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Hitman: Absolution to include full Steamworks integration and Steam Cloud saves. Io on the PC: “games should look as awesome as possible.”

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Io, the developers of Hitman: Absolution, have revealed the extra effort that is going into the the PC version of their assassination sim. The game is receiving extra graphical features, but will also include a special focus on user interface, a specialised keyboard and mouse controls and an optimised PC interface.

During the presentation, Jonas Meyer from Ioexplained that the PC version of the Glacier engine that powers Hitman preceded development of the console version. It was built as a DirectX 10 game, with the assumption that “the consoles would be able to run it.” When the final specs of the current gen consoles arrived, Io had to have a rethink. They just weren’t powerful enough.
But while the developers worked to optimise the console version, they found new overhead for extra graphical features. As Jonas put it, “games should look as awesome as possible. And we never stopped developing for PC.”
Graphical features that have been added for the PC DirectX 11 version include emissive lighting, real-time reflections, post-filters including depth of field and bokeh. There’ll also be support for 3D via AMD’s HD3D. And if you want multi-monitor support, Hitman will be supporting AMD’s Eyefinity.
Throughout the presentation, Io reaffirmed their commitment to creating a game that pushes high-end PCs as far as they can go. But, they added, that the work in optimising the Glacier for the consoles helped in optimising the game for low-end systems.

Can you run it? Check the Hitman Absolution system requirements at PCGameBenchmark.