Comic Con is not only good for comic related news and culture, but also for semi-official video game sequel announcements as well. It's true!
According to The Quarter Bin's recap of Top Cow Production' Comic Con panel, when talking about their future comic book licensing agreements they responded by hinting pretty heavily that The Darkness 2 is real and in the works. More specifically, Top Cow told everyone in attendance that "we can't say DARKNESS and video game sequel in the same sentence. So, DARKNESS. Wink. Sequel." So, there you have it. A possibly, maybe, probably The Darkness sequel announcement straight from The Darkness creators Top Cow. Fun stuff.
After hopping onto the XBLM this morning, we were surprised to come across new downloadable content for none other than The Darkness. Odd, no? The new DLC can be found under the "New Releases" section of the Marketplace under the not so convenient title "Darkness MP Map: DM_Haunt" (uhh, wha?). The content features the multiplayer map DM_Haunt which is set in the streets of New York City, a new death match and team death match game mode as well as the ability to customize your shapeshifter, darkling or human character. The best part about the DLC is the fact that it is 100% free. Worst part about the DLC is that it's for The Darkness' multiplayer of which we don't know of anyone who has played it in the last three months. Oh well, free content is free content.
We have good news for everyone who already purchased The Darkness (or will be after trying the demo) and have tried to enjoy the game's laggy online multiplayer. Over on The Darkness' official MySpace page, Lord Sonatine has confirmed that they'll be releasing a multiplayer patch sometime in August to fix the lag issues that so many players are experiencing. Lord Sonatine explains that the problem stems from poor host upstream speeds which weren't caught while developing the game due to the studio's uber fast internet hookup. For now, they recommend hosting a match with less players which will help alleviate the bandwidth strain on the host.
On behalf of the hundreds of people we've heard complain about laggy The Darkness multiplayer we send a well deserved thank you to Starbreeze Studios for the patch. That is, if the patch will actually fix the lag problem. Stay tuned ...
We were promised it in June, it was then delayed a few times, but it is finally here. Up on the XBLM this morning is a 1.27GB single player The Darkness demo featuring three campaign levels of death, darkness and more death. And if you don't already know, The Darkness has received generally favorable reviews for its campaign although most everyone agrees that its multiplayer is rather lackluster. But the demo is all about the campaign, so if you have yet to get your hands on The Darkness we advise giving the demo a download and experiencing first hand what black eels with teeth protruding from your body actually feels like.
When browsing through the Achievements menu in the pause screen in The Darkness, we came across a nifty feature that we saw in GRAW 2: Achievement Progress reports. Any Achievement that requires you to do an action multiple times, it will display a percentage for completion on the bottom. Also, the "collectibles" Achievements show which ones you're missing in numerical order, so that is very handy indeed. Starbreeze knows where it's at.
Alright folks, this is it. Today is your last day to enter our Fanboys Fight for The Darkness giveaway. Not to be cocky, but we currently have just over twice as many entries as PS3 Fanboy. If you don't already know, whichever site gets more entries gets an extra copy of The Darkness to give away. So far, it's looking pretty good for us to have that third copy. If you'd like your shot at The Darkness, head over to the official contest page and enter. If you don't, then the Darkness will possess you and give you cool superpowers. Wait ... no ... if you don't, then the Darkness won't possess you and give you cool superpowers*, so hurry up and enter already.
*Regardless of whether or not you enter this contest, you more than likely will not be possessed by anything other than jealousy of the winners, or elation, should you turn out to be one those winners.
Doing a second pass over our Sunday newspaper ads, we noticed that Circuit City is offering The Darkness for ten bucks cheaper than retail. This week, both online and in-store, The Darkness is available for the low, low price of $49.99, but doesn't include the 2K Sports Darkling like Gamestop offers. Oh well, $10 is $10, so save some cash and pick the game up over at the city of circuits unless you are hell-bent on getting the 2K Sports Darkling. If you are, we understand.
Just a quick reminder for those of you who missed it on Friday (or don't look at our fabulous pinboxes on the right side of the page), we're still running our Fanboys Fight for The Darkness contest. We're having a little competition with PS3 Fanboy, you see. Whichever site gets more entries also gets a third copy of The Darkness to give away, leaving the losing site with a paltry two.
