The image below circling the net, originally posted by IGN gives us most the information we need I’d say. Slated for November 13 this year, Activision is supposed to release more details on or around May 1.

Can you believe it? April’s almost over. A week from now we’ll be geeksplashing movie screens across the country as we watch The Avengers release the Power of Whedon all over Loki and his hideous aliens. Well, most of us will be. Some of us watched it last night (or last week) and the rest of us hate you for it. For me, this movie is sort of opening a gateway to a summer of lunacy. The next week I’ll be enjoying a vacation that I’ve literally been planning for over ten years. Between May 4th and the end of August I think I have some kind of plan for every weekend. But you don’t care about my busy (but incredibly fun) schedule. You care about gaming news, so let’s get to it:

Have you ever seen the company’s name spelled as Micro$oft? Of course you have. Especially by trolling Sony fanboys. It’s an unnecessary dig at a company for doing what it’s designed to do, make money. But it tends to be how they make money that is irksome. A new deal has been struck to run 15-30 second TV-style commercials on XBox Live. It’s easy to complain about this considering you’re most likely paying them an annual fee to even be able to use the service and now they’re charging you for commercials, but most of you have probably been doing that with your cable or satellite service for years. The counterpoint to this announcement is that more channels are also coming, including one from Manga Entertainment. This is all an attempt to monetize a service that’s in millions of homes and should be expected. Yet it also seems oddly unnecessary. XBox Live has seen a 142% increase in advertising revenue since 2010, due in large part to the increased advertising space provided by the dashboard redesign – a redesign that many gamers feel decreased the usability of the interface. It’s probably not fair to judge this latest change until we see it in action, but it’s hard no to look at the concept and feel a little used.

A negative Microsoft story followed by Sony’s May PlayStation Plus bonuses – doesn’t exactly look like I’m playing fair. Then again, maybe those two aren’t really playing fair by having these announcements run so close together. This month you’ll be getting Trine 2, Rock of Ages, and Awesomenauts for free! Two of those games, Awesomenauts (5/1) and Rock of Ages (5/15), are brand new releases; Trine 2 has been around for a while and is very highly rated. As for PSOne Classics, time to don your Dracula-killing hat and prepare for painful difficulty. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania Chronicles are free for PS+. Other free benefits this month will be the beta for PixelJunk 4am, two minis (Floating Cloud God Saves the Pilgrims and Velocity), two avatars, and a dynamic theme. That’s a pretty good month. If you’re looking for discounts though, how about Datura, Disney Universe, Rayman Origins, and Saints’ Row The Third?

With the series now having passed the 17 million units sold mark, it should come as no surprise that Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is getting a Game of the Year edition. No word yet on a release date, but it’s set to include all previously released DLC, as you’d expect. If you’re like me and still playing catch up from last year’s games this should be a great way to get on this game. I’m so behind that I actually just sarted this one last week. So far I’d say it isn’t quite as good as the second game but still totally top shelf. My biggest gripe is that their revamp of the physics to be more dynamic just makes Drake look like Adrian Monk. Does he seriously have to touch every wall in arm’s reach? Even during a firefight?

Yet another accidental posting by an online retailer, Amazon France this time, has prematurely revealed a game. Well, not so much a game. It’s actually a bundled three pack of games. Resistance: The Trilogy is apparently releasing sometime around May 16th, though it hasn’t been announced or revealed for anywhere other than France. This will bundle all three games in the Sony-exclusive FPS series for 60 euro.

Newly announced for release this fall is NBA Baller Beats for Kinect. The game will require the use of an actual basketball as the Kinect will track it along with your body movements. It’s essentially a rhythm game, with a major focus on music and ball-handling skills. This definitely seems great for a certain audience, though I have the same concerns for it as I had for the pro guitar and drum modes on Rock Band. If you’re really that good with the ball, isn’t playing a game about it sort of redundant? There is also the additional concern of dribbling the ball on your carpeted floor. And think how thrilled you’ll be with the guy in the apartment above yours when he’s playing this one. My excitement actually comes from all the awesome YouTube videos we’re sure to see of people breaking up their family rooms with out of control basketballs. Sorry HB Studios, this is a cool enough concept, but maybe it should have stayed in the concept stage.

