hitman

Russ Frushtick from The Verge's Polygon gaming Zord joins us today for a preview of what's to come at next week's Electronic Gaming Expo.

Jeff and Russ will both be there to cover the show, and while casual gamers may still lament the lack of hardware announcements this year, there are still plenty of highly anticipated games to get their hands on, including "The Last of Us," "The Last Guardian," and the new "Tomb Raider."… Read more

A spin-off of the original Contract Killer hit, Contract Killer: Zombies ups the ante by dropping you smack dab in the middle of an undead apocalypse. Fans of the original hit should recognize both the format of the game and the interface.

For those unfamiliar with the original, its controls are simple. Contract Killer is a first-person shooter. You swipe around the screen to look for zombies and set your sights, and tap the fire button to trigger your firearm. There's also a quick-switch button that allows you to swap between your primary and secondary weapons.

The structure of … Read more

Contract Killer puts you in the shoes of a master sniper for hire. Work your contacts, look for missions, and complete hits in order to gain new weapons, experience points, and money. Become a good enough killer, and you might be able to climb your way to the top of the underworld ladder.

Sniping is simple. Just tap and drag around the scene to find your target. Once you find him, tap the scope button to zoom in, drag around to adjust your crosshairs, and fire away. Aim for the head for an instant kill. But watch out, because crime … Read more

If you are one of the millions of people who now bank and shop online, you need an extra layer of protection to ensure that your online activities are safe and secure. Available only through CNET's Download.com, Zemana Antilogger and Hitman Pro bundle prevents keyloggers and hackers from getting access to your PC, keeping you safe, secure, and free of worry as you surf the Internet.

Zemana Antilogger is an easy-to-use antihacker application that is complementary to your existing antivirus software. It is designed to improve your security and provide protection against the latest zero-day spyware, rootkits, Trojans, … Read more

Some things require explanation. Some merely leap into the mind and boggle it.

Such is the effect of the circumstances surrounding the arrest yesterday of Marissa Mark of Jersey City, N.J.

Mark, 28, is accused of hiring a hitman to kill a woman five years ago when Mark was living in Allentown, Pa. The reasons Mark allegedly wanted the woman dead aren't exactly clear, but a man's love--or a lack thereof--may have something to do with it.

Yet Mark's case is made far stranger in that she stands accused of turning to Hireahitman.net.

Perhaps you … Read more

Having had two separate eBay auctions to sell his rare Xbox Live gamertag yanked off the site for apparent terms of service violations, a New York State man is now moving his business to Craigslist.

Earlier this week, as first reported here, Chris Graziano had put his gamertag, "Hitman," up for auction on eBay. Graziano, a student at SUNY New Paltz, had been hoping to capitalize on the rarity of the moniker to score a big payday, and indeed, in the hours after his auction went up, more than $500 was bid for the gamertag.

"Don't … Read more

If you're the kind of video game player who likes to spend hours in shooters like Call of Duty or Halo and you want to instantly pick up some serious street cred, what better Xbox Live gamertag than "Hitman" could you get?

To date, of course, the best you could do would be something like "Hitman238" or "xxHitman42." That's because "Hitman" itself was snagged back in the summer of 2002, during the beta phase of Xbox Live, by a then 16-year-old named Chris Graziano.

But now, Graziano, 22 and a student at SUNY New Paltz, has decided to sell Hitman, and has put it up for auction on eBay. He is hoping someone out there will plunk down big bucks for the right to shoot their way through the most popular war games while sporting such an obviously old-school gamertag.

"Don't bid on this item if you don't want to be the center of attention of every game lobby you're in," Graziano wrote on the eBay ad. "You'll regularly hear comments of 'You're the original Hitman?' and 'Wow, how did you get that gamertag?!'"

It's too early to tell how much money the Hitman name might bring in the end, as the auction doesn't end until February 19 and as of this writing, the high bid is $49.99. But Graziano said he was inspired to sell the account by another auction he'd seen not too long ago in which a player sold a gamertag with a very high gamerscore--the measure of how many achievements someone has earned in Xbox Live--for thousands of dollars. … Read more