Hitman Blood Money PC Revisited on Q6600/ Nvidia 8800GT Retro Hardware!

In the week that Hitman 3 released, Alex Battaglia and John Linneman return to 2006 to check out another cross-gen instalment of Agent 47's adventures: Hitman Blood Money. And to get the job done, the team use period-appropriate PC hardware, with Intel's Q6600 and Nvidia's classic 8800GT put to the test... and passing with flying colours, actually.
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[@SantiagoSantiago]

I remember playing this on PS2 first, couldn't believe how good it looked years later playing it on PC for the first time on 2012. Great content as always!

[@maugod6972]

Bueno verte acá Santiago

[@Clay3613]

Still looks great on the PS2 and HD Collection.

[@acetown2263]

I played the 360 demo soooo much

[@BenchARTVideos]

Well I remember "playing" this at around 10-15 FPS at the lowest settings possible. Anyway, as soon as I reach the crowd level I was jaw dropped

[@dante19890]

Always nice seing Alex Battalion and John Lemonman partnering up for DF videos

[@CPSPD]

I love dwarf fortress videos

[@zachsteiner]

😂 Amazin

[@MisterDrumsNoob]

I liked these names. I use "Alexandre Batalhador" e "João Linhares"

[@cjaay4359]

Its Alex Battaglia not battalion

[@jcsandrea]

The thing about first gen rag doll physics is that they took the “rag doll” part to heart.

[@ToTheNines87368]

For some reason, to me anyway it made the guns feel more satisfying. Head shots especially. Even if the physics went haywire occasionally.

[@ItsDSP]

I miss those physics. They were incredibly unrealistic but it was funny seeing them contort and go nuts.

[@Sin05269]

Shoot a guy in the torso with a shotgun and he flies across the room, slamming into any furniture that dares to cross his path.

[@jcsandrea]

@@ToTheNines87368 yeah, they are ridiculous but at least to me they are always fun to watch.

[@resonatingraptorid6519]

The visuals hold up very well for a nearly 15 year old game, but what surprises me most is just how well the physics and crowd density hold up.

[@WickedRibbon]

I think that's IO's impeccable art style shining through.

[@Ty4ons]

It’s very clean, this was when everything started getting brown and very filtered looking, partly to hide graphical imperfections.

[@daishi5571]

Comparing Hitman Blood Money graphics to Gears of war and saying that GOW was miles ahead huh! so just have someone blow smoke in your eyes while peeling an onion (Hitman would still have more colour) TLDR - GOW was mostly 4 colours - grey, brown, grey and red (ok 3 but you get my point) Hitman had colour!

[@nomercy8989]

Crysis will be 15 soon lol

[@daishi5571]

@@nomercy8989 A game that looks so bad they had to remaster it. Lol

[@Silikone]

You can't do enough of these 8800 GT videos. I'd love to see it run STALKER.

[@vzombi2v]

I wish they'd do a stalker video and even include stalker anomaly

[@itstommylove]

ah, i see you are a man of culture as well. 8800GT was how i experienced Shadow Of Chernobyl in 07

[@retorique]

@@itstommylove Probably the only time in history where you could get high-end performance so cheaply. RIP GPU economy.

[@Housesider]

They need to do some STALKER content pronto.

[@JD-qf8ov]

Yes! Jesper Kyd is sorely missed in the new games. Missing a lot of soul because of it.

[@ArreatPLvro]

Agreed, truly masterpiece soundtracks

[@josedeleon1923]

True. But i think the third game took a bit from his work.

[@gilbertgotfried]

I actually turn off the music when I play the new Hitman games and load up a Kyd Hitman playlist. You're right in that it adds a ton of atmosphere to the game.

[@gilbertgotfried]

@@josedeleon1923 That's really good to know. I've been playing the first two seasons so I can remember what was going on in time for Hitman 3. I've been hearing really good things about it.

[@JD-qf8ov]

I wish there was a way for IO to somehow realise how many of us really want Jesper Kyd to return. It worked for getting the voice of 47 back for Absolution so I could see it working for this too.

