The release of last year's Hitman 3 has shown that the established spy capers of one Agent 47 can still make an impact in this modern gaming era. Beginning life more than 20 years ago, IO Interactive's stealth series has gone on to become one of the best espionage game franchises ever, alongside the likes of Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid. Given its popularity, there's been talk about this latest entry having a graphical upgrade, which will be happening very soon.According to a recent tweet from developer IO, Hitman 3 will soon be supporting ray tracing capabilities, as well as Nvidia's DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, upscaling technology. The update will be rolling out for PC players on May 24. While already a pretty stunning looking game, this next phase aims to improve the overall visuals and is a common upgrade that gets implemented in many modern AAA and even some indie titles.Games like Call of Duty and Cyberpunk 2077 utilize ray tracing, specifically Nvidia's RTX software, with the intended outcome being higher quality graphics and more realistic lighting and shadows. It's even been used in retro games like Doom and Quake 2, showing that it has the power to give some "oomph" to much older titles that have become dated over the years. Some may not automatically see the advantages of ray tracing because, at a cursory glance, it doesn't always appear to make a huge difference. However, many graphical purists out there want more bang for their buck, and things like RTX and AI upscaling are the way to go, it seems.
On top of ray tracing, Hitman 3 is also due to get Intel's XeSS, which is the tech giant's own equivalent of the aforementioned DLSS from Nvidia. Team blue has yet to release the desktop variants of its long-awaited Arc graphics cards, but when it does, it means that Hitman players will be able to enjoy a boost to the game's resolution and lighting without having to use an RTX-specific GPU.
Hitman 3 is considered one of the best in the series overall, currently showing a score of 87 on Metacritic across multiple platforms. There was some controversy earlier this year when the game was review bombed due to fans being unhappy with exclusivity and pricing decisions. That all seems to have passed now, and those who enjoy the game will get to experience it with slightly tweaked graphics come next Tuesday.
Hitman 3 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.