http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1060657p1.html

...The team at Io Interactive could have simply smoothed out the rough edges, pounded out a new story and called it a day. In the world of videogames, taking that route is almost expected.

For Kane & Lynch 2, you should expect the unexpected.

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The visual style has seen a complete overhaul, drawing from low-quality amateur YouTube videos as inspiration.

How exactly does that work? Glad you asked. The camera follows close behind the action, shaking upon impact. Visual artifacts are present everywhere. Though the game runs in HD, a treatment has been applied to make it look like a streaming video. When you get shot, it looks like bits of digital information are lost and the screen becomes pixelated. The bright lights will oversaturate the "camera," causing light to bleed across pixels. You'll even get a little "buffering" screen to take the place of the initial level load.

The goal is to make it seem like this is a video being directed by the player, recorded on a small handheld digital camera. You'll stay with Kane and Lynch for the entirety of the roughly 48 hour time period that the game takes place, tracking the duo from fight to conversation and back to fights as it all unravels.

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Like the original, this sequel can be played co-operatively in its entirety. This time, however, it can be played either offline with a splitscreen or online.

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I didn't get a look at it, but I was told the well-received Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode will be back. In the original, this unique game type was a game of cops and robbers with a twist -- killing your fellow crooks and betraying them would increase your take of the haul at the end. The drawback was that those people would then respawn as cops tasked with stopping you. The more people you betray, the tougher it became to make it out alive. But oh the rewards if you did. We'll have to wait and see what Io has in store for the sequel.

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Stay tuned for more impressions once I do get a chance to play a level or two. Kane & Lynch 2 is coming to Xbox 360, PS3, and PC later this year.

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Sounds good, hopefully the gameplay/controls will have seen the needed improvement. I really like the visual style though!

Bump? :o

I really liked the first, the co-op was awesome

Keeping a close eye in this one

just make a new hitman game io ! XD

Here's a preview from CVG, good read.

http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=231713

...

This time you're playing Lynch, the funny, psychotic henchman of the original game. The original's protagonist, Kane, is along for the ride, shadowing the balding madman's journey through two very bad days in the Shanghai underworld. Lynch was always the better character in the original game. Held together with drugs and prone to hallucinations that turn people into dog-headed policemen - what's not to love?

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You play from a tight, over-the-shoulder perspective behind Lynch. It's not a pleasant place to be: he has greasy hair, he's wearing a stained wifebeater shirt and sporting a bald spot. IO love anti‑heroes.

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Then I start to notice that the game isn't looking too spectacular. The lights are smeared, like they've been captured on home video. When the action gets more intense, with Lynch ducking behind cover being hammered by enemy bullets, the screen starts breaking up, crumbling behind digital artefacts. This is the hook. IO have gone out of their way to make the game look like this.

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When he moves to different lighting conditions, the 'camera' adjusts, street lights spreading across the screen. Even the sound has the tinny quality of something playing on a mobile phone. It's been YouTubed.

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Kane and Lynch move through the chaos, yammering away at each other like a married couple. Kane keeps out of the line of fire. Not only is he fun to listen to, but he backs you up, firing from the side or behind. He's one of the few in-game AI characters I think I could tolerate. They both escape through sheer brute force and disregard for their own safety; tactics take second place to improvisation.

Out into an alleyway, then onto the Shanghai streets, Dog Days genuinely feels like a shakycam video ripped from a website. Art direction in games is something that's maturing; IO realise their city through a mixture of impressive level design and filters. Shanghai, a place I've never visited, feels vital and busy - like Lynch has crashed into someone's holiday video. The YouTube gimmick here works so well that I half expected it to buffer.

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Truth be told, the fights aren't a whole lot different from the original game. There was intensity there as well, but it's now been supplemented by improved enemy AI (in Dead Men, your opponents were nothing more than 'shoot me' signs) and a cover system that actually provides cover, rather than leaving you both frozen in one spot and exposed enough to be hit. It's more polished.

...

The multiplayer Fragile Alliance also returns - a betrayal-based co-op game where a team of players rob a bank or gas station, but with a paranoia-fuelling twist that enables you to turn on teammates and take the pot. If this version isn't crippled by Games for Windows Live, it has a chance to make a small, but interesting niche for itself. There's nothing more fun than legitimised team-killing.

If the first game left you cold, should you care about any of this? I put it to IO that this is a sequel that I didn't ever expect to see. They explain that, from their point of view, it sold well, they liked the characters and were stung by the criticism that snowed over the original. They have something to prove and have spent years doggedly perfecting their Hitman games, which have blossomed over four instalments into one of the finest series I've ever played.

It required time and patience from both developers and gamers for Hitman to achieve the heights it reached, and I'm sure they'll get there with Kane & Lynch too - eventually.

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This game is sounding more awesome by the minute now!

Hopefully the dialog will be more interesting. The first one wasn't a bad game, but it definitely lacked some polish.