Edge 288: The inside story of Hitmans bold return to form

Despite its lack of a subtitle, IO Interactive is keen to stress that the latest entry in the Hitman series is no reboot. But while Hitman follows on from Agent 47's previous games, it’s Blood Money that’s lined up in IO's sights. The Danish Studio has stripped back the series to its core and built a set of complex sandboxes around the shaven-headed contract killer which ensure that he has more options to hand than ever before. In this month’s cover feature, we visit IO to play the game and discover what the series’ new focus means for 47’s future. Issue 288 of Edge is available now in print, on iPad, Google Play and Zinio.

Agent 47’s cool, collected response to threats of violence couldn’t be further from the reactionary hysteria that so often characterises governments’ approach to mature video game content. In Power Play, we hear how former Whitehouse game advisor Constance Steinkuehler elicited a measured response from the US leadership during a time of crisis, and then watched videogame industry figures fail to capitalise on the opportunity.

In New Ways To Play we test the gaming potential of Apple TV, Shield TV and Steam Link. While Randy Pitchford talks us through the highs and lows of his career in Collected Works.

In this month’s The Making Of… we recount how a late twist changed the fate of Supermassive’s gripping teen-horror adventure, Until Dawn. We consider how Mirror’s Edge created new possibilities for firstperson play in Time Extend. And in Studio Profile we pay a visit to Swedish studio Paradox to discover how the grand strategy pioneer is redefining ‘niche’.

In Knowledge we tackle Fabulous Beasts and investigate the beginnings of an indie hardware revolution. We chat to Hidetaka Miyazaki about Dark Souls III and how his earlier games sparked romances. And we drop in on Helsinki’s start-up focused Slush where devs address some difficult VR truths.

Steven Poole, Ian Bogost, Nathan Brown and James Leach offer their thoughts on the industry, and in My Favourite Game we speak to Health bassist John Famiglietti about Demon’s Souls hardships and soundtracking Max Payne 3.

In Hype: The Witness, Superhot, Amplitude, Battleborn, XCOM 2, Severed and more.

In Play: Just Cause 3, Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Game Of Thrones: Season One, Guild Wars 2: Heart Of Thorns, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros and Persona 4: Dancing All Night.

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Edge magazine was launched in 1993 with a mission to dig deep into the inner workings of the international videogame industry, quickly building a reputation for next-level analysis, features, interviews and reviews that holds fast nearly 30 years on.