It's super easy to enter. All you have to do is go to the official contest post and leave a comment that finishes this sentence:
"The 360 version of The Darkness is better than the PS3 version because ... "
See? Easy, right? Head over to the contest page and get commenting. We're accepting entries until 11:59 EDT tomorrow. You can read the official rules by clicking here.
Over at Gametrailers, diablokiller18 uploaded the first 25 minutes of The Darkness' single player story. Sure, the aspect ratio is wrong, and we're not entirely sure if he's "allowed" to do that, but it builds hype, and if the first review is any indication, the game is going to be a summer blockbuster anyway. Obviously, spoilers and potentially NSFW language can be found, so if you don't want to ruin the experience, we suggest you avert your eyes. Otherwise, embrace The Darkness and enjoy.
Fresh out of hell's oven is the first review for upcoming 360 release The Darkness and word on the street is that it's actually good. 1UP posted the first review and gave the game a whopping 9.0 out of a possible 10. They felt that the presentation, the look, the gameplay and overall incorporation of the Darkness features (tentacles and all) were very polished and fun. As the saying goes, "it just works". Completing the game will take an average of ten or so hours, but 1UP feels that players can easily get distracted by messing around with the physics engine or taking advantage of the game's down times by roaming the city. The only drawback to the game is its somewhat gimmicky multiplayer, which developer Starbreeze even admits shouldn't be taken too seriously. Overall, we're impressed by how much 1UP was impressed by the game and will be patiently watching metacritic for more reviews to hit the internet. Who knows, The Darkness could actually be a solid game.
The new trailer for The Darkness is sweeping the interwebs, and it's totally awesome. It's got a nice narrative by the Darkness itself. It shows off aspects of the game not yet seen, in a more underworld-type setting. It's making the 25th of June all the more painful a wait. Which is somewhat of a good thing, as the anticipation only makes us more excited. Are you going to devour some hearts later this month?
Want to devour your enemy's heart? Want to create a black hole of death? How about gunning down Nazi soldiers in hell? If you answered yes to those questions, then it's looking like The Darkness is the game for you. GameTrailers.com posted an exclusive preview of game where they run through all the game's features, give a general sense of the storyline, and offer up an overall impression of what you'll experience when the game releases later this month. Give the video a watch and take it all in before the darkness comes and you fall asleep. (Yeah, bad joke. But you can't hate a blogger for trying!)
Xbox 360 Achievements, the sly dogs, got their hands on the Achievement list for Starbreeze Studios' comic book adaption, The Darkness. Upon looking at the 50 Achievements available you can tell that there is a heavy emphasis on the multiplayer aspect of the game which we definitely like to see, although we can't tell if these require to be in ranked games in order to be unlocked, or if they can be performed in public matches. Our favorite from the list, would easily be "Knuckle, Meet Face", for indulging in your first melee kill. What's yours?
Literary depictions of Hell vary considerably from person to person. Dante described the 9th circle of Hell as a frozen wasteland, made so by the chilling wind created by the Devil's wings. Meanwhile, Hell as depicted in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (truly a masterwork of the 20th century) gives its inhabitants a wide array of personalized punishments from which a sinner must choose. In The Darkness, it seems, Hell and its appearance are completely at the whim of the Devil. In the video above it is depicted as a war zone (reminiscent of WWII) with a blackened sky and withered landscape. We have to admit, listening to the Devil say "this is my dream of you" is pretty damned creepy. Check out another video (featuring Pestilence, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse) after the break.
Uncovered last week, the remake of Chronicles of Riddick for new-gen consoles has been confirmed for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. As previously revealed, the game will be titled Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. The game will receive a graphical face-lift and will feature a new single-player episode that takes place after the eponymous escape from Butcher Bay. Not only that, but the game will also feature online multiplayer. We must note, as does Joystiq, that the developer's commentary mode that was hinted at last week is not mentioned in the Sierra press release. Here's hoping it makes it into the final game.
Assault on Dark Athena is expected to arrive by the end of the year.
After hopping onto the 
We have good news for everyone who already purchased The Darkness (or will be after trying the 
When browsing through the Achievements menu in the pause screen in 
