The latest version is temporarily only $4 at the site I linked in my last post. It says:
This deal ends 06/01/2026 03:59 PM PDT or until sold out.
And they do sell out early at times, so you might not have much time, and I’d suggest checking that out if you intend to pick up a copy. It’s normally $50. Then again, maybe it will be free at a later date; it came out 4 years ago so it’s not like it’s brand new.
I’m not really clear on how that works, though. So I have to sign up on Fanatical, buy something on the Fanatical site, then I can get Steam keys to to unlock the game on Steam?
Yes. In fact, once your purchase is done, you will have a button on the web page saying, “Claim my keys.” Click that, on the next screen you will see one or more keys that you have to click to reveal, and even a link to automatically launch the Steam web site and apply the key.
I just picked up a free copy of “Tower of Time” an hour ago, and that’s the process I went through. (Except I didn’t have to sign up, as I had an account already, and I didn’t have to pay anything.)
Only downside is signing up for a newsletter, but just unsubscribe after and you won’t get any. I’ve had an account over there for a long time and they never spam me.
I specifically meant the 2003 version by Ubisoft, with David Duchovny and Adam West, 74/100 on Metacritic. I enjoyed it.
It’s $1.95, man!
There are some patches/fixes here: XIII (Windows) - My Abandonware
Not the bad remake; don’t buy that!
So, in doing a little online research I found out that the Sniper game I enjoyed playing on my iPad years ago was actually an offshoot of the ‘Hitman’ series made for mobile devices. That fact plus Disinfectus’ rec and the general positive reviews I saw online for HM:WoA got me to pull the trigger (heh) on getting the $5.99 Steam deal which said it was for ‘HM:WoA chapter 1’.
When I start the game though, it says ‘Hitman 3’. Whatevs, I figure, as long as there’s sniping, stalking and sneaking involved. The initial cutscenes hint at past missions, so I think I’m missing some ‘Hitman’ lore, and I know the game franchise is based on a movie franchise, but I didn’t really get this game for the story / lore, I got it to do some mayhem.
I completed the first mission, infiltrating a yacht to kill a bad guy. Plenty of sneaking and stalking, not so much sniping yet, just a silenced handgun. I’m pretty sure scoped weapons will come into play later. Seems like it will be a fun game. A lot of strategy is involved in putting on disguises, making use of random objects, choosing whether to sneak or confront, etc. One thing from the iPad game that’s also in this game I like very much is a very pleasant-voiced British woman giving me instructions through an earpiece.
It’s 3rd person unfortunately, but I decided I will just deal with that. Again, I don’t understand why so many good games are 3rd person— 1st person seems so much more enjoyable and immersive to me. Do many gamers prefer 3rd person for some reason, or is it easier to build games in 3rd person, I wonder?
Likewise for me, at least regarding Mafia 3. The intro quest to which is very much akin to a Call of Duty game.
Speaking of which, I don’t see CoD represented here but that series started over two decades ago and there’s no way of knowning which ones @solost has already played.
For me it’s a lot more interesting and immersive to actually see my character. 1st person is very impersonal; it could be anyone with a gun. Plus, in 3rd person if there are any kinds of character customization options at all, you actually get to see them. One of the things that I felt detracted from Cyberpunk is the fact that I could put together a really snazzy outfit and the only time I ever see it is in the character menu or when I walk past a mirror. Even the cutscenes are in 1st person.
That being said, it isn’t a dealbreaker. I play plenty of games that are only in 1st person. The Borderlands series, for example. I just prefer 3rd person if given a choice, and games that allow for you to play either way (such as the Elder Scrolls games) I usually move to 3rd person. Oh yeah, I also forgot that in 3rd person, being able to zoom and pan can also sometimes make it easier to see what is around my character. Which depending on your philosophy might hurt immersion.
Weirdly, in Starfield I can’t stand 3rd person, but I just think they did a crappy job of implementing it. The camera angles and perspectives are all wrong. I struggle to play that game in anything other than 1st person. That game is pretty unique in that way.
Misremembered. The bank heist and aftermath serve as the intro; I was thinking of the one out in the boonies immediately after the protagonist recovers and shaves his head.
For stealth games, it’s much easier to get a wider view of what’s going on around you with a 3rd person camera; you don’t have to keep whipping the camera around left and right and behind you.
In particular, in Hitman there is a lot of hiding in boxes or closets. For 1st person view, I guess you would see nothing?
How have we gotten this far with nary a mention of the Farcry series? When taking out the bad guys, you can go in guns blazing or use stealth to take them out silently. When taking enemy bases, you’re generally rewarded by silent kills and shutting off alarms preventing them from calling in reinforcements. Seriously, it’s exactly what the OP is looking for.
