The first Darkness, developed by Riddick veterans Starbreeze, was an underrated gem of a game that placed you in the expensive Italian shoes of mob hitman, Jackie Estacado who, on his 21st birthday received a rather unique gift, the powers of the Darkness, an ancient and evil demonic entity that devours people's souls. Call us boring, but a gift token would be more appreciated.

This power quickly propelled him to the top of the mob's hit list, and although he successfully took out his enemies, Jackie lost his girlfriend, Jenny, in the process, as the Darkness forced him to watch her execution.

Fast forward a few years and we have The Darkness II. Jackie is now the boss of a powerful mob family, and somehow, he's managed to keep the Darkness in check for all this time, not letting it take him over, or even letting it out to have a little nibble on someone's soul.

Of course, as the game opens, this period of relative calm, and Darkness-free living is interrupted, as an unknown enemy group attacks Jackie, leading to another Darkness-tinged rampage strewn with all sorts of psychological weirdness and enough blood and gore to fill a small stadium.

Comic carnage

If you've played the first Darkness game then you may be expecting more of the same, and in some ways, that's what you get, but there's also plenty of change here. Instantly noticeable is the graphical style. Gone is the more realistic look, replaced with a cell-shaded comic-style approach. I was initially a little displeased when I saw this change of art direction in the various promos, as I've always thought the original Darkness was one of the best looking FPS games I've seen, but after playing the sequel, I'm happy to say the new look works.

Although more colourful and vibrant than the gritty realism of the first, this aesthetic doesn't stop the game from being suitably serious and violent, and the visual style looks great. From environments to character models and OTT executions, it's all gravy, and although there are inconsistencies, such as poor lip synching and some awkward character animations, on the whole it works very well. The Darkness is ever-present as an extra character all its own, and the many and varied actions and powers you can use all look good, especially the gruesome special kills.

What I'm not as keen on, however, is the main mechanical change of making the game a linear, stage-based shooter, as opposed to the psudeo-open world setting of the original. Whilst it was no Elder Scrolls game, the first Darkness outing gave you the chance to wander around various city districts and accept side missions and tasks as you saw fit, with main story missions wrapped around this open structure. Basically, it played exactly like the Riddick games, and it was great.

Here you simply move from one level to the next, killing and maiming as you go. There are some story sections, such as trips to Jackie's mansion or his twisted psyche, but these are all linear too.

That's not to say this makes the game bad, far from it, it's just a shame that it's a little step backwards in some ways. One thing is very true though, the move to a more linear system has made the core gameplay far more focused and accessible and there are plenty of improvements.

Feed the Darknessss!

In the original title, controlling the darkness was more than clunky. Using powers such as the creeping tendril could be nigh on impossible at times, and in general the Darkness was little more than a bullet sponge, and guns played more of a role.

In the Darkness II, however, this certainly isn't the case. Now it's your constant and dependable ally, with abilities that are not only much more effectively woven into the gameplay, but are much easier to use. You do have access to all sorts of guns, both single and dual wielding, but in order to survive the Darkness powers are just as essential.

Split into a left and right demon arm setup, you use L2 and R2 shoulder triggers to command the Darkness (L1 and R1 are for guns). The left arm is used to grab and interact with the environment (picking up ammo, eating hearts, breaking through doors etc) whilst the right is the offensive of the pairing, used as a vicious whip or spiked cudgel, the direction of which can be controlled by holding the trigger and moving the analog stick in the needed direction.

This simple method, combined with a few basic button combinations makes using the darkness a much more enjoyable affair than before, and with new powers such as the swarm, which can distract enemies and the ability to use such things as car doors as shields, it's a much more flexible system too, all the time letting you wield guns at the same time, thanks to the quad-wielding controls.

Sadly, the darklings have been paired down, and there's less of a focus on your underlings than before, with only one at your side this time. That said, you can now directly control the little guy in some situations, which makes for a novel diversion, and the darkling is a likable character, with more involvement in the story this time.

Gotta light?

The Darkness II makes more use of the Darkness' weakness, which is any form of light. There are areas of the world that are lit up, and to traverse them easily you need to break any light sources or find generators to shut off the power, otherwise you're unable to use the Darkness, and you're left vulnerable. Your darkling is also instantly banished should he enter the light.

As well as this basic premise, some additions force you to think on your feet and adapt quickly. Enemies will throw flash grenades to strip you of the Darkness and blind you at the same time, and others carry shoulder mounted lamps that bathe the area in light. To overcome this you have to either kill the light carriers with guns, or shoot out the light to get your powers back.

I've mentioned that you can interact with the world, and again, this is much more in-depth than the first game. Now you can pull doors off cars and either use them as shield, as I mentioned earlier, or throw them as a projectile, and you can impale enemies with poles, cut them in two with circular saws and hurl gas canisters, with explosive results. It's all implemented well, and is integral to combat, as you'll often run out of ammo.

Dark power

Alongside the basic Darkness abilities, there are extra unlockable powers you can utilise. These are obtained by earning essence points by killing foes, consuming hearts and finding collectables. Once amassed, you can redeem these points for various buffs and abilities. The ability to carry more ammo, earn more health from hearts and Darkness-powered guns are all useful, as are the abilities to conjure up a black hole, throw your darkling around and use the Darkness as a suit of armour.

Another main use of the Darkness is to perform special kills, or executions. By stunning and then grabbing an enemy you can perform brutal kills to earn health or ammo, and this is also a way to easily kill otherwise tricky opponents. You'll have to break the armour off some foes before you can do this though.

Demonic progression

As the story follows on directly from the first game (there's a catch up you can watch if you missed it), many old faces return, and you're instantly thrown into Jackie's world, which is good, as the story continues to be both interesting and unique. Jackie's struggle against both the Darkness and his still painful loss of Jenny underpin the proceedings, and the mob war and eventual fight against a powerful cult makes for a good driving force to keep you going, always punctuated between missions with Jackie's monologues. It's not an engaging as the first game's origin tale, but it's good nonetheless.

Once you're done with the story, there's the multiplayer mode to have a go at. Lightly tied in with the main game, here you can play as Jackie's special, Darkness-powered henchmen, and go on various missions, some of which are mentioned in the main story.

