Lately all our console playing friends have been telling us about this 'Hitman Sniper Challenge' thing on the tellybox. We of course affected an air of practiced disdain at their preposterous claims that a game not on PC could be good. But now it's on PC. So it must be good. QED.



Sniper Challenge is a promotional game for Hitman Absolution, those who score highly at shooting men in the head will earn prizes. Not achievements you understand, real, physical prizes like iPads and Sennheiser headphones, which are being given away monthly to the top scorers.



But wait! There's more. Whoever eventually shoots best will be invited to the Golden Joysticks award ceremony, where they will be crowned 'The UK's Ultimate Assassin'. If I know my hollywood movies right, that coronation usually takes the form of an elaborate double cross in which hordes of disposable goons are sent to kill the assassin while they protect a small child/token love interest. So good fun all around. The winner will also appear in a future Hitman game. Letting you can brutally murder them in revenge for beating you to the goodies.



All the details can be found on the Hitman Sniper Challenge website. To enter, you'll first need to pre-order Hitman: Asbolution, then you'll get a code which you can enter into the website to download your headshot simulator. A whole extra game that gives away free prizes? That's the kind of pre-order bonus I can get behind.