The creator of Resident Evil, Shinji Mikami, is returning to survival horror with Zwei. Yes, that’s German for “two” but there’s no connection, and it’s also only a codename for the project right now. This will be coming from Tango Gameworks, the studio he founded that was acquired by Zenimax (parent company of Bethesda) back in 2010. Don’t get too excited yet though. It’s still very much in the early stages and no release window is even being hinted for now. As for where you’ll find it, it will be on HD consoles, but nothing specific yet. It’s early enough in development that we could be talking late stage for this generation or possibly moving into the next. Being next-gen would definitely be a good reason to not mention actual platforms yet.

Konami’s updated the official website for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance with an awful live action trailer. Seriously, it looks like SyFy grade special effects. At the end of the video it shows the date 4/30/2012. They’re apparently going to reveal something awesome. We’ve got a great series from Konami, with a revamped play style from Platinum Games. We all know what this is and whether we’re interested. What could they be revealing? It’s most likely the release date. If this video is any indication of the game’s quality, fans should prepare for disappointment.

Pretty lackluster way to end the week, but it’ll probably be like this until E3. If anyone wanted to make a big announcement, sometime in the next two weeks would be the perfect time. All of the competition will be stowing their top stories for the first week in June, then have to compete against one another for headline space. See you next week.

A lot has been said about the controversy surrounding the ending to Mass Effect 3, hell, I even wrote a handful of posts about it myself (which you can find here, here and here). After BioWare’s announcement a few weeks ago about releasing DLC that will expand on and add clarity to the ending, I really didn’t think that I’d find myself writing about it again until said DLC was actually released, but a new campaign by fans to provide “feedback on the importance of the Ending DLC” is going to kick off this Saturday and so here we are.

A bulk of the pandemonium surrounding the ending has died down, especially after BioWare’s announcement of incoming DLC to expand on the ending, but Mass Effect fans are a lively bunch and they want to make sure their voices are heard. The latest campaign is “Turn On/Turn Off BioWare“:

We propose giving EA and Bioware immediate feedback on the importance of the Ending DLC, so they can allocate sufficient resources to make a quality product.

To that end, we propose the following campaign:

We will turn ON our single player game during a pre-defined period to show EA/Bioware the number of passionate fans who love the series and who will continue to buy their products IF the DLC provides a satisfactory ending.

We will then turn OFF our game and refuse to play for a pre-defined time period to give EA/Bioware a clear idea of the potential loss of custom and support they will suffer if the DLC is NOT satisfying.

The idea of the campaign is to illustrate just how many Mass Effect (and BioWare) fans are out there, and what the potential loss of said fans would look like should BioWare/EA not provide a proper Ending DLC. It could potentially be a powerful illustration of the effects of a company hastily releasing a title before it’s actually ready for launch, or even a subpar product, but it could also turn out to be more fodder for the “entitled gamer” stigma.

I have wrote about how big of a fan I am of the Mass Effect series, and I have made no attempt to hide the fact that I felt the ending was pretty awful. The fact that BioWare listened to their fanbase and put into motion a plan to release DLC to improve on this ending was sufficient for me, and I anxiously wait to see what they come up with. Sure, it could be as equally bad and do nothing to solve the problems with the ending, and should that happen I will vote with my dollars when considering to purchase another BioWare game. Others were not so pleased by the Ending DLC announcement as they want a complete overhaul and different ending for the game. That’s fine, you can’t please everyone and I’m sure these people will also reconsider buying future BioWare titles if they are that displeased. We are the consumers, and our money is one of the greatest weapons we have in showing out distaste in sub-par products.

A lot of Mass Effect fans out there are looking forward (even if cautiously) to the Ending DLC BioWare/EA releases in hopes that it really will “fix” the ending to the game; filling in plot holes, adjusting nonsensical and contradictory dialogue, etc. But, as a Mass Effect fan, even I think these “campaigns” just need to stop. At first, I sympathized with the masses. The ending was truly not on par with the quality of the franchise up to that point, and there is nothing wrong with letting a company know your dissatisfaction with their product. Then the campaigns started, demanding that BioWare change the ending to their game. Complaints were filed with the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission, petitions were started, cupcakes were sent. Even at this point, while I may feel this was overkill and didn’t feel the desire to participate, I understood. People love this franchise, and they were expressing their passion for it.

