Hitman's killing spree to start in May

They say that when you realize Hitman's antihero Agent 47 is after you, it's already too late. Thankfully, Eidos' heads-up of the bald assassin's coming to the PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC, and the Xbox 360 doesn't mean piano wire around gamers' necks. The latest installation of Io Interactive's Hitman series, Hitman: Blood Money, begins a new set of contractual killings on May 30 in the US, Eidos announced today. As with UK-based Eidos' other recent release, Tomb Raider: Legend, the game will be released four days earlier in Europe.

In the game, things go awry for Agent 47 as fellow members of his agency are picked off, one by one. Believing he's next on the list, 47 heads to America and begins hunting down members of a rival agency, who he believes picked off his coworkers.

This is the fourth game in the Hitman series, following Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, and Hitman: Contracts. All four games have been under the Eidos banner and developed by Copenhagen-based Io Interactive, developer of 2003's Freedom Fighters. In March 2004, Eidos acquired Io, and less than a year before it was itself bought by SCi Entertainment.

Hitman: Blood Money is rated M for Mature, and will retail for $39.99 on the PC, $59.99 on the Xbox 360, and $49.99 on current-gen consoles. For more information on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.