Although each character isn't as powerful as Jackie, there are enough special abilities and co-op play here to make the mode enjoyable, but it's nothing amazing (although it's much better than the first game's lacklustre offing). It'll certainly add plenty of hours to the, admittedly, very short campaign.

Fear of the dark

The Darkness II does most things right, even if it does tend to play it safe as a linear shooter, stepping back from its predecessor. When blasting through the story, you really do feel like an ultra-powerful killing machine, and each and every confrontation is littered with multiple possibilities on how to dispatch your foes.

The combat is key here, and the controls, both for standard actions and the Darkness are solid, and the stylish gorefest never gets dull. It's just a shame that the game is so short, and once you're played it through, there's little incentive to return aside from a a co-op mode that won't hold your attention for all that long compared to other alternatives.

You can rent or buy The Darkness II at Blockbuster.co.uk.

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It's fair to say that one of the most attractive aspects of the original Shank, and one that certainly made people interested, was its striking visual style. It was a game that just looked cool. Luckily, Shank was more than looks alone, and the high speed, frantic combat, littered with nifty little moves and touches, made for a genuinely entertaining title.

With the arrival of Shank 2, we've got even more violent action than before, with perhaps more over the top, gratuitous killing, all still delivered with that hand-drawn, striking style, and accompanied by a few tweaks.

For the most part, Shank 2 is a carbon copy of the first title, and it delivers almost the same exact experience as before. Little touches like a separate pick up button and 360 degree aiming for guns are welcome though, and the visuals are certainly improved, with more detail and variety.

Sadly, there's not all that much more to it. The co-op mode is now a survival mode where you have to fend off waves of enemies, and the game does play a little faster than the first, but that's it really, and everything else is window dressing around the same old idea, albeit one that's still fabulously entertaining while it lasts.

Of course, if you enjoyed the first game, this is irrelevant, and more of the same is going to be welcomed with open arms. And, the fact that Shank 2, whether it's the tweaks or some form of engine optimisation, plays more smoothly and feels better than the first, helps make this a necessary sequel.

Shank 2 is a great little game, and it's just as enjoyable to nimbly slash through several guys with daggers and leap onto the next, drilling into his face with a chainsaw, before blasting someone point blank with a shotgun, as it ever was. It'll be a little too similar to the first for some, but it's certainly the superior of the two, and is well worth a shot.

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The Diablo series has a very loyal fanbase, which is lucky, as it's certainly needed it over the last few months. The next instalment of the hack and slash lootfest was originally expected sometime in 2011, but has suffered several delays. More recently, the game was expected to release in early 2012, meaning fans had just a little while longer to wait, but the light was shining at the end of the tunnel.

Well, now that's not quite the case, and Activision has announced, in its financial yearly report, that the game will most likely ship in the second quarter, meaning sometime in the April-June period.

The publisher also stated that there's only going to be one more title from Blizzard this year, even though the dev team are currently also working on Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and WoW: Mists of Pandaria. Our money's on the panda-centric WoW update arriving first.

Whilst this isn't exactly a huge setback, it's yet another push back for the release of a game that an army of fans are watering at the mouth for.

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Want more info on Mass Effect 3? Then you're in luck, as over the past few days, a bunch of new trailers have appeared for BioWare's upcoming title.

And we've gathered them together for you right here...

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Yesterday, Tim Shafer's Double Fine took a rather novel way to obtain funding for its next project, by asking the fans to donate money to make the game happen.

Using the online fundraising service, Kickstarter, Double Fine asked fans to pledge donations to reach the $400,000 target required to get the project off the ground. Well, it certainly beats harassing publisher after publisher.

Now, this may sound like a crazy idea, but when you realise that the Internet has dutifully donated over a million dollars already, it becomes more of a master stroke. In fact, the $400,000 target was hit within eight hours.

Of course, whilst there are plenty of generous people out there, this kind of fund raising wouldn't work for just anyone. Tim Shafer isn't short of fans, being one of the most respected developers around. With such titles as Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Psychonauts (of which sequel talks are still underway with Minecraft creator, Notch) under his belt, and input into classics like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle, it's no surprise that the gaming public want to see another adventure from the studio.

The new project proposed is a classic point-and-click adventure, a genre that's not exactly been given the love it deserves of late. This will be developed by a team under Shafer's supervision and then documented with the video series being made available to the public to view, taking the development of the game and truly placing it in the public eye.

There's a reward scheme in operation for donations, and if you donate $15 you'll receive the finished game, whilst people donating more will get added benefits, such as access to full 1080p copies of the documentary, bonus footage, concept art and so on, including a painting of themselves by one of Double Fine's artists.

Those who donate much more ($15,000 and above), will be able to go for lunch with the Double Fine team, be a character in the game, or even receive one of Tim Shafer's last four shrink-wrapped copied of Day of the Tentacle, in the triangle box.

Having already gone way past the original target, Double Fine has posted an update on Kickstarter thanking the community for the overwhelming support, and has pledged that the extra money will go towards making the game bigger and better.

The return of Shafer-created point-and-click adventures? Now that's something we here at Den of Geek can't wait for. Be sure to visit the Kickstarter page to see Tim's request video, its well worth a watch.

Kickstarter donation page

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It's being reported over at Kotaku, that Blizzard and Valve are getting themselves all riled up over legal rights to the DOTA (Defence of the Ancients) trademark.

First created as a mod for Warcraft III in 2003, DOTA has since become a fully-fledged game in production at Valve, after the developer hired the mod's creator. DOTA 2 was born, much to fans' delight, and the game is coming along nicely.

In 2010, Valve set about applying for the trademark to the DOTA name, which didn't exactly please Blizzard, but there was no legal scuffling, until now.

Blizzard has spoken up before the US Patent and Trademark Office and argues that it has the stronger case for ownership of the DOTA name and its associated variants. The main points of the argument state that Blizzard, and its fans of Warcraft, have been using and building up the DOTA name for over seven years, and as the original DOTA required Warcraft III in order to be played, and due to the ongoing existing use of the term, it has a stronger case than Valve.

It sounds as though this could get rather ugly, and whether it'll affect the release of DOTA 2 is unclear, but Valve certainly isn't going to let this one lie.