Now we have this latest campaign, and now even I think it’s getting to be a bit ridiculous. A campaign aiming to let BioWare know the fans want them “to make an Ending DLC that is worthy of the rest of the game and then reap the rewards of their success.”? What is worthy? Is there a general consensus on what the ending should be that I’m not aware of? Is the popular belief that BioWare/EA is just going to push out some garbage to shut the fans up? The fact of the matter is what I believe would make a good ending may not be what other fans would like, and vice versa – what will make a “good” Ending DLC is completely arbitrary. I like to believe that the folks at BioWare know what is at stake here. There is a large and disappointed/angry fan-base out there that is not happy because of basic problems with the ending, not because they didn’t like it, and I’m sure they are fully aware that if they just pump out some throw-away DLC that does nothing to fix the actual problems that the blow-back will be even worse than the first time around. Do we really need a campaign to “ensure” this happens? I guarantee that even if BioWare were to release the best possible scenario for Ending DLC – whatever that is – there will still be some out there not pleased.

BioWare has announced Ending DLC that will, as they say, expand and add clarity to the ending. They have stated they have listened to the fan criticism that there were a lot of basic problems with the ending. I say we don’t need a campaign to let them know what’s at stake here. We as the consumers have made our voices heard, and BioWare has acknowledged that, now it’s time to wait and see what they craft to address the ending of Mass Effect 3.

(I’ll do my best not to give any spoilers in this review, so you can get the same enjoyment I got out of it.)

The Walking Dead Video game is finally upon us, well sort of, the game is going to be released in 5 separate episodes so you can take it in like you would the comics or the TV series.  There are two options for purchasing the series, you can buy them individually for $4.99 each or purchase the entire season for $19.99.  Telltale Games are the ones behind this amazing game.  I know some people will disagree with me on this, but I am incredibly pleased by Kirkman and the company chosen for making the game.  The reason for the great fit is that Telltale focused on story and not just zombie violence, just like the focus of the series. It’s not about the zombies, it’s about emotion and those living through it.  You are Lee Everett, a protagonist with a not so great past, but given a chance to start over after the outbreak happens.

The game play itself is like a point-and-click style mixed with correct button pushing or twitch thumb stick movement similar to Heavy Rain.  You also choose your statements in conversations, you only have a limited time to do so though.  Unlike most games your choices make a difference, it helps strengthen relationships and build trust or can pull others apart.  Not all of the effects of choices can be seen quite yet by the end of the first episode.  A very nice touch Telltale added is that after the episode is over they give you a percentage breakdown of the way you chose compared to the rest of the world on key decisions, very much like Catherine did after you answered the questions in the confessional.

She's looking for more than action.

The graphics of the game are done in a cell shaded style, making it feel like a living comic book, and don’t think for one instant that takes anything away from the visuals or the overall presentation.  This is an adult title, it’s also a thinking title as you have to solve problems and over come situations.  If you don’t do it correctly you will die, and there are a bunch of different ways to die.  I had my throat ripped out, I was also disemboweled, and other such ways for zombies to show their love.

The story and voice acting are top notch, only adding to the experience.  You can genuinely feel for the characters, which makes some of your decisions almost hard to make.  But make them fast or something else could happen all together.  The branching story paths encourages you to go back and play through it again to see what could have happened.  Also in the character department for those who are all over the other Walking Dead medias and want a connection to them, you meet and interact with Herschel Greene, Lilly, and Glenn.  Don’t worry I’m not saying how, when, or what you’re doing with them.  I will however ruin the Easter egg at the very end of the episode you can hear just how into Robert Kirkman, Telltale is as one of the characters is talking about his newer book Super Dinosaur. (It was funny to hear, then it made me realize how nerdy I am for knowing the reference.)

Overall I highly recommend checking this out, if you’re looking for a good story with a bit of suspense thrown in too.  If you are looking for all out action like Left 4 Dead or the adventure of Resident Evil I would tell you to probably look else where as this is done entirely differently. So far I can say this is a very promising start to the series, and I cannot wait for episode 2 to come out. Especially from the way “A New Day” ends and the preview for the next episode “Starved For Help” to come.

Score: 9/10

For fans of: The Walking Dead, anything Telltale Games has done before, point-and-click games, Heavy Rain

I understand many things in the popular culture, and I reside in some pretty far-flung corners of that culture, but one thing I don’t understand is games on Facebook. I thought Facebook was about social interaction with friends and family, not mindlessly harvesting digital vegetables for no discernible purpose.

I don’t know about you guys, but I use Facebook for only a few things. The first is to spread my opinions far and wide and engage in discussions with my friends about it. The second is to have the appearance of a relationship with family and friends that I don’t have time with. A distant third would be to sell people copies of my books.

