Darksiders 2

UPDATE 4/5/16: Three more games have been added to the already-generous Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle.

UPDATE 27/5/15 8.55am: For those left in any doubt by the earlier Amazon leak, the retailer has now updated its listing for the still-unannounced Darksiders 2 re-release.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Darksiders 2 will be free for Xbox Live Gold members next month on Xbox 360, Microsoft has announced.

Nordic is bringing Vigil's action game Darksiders 2 back to Wii U via the European eShop.

UPDATE: Nordic Games has commented on the Darksiders and Red Faction collections.

The week before Danny Bilson left THQ in May 2012, he still had hope. He had a plan: Darksiders 2 from Vigil. Metro: Last Light from 4AGames. Company of Heroes 2 from Relic Entertainment. Enter the Dominatrix, the standalone expansion for Saints Row the Third, from Volition. South Park: The Stick of Truth, in production at Obsidian Entertainment. Homefront 2 at Crytek UK. And then there was the unannounced stuff: the next-gen game from Turtle Rock we now know is called Evolve. Patrice Désilets' 1666 at THQ Montreal. The portfolio is long and impressive.

The new owner of the Darksiders IP is keen to speak with the series' creators about making Darksiders 3.

The second THQ auction has concluded with surprising results. We found out earlier today that Gearbox acquired the rights to Homeworld, but that's not the only jaw-dropping revelation. Vigil's beloved armageddon themed action/adventure series Darksiders was sold to Nordic Games, publisher of Alan Wake on PC, The Book of Unwritten Tales, and the later Painkiller titles.

Crytek has confirmed it will make a bid for the Darksiders IP when it comes up at auction on 1st April.

Many former Vigil employees are housed at Crytek USA now. Vigil, remember, was the studio that created Darksiders.

Tweeted Crytek USA boss David Adams: "Going to bid on Darksiders IP. Put 7 years of heart and soul into that franchise, and I think it belongs at home with its creators."

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THQ will start taking bids for its remaining IP from 1st April at a court-supervised auction.

Update: Crytek CEO, Cevat Yerli confirmed in a Gamasutra interview that Crytek is not intending to purchase the Darksiders IP.

Update #4: Does IP changing hands equal upheaval? Does upheaval equal game delay? Obsidian's South Park: Stick of Truth was due in March. Is it still? "It's too soon to say," Ubisoft told me this afternoon. "We'll have more details to share about plans for specific games soon."

In terms of platform parity, we came away reasonably satisfied with Vigil Games's work on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Darksiders 2, although we felt that console gamers were let down by heavy tearing, while PC gamers had to suffer a lack of customisable graphics settings. The latter was a basic port, combining the best features of the 360 and PS3 versions with the ability to run at higher resolutions and frame-rates: by default the best experience, but a little disappointing in the DirectX 11 era.

With the new Wii U version, Vigil Games stated that Darksiders 2 would take full advantage of Nintendo's system from a gameplay point of view while matching the graphical accomplishments of the PS3 and 360 versions. Associate producer Jay Fitzloff told Eurogamer back in May that the Wii U has "plenty of horsepower... so we're not going to have to make any visual concessions at all". Instead much of the development time would be spent finding innovative ways to use the Wii U's GamePad to enhance the core experience.

So the question is whether Vigil Games has succeeded in achieving that goal of parity, or whether we're looking at another disappointing multi-platform Wii U release that sees brand new 2012 technology failing to match the graphical accomplishments of the vintage 2005/2006 current-gen stalwarts.

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Darksiders 2 's third DLC, The Demon Lord Belial expansion, is due tomorrow on Xbox Live and PC worldwide, while the PS3 version hits North America on 4th December and Europe the following day. It will cost 800 Microsoft Points or $10. Unless you already have a season pass, then it's included.

Darksiders 2's second DLC pack, the Abyssal Forge, is coming to Xbox Live and PC on 30th October, while the PSN version hits the following day in Europe. It will cost 800 MS Points / £6.80 / $9.99.

THQ has teased new Darksiders 2 downloadable content with an image and the tagline: "A new adventure awaits Death!"

Console transitions can be awkward affairs at the very best of times. They're even weirder when the platform release dates don't overlap very cleanly - and when one of the machines comes with an inventive set of features.

Darksiders 2's Argul's Tomb DLC comes out next Tuesday, 25th September on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Pork bun-munching Hong Kong adventure Sleeping Dogs has seen off THQ challenger Darksiders 2 to remain top of the UK all-format chart.

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Xbox 360

PlayStation 3

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On our £300 dual core/Radeon HD 6770 gaming PC, Darksiders 2 ran very well indeed at 768p but suffered at full HD.

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Like-for-like engine-driven visuals tested on Xbox 360 and PS3.