Kotaku

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In an Interview with GameInformer, Naughty Dog has revealed quite a bit of information regarding the story, or more specifically the back story, to its upcoming title, The Last of Us.

Taking place 20 years after an apocalyptic event that involves some sort of infection that drives people crazy, the game sees the world in ruin. The majority of the population is either insane or dead, and the survivors are secluded in Military-run quarantine zones.

In the game, protagonist, Joel, is one of the few survivors left from a time before the event occurred, and over time he's changed from a moral, normal citizen into someone who will do anything to survive, be it trading drugs or killing people.

At the start of the game, he accepts a job to smuggle a girl out of the city, one of the last safe zones, for unknown reasons. This girl is Ellie, a 14 year old girl who knows northing but the quarantine zone she was born in, and she's obviously very important in some way, something Naughty Dog aren't disclosing.

Leaving the martial law-enforced city, Joel and Ellie end up being hunted by the military that formerly protected them, and have no choice but to head into the wasteland on a mission or survival.

Coming from a team as talented as Naughty Dog, who have already given us the excellent Uncharted series (not to mention classics like Jak and Daxter), The Last of Us is quickly becoming one of our most anticipated titles, and we can't wait to see what's in store.

Visit the link below to see the full interview video with more details on the creation of the world and the game as a whole.

GameInformer

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Anyone who was looking forward to the next instalment of the True Crime series was undoubtedly a little peeved when the project was canned last year. There was a little hope, as the IP was picked up by Square Enix in August, but then, it vanished from the gaming radar.

Well, now it looks like the title is back, only with a bit of re-branding. Called Sleeping Dogs, the game, by United Front, still involves an undercover cop in a seedy Hong Kong setting, and the story still revolves around infiltrating the criminal underworld with a mixture of guns, martial arts and crazy driving skills.

Details aren't plentiful right now, but the story sees you play as Wei Shen, the undercover cop in question, and your ultimate goal is to bring down the Triads within an open game world.

The announcement trailer doesn't give all that much away, aside from the plot itself, and although it's stylish and interesting enough, we can't help but be a little worried when a trailer is solely live action, without a hint of game footage. Hmmm.

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Yes, that's right, the strategic board game everyone played when they were kids is not just being made into a ridiculously OTT, Michael Bay wet dream of a movie, but also an action video game. Activision has announced that Battleship The Video Game is on its way, and it'll include some strategic naval command and, wait for it, FPS gameplay. Yep, X-Com, Syndicate and now Battleship have all gone first person shooter.

Developed by Double Helix, whose titles have included Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and Silent Hill Homecoming, the game is set to be a standalone story, and not a direct movie tie-in.

"Inspired by the film's exciting action and stunning backdrop, the game is next-gen naval warfare that thrusts players into the middle of humanity's last stand against an unfamiliar menace," says David Oxford of Activision Publishing.

The game will let players switch seamlessly between the tactical and FPS elements of the game, fighting battles on multiple fronts on land and sea, featuring the various ship classes from the original game, alongside new ground units and an alien menace to contend with.

To turn a game as simple as Battleship into a strategy/FPS hybrid may sound rather odd, but, despite out initial concerns, we're willing to give Activision the benefit of the doubt for now, at least until the game arrives on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Europe in April and in the 'States in May (with Wii, DS and 3DS to arrive later).

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The sequel to the stylish original, Shank 2 is now available on Xbox 360, PlayStaiton 3 and PC. Improving upon the original in almost every way, Shank 2 boasts a body count that would make Stallone blush, all delivered in ultra-styalised cartoon world.

Our review of the game is coming soon, but for now, have a look at the launch trailer.

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It's been revealed in Time Warner's 2011 fiscal report that the superb Batman: Arkham City has shipped six million units worldwide since its October launch last year.

The parent company of Warner Bros Interactive, Time Warner, saw its total revenues rise by nine percent to $12.6 billion during the 2011 fiscal year. The company has stated that a portion of this rise in revenue is because of strong sales of Arkham City, along with impressive performances by such titles as the reboot of Mortal Kombat and a few Lego titles.

These figures are very promising, although, according to NPD group figures, even this performance wasn't enough to crack the top spot, and Batman: Arkham City came in seventh behind CoD Black Ops at six, Madden '12 at five, Battlefield 3 at four, Skyrim at three, Just Dance 3 at two and, surprise, surprise, CoD:MW3 at number one.

Still, although the overall sales charts may not show it, Batman's Arkham series is making its company very wealthy indeed, which bodes well for a continuation of the franchise. And that can only be a good thing.

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For avid readers of science fiction and fantasy, Richard Morgan will need little introduction. Having gained immediate attention with his first novel, Altered Carbon, an ice-cool mix of detective noir and violent cyberpunk, Morgan’s carved out a reputation as one of the UK’s foremost genre writers.

It’s little surprise, given the technological themes and hardboiled style of Morgan’s fiction, that he’d be chosen as lead writer for Starbreeze Studios’ reimagining of the ultimate 90s dystopian videogame, Syndicate – everything from its mind-control themes to its tooled-up cyborgs in trenchcoats dovetails perfectly with Morgan’s darkly futuristic style.

Ahead of Syndicate’s release later this month, here’s our interview with Morgan, which covers everything from his personal taste in videogames, the process of writing for the medium, industry snobbery, to the exciting prospect of the long-mooted Altered Carbon movie…

Are you a fan of videogames? Had you played the original Syndicate from the early 90s?

I came quite late to gaming, I didn’t start playing until 2002. Prior to that, I was an EFL [English as a foreign language] teacher so I had neither the time nor the disposable income to indulge. As a result, I missed out not just on Syndicate, but on the whole isometric thing. But once I was a published full time author that all changed, and I hit the consoles with a vengeance.

My earliest experiences of the form were PS1 re-issues of things like Quake and Doom, and then Max Payne and Timesplitters 2 when I upgraded to a PS2. Since then, I’ve been a crazy enthusiastic but very selective gamer - I tend to stick to a small number of high quality games and play them over and over. All time favourites are The Suffering, Doom 3, Max Payne, FEAR, then, more recently, the Dead Space and Uncharted franchises, Bioshock and - my one grudging concession to open world games, which I’m not a big fan of - the very brilliant Red Dead Redemption.

