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Finally finished the third mission, the one I started yesterday. That’s two evenings play it’s taken me.

I had a great idea of catching my two targets in an explosion, but it kept only killing one of them. The survivor would then go and sit in a car in fulll view of about eight guards, meaning that killing him was impossible. Eventually I just had to run to where the targets were when I’d saved, gun them down and then run out of the level.

Got a mass murderer rating from that level, not quite the silent assassin that I was hoping to be. Oh well, job done, however messy.

Only having two save points per level is a bugger when you get them. That level seemed to take ages to do, but the total time (not including reloads after deaths) was only twenty minutes. A few hours actually including those retries, of course.

Phew. Maybe I should have swallowed my pride and played on Normal difficulty, but I don’t want the game to be easier, I want to be better.

I started it again tonight, this time on Expert difficulty, when I noticed it was on the backwards compatibility list. Plays fine on the 360, though there is some very slight graphical glitching here and there. Very, very slight.

I’m currently having a very, very hard time doing The Bjarkhov Bomb mission after a really, really sloppy Meat King’s Party. Can I find a radiation suit? Can I fuck. (Though my Asylum Escape was textbook.)

And I’m glad nobody reads this diary, because I noticed tonight that Contracts does have a suspicion meter. A big one, right next to health meter. Yes, it has one of those things I was praising Blood Money for introducing. I’m an idiot. Like I said, I’m glad nobody reads this. This is where I write the stuff I assume nobody wants to read – but it’s stuff I somehow have an insane need to make public record. The Internet does weird things to a man sometimes.

For no reason at all I decided to stop playing on Normal difficulty and restart the game on Professional difficulty, the highest setting. Well, I say for no reason, but it’s because I was annoyed about being able to get away with too much. It’s too easy on Normal to start blowing people away when things go wrong. On Professional, if a gun fight starts then I’m basically dead. Much better.

There’s also less information on the map – which I like – and no mid-level saves, which I’m not too keen on. But as things tend to go differently each time I play a mission, it’s not so bad.

I did the first level after a few goes. Had to kill a few cops, but I did it. The second mission – The Meat King’s Party – took a lot longer. I almost did it cleanly, though. I would have done, too, if Sturrock hadn’t been too fat to strange. I had to run off and find a knife, all the while listening to him shout for his guards. Good thing he’s too fat to move, really. The other two targets I took care of very quietly, though.

I nearly got out all right, too, but the guards decided I was suspicious as I left, so I had to run through the last few rooms. Still got a Professional rating for it, though. I’m proud of myself. Though whether I should be proud of being a very good killer is another matter. Given how many times I died before getting it right, I don’t think I’ll be changing career paths soon, though. Being a programmer is a much safer occupation.

The game’s not without oddities. Sometimes the enemy AI seems to fall apart and I’m surprised none of the people searching me cared that I had a severed arm under my jacket, but it’s generally all works well.

I’m really looking forward to Blood Money now, as it should refine everything.