This Thursday, April 17th Kane and Lynch: Dead Men will receive new (and totally free) "The Dope Bag" downloadable content and with it will come other goodies.
In an interview with Kane and Lynch game director Kim Krogh, IGN learned that come Thursday the new set of DLC will be available alongside two other additions. One addition being a set of new achievements that was spotted a few weeks back that'll add an additional 250 Gamerscore. The other goodie we'll see on Thursday is a general title update that's aimed at fixing a few bugs and annoyances found in Fragile Alliance including friendly-fire between re-spawned characters. So, in recap: Free Kane and Lynch "The Dope Bag" DLC which adds new multiplayer maps, new achievements and a title update too. End recap.
Despite average reviews and its very own scandal, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men has managed to sell one million copies. As you might expect, the announcement of the milestone also included the very important keyword "franchise." Yup, it looks like a sequel to the game is a certainty now. Furthermore, the game has outperformed the same period of 2006 sales for the previous IO Interactive title Hitman: Blood Money. SCi expects sales to remain high for the rest of its fiscal year. That's good news for SCi, especially in light of their recent troubles. Now all we can do is wait for the sequel: Kane & Lynch 2: Even More Deader Men.
Today's most controversial Xbox Live Marketplace offering: a demo for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men from Eidos. It's strange that Kane & Lynch, for many gamers, will be remembered more for the controversy surrounding it than for the game itself. Frankly, we're eager to see what all the fuss was about. In all honesty, we've been curious about the game since it was first revealed. The demo features one level of the single player campaign (co-op is also available). Most will recognize the level from the trailers in which Kane, Lynch, and his crew rappel down the side of a skyscraper. Give the demo a try and see if the game is worth remembering for the right reasons.
The gang over at Gamertag Radio is giving away five copies of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. All you have to do to win is figure out how you identify with crazed psychotics. Specifically, GTR wants to know which of the game's protagonists you identify with more. There's Kane, the brutally violent mercenary, and Lynch: the brutally violent psychopath. If you need help figuring this out, you may want to listen to the latest episode of GTR or spend some time on Wikipedia. Once you've got your answer, head over to GTR and post it.
We're going to have to go with Lynch, the paranoid schizophrenic, because we're pretty sure that the gaming industry is conspiring to take all of our money.
In the third of the Kane & Lynch Insider series, the developers at IO Interactive discuss the multiplayer mode of the game and the (offline only) co-op. One thing that stands out to us as we watch the video is that the graphics aren't all that spectacular. A petty complaint perhaps, but early trailers had us impressed. Maybe it's the bland UI, but something seems off. But, gameplay is paramount, and the multiplayer mode (called Fragile Alliance) looks to change things up a bit. As we've discussed before, players cooperate to pull off a bank heist, with victory being awarded to the criminal that gets out with the most money. To spice things up, players can betray their teammates to steal their cash, and those who are betrayed are resurrected as police officers.
Honestly, it's a little hard to listen to the developers talk about how much co-op adds to the game. Call us jaded, but the fact that co-op is an offline only option is sorely disappointing, making the developers claims about how it changes the experience fall a little flat. Don't get us wrong, we love couch co-op as much as any gamer, but considering that nearly all major titles have online co-op now, it seems like a hefty oversight.
Still, let's try not to dull our excitement for Kane & Lynch, hmm? Watch the video and tell us what you think.
Never once have we thought to use the word "cute" to describe Kane & Lynch -- a game about robbing banks at gunpoint, among other things -- but it really seems the best word to describe the video embedded above. Most of the video is simply listening to Lynch talk about how much he likes the Grand Theft Auto series, and how excited he is to play GTAIV. Of course, we all know it's been delayed until next year, so it looks like he'll have to wait. As we said, it's a cute video (it's also got some salty language, so watch at your own discretion). Give it a watch and give the folks at Eidos some props for their cleverness.
The first in what a appears to be a series of video diaries, the Kane & Lynch Insider #1 has been released. The video focuses on the story development of the upcoming crime action game from IO Interactive. Jens Peter Kurup, the game's director, discusses how the story has developed over time. Interestingly, the game was originally based solely around Kane, with Lynch playing only a background role. As development progressed, Lynch became more central to the story, until the developers decided to essentially turn the game into "a buddy movie." Also, Kurup stresses that players may not necessarily like Kane and Lynch, but that players should still care about them at least a little bit. In this he compares Kane and Lynch to characters like Scarface. He's a horrible human being, but you still manage to care about him. Basically, that's the goal for Kane & Lynch. Here's hoping IO Interactive manages to pull it off.
Warning: Video possibly NSFW thanks to violence and one instance of profanity.
Alright, we've got good news and bad news about Kane and Lynch. Pick a hand. You sure you want that one? Alright, bad news first then. The bad news is that the game will not feature online co-op. Yeah, a game that centers around two characters working together doesn't have online co-op. The news was confirmed by Eurogamer in an interview with the game's director Jens Peter Kurup. From what we can gather of Kurup's circuitous answers, online co-op was scrapped in order to deliver the game on time.
In happier news, the multiplayer mode for Kane and Lynch has been revealed and it sounds like a lot of fun. Described by the developers at IO Interactive as such a good idea that they were surprised no one thought of it before, the multiplayer mode has players performing a bank heist. Titled Fragile Alliance, the mode has players attempt to rob a bank within a certain time limit while avoiding police fire. The twist is that players can turn on each other in order to get more loot. However, killing teammates immediately flags you as a traitor, so one has to pick the right moment to betray. Make it back to the getaway car with extra cash and you can purchase better weapons the following round. As a bonus, betrayed teammates are resurrected as police officers so they can exact their bittersweet revenge. In short, it sounds like a great idea. Here's hoping it makes us forget about online co-op.
So far we've been pretty impressed with what we've seen of Kane & Lynch. The blackguards at Joystiq seemed to enjoy their time with the game at E3 as well. Thus it's with both a little joy and trepidation that we report the game is scheduled to hit store shelves on November 20th. We are happy that we'll finally be able to give the game a proper once over, but also a little worried that November is fast becoming the most densely packed month we've seen all year. Mass Effect, Rock Band (presumably), Call of Duty 4, Blacksite,Army of Two, and now Kane & Lynch. Of course, we're probably forgetting some, too.
Sorry kids, looks like we're eating hot dogs this Thanksgiving. Turkey's expensive, and these games won't buy themselves.