Syndicate is the second videogame you’ve written, after last year’s Crysis 2. How does the process of writing for games differ than, say, planning a novel?

In fact, Syndicate is technically the first game I worked on. I started there at EA’s request, and then got asked aboard with Crytek about a year later on the strength of the treatment I’d written for Starbreeze. In the end, of course, we wrapped up Crysis 2 first, but to all intents and purposes I was working on both games more or less in parallel.

As to the differences between game work and novel writing, well, obviously the former is a lot less lonely – you’re in and out of meetings all the time, bouncing stuff back and forth with the level designers, the art department, the animation team, so forth. And the work is a lot more chunked - a cut scene here to introduce character x, a raft of in-game lines there to take care of NPC faction y, some radio chatter here, a speech to set up a new level there...

You take on these tasks, and a couple of hours later, chunk! You hand it over for sign-off. There’s a pleasant job-done gratification to working like that, something you don’t get in novel writing until you’ve penned your last line, which can be anything up to a couple of years. That said, obviously you own a novel in a way you can never own a game - it’s yours from start to finish, for better or for worse. With a game, you’re only one part of a team, and what emerges at launch is very much the culmination of the whole team’s efforts. You can be proud of playing your part, but it doesn’t ever belong to you.

How easy is it to integrate the designers’ ideas into your own, and does the creative process work both ways? For example, do ideas in your writing inspire the designers to add new elements to the game?

Yes, it’s very much a two way process. For example, I was given the chip-based gameplay as part of the existing furniture, and came up with Dart 6 in all her psychopathic glory as a result. Then again, I gave the dev team La Ballena to play with, and we ended up with some really cool nautical dynamics in that level as a result.

For me, some of the most intense creativity comes when something has to change for technical or design reasons, and you’re trying to find a way to make it fit the fiction. There are a couple of really cool scenes in Syndicate, stuff I’m really pleased with, that came about as a result of re-sets like that.

How early in Syndicate’s design process did you begin to write its story?

I came in towards the end of 2008, at which point the game was still in the early conceptual stage - there was some artwork lying round, some sense of what the gameplay was going to look like, a few ideas for characters, but still no narrative as such. And my brief was very specific: start with a clean sheet of paper; if existing material could be incorporated, all well and good, but if not, it could be scrapped. Really, that’s an ideal position to be in - it means you already have some grist to work with, but you aren’t bound by any of it.

Games are often criticised for their rather lacklustre characterisation and stories. Do you think more novel writers or screenwriters should get involved in the games industry?

Well, I think more talented writers should get involved in the industry, yes, of course. But that doesn’t pre-suppose that those writers have to be novelists or screenwriters. There are some truly excellent game writers out there - Amy Hennig, Dan Houser, Sami Jarvi (Sam Lake), Ken Levine, Richard Rouse III, and that’s just off the top of my head.

None of those guys were hired out of another form of writing, they’ve all made their names within the industry. That said, there is indeed a huge amount of very poor story-telling in games, and I think this derives from the fact that story is always going to be - and rightly so - a support structure for the gaming experience, rather than the core of that experience.

It takes a certain kind of talent to understand that fact but still give a damn about the story for its own sake. It’s a balancing act. And those guys I just mentioned are all so successful because they can walk the beam and keep the balance. But maybe this is also why there’s been a recent leaning towards hiring outside writers - specifically because guys like me come in with the respect for story pre-installed. It’s our primary function after all. And I suppose the assumption is that we can then acquire the humility that’s required to balance the load - which, I have to say, is also something of a specific talent in itself!

Is there a certain sense of distrust or snobbery directed towards the games industry, do you think, by some writers?

I imagine there must be - there certainly is in society at large, and writers are no more immune to snobbery than any other profession. But then again, I haven’t run up against it personally - most of the authors I know are actually quite enthusiastic about gaming. They’re all working within the SF or fantasy genre, true, and they’re all my age or younger, but still. Maybe some of the older, crustier mainstream literary authors are less enthusiastic - dunno, you’d have to ask them.

With your involvement in Crysis 2 and Syndicate, and Graeme Joyce’s involvement in Doom 4, do you think we’re gradually working towards a time where it’s no longer unusual for respected authors to cross over into the games industry?

I’d say we’ve already reached that point and gone beyond. Again, just off the top of my head, you’ve got Joyce, myself, Clive Barker, Alex Garland, Karen Traviss, Mark Laidlaw all already in the mix, and I personally know of a couple of others who’ve been asked to get involved with upcoming game projects too. There’s really no question - the barriers between media are definitely coming down. And good talent is wherever you find it.

Given the collaborative nature of making games, and the sheer amount of content the average game contains, is writing one as time-consuming as writing a novel?

That will depend very much on the studio in question and how they choose to develop their game. I guess if I was made responsible for every single line of dialogue in a game and every single piece of textual visual detail, every sign or piece of grafitti, then yes, I think that would be comparable to the time and effort required to write a very long novel indeed. But of course that’s not generally how it works - no lead writer is ever going to be responsible for the totality of content, and especially not one hired in from outside. An outside writer is a pricey asset, after all, and if you’re smart you’re going to be very selective about how you use that writer’s time.

Game studios have talented in-house writers on staff (or they should!), and one of the tests of how good a lead writer you are is how well you co-operate with those guys. That said, the collaborative nature of those relationships does mean an awful lot of meetings, so even with a judiciously selective role, lead writing a game is still probably comparable to turning in a decent mid-length novel, yes.

There’s been talk for a while now about their being a film adaptation based on your Altered Carbon novels. Is that project any further along?

Altered Carbon has been picked up for development by a very well known Hollywood production company in collaboration with a very well known Hollywood screenwriter. I’m not currently at liberty to divulge names, but I have been told to expect a formal announcement in the Hollywood trades this month, so things are certainly moving forward there, yes.

What’s next for you? Do you have any more videogame stories in the works?

Well, currently I’m working on my next fantasy novel, The Dark Defiles, and I’ve got an outlying idea for a comic-book sequence for which I’m doing a bit of research. I’m also waiting on next steps in the movie development of Altered Carbon and another of my books, Market Forces - though my involvement there is likely to be fairly marginal.