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The world has ended and the sky has fallen, and yet Darksiders 2 is a pretty comforting sort of game when you really get down to things. Its fantastical over-worlds are filled with lovely, craggy vistas and fancy lootable treasure chests, while its teetering dungeons are home to crunchy combat, giant bosses and pleasantly straightforward puzzling. This is an unashamedly old-school action adventure, vast and friendly and familiar, and loading it up feels like sliding into a warm bath - albeit a warm bath filled with blood, offal and funny little imps that probably want to bite your ears off.

That's not to say that nothing has changed, of course. While the first Darksiders cast you as War - everyone's favourite horseman of the apocalypse and the guy who got the blame for triggering the end of days a touch too early - this time you'll be playing Death, sent out on a parallel mission to his brother as he tries to clear the whole dang mess up again.

Compared to War's wonderfully bulky presence, Death isn't quite as much fun to look at - he's lean and pale and he resembles the lord of the jungle after a night spent locked in a deep freeze. He has his own tricks to master, though, and he brings his own wry spirit to proceedings as his adventure takes him to distant Forge Lands, floating realms both heavenly and diabolical and even a few more familiar spots before the journey's finally completed.

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Skeletal hack-and-slash Darksiders 2 will offer a number of modes to keep players interested after completing the main campaign.

Darksiders 2 will reward players who've played the its predecessor by rewarding them with extra equipment, publisher THQ has announced.

Bone up on your Darksiders 2 knowledge with a new trailer for the game, freshly unleashed by publisher THQ.

The footage is described as "all-gameplay", and is certainly all in-engine. It includes beautiful angels, ugly demons and a cool looking horse.

There's a few glimpses at combat, in which Death unsurprisingly excels, as he/it takes down winged beasties and mean-looking skeletons.

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THQ's recovery received a boost today after the US company regained compliance with the NASDAQ stock market.

Digital shop Green Man Gaming is now selling boxed PC and console games.

THQ is offering a complementary Darksiders 2 season pass to those who pre-order the game from its official store.

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Incoming THQ president Jason Rubin has reinforced the publisher's commitment to the Darksiders franchise following erroneous reports earlier this week that he had little enthusiasm for the series.

When I sat down to chat with Danny Bilson during THQ's pre-E3 showcase event in North London earlier this month, I had no idea that, just over a week later, he would no longer be with the publisher. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but I'm convinced there was something about the way he introduced presentations on Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light and Darksiders 2 to European press that morning that was, for want of a better term, off.

Remember the first half-hour of Darksiders? It largely involved hitting things. That's the kind of guy War was, after all: a hulking brute with massive hands and a gigantic sword. When the apocalypse was triggered a touch too early for his liking, he took to the streets - New York, I think - and started smacking around avenging angels, all of whom looked a bit like Transformers. He looked a bit like a Transformer too: squat, thick-limbed, and covered in complicated armour.

Last month THQ delayed promising action game Darksiders 2 to August 2012 - a decision that disappointed some eager fans.

The graphics of the Wii U version of Darksiders 2 are "at least as good" as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions', developer Vigil has said.

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THQ has delayed South Park: The Game to the fourth quarter of its 2013 financial year.

The global Darksiders 2 release date has been delayed to August, allowing "additional time for polish and bug fixing", publisher THQ has announced.

Vigil Games' hack-and-slash sequel had been scheduled for a UK launch on 29th June.

THQ announced the delay on the official Darksiders 2 forums, following weeks of speculation that the date may slip.

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THQ lost money and cut 240 jobs back in February. Things didn't look good.

THQ is unable to confirm that Darksiders 2 will launch on its already announced release date.

In February THQ announced a 29th June release date for the game on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is intended to be a Wii U launch title, too.

But a possible delay was mooted after THQ's game boss Danny Bilson was unable to confirm its current release date when pressed by Ripten.

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Nintendo has responded to recent reports about the power of the Wii U.

Developers have indicated that the Wii U isn't as powerful in graphics terms as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The Wii U hardware is "on par" with the current generation of consoles, one of the developers behind Wii U launch title Darksiders 2 has said.

Forthcoming THQ sequel Darksiders 2 is a Wii U launch title, developer Vigil has revealed.

Speaking in an interview with DigitalSpy, lead designer Hayden Dalton announced the game will be available on Wii U from "day one".

What's more, it'll boast a number of features unique to Nintendo's new home console.

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THQ has promised to upgrade, for free, all PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 pre-orders of Darksiders 2 to Limited Editions. There's no mention of the Wii U version.

Darksiders 2 launches on 29th June for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, THQ has announced.

Pre-order from GAME, Gamestation and Gamestop in Ireland and you'll get the Death Rides pack. This includes side-quests in the Maker's Realm and Dead Plains areas. Here, you can earn additional experience and loot. You get to aid an ancient Construct, battle The Bloodless and retrieve Karn's lost treasure. THQ said today the content amounts to around two hours of gameplay.