[@shuvam6952]

"No crowds"... I was like, WHATTT??? Thanks for the save, John...

[@maugod6972]

@beepboop beep II shut up

[@pariksith]

The soundtrack was PHENOMENAL in this game. It’s a shame Jesper Kyd never worked on the soundtrack for the newer games.

[@griffgames9538]

His 'crew' from IO was mainly the dudes that left the team a while ago to make "Heroes & Generals".

[@thejanrodrigo]

22:08 " I didnt want to kill this unfortunate woman" Thats literally the target 😂

[@wofuljac]

Nope, just need her necklace.

[@BadmanOfBanterbury]

@@wofuljac No, you have to kill her and the other 2 crows in that mission. The necklace is from the first mission they show off in this video, in the suburban neighborhood.

[@wofuljac]

@@BadmanOfBanterbury oh yeah, been a while since i played it lol

[@Deliveredmean42]

I remember being impressed with the original hitman 1 (2000). Big maps with ragdoll physics and cloth simulation (with it being used a lot on the second map for the jungle environment like plants, and most prominent on Agent 47's tie). That game really made the most of it, and its good it persisted throughout the series.

[@ThisBirdHasFlown]

That is really impressive for 2000

[@Foggy_2806]

One of my favoutire games in the series, along with Silent Assassin.

[@klurikon3004]

My fav was Silent Assassin 👌

[@michaelabayomi]

Same here. The new one also looks pretty sweet though.

[@lordmaster2562]

Wtf cares what you think only fellow losers

[@Yerinjibbang]

@@lordmaster2562 chill lol

[@infinitysynthesis]

I liked Contracts but only for the mansion level.

[@FrozenSocks231]

the music in this game is phenomenal

[@replicant-1644]

The weapon selection wheel reminds me of Tomb Raider.

[@martingarciaarvidson6684]

You guys need to do a vid on chaos theory, that game had insane visuals for it's time.

[@poethefallen1333]

Facts

[@axayd]

Yeah the lighting is so good in that game.

[@xaero212]

isn't there one already?

[@Wilberbeest]

I love this series so much, you can't even imagine. Please put out more "time machine" videos, and also revisit some of your older era builds too!

[@dlbutters7164]

They are still doing the "friend and colleague" joke to this day! Now, that's dedication! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@VargVikernes1488]

What do you mean "a joke"? I thought they were friends!

[@dlbutters7164]

@@VargVikernes1488 It started a long time ago (many years now), when one of them referred to the other only as a "colleague" in one video, but, the same guy referred to another DF member as both "friend and colleague" in a different video... The many fans noticed it and constantly mentioned how sad, funny and weird it all sounded... Since then, they now refer to each other as both "friends and colleagues" as in an inside joke to appease the DF fans. 😂😂😂😂😂

[@greggski3710]

@@dlbutters7164 I think it was even worse, where Alex called John "a friend and colleague", but John denied saying they are just "colleagues". That was sad and cringeworthy.

[@vesselinkrastev]

@@dlbutters7164 Interesting. I've been watching the channel for year but I hadn't realized it started this way. I guess when they first started actually narrating over gameplay in videos, it was pretty awkward in general. I remember people didn't respond too well to the format of one guy asking about the other guy's findings about a game thoughtout a video.

[@ThisBirdHasFlown]

@@greggski3710 link?

[@ribas3814]

19:21 Dayum, Cyberpunk eat your heart out.

[@yeti4954]

Revisit the Max Payne games too!

[@conyo985]

I can't believe the Hitman franchise is 20 years old! I remember playing the first Hitman and I was amazed at the ragdoll physics. It was one of the first games that had ragdoll and that was back in 2000!

[@Spoggi99YT]

This game will always stay in my heart - one of the best games I've ever played!

[@phant0mdummy]

By today's standards this game still looks pretty decent. I'm surprised.

[@thejanrodrigo]

Lol yeah it's pretty good for 2006 game

[@mullinsjm1]

My uncle had a Q6600 running two 8800 ultras in sli back in the day. Crazy powerful then.

[@lordmaster2562]

Nobody cares about your life

[@100500daniel]

@@lordmaster2562 why are you so rude?