As for videogames, I’ve got a bit of lull on that front right now, while we wait and see how Syndicate does, but I’m already mentally clearing some space for the sequel. I purposely set up an open question at the end of the game, and it’s just begging for the narrative to be taken further. So, fingers crossed and watch this space!

Syndicate will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows on 24th February.

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Resident Evil Revelations has released on the Nintendo 3DS in the United States, and as it's already sold out on Amazon.com, we're assuming it's doing rather well too.

The 3DS exclusive has already earned high praise from most critics who've spent time with it, and few would disagree that it looks pretty damn fine for a handheld Resident Evil title.

Revelations is set to release in Europe tomorrow (Feb 9), so there's not long to wait until you can get your portable fix of B.O.W. killing. For now, have a look at the trailer.

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It would seem as though there's no direction Star Wars won't be taken in order to squeeze ever more cash out of the franchise, including motion sensing droid dancing competitions.

It's recently been announced that the release date for Star Wars Kinect will be April 3. To make up for the delays, Microsoft has also announced that the game will have new features, including the aforementioned dancing contests (Galactic Dance Off mode), along with space battles, speeder bike and landspeeder joyrides and new lightsaber duels, such as a fight against Lord Vader himself..

The limited edition R2-D2-themed Xbox 360 and C3-PO controller will also be available, which is likely going to be the main reason people will buy the bundle, as it looks very nice indeed.

Although we've got more than a few reservations about the game, now not least due to the dance off additions, Star Wars Kinect does admittedly look the part, and may even be an entertaining way to feel the Force. We'll have to see how it shapes up in April.

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If you've been awaiting the long delayed I Am Alive, which began life as a full, commercial title and has since transformed into a downloadable title, then you've not got much longer to wait.

Arriving on Xbox Live Arcade on March 7, I Am Alive is a new breed of survival game in which food and water are as precious as guns and ammo. Boasting a unique scenery traversal system and enemy AI behaviour, combined with a grim and gritty presentation, the game, which reminds us of the PlayStation 2 title, Disaster Report, is looking good.

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EA has recently announced that it plans to bring the Mass Effect experience to iOS users with Mass Effect Infiltrator. Designed to enhance players' experience with the upcoming Mass Effect 3, Infiltrator is a third person shooter for iOS, and comes from Iron Monkey Studios, the team behind the great Dead Space iOS release.

Whilst not touted as a standalone game in its own right, as actions taken in Infiltrator will have an effect on Mass Effect 3's Galaxy at War mode, making it more of a companion to the full console outing, this is still promising news for Apple fans, and could well pave the way for a real, full episode in of the popular gaming series.

Mass Effect 3 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is due to hit shelves in the US on March 6 and Europe on March 9.

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Tim Shafer's Psychonauts is widely regarded as a classic, and one of the best platformers of recent times by critics. Sadly, the 2005 game didn't do all that well commercially, and so, publisher interest in putting out a sequel has been lacking, despite Shafer's best efforts to drum up support.

Well, now the situation has taken an interesting turn. Minecraft developer, Markus "Notch" Persson, has made an offer via Twitter to Tim Shafer, simply saying "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen."

The offer, followed up with a confirmation that he was serious about his statement has, so far, received no feedback from Shafer, but, with Minecraft selling so well, there's little doubt that Notch could provide the funds to get Psychonauts 2 off the ground.

The question is, does Tim Shafer really want to get stuck into the sequel? Reports have already surfaced that Tim and Markus are in talks. If so, we could see the resurrection of a dormant franchise that fans have asking for.

Notch's original Twitter post

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You're dead. But don't worry, you get better. That's how your story starts off in Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning. You're a once dead warrior who rises from the netherworld and inexplicably possesses the ability to bend fate to his or her whim. This is lucky, as you're the only one who can fight against an evil, undying force that threatens the various races of the world of Amalur. All in a day's work for a dead hero walking.

After a brief, but effective tutorial of the game's basic mechanics, you're set free in the expansive world, and although you have a main plotline to follow, in true open-world RPG fashion, you're unleashed and allowed to go about your business as you see fit. And, with a world as good looking as this, it's not hard to be sidetracked and dragged off the beaten path, even if you do sense something a little familiar in the proceedings.

You see, it doesn't take all that long into the game before you start to realise that Amalur bears more than a striking resemblance to Lionhead Studio's Fable series. Not only does the game boast a rather stylised look, but, the core gameplay is almost identical in many ways.

Hack and slash

The most notable of these is combat, which behaves and feels very much like Fable's system. You can hack and slash with various weapons, fire ranged shots with bows and sling magic around, all seamlessly, thanks for a simple, yet effective control scheme. There's no target lock, which can cause issues at times with an occasionally wonky camera, but aside from this, it's all very Fable, only a little more satisfying and rewarding. You can choose any combination of primary and secondary weapon to wield (mapped to X and Y respectively), and have a wide range of abilities and combo attacks to utilise. This, combined with the ability to dodge, parry and reposte makes the combat system far better than Fable's, and although you can button-mash many opponents into mulch, some tougher foes will require careful use of your skills, especially defensive abilities.

And additional feature of the combat system is the fate meter. As you slay enemies, this meter fills up and, once full, you can unleash your ability to ‘unravel the fate' of your foes. Hold down LT and RT for a while and you enter a slow-mo mode where you can dole out great damage out on your assailants, leaving each within an inch of their lives. Then, when you press A next to a foe to finish them off, a simple QTE-style button-mash prompt appears. The better you do here, the more experience you'll earn, and once you target is executed, each foe you left on the edge of doom will be dispatched too. It's an interesting mechanic, and one that can be used to turn the tide of almost any battle as it makes you practically godlike for as long as the meter lasts.

The more complex combat system, and its extra functions also makes combat more challenging, and you'll often have to think of better ways to deal with groups of foes if you want to stay alive. This may be a better choice of weapons, a couple of cleverly chosen spells, or the use of the game's stealth system, which lets you sneak up on foes in order to assassinate them with a nifty one-hit takedown, or at the very least impose some serious damage.

This stealth system functions much like those seen in other games, including Skyrim. As you move around, and eye indicator above foes' heads may start to light up, signifying you're about to be seen. Keep it dark and you can perform stealth kills, pickpocket people and can, of course, even avoid combat altogether. Because the game is third person, the stealth system is much more forgiving as you can see your surroundings better, and makes the feature much more central to the proceedings.