The thing that seems to occupy most of my time these days, though, is blocking game requests and reporting them as spam.

Why would I want to play games on Facebook? At best, they’re thieves of time and productivity. At worst they are the harbingers of doom for our society. Maybe the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse are actually Farmville, Slyngo, Mobsters 2, and Words With Friends. How much good could we do in our lives if we skipped the repetitive solo gaming on Facebook?

If I wanted to play a video game, wouldn’t I rather play something a little more sophisticated and fun on a full size TV?

My issue isn’t so much that people decide to play games on Facebook. If you want to spend your day playing games on Facebook, that’s really your prerogative. I won’t judge you for it and I won’t think less of you. We all deserve to be able to turn our brains off with entertainment every now and again. All things in moderation.

I suppose my only real issue is when it turns into spam designed to encourage me to waste my time.

Sending somebody an invite to a game is liable to waste as much of their time as posting pro-Ron Paul propaganda and conspiracy theories about the President’s birth certificate. Those things just have to be refuted and argued with because of their absurdity. You’re tasking me to participate in something I want nothing to do with.

At its best, it’s like offering a hamburger to a polite vegetarian every twenty minutes. Every time you ask, I’ll continue saying, “No, thank you,” and it continues to pointlessly waste both of our time.

More than anything, it’s just annoying.

Maybe I’m just proving how completely out of touch with the problems of the world I really am. There are plenty of real-world issues that should draw my attention and ire much more than Facebook game requests. World Hunger? The War on Women? Republican Obstructionism? The Secret Service stiffing hookers?

Those social issues certainly deserve more attention than this, but I dare you to tell me that you’re not annoyed by this stuff, too.

So lets all do ourselves and our friends a favor: If we’re going to partake of the forbidden fruit that is Facebook games, we’re going to keep it to ourselves. Don’t annoy your friends with constant invitations and high scores of games you’re playing. Unless they specifically ask you for an invite, assume they don’t want the distraction.

It’s not just the time-suck factor though, either. Do you know how much of your personal date these games take in? Would it be scary to find out they’ve downloaded your buying habits and your interactions with friends?

Let’s be honest here: do you really want the makers of Risk: A Game of Global Domination to have access to your personal information?

I didn’t think so.

If you want, you can find me on Facebook here. Just don’t send me a game request…

PixelJunk has released some incredible games on PSN and the brand carries a lot of name power. But I’m still a little confused about their next release, PixelJunk 4am. A beta is opening soon and it’s set for launch next month. But what is it? At the most basic level, this is a music visualizer. The second generation of PSOne had one built in, so does Windows Media Player. But it’s also a Move compatible “game(?)”. There will be four different “instruments” – bass, drum, rhythm, and synth – that you can manipulate, DJ-style. According to Lead Designer Rowan Parker, “Each track then has 4 different looping samples and four one-shot sounds in space around you that you can use. All of the loops and samples are different for each song as well, meaning events can have up to (4 loops + 4 one-shots) x 4 tracks x 5 songs = 160 different sound samples to pull from and mix however you like.” And it’s not just Move-compatible, it’s two Move-compatible. Meaning you and a friend can mix up the music together. Or you can get really fancy and ambidextrous by yourself. You can also just turn it on and leave it alone. That’s for people who like to watch. I’m intrigued enough that I may take a shot with the beta. If not, I’ll want a demo before I drop any money on something this vague.

The next Call of Duty is scheduled for announcement next week. Over on the official website there’s a countdown timer for the announcement. There’s an indication that the site won’t be the place to be watching, it will actually be the NBA playoffs. If you’ve been following along with us for the last few weeks you know this is going to be Black Ops 2.

“The Revenge of Harley Quinn” DLC for Batman: Arkham City that’s been speculated for a while has now been confirmed for release on May 29th. The game’s been out long enough that I shouldn’t be spoiling anything but I’ll try to be vague anyway. Only in her crazy head could she have the need to take “revenge” on Batman. It’s not like he made a choice, the Joker prevented him from taking the action she wanted him to take. Releasing on the same day will be the Game of the Year edition. This one will include all of the Robin, Nightwing, and Catwoman DLC, plus a download code for the Harley episode as well. It also comes with a copy of the very good Batman Year One animated film.

