At E3 this year, THQ showed an impressive, if somewhat unrepresentative, demo of Metro: First Light. Instead of showing the game as it will play, they created an all-action sequence that shows off quite how remarkable the engine is. Rather than offering slow, spooky the atmosphere you’ll really be playing in. The first part of that video, broken up into three chunks for maximum annoyance, is below.
The trailer shows off how you can manipulate the environment to your advantage, bringing darkness to areas infected by light.
2K Games pushes Digital Extremes’ sci-fi FPS to next year on all platforms; game will be playable at Comic-Con 2011 this week.
It looks as if The Darkness II will stay cloaked in shadow for longer than expected. 2K Games confirmed for GameSpot today that it has pushed The Darkness II beyond its previously announced October 4 release date. The publisher now expects to release the Digital Extremes-developed title for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 7 in North America and February 10 internationally.
The Darkness II will pick up several years after the events of the well-regarded original, with players once again taking the role of Jackie Estacado, now the don of the Franchetti clan. While he has controlled the chaotic powers inside him since the events of the first game, a reasonless attempt on his life kick-starts a full-on mob war in New York, a perfect situation for the Darkness to reemerge.
While the original Darkness game was made by Starbreeze Studios (The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay), development for the second installment has been entrusted to Digital Extremes. The Canadian studio is perhaps best known for 2008′s third-person action game Dark Sector, but it has more recently been working on the PC port of THQ’s Homefront, as well as the multiplayer mode of 2K Marin’s BioShock 2.
Along with news of the delay, 2K Games confirmed The Darkness II’s presence at Comic-Con 2011, which descends on San Diego July 21-24. The publisher will be hosting a panel for the game on July 21 at 12:00 p.m., and it will feature voice actor and Faith No More singer Mike Patton. Talent from franchise creator Top Cow Productions, as well as Digital Extremes, will also be on hand.
Warhammer 40,000 has had its share of good video games, and bad video games. THQ’s Warhammer 40K: Kill Team arrives onto Xbox Live Arcade in an attempt to add itself to the “good pile”. Does it succeed? Take a look and decide for yourself.
“Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team – Gameplay Movie” was posted by Ando on Tues, 19 Jul 2011
Metro: Last Light is an upcoming action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements.
The game is set in 2034 in the same setting as Metro 2033, the Moscow Metro. The game picks up after the “bad” ending from Metro 2033, in which Artyom delivers a devastating attack on the mysterious supernatural race known as the Dark Ones. The station-cities of the Metro struggle for power using weapons found in D6. The player follows Artyom, the main protagonist from Metro 2033, as the supposed “key to survival – the last light in our darkest hour…”
When the apocalypse comes, there will be worse things than radioactive clouds or gnashing zombies.
In Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, the banner of doom is being carried by thousands of gigantic bugs that no can of repellent can hope to deal with. But if total annihilation is inevitable, you might as well enjoy your final hours. Over-the-top destruction is the focal point of this lighthearted shooter, and there’s an undeniable thrill in blasting overgrown ants with your grenades, plowing through abominable spiders while in a tank, or just toppling buildings on a whim. There’s little need for strategy when you can just blast everything that moves, so it’s a matter of readying your aim and unleashing holy hell.
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon has lots of explosions and destruction, but not quite enough variety to keep things moving.
German computer-games investigators Gamestar got a chance to talk to EA’s Patrick Söderlund, and you can see that interview embedded below. It covers a number of issues, but most tellingly reveals that DICE have no current plans to produce modding tools for the game. Söderlund claims that that modding would be “very difficult” due to the complexity of the levels and features like destruction.
Ah, yes. The modding community: famously confounded by complexity and difficulty, only able to get their heads around the simplest of game technologies… But seriously, not producing modding tools is surely going to be a commercial decision, and I almost wish that were the reason given.
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the upcoming Saints Row sequel but up until now there have been no actual gameplay videos.
Well, that’s all changed now as this developer commentary blows the lid on all the ridiculous stuff you can get upto in this over-the-top sandbox shooter.
“Saints Row: The Third Gameplay Trailer” was posted by Andrew Tagg on Mon, 04 Jul 2011
Valve president and cofounder Gabe Newell tells Games for Change Festival audience that the recently released platformer has already gone triple platinum.
Earlier this week, the Games for Change Festival kicked off with
a keynote address from former Vice President Al Gore. Today, the New York-based event was the scene of a speech from another executive–Gabe Newell, president and cofounder of Valve Corporation.
According to gaming blog Joystiq, Newell used his speech to announce a major sales milestone for the critical darling Portal 2. Since its launch on April 19, the game has “sold” 3 million units, Newell reportedly said. He did not specify whether that figure referred to sold-in (that is, shipped) copies or represented games sold through to consumers.
Newell didn’t say whether the figure included sales on Steam, Valve’s online distribution platform for the PC and Mac. He also declined to clarify whether that figure included cumulative sales on all the platforms Portal 2 was released on–the PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
As of press time, Valve reps had offered no official confirmation of Newell’s comments.
Portal 2 has reached its sales milestone far faster than its predecessor, Portal. On the day its sequel launched, Valve confirmed to GameSpot that the original game had sold over 4 million units since its launch in October 2007. That figure did not include Steam sales of Portal, but it did include sales of the compilation The Orange Box, which included Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, and the latter shooter’s first two expansions.
