Returning to Darksiders II [official site] nearly five years after I first reviewed it, for a worrying time I wondered what on Earth I'd been on about. I remember absolutely loving the game, and writing a rave review back in 2012, so why was I struggling to even want to carry on in the first hour? It turns out, it just has a really dull first hour, because ten hours in I'm so utterly engrossed, and want to rave about it all over again.
]]>Opinion is divided over the Darksiders games. There are those who wrongly don't like them, while far better looking people recognise what a tip-top third-person action-adventure biff-me-do they truly are. And right now they're 90% off on Steam. I'm not usually one to make a post because a single game is having a sale, but bloody hell, £4.50 for both of them?!
]]>Can even the Four Horsemen survive an apocalyptic event? Nordic Games hope so. When THQ went down in flames, Nordic bought up Darksiders - but not its creators, Vigil Games - and (naturally) declared that the hack 'n' slash action-RPG was not dead. While some assumed this would mean a Darksiders III, Nordic were a little vague, and the first we saw of DS again was the revamped Deathinitive Edition of Darksiders II - which hit PC last week. Worry not, they do indeed want to make a third game, and hope this re-release will help them with that.
]]>The 'Deathinitive Edition' of Darksiders II [official site] will ride onto PC tomorrow, publishers Nordic Games have announced at awfully short notice. It took them ages to even quietly confirm a PC version of the open-world hacking-and-slashing action-RPG's revamp and now boom, here, it's out tomorrow. (John really dug its original release in 2012.) Expect improved graphics, a rebalancing, and a fair bit of confusion over whether current DS2 owners will receive it as an update or not.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Ooh, I like me some Darksiders II [official site]. Yet another tragic victim of the collapse of THQ, the prospects of a third game in the series seem ever-far away, with current owners Nordic Games still saying such a thing is yet to start. But with a remake of the game coming up later this year, now couldn't possibly be a worse time to recommend it to you.
]]>The ghost of THQ is still with us today as some of the publisher’s greatest hits find new life on GOG. Deep Silver and Nordic Games, who bought the rights after THQ's demise, have released Saints Row 2 + 3, Darksiders 1 + 2 and Metro: Last Light Redux on the digital store, all at a discounted price until May 18th.
This is the first time any of these games have been made available completely DRM free.
]]>A couple of weeks ago, a roguelike which uses the Banner Saga engine to create a rather attractive post-apocalyptic cocktail of FTL, The Oregon Trail and XCOM popped up on Kickstarter. Bedlam's around $90k into its $130k goal, with just eight days left on the clock. I've had a chat with the devs, who include veterans of Darksiders studio Vigil, about what they're aiming for with the game, what the Banner Saga engine enables them to do, what they've changed about it, and the 80s/90s comics visual influences for this game of desert bandits and desert death-buses. Also - what about that other game called Bedlam?
]]>THQ is the Living One; it was dead, and now look, it is alive for ever and ever! And it holds the keys of Darksiders and Red Faction. Like X-Men, big games publishers never truly die. There'll always be a businessperson somewhere willing to invest a few hundred thousand bucks that might otherwise go to the taxman in picking up the name of a company that fell in the great gaming profit wars. Someone keeps stitching Atari's dessicated face to some Frankenstein creature or another, the re-animator recently pumped his necrotic formula into 3D Realms and now the recently-departed THQ has been exhumed. Wielding the grave-digger's shovel are Nordic Games, who'd previously done similar with the defunct JoWood and Dreamcatcher brands.
]]>Update: Confirmation/statement from Nordic Games below. The short version? "We can and will not settle for second-best solutions in the case of Darksiders."
Original: Things were not looking so great for, er, Death for a little bit there. THQ had a run-in with its own sort of reaper, and the Darksiders license sat in limbo seemingly unwanted for ages. That is, until Nordic Games scooped it up along with roughly one trillion other pieces of THQ's flaming wreckage. But it's not like the Painkiller: Hell & Damnation publisher can just churn out sequels to everything from Red Faction to Supreme Commander. You'd figure, then, that Darksiders is probably stuck on the sidelines - not pushing up daisies, but not pushing blocks or scything occult beasties either. Former series creative director Joe Madureira, however, claims we might not have to wait long to see something new after all.