Capcom has announced the pre-order incentives for their upcoming mech-battler on XBox 360, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. GameStop will have the “Iron Guardian Armory” with the Rock and Jaguar armors. You’ll get the “Chrome Blitzer Armory” at Best Buy, with the Impact and Tiger armors. Finally, Amazon has the Carbon Assassin Armory, with the Savannah and Storm armors. Each different armor will provide a different boost to your Vertical Tank (VT). You’ll need all the boosts you can get when you jump into 2082 retake the United States from China in bipedal tank. The action starts on June 19th.

This is the worst kind of rumor, but Rayman: Origins was a fantastic sleeper hit from last year and any hint to a sequel is worth investigating. I say it’s the worst kind because it comes from a source’s source’s source, but it has the ring of truth. A recent marketing survey reportedly went out from Arkenford, a group with previous ties to Ubisoft. One of the recipients of this survey apparently snagged a possible screen shot of the game, featuring a purple dragon and a creature on stilts. You can clearly see Rayman running up the dragon’s back. And it’s been a few years since I’ve seen the movie, but does that dragon’s face look a little like Pete’s Dragon? Also mentioned in the marketing survey is the possibility of fantastical creatures like dragons (obviously), vampires, and creatures from Greek mythology. The return of four-player DI/DO co-op was also mentioned. This could be amazing, but it could also be a terrible hoax so I’m not getting my hopes up yet.

Robert Bowling, former community manager for Call of Duty, has announced his new studio. Robotoki is currently hiring and expects to announce its first title within the year. The philosophy is to create “a universe first, experiences second, and game mechanics last.” With the ultimate goal to create “experiences that transcend platforms and genres and allow our players to connect to our world, their characters, and gameplay via any medium.” Elaborating on the plan to develop for PC, console, and mobile devices, Bowling says “However, how they experience the world is unique to their device. The mobile / tablet experience should not mimic the console or PC experience, it should be additive to it, not supplemental. Allowing them to support their console and PC experience, continue their progression, but by experiencing the world in a meaningful and unique way.” Right now it’s pretty talk, but Bowling is an exciting personality with a lot of vision. It remains to be seen if he can deliver the experience, but it certainly sounds like has something awesome in the works.

That wraps up the news for now. It’s a slower time of year as the devs and publishers are keeping things quiet leading up to E3. Don’t forget, today sees the release of the first episode, A New Day, in Telltale’s The Walking Dead adventure. Individual episodes will be $5 or you can pre-order the entire run for $20.

IndieRoyal released their newest Bundle recently, and it’s a good one. (more…)

Sony announced yesterday that God Of War: Ascension, will be releasing for the Playstation 3. The game will take a prequel style look at the series before Kratos was the Ghost of Sparda or the God of War. If you’ve played any of the series, odds are you’re drooling at the thought of taking Kratos on another rampage through Greece. Monday April 30, there will be a streaming event with more information on the title, and you can tweet @playstation questions using the hashtag #godofwarascension, if your question is picked you’ll be sent a signed poster. Sounds like Monday will be an informative day. Sony’s info below the trailer

I’m sure your mouth is watering for more, but unfortunately I have to leave you with that for now. Be sure to tune in to PlayStation.Blog and God of War: Ascension on Facebook on Monday, April 30th at 8am Pacific Time for a live streaming event that will give you a glimpse of what’s in store for God of War: Ascension. I’ll also be answering your questions about the game, so follow @PlayStation on Twitter and Tweet us your best questions by 3pm Pacific Time this Friday — be sure to include #godofwarascension in your Tweet so we can find it (we’re expecting a lot of questions!) If we pick your question to ask during the show, we’ll even send you a signed God of War: Ascension poster.

Blizzard announced yesterday, that anyone with an active Battlenet account can begin downloading the Beta for Diablo III and play will go live at noon. If you had plans for the weekend cancel them. Tell the girlfriend to plan a girls night, kick the D&D group out of the house, tell your mom that you don’t care it’s her birthday and we’ll see you Monday to discuss.

Steps to enlist are as follows:

We’re pleased to announce the Diablo III open beta weekend, which offers open access to all players with a valid Battle.net account! Beginning this Friday everyone is invited to log in and help us put the game and servers through their paces in this three day stress test as we march toward the game’s release on May 15. You can begin downloading the Diablo III client right now!
From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you’ll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion.

Yeah, that’s right, it’s that day. Congratulations, if that’s your thing. Now can we just not make a big deal out of that for once? There’s gaming news to discuss.