Levelling

Progress through the game is, as you'd expect, achieved by killing enemies and completing a myriad of quests in order to earn experience points. As you do this you'll level up, and this allows you to choose a basic stat to improve, such as stealth, lock picking, persuasion and so on, and then you can spend three skill points on more specific abilities, such as improved weapon handling, new spells or physical abilities and the like.

Unlike the system seen in Skyrim, where you get better at everything you do as you do it, here it's more traditional exp for kills and quests. So, you don't need to keep using a sword to get better, you simply plough points into the relevant skill when you level up.

Don't mistake this for overly basic though. Although the system may not be as flexible or deep as Skyrim's approach, it's by no means simple, and there's plenty of scope to build the kind of character that compliments your play style. And, if you make a mistake, or simply want to change things up, you can visit a ‘Fateweaver' to reset all of your spent points and then redistribute them as you see fit.

Other facets include a basic crafting system which again, isn't as deep as the one seen in Skyrim, but is still welcome and lets you save money buying powerful weapons by letting you find or salvage components to make your own, enhance weapons with special gems (which you can also create) or brew your own potions.

Thanks to the seemingly endless number of plants and collectibles in the game's massive world to collect (which is a skill unto itself), it's wise to spend some exp points in boosting these abilities, as it can save you a lot of money.

In fact, Amalur has various elements that really do beef up the whole role playing system. There are some things in the game that, if you don't invest experience points, you're simply not going to be able to do, or do easily.

Want to dispell that tempting chest that could be full of rare items? Then you'll have to learn some dispell skill, or you'll have a hard time of it. Need to persuade a character to part with a needed item? Don't even try if you don't have a good persuasion level.

True, other RPGs do this too, but Amalur seems to place much harsher restrictions and difficulty on things rather than simply preventing you attempting a task outright, meaning that you can try, but you'll probably fail, and so you'll need to plan what type of adventurer you're going to be and stick with it, as it takes a lot of killing and questing to level up. That is, aside from lock picking, which is a little too easy in my opinion. Whereas master locks in Skyrim, for example, would see you break pick after pick, here I picked a very hard lock with only two picks, on more than one occasion, even though my skill wasn't very high at all.

Just questin'

The world in Kingdoms of Amalur is sizable indeed, and it's also densely-packed with dungeons and quests at every turn. Quests can be picked up from the game's various factions and from all manner of NPCs wandering the wilderness and settlements. If you don't show some restraint and start to accept each and every quest you see, you'll soon end up with a heavily stocked quest list. There's always something to do in the world of Amalur.

Quests are also balanced just about right too, and there's quite a bit of variety in there. Dungeon crawls never seem to drag on too long, and each location feels different enough, even if there is a little repetition in yet another generic cave or ruin. And, thanks to the great combat system, you'll always enjoy taking on quests, even if the next mission ends up being a basic ‘go here and kill them' affair. Still, I have to say that there are plenty of tedious quests dotted around too, such as farming a number of materials from creatures or locating several items to deliver to an NPC, and you can't help but groan when you stumble upon such a task.

When simply wandering around the world, the game feels and sounds very much like the aforementioned Fable, only unlike the overly restrictive Lionhead title, which had far to many limited areas to explore, here the world is much more open and free. It's not a truly open world, à la Skyrim, and each location is bordered and enclosed to some degree, but it's still a vast, explorer-friendly land, and you never feel surrounded by invisible walls. There's also no loading between areas, except when you go into buildings or dungeons.

The game also has a nice, retro feel to it, with more than its fair share of Diablo-style looting and treasure hunting, and the layout of the world and general feel remind me of any number of 16-bit classics. It's a great mix of old and new.

As a picture

The presentation of Amalur is impressive, and although it doesn't boast the sheer scale and awe inspiring vistas and freedom of Skyrim, this is one nice looking game. The almost cartoon-like characterisation sits well with the world created for the story, and all dialog is fully voiced to a high quality, with some great ambient music underpinning the adventure. Magic and special attack effects are suitably flashy, and the variety of environments, enemies and loot on offer ensure the world, and your adventure in it, stays gripping and absorbing throughout.

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning is one of those games that really does take you by surprise, and it's a great, if sometimes a little basic and repetitive game that plays more like an old classic than a new breed of RPG, but is all the better for it. And, thanks to the huge world and ridiculous amount of quests to go at, it's a game that could last months.

To sum up, although I'd still favour Skyrim if you can only get one of the two, Reckoning is a highly recommended title. It's a very promising start to what will hopefully be a new series of RPG tales.

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Twisted Metal, the cult hit, PlayStation exclusive series is due to return in a week or so, at least in America. Players in the EU will have to wait until March to get some fender-bending action as Sony has insisted on some localised cuts.

In order to alleviate fans' worries that the game will be cut as badly as Twisted Metal Black, which had whole cut scenes removed, David Jaffe posted on NeoGaf a few days ago.

In his post, Jaffe stated that the cuts themselves are very minor, and don't affect the gameplay and/or contact that much, if at all. For example, one of the ‘weapons' in the game features a guy strapped to a hospital gurney loaded with TNT. In the original cut, the poor souls is kicking and screaming, whilst in the EU cut, he's already dead, so you're blowing up a corpse instead of a live victim (apparently, disrespect for the dead is okay in the EU). Another minor cut sees a girl stabbing Sweet Tooth in the eye off camera, instead of showing actual contact.

Jaffe makes it clear that it's not his call, and that cuts like this are certainly not appreciated by him, but, as Sony owns the IP and funds the game, and due to regional censorship laws, there was no choice.

To be honest, the cuts do sound pretty minor, and as long as the game itself remains in tact, do we really care? Even if you do, Twisted Metal should also be region free, as most PS3 titles are, and it'll be easy enough to import a US copy.

Twisted Metal is due for release on February 14 in America and March 7 in Europe.

Jaffe's NeoGaf post

And here's a trailer showing Mr Grimm tearing it up, as only he knows how to.