[@Budisgud69]

@@lordmaster2562 At least he has a life, unlike you.

[@16valveBravoSpoonz]

@@lordmaster2562 surely you didnt like your own comment ? ...

@@lordmaster2562 considering the average comments u post on this channel u may be a bit butthurt or a bad troll. Just try to not bother other ppl.

[@klurikon3004]

Used to play on my old toshiba laptop @800x600 res 😂

[@MacCanma]

I cant even count how many times I replayed this game with my friend.

[@SoycloudVTuber]

Best assassination stealth game of all time

[@furiogiunta295]

I personally would give that title to Contracts, but to each their own.

[@LightStormSun]

Yes, of cource.

[@TerraWare]

Metal Gear on the PS1 made me fall in love with stealth games as a little kid and when I played Splinter Cell on the OG Xbox I was completely blown away. It made me crave stealth and the Hitman games were some of best. Games were great back than. We used to get so many different games. Developers tried new things, they tried to outdo one another now we get a few big titles a year and most of them feel like the same thing over and over. Open World - Check Half assed Stealth Mechanics - Check RPG Mechanics - Check Cut Scenes - Check The Illusion of Player Choice - Check Hand Holding and Waypoints Everywhere - Check Thank goodness we have indies.

[@lordmaster2562]

Who cares what you feel😂

[@SoycloudVTuber]

@@lordmaster2562 Clearly you cared enough to reply to my comment

[@is5000]

Played it first on PS2 and I was really impressed with graphics.

[@raresmacovei8382]

It definitely was a technical powerhouse for the PS2.

[@WickedRibbon]

Walking out into that large crowd on PS2 was unreal. A graphical showcase for sure.

[@jc_dogen]

yep, they even used some multi pass trickery for normal mapping on ps2

[@vikramjadhav3631]

Even Hitman codename 47 (2000) had the cloth simulation and ragdoll physics

[@michaelabayomi]

Ah, sweet memories. I never did manage to beat the game during my original playthrough, so perhaps it is high time I give it another go.

[@RGBSF]

Yes, agree with John, Contracts is my favourite in the original run as well.

[@gilbertgotfried]

Contracts was really good, but it didn't have enough civilian missions for me to fall in love with it the way I fell for Blood Money. Between the two it all seems to depend on what kinds of hits you like doing more. I've heard people champion one or the other.

[@habadasheryjones]

I feel like I hear the least about Contracts of all the games when Hitman comes up. People are quick to call Silent Assassin or Blood Money their favorites, they'll have some reverence for Codename if they played it and they'll always say how disappointed they were in Absolution but I almost never hear how anyone feels about Contracts.

[@vimster]

My exact gaming PC setup in 2008. Looks really good.

[@mechiellouw3315]

Crowd density was quite impressive at the time. Still is. Great game

[@JohnnyWednesday]

I've played them all to death - Blood Money in my opinion? was easily the best of them all until the new ones. Absolution was way more technically impressive - had a lot more modern mechanics - but it totally lost the open ended aspect

[@mechiellouw3315]

@@JohnnyWednesday I need to get Hitman 3 as soon as possible. I think Absolution is a good game, but not a great Hitman game.

[@JohnnyWednesday]

@@kasperfauerby7389 - That's cool :) hey - I played Absolution to death and the engine completely blew me away. Yeah absolutely - the crowd mechanics were fantastic. I develop an engine myself and I love to pick apart mechanics like that. I could tell that there were two forms of AI at play but it didn't detract from those huge crowd scenes - still impressive now! The new installments? yeah first class - all the open world goodness of classic hitman but with all the atmosphere of Absolution - you all totally nailed it! Major respect :)

[@JohnnyWednesday]

​@@kasperfauerby7389 - Ah very nice! like a Kuroko springing to life only to have it taken away ;) Yes, Absolution had it all - and I totally get the uncharted style of storytelling that you aimed for - it worked! it really did - it was a fantastic action game, stealth game - it was as good or better in every genre it touched upon as any game of its era. I'm sure as a programmer you enjoy the 'assassin simulation' aspect - designing the kinds of behaviors that provide both emergent properties and challenges. I won't be so crude as to make suggestions or anything as much as I yern to ;) But I'm glad the depth is back - unlike certain Irish youtubers that attack everybody with bananas? I actually like planning the perfect hit ;)

