Darksiders II has been given a confirmed release date of June 26, 2012. Alongside that date, several pre-order incentives have been announced. GameStop will be offering the “Death Rides Pack.” That includes multiple side quests, the Maker’s Realm and Dead Plains locations, and Karn’s lost treasure (whatever the hell that means). Amazon‘s exclusive is the “Deadly Despair Pack,” which increases the speed of your horse, cutting down travel time in the open world. There will also be an “Angel of Death Pack,” presumably from Best Buy but no specific retailer or other details have been announced yet. It may also be the pack-in for new copies.
There does seem to be a little progress in the ongoing story of Psychonauts 2. After Notch used Twitter to publicly ask Tim Schafer how many millions he’d need, he actually got a response: thirteen. In the most bizarre case of corporate negotiations I’ve seen, Notch replied with a simple, “I can do that.” Notch also apologized to Schafer for letting the hype machine get so big so quickly, he hadn’t expected the internet to pick up the story in such a huge way. [Really, you didn’t expect the internet to overreact?] According to Schafer though, it felt like he “was being proposed to on the jumbotron at the baseball game.” According to Schafer, founder of Double Fine, they “had a lot of plot elements that were backstory in that game that we planned on revisiting in the future and tying it back in. We had a longer story arc planned for those characters. I have ideas to take them to a more international setting.” So what does this all mean? Not a lot. Negotiations for making Psychonuats 2 are still ongoing and nothing is confirmed until it hits the shelf, mostly likely in a few years if at all. In the meantime, Schafer appears to have a lot of respect for Notch and his succes story, and seems inclined to work with him, whether it’s this game or a different one. In a plea to the internet to calm down about the situation, Notch explained what still needs to happen:
“All I know is that IF the numbers work out and IF they still want to do it and IF they don’t decide to self fund a sequel by doing more crowd funding (which is honestly what I would’ve done if I were them), I would be most interested in doing this type of investment.”
Though he did say the $13 million number was significantly higher than he expected, he also mentions there are other investors that may be willing to join him. This type of investment, even this side of the gaming industry, is very new to Notch and he has no intention of fronting that kind of cash as a charity. His advisors will certainly be wrangling a contract that will make the risk pay out in the best possible way, though Notch himself has made clear he wants no creative control of any game that may or may not come from the deal.
In light of the growing resurgence of fighting games, especially from Capcom, and media’s latest penchant for reboots, it should come as no surprise that a trademark was recently filed for Darkstalkers, no suffix. The franchise has been dead since 2005 but it would be kind of nice to see the creepy characters rise from the grave. Is it too early to start predicting the exclusive bonus characters that will guest star? I’m guessing a few characters from Resident Evil and Abraham Lincoln.
It may be time to venture into that crawlspace, move aside the moldy box containing your Wii, peel the Tony Hawk Ride peripheral off of that plastic tote (what is that sticky stuff anyway) and dig out your guitar controllers from Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Oh yeah, hit up the store too because you’ll want batteries – you known those metal tube things that provide power to devices that can’t plug in to recharge. All this because JAM Live Music Arcade will be “coming soon” to PSN and XBLA. This will be the fourth game in Zivix’s franchise, with the others appearing on WiiWare and Mobile devices. Using the instrument controllers (or a standard controller if you prefer) you take on the role of music producer, mixing and remixing tunes to make your own songs. There will be over 30 songs included at launch (from Modest Mouse, Fallout boy, Rise Against, and more) and plenty of user created content to keep you playing. Still waiting to confirm pricing and release date, but you’ll read about it in VGQH as soon as I hear more.
You’ve got to be a seriously old school gamer to remember Karateka. You’ll remember Jordan Mechner as the mind behind the original Prince of Persia, which has garnered immense success in the 21st century with its Parkour-esque reboot. It looks like Mechner is going to back to the well of his gaming past as he attempts make Karateka relevant once again. The original game was an innovator in 2D animations, featuring a plot from every 1980’s game or martial arts flick: one dude with a black belt attacks a warlord’s fortress to save a princess. Look for the reboot later this year on XBLA and PSN.