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Releasing on the Xbox worldwide on April 17, The Witcher 2 is very highly anticipated, and there's no shortage of build up thanks to plenty of teasers and trailers surfacing about the enhanced edition of the game.

Here's another suitably epic trailer that throws down the gauntlet, asking you to dare stand up against all the wrongs of the world. Well, do you feel lucky... Well, do ya?

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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is out soon, and in it you become a hero that can control fate, including your own role in destiny, as demonstrated nicely in this, the latest trailer for the game.

A massive, open-world RPG, Reckoning is a new IP from EA and Big Huge Games, and if you've read our review already, you'll know that we thought it was pretty nifty. The game is released today in the ‘States, and on Friday in Europe.

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In a recent tweet, Pete Hines from Bethesda announced that the much anticipated Skyrim Creation Kit is arriving tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7, much to fans' delight, and an army of awaiting modders.

The kit, a full set of tools that opens up Skyrim to anyone with the skills to create their own content and mods, is just one reason why PC owners are getting the prime Skyrim experience. Even now, before the kit is released there are plenty of mods and tweaks that can be applied to the game, and with the kit arriving tomorrow, no doubt the floodgates will open.

What's more, the creation kit also boasts the Skyrim Workshop, a Steam-based storefront that allows players to browse mods and leave feedback. Mods themselves are free, but this service will make it easier than ever for modders to get their work out there.

And, that's not all. As well as the creation kit itself, Pete Hines hinted that there would be an extra surprise released along with the kit. There's no solid proof on what this is, but the common belief is that it will be the oft-requested high definition texture pack. Skyrim, in true HD? Yes please.

We'll find out what the surprise is tomorrow, for now, here's the creation kit preview video, just in case you missed it.

Pete Hines' Twitter post

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The Darkness II is set to fall on gamers next week, so in preparation, here's a quick trailer showing some of the more brutal ways Jackie Estacado can dispatch his foes. Meaty!

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If you've got a PlayStation 3, then you've likely already had an email confirming the end of the PlayStation Network as we know it. Sony is discontinuing the brand in favour of the new Sony Entertainment Network, which will launch on February 8. Your existing PSN account will remain untouched, and simply be renamed.

This new, and admittedly, even more generic sounding name than PSN, should, as Sony states, help the company to "enhance its unique digital entertainment offering."

Quite what this actually means as far as its effect on users isn't all that clear, but it's safe to say that Sony is keen to follow up on Microsoft's recent Xbox dashboard update that further made the Xbox more of a central entertainment system instead of an out-and-out games console.

Let's just hope that, along with all the re-branding Sony also gives some thought to system security while it's at it.

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It's safe to say that we're just a little excited about the upcoming release of Aliens: Colonial Marines here at DoG. Whilst the AvP games were okay, and offered some interesting takes on the legendary movies, there was always something missing.

What we really wanted was not to play as the Alien, as cool as they are, or to play as the overpowered Predator. By far the most entertaining aspects of all of the AvP games was the Marine. Man with cool guns against an alien army equals good times.

Well, Gearbox software is going to give us just that, and with Aliens: Colonial Marines it's all about the struggle between man and xenomorph, all set in perhaps one of the most iconic deep space outposts committed to film, LV-426's Hadley's Hope.

Continuing directly after the events of Aliens, the game will see another Marine detachment deploy to LV-426 to see what happened to Burke, Hicks, Ripley and Co. Of course, we all know what to expect.

Finally this looks like the game we've wanted for a very long time, and if this latest trailer is anything to go by, then we're in for one hell of a ride. Packed to the rafters with genuine Aliens style, everything from the colony design, lighting, voice work, and Pulse Rifle SFX are spot on, and the Aliens are looking very tasty indeed.

Aliens: Colonial Marines isn't set to arrive until late in the year, but this trailer should help keep you going for now.

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The Witcher 2 was one of the biggest games released last year for the PC, and is certainly one of those games that made console owners feel more than a little green eyed. Its blend of deep story, robust combat and destiny-affecting decisions made for a truly great RPG adventure.

Luckily for Xbox 360 owners, this slice of fantasy pie is now heading to Microsoft's box later this year. And, it's not a mere port, but a new adaptation, with a slew of tweaks and redesigns to improve upon the already excellent game. Well, it's not called the Enhanced Edition for nothing.

This latest developer diary outlines some of the changes we can expect from the console incarnation, such as reworked controls and camera and a tweaked graphic engine to make the game run as smoothly and look as good on the Xbox's aging architecture.

It's certainly looking very impressive so far, and what's even better is that existing PC players will also be provided with the enhancements too.

It’s probably not a widely known fact that long before Syndicate was released in 1993, it began as a multiplayer game, with rival agents running around and killing each other over a local network. But designer Sean Cooper’s isometric tactical shooter eventually became so ambitious, and so sprawling, that something had to give – and by the time it hit the shelves, the local multiplayer of its earlier build was long gone.

This is an important bit of information because, as I settled down to try out a few multiplayer levels of Starbreeze’s reboot, I was immediately taken back to my youth, when I’d play the original Syndicate with a friend on the Amiga. We’d sit there for hours, taking it in turns to complete the game’s bullet-strewn missions.

“Wouldn’t it be great,” I remember saying to my chum as my quartet of cyborg agents opened fire on a group of enemies, “if we could play this at the same time? We could help each other complete the missions.”

“Or just kill each other,” he pointed out.

And now, almost 20 years later, my boyhood dream has come true. Well, sort of. The news that Starbreeze had reworked Syndicate as yet another first-person shooter was greeted with a mixture of cynicism and outright anger from some quarters, and if publisher EA were in any doubt about the esteem with which the original Syndicate is still held among 30-something gamers, then the reaction of Internet dwellers made one thing clear: some ageing properties have to be treated with care.

Then again, Starbreeze has been responsible for some genuinely great shooters over the past few years – most notably its two Chronicles Of Riddick games (notable for being infinitely superior to the Vin Diesel movie that inspired them) and comic book tie-in The Darkness. And as more footage of Syndicate has come to light over the past 12 months or so, my initial scepticism has gradually given way to a growing sense of intrigue.

The perspective may have changed in Syndicate 2012, but the elements of Bullfrog’s classic are all here: a dystopian sci-fi future of warring corporations. Missions that involve sending cyborg agents into cities and facilities and kidnapping, killing and destroying anything that gets in your way. The 1993 Syndicate was violent and gloriously amoral – and in this respect, the new version looks little different.