Are you a Twisted Metal fan who forgot to pre-order and didn’t get the Axel DLC? Have you been waiting for it to hit PSN so you can buy it and toss away that extra couple of bucks? The good news is that it hit earlier this week. The even better news is that it’s still free. So go get it now. While you’re at it, show your Twisted Metal love by pre-ordering Starhawk (May 8th). The pre-order bonus for that one is a download code to get yourself an Outcast version of Sweet Tooth, complete with large machete, maniacal grin, and (green) flaming hair.

Rockstar is the latest publisher to combine two of my favorite things – games and comic books. Max Payne 3 will be getting a comic tie-in from Marvel Custom Solutions. There will be a limited print run, but this is primarily a digital release. Rockstar’s Dan Houser and Remedy’s Sam Lake are writing the three part story, while pencils and inks are being done by Fernando Blanco. Greg Horn is on covers. The story will provide more back story on Max, tying in events from the first two games and leading up to the release of the third. The first issue will be a free download through the Rockstar News Wire, Max Payne 3 website, and other digital comic services. Look for the game on May 15th.

Despite Namco Bandai’s crossing over with Capcom, they don’t seem to be learning any bad habits from them. Tekken‘s producer, Katsuhiro Harada, stated recently that he will never charge for DLC characters in the franchise. While this certainly seems to come in response to the recent controversy over Street Fighter x Tekken‘s 12 paid DLC characters already being on the disc, Harada assures it is not an attack on Capcom. According to Harada, “Tekken has never had DLC before and charged for it. This isn’t really directed at Capcom, I have always said this, but I see the characters and their move sets as chess pieces – they are essential items necessary in the game and we would never sell any of those individually.” He further elaborated that he would do paid DLC, but only for non-essential items, like costumes or music. Pre-order bonus characters would also be a possibility, but only with the promise that they would be available to everyone at no charge soon after launch. We’ll see how well he stands by these statements when Tekken Tag Tournament 2 releases in September, and whenever their planned release in the crossover, Tekken x Street Fighter, hits.

EA has been silent about the possibility of Dead Space 3, while gamers know the third entry is inevitable. Somehow, without an announcement from EA, a South African online retailer, BT Games, has made pre-orders available. They’ve also started taking preorders on the unannounced Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2. Are these mistakes? Eagerness? Or do they know something we don’t? Hard to say for sure, but this is the same retailer who outed Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer mode and Jak & Daxter HD Collection before anyone at the owning companies had talked about it publicly. So, take that for what it is. Or isn’t. But don’t forget that E3 is only about six weeks away.

How do you celebrate 50 years of a movie franchise? Well, if you’re James Bond, you do it with another new movie, Skyfall, and collective video game, 007 Legends. The game will feature playable scenes from Bond’s 22 film history, and his 23rd coming this November. While scenes will be featured from all of his outings, the overarching storyline will be tying together six of the films. Four player split screen multiplayer will, of course, be included. Kinect functionality is also expected. This should give you all the lovely ladies and Walther PPK you can handle. Look for it October 16th, just before Skyfall hits theatres on November 9th.

THQ has been suffering financially as of late, with Saints’ Row The Third finally giving them a much needed boost. That piece of good fortune is slightly tempered by the recent announcement of a delay for Darksiders II. The delay from its previously announced June 26th was sort of expected with Danny Bilson (THQ’s Executive Vice President of Core Games) recently stating the game wouldn’t be released “before it’s done.” The new release window is set for August, to “ensure we meet the high quality threshold that we are committed to achieving,” according to the publisher. I often meet these delays with an unhealthy amount of pessimism. In this case, I’m inclined to give THQ the benefit of the doubt. I seem to be the only person in the world who didn’t enjoy the first Darksiders, which could simply have been my own frame of mind at the time. The franchise could very well be the savior or slayer of the ailing company. It makes sense to take the delay over the bad reputation that can come from poor quality.

The weeks of rumors and a recent leak on Amazon has led to the announcement (apparently ahead of schedule) of God of War: Ascension. Considering how the third game ended it’s not suprising this isn’t a numbered sequel. Instead, it appears to be a prequel. While still featuring Kratos, it’s very possible it will also have a co-op mode featuring his brother, Deimos. That’s still speculation for now, but look for a live streaming event on the PlayStation Blog and Facebook next Monday, April 30th. The event will be hosted by the game’s director, Todd Papy. You can check out a short video on the PS Blog now.

