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The Darkness delayed for the Germans
We love getting to use this word ... the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK) has decided that a few changes need to be made to The Darkness before it releases in Germany. Key elements that need to be changed are Nazi symbols and a finishing move showing a human heart being ripped out. Before the Americans in the room get all First Amendment happy, the Germans have never allowed Nazi symbols in games (all the way back to Wolfenstein 3D) -- they're a little sensitive about that stuff. These requests for changes are also a very tempered move by the USK instead of just outright passive aggressively "banning" the game by not rating it, like they did with Dead Rising and Gears of War.The Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game will now release on July 27 to satisfy the USK's demands. The PS3 version was delayed a week ago for unspecified reasons across Europe until July 20 - so Germany will need to wait an extra week. This did not affect the UK launch or content of The Darkness which occured today.
Final reminder: win The Darkness from X3F
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.
The Darkness multiplayer trailer tears apart trash talker
In case you needed another reason to be excited for this week's release of The Darkness (or you're a masochistic European PS3 owner) we present this multiplayer trailer. It's entertaining, not just for the gameplay, but also for the little narrative in the trailer about a constant smack-talker being (as the kids say) owned by a bunch of darklings, one of which appears to be wearing a top hat (entertainment get!).But be careful if you're a little fella, as the trailer features some adult language. ... And, you know, adult murder. Also, there's at least one evisceration, which we can all agree is pretty adult too.
ESRB seeks to rate game trailers [update]
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is looking to rate gameplay trailers, according to information obtained by Gamasutra. Footage for D3 Publisher's Dark Sector was requested to be pulled because it contained "excessive or offensive content," even though it was behind an age gate. 2K Games told Gamasutra that they had to receive a separate rating for The Darkness trailer and that "game publishers that do not comply with the age gate requirement are subject to enforcement actions by the ESRB," though what those actions entail is not made clear.If the ESRB is indeed moving to rate trailers, many questions are left unanswered. Our biggest concern would be with user-created footage and machinima. Would the ESRB see that as falling under their sphere of influence? Much like the Oblivion "skin-cident", could publishers be punished for content made by the community? And does the organization have the manpower to enforce such a policy change?Update: Game Politics has provided some historical context to this news, noting that the ESRB's actions are not without precedent.
Watch Darkness shape-shifting multiplayer
We've heard quite a lot about heart-eating single player campaign of The Darkness. We've seen all the Darkness powers put to good use. Kill all the lights, yadda, yadda, yadda. What we haven't seen much, however, is multiplayer. Lucky for us, GameTrailers has posted a video showing off exactly that. While the multiplayer appears to offer the same run and gun action as the campaign, it also offers up a new shape-shifting twist. Players are allowed to turn into Darklings (the little goblin/imp things) at any time. As noted by the video, Darklings are small and agile, whereas humans have superior firepower. Honestly, it's a pretty neat little twist, one we're looking forward to trying. Check out the video after the break.
Shipping this week: eat your heart out edition
Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, squirrels and hamsters, it's a big week for our beloved Xbox 360. Not only do we finally get to sample the heart-eating goodness of The Darkness (a game we're giving away, by the way), but we also have a plethora of other games arriving as well. In fact, there are so many games coming out this week, we're going to whip out (that's right) a bulleted list. Behold: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix The Bigs Hour of Victory The Darkness Overlord Transformers: The Game Ratatouille That's a lot of games. We're particularly excited about Overlord, which has been sitting patiently in our rental queue for some time. Are you planning on picking up any of these titles?
Reminder: win The Darkeness from X3F
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.
Reminder: The Darkness giveaway ends tomorrow
You have entered our The Darkness giveaway, haven't you? We're trying to beat Xbox 360 Fanboy by getting more entries than them ... but it looks like they've taken the lead! Make sure you tell all your PS3-owning friends to enter. The site with the most entries gets not two, but three copies of the game to give away.You like winning, don't you? To enter, visit the official contest page. Remember, the contest ends at 11:59PM EST tomorrow (6/26). For complete rules, click here.