But back to the point of this article: Syndicate 2012’s multiplayer mode. Teams of up to four players take control of a cyborg agent, and together, cooperate to complete a series of murderous objectives. Along with three fellow writers, I played two missions: the UK and Afghanistan (like the original, Syndicate’s missions are all selected from a world map – complete them all, control the globe).

All the usual multiplayer trappings are present and correct; you choose a weapon load-out before you set off (offensive, defensive, sniper) and then it’s time to start shooting.

And shortly after the doors opened on our agents’ transporter, and we dashed into our first battle, we noticed something: Syndicate is quite hard. During our assault of some sort of futuristic research facility, we found ourselves repeatedly cut down by enemy fire. Enemies streamed in more quickly than we could murder them.

“Is it just me, or is this quite difficult?” I whispered to the player sitting to my right.

“It really is very difficult,” he said, conspiratorially.

The cycle of death and “Mission Fail” notices continued for several minutes, until finally, the penny dropped: we simply weren’t working together well enough. Each player was running off in a different direction and dying, when what we should have been doing was staying in a tight, close formation and watching each other’s backs.

This might seem obvious in hindsight, but relatively few shooters so brutally punish players for not behaving in a cooperative fashion – take too many hits, and the screen will tint red, leaving you limping around helplessly until a team member runs over and revives you with the LB button. This means that, if players aren’t close to each other at all times, disaster will quickly follow; you’ll all be left stumbling about in a near-death state, and too far away from a healthy player to be saved.

Once we’d learned to stick close to each other, and began moving around as a more coordinated pack, we immediately started to improve. Play areas are divided up into discrete zones of rooms and corridors, and you have to wait until your team mates are in position at a bulkhead or terminal before the game opens the door to the next zone. Once that door opens, all hell breaks loose – enemy grunts pour in, and at certain points, much tougher mid- and end-level boss characters will accompany them.

You get points for kills, with extra points for headshots and loads of points for killing sergeants and commanders. These latter enemies also carry the tastiest weapons, including the prized Gatling guns and flamethrowers that were a highlight of the original. In terms of pace and atmosphere, Syndicate reminds me a little of Brink, except with rather meatier weapons – the shotgun, in particular, is great fun to use.

If there’s one thing to criticise about the multiplayer maps we sampled, they’re rather sparse and grey. They offer the usual selection of ladders, gantries, corridors and loading bays full of crates and drums, but little of the atmosphere and urban sprawl of the original. Maybe having civilians running around amid the screaming fire fights would have been a technical problem for Starbreeze, but it’s a pity that the maps we were shown were so claustrophobic and quiet.

On a more positive note, the gameplay itself is thoroughly enjoyable. Kills are satisfying, and the feeling of elation among our little platoon when we all worked together to complete a mission was palpable.

At one point, while we were being sprayed with Gatling gun fire from a mid-level boss, I managed to hop up on a vantage point while my fellow cyborgs distracted him. I got close enough to hack into his armour (a process that can be applied to sentry cannons, too, if you’re stealthy enough), disable it, shoot him to death, pick up his gun, and kill lots of grunts in a hail of bullets and psychotic laughter.

The multiplayer Syndicate may only display light shades of the original’s influence (something we’re hoping will be in greater evidence in the more heavily scripted single player mode), but there’s one thing we can say for sure: it’s great fun, and we’re looking forward to experiencing more of it.

Syndicate will be released on the 24th February for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

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As Clarence Boddicker once said, "Guns, guns, guns!" Rockstar isn't being too shy of late about the upcoming Max Payne 3, and here we get to see Max toting Dirty Harry's favourite calibre hand cannon, with particularly satisfying results.

Along with this insta-kill action comes word of the official website launch. So, be sure to head over to the Max Payne 3 website for everything Payne-related.

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Following on from yesterday's post about the troubles at THQ, GameTrailers has reported some more information coming from the publisher, which is heavy on as yet unnamed titles, but promises a bumper crop of releases.

The sequel to the post apocalyptic shooter Metro: 2033, Last Light, has been pushed back to early 2013, and will release around the same time as Devil's Third from Tomonobu Itagaki.

Alongside this news is a list of release, many currently unknown, including "two unannounced core titles for release in fiscal 2013," These supposedly include a title by Turtle Rock Studio, who worked on such titles as Left 4 Dead and CS: Condition Zero, and an original game by THQ Montral and Patrice Desilet (ex-Assassin's Creed producer).

Also announced for the 2014 fiscal period (April 1 2013-Mar 31-2013) are the Warhammer 40K-themed MMO, Dark Millennium Online, Guillermo del Toro-assisted horror title, inSANE from Volition, and Homefront 2, which is being developed by Crytek.

So, despite the obvious issues facing the company, there's still no shortage of releases in the pipeline, and this doesn't even include four as yet unannounced core games slated for sometime in 2014. Let's just hope the money troubles don't get the better of the publisher. 

GameTrialers

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Dropping off the radar of most gamers due to both delays and a general lack of interest, the Ghost Recon series of Clancy-themed games has been on a prolonged hiatus of late.

Ever since Advanced Wafighter 2 rolled out onto consoles back in 2007, and aside from a jaunt on the 3DS last year, the series hasn't exactly been on active duty, with the next instalment being delayed more than once.

Now, it seems, there's some light at the end of the tunnel, and here we can see the single player trailer for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier show off its core gameplay in style.

The eventual release looks to return to its tactical co-op roots, but this time has far more in the way of high-tech gadgetry up its sleeve. Cloaking devices, magnetic x-ray scopes, drones, remote sensors that can show enemies through walls, and more are set to feature in gameplay where "Only the dead fight fair."

Its certainly a different move, putting the slant on making your tactics focus on fighting dirty, with all sorts of high-tech advantage, but there looks to be plenty of traditional running, gunning and cover shooting in there too, with, of course, plenty of room for stealth.

What's clear is that the game is certainly shaping up nicely, and the inevitable multiplayer co-op matches we'll be involved in could be very enjoyable indeed. Future Soldier has just pinged on our radar again.

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