[@richardtucker5938]

@@kasperfauerby7389 v interesting, You should be proud z absolution was a tech marvel on ps3, the shading and materials quality really brought out the Hitman in your minds eye. I can see how much systems and animations in that game influenced latest trilogy, for the better. I completed absolution and it was fun, but was a dissapointing Hitman game. Yet it contributed to the new trilogy so was not wasted. Thanks

[@FrankLeeYoung]

Alex should have brushed up a bit on this game before presenting it. I know it's a tech showcase, but the playthrough was painfully distracting lol

[@Normalbarn]

No

[@anlonning]

This game still looks and plays fantastically, and I love that the new games are sort of a meah between this and Absolution

[@phucnguyen0110]

Damn, my childhood is here again thanks to these videos. Thank you, DF!

[@Aristowi]

When an old game is well done all it needs is a boost in resolution/AA and framerate to feel and look amazing today. PS2 era remasters are evidence of how beautiful and fun those games are.

[@HHCHunterYTC]

Still more reliable than Hitman 3's online servers. fite me.

[@ekoms108]

I'm downloading Hitman 2 right now. Do you know if it's all the server for the Hitman Trilogy or just Hitman 3 (I assume they r all on the same servers).

[@gilbertgotfried]

@@ekoms108 Been playing Hitman 2's legacy missions for the past few days, which I think run on the same servers. I've got no problems.

[@davelutherable]

Amazing. Was just thinking about this last night, but I remembered it looking like the new Hitman in my head! Love these retro vids. Member I bought my 8800 GT for Crysis but this game ended up being just as memorable.

[@brandondilmore3777]

Ah, Blood Money brings me back :) This was awesome, thanks Alex + John!

[@veYda25]

i loved every game of this series. I remember the very first hitman, specifically the hungary hotel level which gave me a creative freedom of how to finish the mission like never seen before. good times :)

[@gz1842]

Oh boy i want more video like that, its really interesting when your working like me in 3D modeling scene and animation because you can see what the old gen dev were doing for optimisation and other things like pre bake shadows etc..

[@Philboh8]

A fellow fan of Hitman: Contracts (and 'Traditions of the Trade' specifically) nice. My fave soundtrack in gaming history

[@UnL1k3]

These videos are your best. I simply love them :)

[@caelrooney4021]

Lovely bit of Sunday nostalgia. Got this on release day for PC for under £20! The crowds were mindblowing at the time. Feels clumsy now but it was really the start of 47 being much more maneuverable in the levels. Agree with John though, Contracts is still the standout for me too.

[@TheBehelit]

Man, I love this channel.

[@donjames5761]

i love blood money for me its the best. these older games had better gameplay imo

[@kristianbeqiraj3340]

Ah yes the classic hitman gun: akimbo pistol

[@ThomasTrala]

This was my CPU/GPU setup back in the day, worked great for years until Rage came out then I finally felt CPU bottlenecks for the first time.

[@ElTequilla]

The 2011 id shooter right?

[@ThomasTrala]

@@ElTequilla Indeed!

[@maqui1814]

We need more videos from DF of them just casually playing games.

[@andrebrown1835]

Thank you for this amazing video!

[@boogeym4n256]

I've been waiting this video for 15 years. Finally

[@Matty_UK]

Regarding Jesper Kyd. In an interview he was asked why he didn't make the soundtracks to Hitman anymore. He said that IOI never asked him back and that he didn't know why. A recent IOI documentary showed that they really lost touch. The original Hitman developers left after Blood Money and a new team took over. They revealed that they made a Hitman game with get this, NO targets in it! A Hitman game with no targets in it and they thought it was a good idea. That's like making a FIFA game with no football in it. Then they put out Absolution, which took everything that made Hitman Hitman and chucked it out the window. So it sounds to me like a new team that didn't have much of a clue took the helm. And with this trilogy they said they tried to base it on Blood Money and Contracts. They still lack that magic of the old games though. Blood Money is one of the best games ever made. I still play it 16yrs on..👍

[@petermoller4610]

Anyone remember 8800GT launch? It was wild!!!! Scalpers had a field day!! Nothing changes...