It looks like Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will be getting more DLC. Rather than extra multiplayer maps and skins, this one seems to be adding to the story. Though possibly not the story you would expect. Revealed via a list of achievements/trophies, the clues point to additional Desmond missions. Whether this is more of the controversial first-person-platform-puzzle-solving or some sort of third-person Animus simulation (a la the Danger Room or Holodeck) is unknown for now. I’m a little torn on the current Desmond missions. They aren’t as bad as the addition of the Den Defense mode, but I’m not sure they’re really fun either. And the fifth one won’t load for me, it keeps freezing my PS3. In all, I don’t think I’ll be getting the DLC, especially since I plan to resell my copy of the game when I buy Mass Effect 3. If you still haven’t played it, you may want to wait a month as you’ll likely get this DLC for free if you pick up the recently announced Ottoman Edition. Much like Brotherhood‘s Da Vinci Edition, this will likely be a sort of director’s cut, including all of the DLC. This version should be available in March.
On another related note, Ubisoft has confirmed our expectations by announcing Assassin’s Creed III for release on October 30, 2012. Yves Guillemot, CEO, clearly expected some of the complaints already being voiced about this becoming a yearly title (a la Activision). According to Guillemot, “We will push the title a lot because it’s a fantastic product that the team has been working for three years. What we have seen is just fabulous.” Three years? That could be good or bad. That could mean they’ve been developing the game independently from the last two chapters of Ezio’s story, meaning it will have its own set of innovations. It could also mean they acted without feedback and they’ve run even further with the elements of Revelations that didn’t work. It’s still a fun series that I really enjoy. I’m really hoping this will conclude Desmond’s tale and finally answer a few questions about the mythology.
The special edition of Prototype 2 has been announced and detailed. The so-called Blackwatch Collector’s Edition is the typical batch of extras. For an extra $20 you’ll get a hardcover art book, soundtrack CD, 20% off coupon for the Prototype Merchandise store, Dark Horse digital comic (Prototype: The Labyrinth), free voucher for the “Colossal Mayhem” DLC, and the 55 extra pieces included for buying new. The game is scheduled for April 24, with the first DLC pack coming in May.
Apparently the latest attempts to move MMOs to consoles has been successful, as it’s become a model NCSoft wants to copy. With betas beginning in March and April for the PC version, Guild Wars 2 will be coming to XBox 360 and PS3 “at a later date.” The conversion will certainly take some time and will be affected by the commercial gaming season and other factors. I’d expect to see this as a December release, but sales forecasts are hardly my area of expertise.
Square Enix appears to be sticking to their guns on the Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC promise, as there’s more on the way. The Spacetime Guardian Outfit for Noel and Beachwear Outfit for Serah will be available February 21st. The next story DLC, “Sazh: Heads or Tails,” will be coming on February 28th. In this chapter you’ll be playing as Sazh from FFXIII in events parallel to the main campaign. At the completion of the chapter you’ll have the chance to add Sazh to your full party. Sazh’s add-on also includes two new games, Chronobind and Serendipity Poker, at the Serendipity Casino (available beginning in chapter two).
At long last, Journey has been given a release date. To say this game has seen extensive delays would be incorrect as it had never been put on a schedule by the developers, thatgamecompany. But this was shown off quite some time ago in what looked like a nearly finished state. I was intrigued immediately and have been following its progress, wondering if it would ever release. Jenova Chen has finally announced the “interactive parable” will be available for $15 from PSN on March 13th.
Capcom is cross-pollinating brands yet again. This time it will be Ryu of Street Fighter fame making an appearance in Asura’s Wrath through the latest DLC. What exactly this entails is unclear and the promotional screen shot is of no help. If anything, that makes it look like Asura will be appearing in Street Fighter IV.
One of the most mind-boggling glitches I’ve seen in a long time is being addressed by Monolith for Gotham City Impostors. Some buyers apparently couldn’t access the game immediately but that has since been fixed. Now it seems a large number of players have had their stats completely wiped out with no explanation. They are working to correct the problem but an ETA on the solution isn’t available. To add insult to injury, some users have actually purchased stat boosters to get an early jump and are now out real money in addition to the time committed.
That does it for this week. Check back Tuesday for more of the latest on your favorite hobby.