Hitman: Absolution Details Talk "Variety"

Ripten's only gone and harvested a entire picnic of Hitman: Absolution details from the latest issue of Edge, including the following bombshell- "47's voice actor will not be returning."

An era is over, my friends. A weird era, but one that did, at least, perfectly capture the voice of a psychotic man raised in a jar. 47's agent and only friend, Diana, is being played be someone else too- Lost's Marsha Thomason, aka Naomi Dorrit from Lost. But there's lots, lots more after the jump.

Ordinarily in these circumstances I trawl the original article for choice details, then organise them all into a handy bullet point list for you, the reader. Except Ripten's already done that, so I'm copying and pasting exactly what they have to say. You hear me, Ripten? And if you don't like it, we'll have it out in person, like men. And by "in person" I mean "in Nidhogg".

Tell you what, actually. I'll bold the important bits, too.

• The game is set in Chicago.
• Tons of time making core movement and controls very responsive.
• IO’s Glacier 2 engine supposedly offer fantastic facial animations.
• Optional cover system with the use of cover mechanics without actually being in cover.
• Instinct mode highlights enemies and patrols glow red through walls, similar to Arkham Asylum’s detective mode. It also replaces the map screen from the previous Hitman titles.
• Mini map will highlight points of interest.
• Threat meter is now a grey circle in the middle of the screen that flickers in directions where enemies may spot 47.
• The more eyes on you, the faster your threat meter will fill.
• Lots of environmental weapons, unique to each location such as a lamp cord being used as a garrotte.
• Taking hostages return, but the AI is smarter and wont just start shooting at you.
• Levels are divided into checkpoints for the first time in the Hitman series.
• Many levels will be as large and open-ended as the levels from previous Hitman games, but some others will be tighter, more focused sandboxes.
• IO’s goal is to build a greater variety of gameplay challenges around the core game, rather than changing it. Such as scripted action sequences.
• Some levels are very story driven and other are way more explorative.
• Having a disguise doesn’t meal you’ll be able to fool everybody or bluff your way past a group of NPC’s.
• Instinct mode increases disguise effectiveness. Cops in the demo questions 47′s movements while he’s disguised as a police man, he enters instinct mode and uses his police radio walking straight past the cops and fools them.
• 47′s handler, Diana, is now played by Marsha Thomason.
• Designated safe spots for disguises. Such as walking up to a box of doughnuts disguised as a cop.
• Safe spots will keep you completely safe for as long as you want, even if the room is filled with enemies.
• Crowds will be used very differently.
• 47′s long time voice actor will not return. No name was given for a replacement.
• Glacier 2 engine offers realtime AI editing.
• AI will react dynamically to your actions.