]]>Update: Helpfully, reader and probable Prince of Handsomeness The JG Man dug up the court form outlining details (including amounts, back-up bidders, etc) of each sale. You can peruse that here.
Original: Well, I suppose it was inevitable. After THQ's attempt at averting a Humpty Dumpty sales situation failed miserably, the writing was pretty much on the wall. So now the grim reaper's scythe has hacked the once-gargantuan publisher into itsy-bitsy pieces and scattered any remaining ashes to the winds. On the upside, pretty much every major THQ franchise and developer (minus Darksiders dev Vigil, sadly) landed safely in less-likely-to-kerplode homes. Also, Relic and Creative Assembly live under the same roof now. Can Company of Shoguns: Total Homeworld or some other dream team RTS be far off? Probably. It's still kind of a silver lining, though, and anyway SHUT UP I'M SAD.
]]>THQ, if you didn't know (hint: you did), is in some rather deep water. Not only has it opted to delay a whole mess of games in the wake of Darksiders II's not-quite-megaton splash, it's also in a teensy bit of debt. By which I of course mean $50 million - using "teensy bit" as a term relative to all the money ever printed in the whole of human history. But things may not be quite as dire as they seem. Sure, another high-level exec - this time CFO Paul Pucino - has decided to skedaddle, but apparently someone with a fair deal of monetary sway might very well have THQ's rapidly breaking back.
]]>Non-Americans, you can finally play Darksiders II. While we've no idea why at least the UK release was mysteriously delayed by a full week, other than THQ's apparent absolute determination to spew money away at every opportunity, it remains a game that's absolutely worth your pennies. To read my review of it, head yourself over here. Spoiler: I liked it a lot.
]]>To hear John tell it, Darksiders II is a wondrous thing - a Frankenstein chimera of other games' best bits, but infused with its own unique spirit and rippling apocalypse biceps. But, shockingly enough, all is not well in the land of War, Death, Strife, and Fury. The PC port's been decried as incredibly barebones - with nearly non-existent graphics options, lousy menus, and the occasional irritating glitch composing its emaciated frame. To Vigil's credit, however, it's incredibly sorry about Death's wardrobe malfunction at his big bash, and - at the very, very least - it's trying to patch up the missing bits.
]]>The original Darksiders managed to frustrate us. But that was two years ago, and it's a fresh start. And no suspense here: the sequel is absolutely fantastic. I've been playing Darksiders II in every waking hour for days, and can now tell you Wot I Think.
]]>Hey everyone, it's Death! You remember, Death, right? I could've sworn you two met at some point. Ah well, he's really great. Here, here, both of you grab a drink and sit down. Now then, let me tell you about this guy. Oh, sure, he acts like a half-clothed embodiment of humanity's inevitable end with the physique of a mountain (that has great abs) and a demeanor made of solid ice (that also has great abs), but really, he's just a big old softy. I mean, he's hacking through the armies of hell to prove that his poor lug of a brother, War, didn't kick off the apocalypse. Isn't that just the nicest thing you've ever heard? He has such a way with words, too. Watch as he strings together both horrifyingly vicious combos and sublimely melodious language after the break.
]]>At a recent event in Dublin I got the chance to play the first few hours of the apocalyptic action-adventure, Darksiders II. It's not really important that it was in Dublin, but it adds flavour. You can now imagine the Liffey drifting slowly by as I got all wrapped up in the first few moments of Death's adventure. An adventure I realised was rather derivative, but also that there's nothing wrong with that.
]]>Whatever gripes a lowly hack like Jim Rossignol might have thrown at the original Darksiders game, there was no denying that it was spectacular and handsome. That hasn't changed for the next game, the cleverly titled Darksiders II, which casts its web of hypnotic fantasy violence our way in a two minute slice of (mostly) in-game footage, below. I really do like a) the classically demonic demon, and b) that giant stone bastard at the end. Yeah, that's the stuff.