Another poorly kept secret announcement is apparently set for a few days later on May 2nd. This teaser image certainly indicates a Treyarch developed Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be the next game in the franchise. We’ll find out for sure in a ocuple weeks.

HumaNature, the developer who created Toejam and Earl back when SEGA still made consoles, is apparently working on a Sony-exclusive title. Greg Johnson, CEO, recently posted an ad for a Technical Artist to work on the game. The most vital info seems to be the second paragraph: “As it happens, HumaNature Studios now has the good fortune of starting a new title directly for Sony that is cute and filled with quirky personality. It’s also super innovative in the area of emotional AI and personality simulation. It designed for both male and female players, and will be marketed in the U.S. and in Japan.” All of those buzzwords have their intended effect on me. I’d like to know more about the game.

If you haven’t booted up and played Gotham City Impostors for a while, you probably should. A new update to the game has added a new map, a new mode (Bounty Hunter – a lot like “Kill Confirmed”), and new languages for your character. Best of all, as a title update, this is actually free.

Square Enix and IO Interactive have begun the marketing push for Hitman Absolution in earnest. The game will apparently focus on the town of Hope, SD. According to the press release, “Hope and its citizens are heavily influenced by local legend Blake Dexter and his company Dexter Industries. Coincidentally, with the arrival of Agent 47, the otherwise quiet town has become a bedlam of strange accidents and occurrences.” Speculation is that these events may be linked to the first assassin, and we’ll know more via the pages of Hope News Times. A new page of the newspaper is planned for a reveal each Thursday with an accompanying screen shot on Friday. We’ve got the first page (click for readable size) and will keep it updated each week in VGQH, but you can follow it yourself at The Barcode Society or through Hitman on Facebook.

Codemasters is looking to unify their racing brands through a collective a online portal and new branch of the company, Codemasters Racing. Creative name, eh. Focusing exclusively on the racing space, the new branch will launch with the release of DiRT: Showdown on May 29th. Their new online hub, Racenet, will give you a single, persistent online profile throughout all of their racing titles -like F1 and Grid. This profile will allow players to track stats, see how you shape up against online competitors, and compete in events that may win you extra content. Assuming that’s all a free service, it sounds awesome. This isn’t the first service of its kind we’ve seen, not even the first in the racing genre. If this console generation is the first to fully embrace online multiplayer, and they’re getting this detailed with integration, what’s on the horizon for the next gen?

According to an official statement from Bethesda, the rumors of Prey 2‘s cancellation are totally false. However, if it has been delayed out of 2012. According to the statement, “The delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards.” They are “determined only to release the AAA game that fans rightfully expect.” If all you’re looking to do is meet fan expectations, Bethesda, just go ahead and release it. Game breaking glitches, complete non-functionality on PS3, and a myriad of patches that don’t fix anything (or make it worse) is all we expect now. We’ll still buy it. Then again, according to insider reports, no development work has been done by Human Head since they stopped progress back in November 2011 to bargain for a better contract from Bethesda’s parent company, Zenimax. With such a long hiatus, it’s entirely possible the Zenimax will simply shift development to a new studio.

Risen 2: Dark Waters has also been delayed. Previously set for next month, it is now scheduled for release August 3rd. A new episode, The Air Temple, will also be releasing alongside it. It’s unclear if this was a DLC announcement alongside the delay, or if the extra episode is a sort of apology for the delay. I’ll update once I get some clarification.

If there’s one thing Sony is good at, and they’re actually good at a lot of them, it’s making sure they’re icons and mascots are clearly visible through cross-promotion. As if LittleBigPlanet Karting isn’t enough of a crossover on its own, incorporating the Sackboy icon and art into what will essentially a new ModNation Racers from United Front, they’re adding another mascot to the title as a preorder bonus. But it’s not Nathan Drake, Cole McGrath, Kratos, or any of the other gaming mascots you normally associate with Sony. Instead, it’s an actual person – Kevin Butler (VP of Many a Varied Thing). He’s a pasty little Sackboy with his traditional businessman’s haircut, shirt and tie, coffee cup, and an executive golf kart. This addition will come free by preordering through GameStop or Amazon. The game is currently scheduled for late October.

And that concludes the week’s news. I’ll admit to skipping some legal cases involving Bethesda and Ubisoft, but they both look like B.S. so it’s probably not worth the arguments they’d inspire. If anything changes with them I’ll have further updates in future editions of Video Game Quick Hits, which you can find every Tuesday and Friday here on Big Shiny Robot!