FarCry 3: $20 on Steam
FarCry 4: $30 on Steam.
Well worth the price.
Makes sense. Also, in Hitman, disguises are clearly going to be a big element-- I already needed two disguises in my first mission: dock worker and yacht attendant. A lot easier to keep track of what disguises I have on in 3rd person. Who knows, after playing Hitman for awhile, maybe I’ll come to prefer 3rd person.
I did actually consider picking up a Far Cry recently. Thanks for the rec! Will probably wait for the Steam Summer sale and see if I can grab a bargain. Which did you prefer, 3 or 4? Are they anthology-style, meaning each Far Cry is a different story with different characters, or is there some lore / story throughput to them?
Call of Duty is multiplayer only, isn’t it? I have no desire to try to play a video game while being trash-talked by a bunch of 13 year olds 
Which reminds me of a story: My wife and I saw Bobcat Goldthwaite doing standup a few months ago. I just knew him as ‘that weird guy with the goofy voice who was in a lot of crappy 80s movies’, but my wife asked if I was interested, tickets were cheap, and the club was close by, so I thought, ‘eh, something to do’.
His standup turned out to be really funny (and he’s mostly abandoned the trademark stupid, grating voice, thank God). He had an amusing anecdote about Robin Williams, who he was good friends with, and they did comedy tours together. Which meant being on the road and in hotels a lot, so Robin played a lot of Call of Duty to pass the time. Bobcat said he’d often hear Robin yelling into his headset stuff like "Die, motherf***er!'. Bobcat asked Robin “what’s the average age of the other players?”. Robin said “I dunno…12, 13?” (Bobcat doing a spot-on low-key Robin Williams impersonation). So Bobcat says “those 13 year olds are now grownups telling people ‘I think Robin Williams called me a motherf***er when I was a kid’”.
First, don’t go any further back than Far Cry 3. The first two games are a bit outdated and I don’t think you’ll enjoy them. It’s more an anthology series with each game having new villains and new protagonist though you can run into side characters on occasion who appeared in earlier games. The CIA agent from Far Cry 4 puts in an appearance in Far Cry 5.
FC 3 and 4 are so close together that I really can’t say I liked one significantly more than the other. I believe 4 was a bit more polished than 3, but any improvements were incremental rather than revolutionary. I’d say the first FC that disappointed me was 5. The FC series was a sandbox type game where you go do whatever you want, completing the main story at your pace. In 5, you were forced to hit the story quests when they decided it was time for you to hit them, and that cheesed me off a little.
AFAIK, multiplayer is optional throughout the series. I only really played the first three and it’s definitely optional there; wouldn’t have bothered otherwise.
BTW: approximately one-third of the original is Band of Brothers in videogame format.
ETA: the first two plus DLC for the first one are currently $30 on Steam as a package.
Actually, I think what I have are the CDs for 1 + expansion + 2, prompting me to recall them as three separate games.
The CIA agent from 3 puts in an appearance in 4 before putting in an appearance in 5 
I liked 5 well enough although the forced plot elements were annoying. I think 4 was the best of them but I’d happily play any of the three. If I had to, I’d rank them as 4, 3, 5.
I had bad vibes about 6 and skipped it. None of my friends who picked it up bothered to finish it. FC2 actually has a few cool elements but also a lot of janky or obnoxious stuff. FC3 served as sort of a franchise refresh.
6 is largely just more of the same. It’s biggest flaw is the formula is getting stale.
The previews gave me a vibe of “trying too hard to be wacky”. Pretty much like I found Saints Row 3 to be better than SR4. SR3 was, of course, filled with silly dumb shit but still managed to keep grounded in a way that SR4 just failed at. Far Cry has tons of goofy-ass moments or aspects to it but FC6 looked like it was leaning too hard into it than previous games for my taste.
The movie franchise is based on the game franchise.
First movie was released in 2007.
First game (Hitman: Codename 47) was released in 2000. There were four games released before the first movie.
In Hitman WOA you need to earn a snipergun, I think, to be able to add it as a weapon you can pick up in a hidden storage. You do that by leveling up (redoing the level several times, completing missions/challenges. Once you have that it is fun to seek opportunities to snipe (Colorado is great for that, Mumbay also has a nice sniper tower).
There are a few specific sniper missions: Colorado in the Patient Zero campaign, and IIRC two sniper only special levels.
I’d choose 4 over 3 purely because the character you play is much less annoying.
Also, less rape.