10 MORE Video Games You Didn't Know Were Connected

5. Hitman/Kane & Lynch

Though the Kane and Lynch franchise came and went without much fanfare about a decade ago, that didn't stop IO Interactive giving the characters a fleeting, final farewell in 2012's Hitman: Absolution.

Its predecessor, 2006's Hitman: Blood Money, featured a newspaper clipping alluding to the demented duo's crime spree over a year before the first Kane and Lynch even came out.

Absolution meanwhile opted to give them a sneaky cameo outright, with the player able to find Lynch hanging out at a bar and later a prison, while Kane can be found letting off some steam at a firing range.

But the best part of all? You're actually able to kill them both, effectively giving the characters a suitably violent ending after the series was canned due to the second game's commercial failure.