[@Dadodaw]

Haven't even watched the video yet and I'm so excited, one of my all time favorite games.

[@pirony]

This was so fun to watch

[@billy9506]

Fact: This was still my set up untill about 2 years ago.

[@griffgames9538]

During this era I was rocking x2 7800 in SLI (watercooled with an old school pump system precariously passing water through aquarium-like tubes over all components) with an overclocked intel 8500 dual core at 3.6Ghz I think. I must say, for a couple years it was quite the beast. What was that, 2006-2007 maybe? Crazy. 13 or 14 years ago. (/grabs cane, yells at kids to get off lawn😊).

[@sjdjdr]

I had a q6600 coupled with a 8600gt , Served me well 😍

[@Gowst99]

@0:25. I thought you were Alex 😂

[@Gowst99]

@@G.Freeman92 First name Digital

[@revansgc]

I agree with the comment on the hotel mission in Contracts. I loved that level so much; I must've replayed that part 100 times.

[@12qasdz]

love this game. great video lads

[@DannyRampage]

My favorite part of this is that I had this exact setup back in the day when I played Blood Money.

[@DarkJedireaper]

I loved his work on Freedom Fighters!

[@MrSamPhoenix]

The Q6600 was the very first CPU I bought. & I had an improved GPU with the 9800GTX+. Ahh the days

[@darkowl9]

Blood Money had some of the best accidental deaths that I'm not sure even the devs intended. The "A New Life" 30 second run where you use the FBI to run over the target is just genius.

[@epilef120]

Loved the video! The only thing I think I'd liked to see is this game at max graphics, just showing how well it can run today. This was a great video, loved the talk, specially Alex reaction to the crowd.

[@pleasedontwatchthese9593]

I like these Q6600 with 8800GT videos. THat was like my first gaming setup.

[@BankstonSkooma]

6:04 OK Enough with this levity

[@josedeleon1923]

The Shamal Hotel mission has always been my favorite. The atmosphere is just perfect and the ways you can take down the objectives are not the most entertaining but the timing makes it fun and "fast" to play.

[@SteelSkin667]

What I'm wondering is, is this based on the PS2 or on the Xbox 360 version? During the transition from sixth to seventh gen consoles, there was a tendency for PC ports to be use last-gen assets, presumably to lower the required specs. Tomb Raider Anniversary comes to mind.

[@dimaz3]

Xbox 360

[@gilbertgotfried]

Blood Money is and will remain to be my favorite Hitman game. It wasn't even my first. Hitman 2 was my first. Blood Money just did everything right, from the hits themselves, to the newspaper articles showing you how you revealed yourself, to the little details that let you piece together the motivations of the people who hired you without Diana straight up telling you. It also has one of the best endings for a video game, period.

[@PikaStu666]

Nice. I loved this game on 360 and I have a spare q6600 kicking about with a 9600GT, my old gaming machine from the days of Crysis. Definitely worth revisiting this...

[@brunonavarro5681]

Oh Man, DF Retro is great. You guys should do more of them, explaining the old technologies. I think Resident Evil remake would do a interesting video with the way that background images are rendered, especially now that RE Village is bringing that felling back.

[@sergius8495]

Perfect video now that Hitman 3 is out :D

[@ToTheNines87368]

I’ve really been loving these retrospectives from Alex. Though It wouldn’t hurt him to be a little more prepared. Both in this and Riddick he doesn’t seem to know what to do objective wise, which hurts the pacing a bit.

[@Laykun9000]

This game, despite Gears of War being out, looked really good on PC back in the day, I remember being blown away by how good it looked and how well it played.

[@Trigger.444]

(29:48) Enemies' one-handed shooting stance is very... unorthodox. lol

[@n64fan60]

Had this exact setup back in the day with 4gb ram. Was a beast in 2005

[@monocore]

"specularity" doesn't need a normal map. Just a mask for the spec.