Pre-order with Amazon.co.uk and you get the Deadly Despair pack. This gives you a speed boost for Despair that acts as a permanent perk.

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A troubled THQ will imminently announce 170 layoffs, according to a new report.

Independent industry suit Kevin Dent claimed to have been sitting on the news "for a week or so". His Twitter conversation with THQ's vice president of technology Mark DeLoura suggests this is for real.

"This is probably going to break in the morning, I have sat on it for a week or so. The culling at THQ was 170+ souls including Mark DeLoura," broadcast Kevin Dent, directing the message at DeLoura.

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The Darksiders series is to get a scene-setting novel tie-in, THQ has announced.

Written by fantasy veteran Ari Marmell and published by Random House's Del Rey imprint, Darksiders: The Abomination Vault is set thousands of years before the events of the first game in the franchise.

The book follows twin Horsemen Death and War as they attempt to scupper a mysterious plot to resurrect powerful ancient weapons and trigger a devastating conflict.

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Undermined publisher THQ has publicly recommitted to developing a host of core games - some of them years away.

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"Choose Your Own Death" is one of the strangest video game pitches that's been flung our way in a while. Choose Your Own Death. Okay, so I've thought about it, and I'd like to go with rollerskates, a wonky stepladder, a plate glass window, and the glinting tines of an upended garden fork, please. At my funeral, I want them to play the theme from Shaft, and everybody has to dress like they work at Burger King.

It all makes a bit more sense, though, when you discover that Death is the new protagonist for Darksiders 2. He's taking over from his brother War in a sequel that fits neatly inside the timeline of the original. Think of it as Back to the Future 2, but with a rock-fisted demon in place of Thomas F. Wilson. War has been accused of kicking off the Apocalypse early, and he's out to clear his name: that's Darksiders. Meanwhile, Death thinks War is his kind of people, so, as another of the famous four horsemen, he sets off on his own parallel adventure to see if he can help his brother out. That's Darksiders 2.

As for the element of choice, this comes from a slight change of emphasis. In Darksiders 2, you'll be able to shape Death a little as the game progresses, selecting which armour you want him to wear as you pick paths through his skill trees, while juggling his load out of weapons and magic attacks. It's a mix-and-match approach that mirrors that of the developer, Vigil Games, which built the original Darksiders, in part, from its favourite pieces of the Zelda and God of War series, taking the dungeons-and-gadgets structure of the former, and the pointy melee combat of the latter. For Darksiders 2, all of that stuff remains in place, but the team is throwing in some new inspirations as well.

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What is War good for?

THQ has denied cancelling its 2014 line-up of games - but the future of ambitious Warhammer 40,000 MMO Dark Millennium Online is less certain.

The publisher responded to a gloomy rumour spread on Twitter by video game executive Kevin Dent. He heard that the Warhammer 40,000 MMO and the THQ 2014 line-up had been cancelled. Dent had also heard THQ was "offering" itself for sale to Asian companies.

THQ's response, via a statement offered to VG247, read: "THQ has not cancelled its 2014 line-up, and has not made any decisions regarding the planned MMO.

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Darksiders 2 launches in summer 2012, THQ has confirmed.

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Vigil reveals new in-game action.

Sony's PlayStation 3 has been described as a "pain in the ass" to make games for - nearly five years after its launch.

Wii U launch title Darksiders II will probably look exactly like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions irrespective of the Nintendo console's horsepower, developer Vigil has said.

There's a surreal edge to Darksiders 2, only part of which is down to the story and setting. The words of the Vigil developer demoing the game to us disappear into our consciousness like coins sent clattering down a well.

A whopping great big list of THQ games will be at the Eurogamer Expo in London this September.

The third-party game footage shown during Nintendo's E3 press conference this week to demonstrate Wii U was taken from PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 code – but at least one game is already up and running on the new console.

THQ has confirmed that the next instalment in the Darksiders series will get a release for the Wii U.

This doesn't come as a big surprise as the game popped up in Nintendo's E3 conference earlier today.

But now THQ has issued a proper press release, stating that the Wii U version of Darksiders II will be out "in calendar 2012".

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Death takes over from War as the lead character in the forthcoming Darksiders 2, publisher THQ has announced.

The sequel's story will run parallel with that of the acclaimed 2010 adventure, and sees Death embark on a quest to redeem his brother – the aforementioned War – and save mankind.

According to THQ's announcement, on his way he'll discover that an ancient grudge may represent an even greater threat to the future of the human race.

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Beefy apocalyptic equestrian War will not be returning for Darksiders 2, at least not as the primary character, publisher THQ has confirmed.

Good news for Darksiders fans: publisher THQ has confirmed a sequel is in development. Bad news for Darksiders fans: it wont be out until 2012 at the earliest.