]]>THQ's tightrope dance-battle against Death while suspended over an active volcano continues. In short, THQ's doing better than expected, but it still lost another $50 million last quarter. So then, what's the forecast for the company that already took a chainsaw blade to Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium's massively multiplayer bits? Well, there are some ups and downs to be sure. Mostly, though, we're looking at an ugly, undifferentiated heap of questions.
]]>I bet it's lonely being Death incarnate. Like, people generally thank, say, firemen, police officers, and bloodthirsty mercenaries for their work. Cookie baskets, hugs, and free puppies are all pretty much par for the course. But Death? His only friend is the world's smallest violin. Perhaps, though, Darksiders II will show people his more sensitive side. Maybe his cold, black heart beats to the rhythm of a soulful acoustic guitar ballad. Unfortunately, THQ's announced that the absurdly muscular embodiment of our mortality will have to live with his crippling depression for a couple extra months.
]]>I took to the role of Death with great aplomb when I played Darksiders II recently and later that same day I had the chance to speak with game director Marvin Donald. Although we didn't question the nature of Death in an existential fashion, we did discuss how he feels about his game being compared to The Legend of Zelda, the stranger worlds through which Death walks, whether this will be a four game series and how much we both like collecting loot.
]]>I didn’t play Darksiders until its PC release, which meant I’d already heard a million people compare it to Zelda and God of War. What a pleasant surprise to play the game and find that it had character of its own and kept rewarding me with new toys throughout its substantial and entertainingly silly story. Sitting down to play the sequel I thought it would just be more of the same. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
]]>I'm so tired this morning that if horseman Death came charged toward me, I'd limply reach out a hand to touch his scythe and embrace the sweet, sweet sleep that awaits. But fortunately he's fictional, and I'll wake up soon. He is, however, to feature in Darksiders II, and if you needed more proof than my word, there are screenshots of said game below. They're new, and they've got big, cross monsters in them.
]]>Darksiders II was also revealed at the ridiculous VGA Spike thing. THQ's sequel to, well, Darksiders, has been quiet since July, when we took a look at it. But it was waiting for the annual fartfest to reveal itself a new teaser trailer, and indeed its release date. Which will be, oh, "Summer 2012". Well, it's better than "TBA".
]]>Death, the second horseman (and hoarse man) of the Apocalypse is locked in battle with an enormous beetle. Deftly rolling out of the way of its charge attack with an agility never showcased by War in the first game, Death promptly delivers a series of all-business, blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em slashes with his scythe. And what should come tumbling out from the beetle? Viscous, nightshade-coloured ichor? No. Numbers. For Darksiders 2, Vigil are taking the first game’s paltry handful of RPG elements and pushing them as hard as they can.
]]>Jim posted this yesterday, assuming it was a leak and that it would be pulled down quickly. He was right on both counts, the smooth little genius, but now the same trailer's been officially released and awaits you below. Seeing as this is a video of a video game you might possibly play down the line, in watching this trailer you are, essentially, gazing into your own future. You ever think of it like that?
]]>First there was ultra-bombastic supernatural sword-swinger Darksiders, and now there is two of it. The sequel, which was announced earlier this week, will features a different horseman of the apocalypse as its main protagonist - Death instead of War - and you can see a little of him in action below. I'm afraid the linked trailer quality for this one is in Super(bad) Grain-o-vision, as if filmed from a TV set in the 1980s, but I'll try and update it with something a bit better if I manage to dig it out. EDIT: New vid up. Presumably it's a leak of some kind, so go take a look before it gets zapped.
Did you play Darksiders? THQ's hack-n-slashing action-them-to-bits had a nine month delay before its release on PC, which always subdues the reaction somewhat. When Jim got hold of it last September he was having a lovely time, right up until a dumb boss fight at the end of a long walk and unskippable cutscene kept splatting him with cars. But until that point it was offering lots of fighty-fun. So perhaps a sequel will provide a more refined pathway to an ending?
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