Yep, in a move a lot like punching oneself in the right nut, immediately before punching oneself in the left one to see if it's any better, it looks like Hitman dev IO Interactive might be gearing up another Kane %26 Lynch game.

While nothing's officially confirmed yet, the planets do indeed seem to be aligning into some infernal configuration destined to herald the invocation of a new outing. First up, K&L publisher Square-Enix has registered the phrase 'Sleeping Dogs' as a trademark. You might remember - if memories of its protagonists' flabby arses flapping in the breeze during that naked escape level haven't caused you to permanently cordon off that part of your mind - that Kane & Lynch 2 was subtitled Dog Days. Now either we're looking at a thematic link from one sequel to the next here, or Square-Enix really is planning a game about sleeping dogs. And that wouldn't be very interesting.

Above: Not very interesting

Couple the above with the fact that IO is currently looking for animators and artists for "an unannounced AAA game project" as well as a senior multiplayer programmer for, rather ominously, "a yet unannounced 3rd person game with strong cooperative multiplayer elements", all signs point to another bout of grimy, gun-driven bromance between a couple of deeply unpleasant middle-aged sociopaths.

Still last year's rather brilliant Resistance 3 proved that third-entry turnarounds are certainly not impossible so who knows? Hopeful? Or not?