[@fplgregfrost]

My Q6600 was the first time I owned a PC that didn't feel shit and slow :-)

[@SolarisUK]

I had the exact same setup 8800gt and the q6600 was a great overclocking cpu as well.

[@LISTEDGames]

Jesper Kyd made this game so much better!

[@GameplayUnboxed]

I think the camera gadget in hitman 3 is actually an asset of their upcoming OO7 game..

[@pobbityboppity1110]

I was never able to figure out the old Hitman games (they were pretty hard) but I was always impressed with the tech and scope.

[@CrazyLegsFE]

I love the time machine series!

[@selnor1983]

I love these. I'd like to see you do some other older console games to. Like the legendary Zelda OTT on N64, or the original Gears on 360.

[@maddycarbuncle7567]

Pouring one out for my 8800GTS machine that finally died this year, when I tried to upgrade the C2D E4400 with a Penryn CPU by mistake (my motherboard wasn't compatible, but it took me a LONG time to find documentation to verify compatibility! Paid the price for impatience)

[@hkoizumi3134]

I remember this vividly... 2007 was a time of limbo for PC. It wasnt as popular as today. Instead, we had more people on PC who grew up with it. So the lobbies and other multiplayer games were filled mostly with Europeans and few Americans. I got myself a new flat panel LCD screen then. It was my first flat ones. I dont remember the brand but my God the color vibrance was amazing. The screen was shiny rather than dull. The only issue I had it was the glare. Otherwise it was one of the best monitors I've owned. I used to play Hit Man with it constantly on my Dell XPS system. I believe it was AMD Athlon X2 Black Edition with ATI 4850. I soon upgraded to 7790 years later.

[@JOTIXOXO]

More videos like this please!

[@redrooster303]

Love listening to these guys. Remember the good old days too. Gameplay triggers me though haha. No biggie though I suppose.

[@horemorkoriku]

You should do a retro video on James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing. That game was awesome, even staring Pierce Brosnan. Made with ID tech 3 and Sean Callery as a composer. This was basically the only game made from a movie license that I actually enjoyed.

[@zukaryo]

We need Jesper Kyd back for newer Hitman... His work is amazing I would also love a remake for Hitman 1 (Codename 47) to 4 (Blood Money) with the current graphic engine they're using with the reboot and maybe some gameplay improvements

[@ScottCastle]

this game blew my mind when I first played it on PS2 in 2008

[@retractingblinds]

6:20 We first saw those kinds of cloth dynamics on the PS2 with ICO and Shadow of the Colossus :)

[@griffgames9538]

*The first time I was blown away by dynamic ragdolls* and spent a lot of time morbidly stacking bodies, tossing them down hillsides, onto roofs, etc. was the original Far Cry (PC Crytek/Ubisoft). They weren't perfect, still spazzed out, but they had better/more realistic range limits to limb positions etc. than prior ragdoll corpses in other games.

[@edgardosarmiento7755]

Good game 2021 and im still playing it

[@turrican4d599]

I only had the demo for the Xbox 360, but I loved poisening the secretary.

[@NicolasSilvaVasault]

god i miss the original tetralogy, don't get me wrong, the reboot is super fun and it looks gorgeous, but the original games are on a whole nother level, ps: thank you john for pointing out the soundtrack, is such an important part of the series that completely fails in the reboot, hitman was suppose to be a dark game, you're a freaking assassin, not an agent trying to sabotage the villain's plan

[@railpao]

Aahh yes, the hotel mission in Contracts, this very mission is the reason why I install this game from time to time. But my favourite still is Hitman 2 Silent Assassin, the very first mission, the music, it's just perfect.

[@ArreatPLvro]

I really like old school pc videos because I built PC in that era. 2 core Exxxx Intel cpu and radeon 4870. Upgraded it to the q6600 and 7870 - that pc served me well up until The Witcher 3 patch 1. 05 :)

[@jippalippa]

I played it on an AGP 6600GT. I loved that GPU