Video: First 25 minutes of the Darkness
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.[Thanks Joshua]
The Darkness delayed for Euro PS3 until July 20
PS3 Fanboy reports that this week's anticipated title The Darkness is hiding in the shadows for European PS3 owners another month. Turns out the game is being delayed until July 20 for the PS3, the Xbox 360 version will supposedly still release on June 29. This only affects Europe and does not change the June 25 release in the US. There is no word yet as to a reason for the delay.There is a silver lining in this news for European PS3 owners who really want to possess themselves with The Darkness. Games on the PS3 are region free, so if you're in Europe and have a buddy in the states, just have them pick it up for you and ship it on over. There are also international games retailers, just make sure to find one with free shipping. Hopefully we can get an answer this week on what happened.
Get ready for The Darkness
Next week, PS3 gamers are finally going to get (shock!) a real game. 2K Games is releasing The Darkness to the Americas next week. We've received a batch of new screenshots from the game, showcasing some of its brutal, gory gameplay. We're working with 2K Games right now to have something real special for you ... Stay tuned for more details.%Gallery-3226%
New Darkness video features darklings gameplay
When we first heard about this new clip from The Darkness we were really excited -- not because of the video, but because we misread it as "Darkwings gameplay." Can you imagine being able press a button and send an army of purple-suited Drake Mallards after your enemies, gas guns blazing puffing? But, sadly, it turns out that that the video is actually about darklings.We guess the darklings are OK too. We've always dreamed of having an army of foul-mouthed imps to take care of our light work. We especially like the part where one madly fires a weapon at an oncoming train while shouting "Death to the invaders!" ... No, it's no "Let's get dangerous!", but we guess it's a start.
Video: The Darkness? More like Teh Hawtness!!1
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?
Video: Just devouring hearts in The Darkness
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!)
The Darkness demo gets held back
We just received a tip that The Darkness demo has hit an unforeseen road block and may not make it to the Marketplace before the game ships later this month. Being a subscriber to The Darkness' MySpace group, Ben Furneaux says that he received a subscribers only bulletin message from Lord Sonatine stating that the demo has been delayed, but will release as soon as possible. Again, we aren't cool enough to be subscribers to The Darkness' official MySpace page, so we didn't get the message to confirm its contents. But you can take Ben's word for it and check out the bulletin message he received, posted after the break. The Darkness can be stopped ... by Microsoft's certification team.[Thanks, Ben Furneaux]
Achievements come out of the ... er ... Darkness
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?
Video: Hell as seen in The Darkness
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.
The Darkness 'Black Hole' video sucks
Not since the Cerebral Bore have we been this irrationally excited about a first-person shooter weapon. Sure, The Darkness' Black Hole is a little like the main weapon/item in Portal, except instead of whisking you from room to room, the B-hole whisks bad guys to getting messed up. Also, we're a big fan of shooting guys getting sucked up by the hole, which seems like the equivalent of getting kicked in the nards while ... well, while your cerebrospinal fluid is being drained from your head.All that being said, we're still not sure about playing the whole game while a radioactive dark Alf watches over your shoulder. It seems a bit like having to play the game on the bus -- the bus ... to Hell.
IGN interviews The Darkness writer Paul Jenkins
With the release of The Darkness less than a month away IGN have seen fit to interview a certain Mr. Paul Jenkins about his role in the development of the game. British-born (and therefore automatically cool) Jenkins worked on the comic of The Darkness for Top Cow and is now working on the script for the game. Other game credentials include the God of War series and the Legacy of Kain series, the latter of which happens to be a particular favourite of mine. With games like these under his belt we can be sure to get something great out of the story of The Darkness. The interview discusses his experiences in the industry -- both comics and video games -- as well as what it has been like writing for The Darkness and developing the game with Starbreeze. It's an interesting read, by all accounts, though there's little information on the game itself except a wee bit of regarding implementation of 'invisible' loading screens. Be sure to check it out, regardless. If you find yourself hungry for more The Darkness goodies then keep in mind that we should be seeing a demo on the PSN within the next few weeks. We can't wait, can you?
Demon Arms are evil and know how to kill
A few days ago The Darkness awoke from its slumber and released a new teaser video featuring those imitating little Demon Arms. And as you can see in the video above, the Demon Arms simply rock. Not only because they deal out death, punishment, and pain, but because their eyes glow red and they drool too. Around here we call them the tentacles of fun. Take a look at the video above and tell us, will you be embracing The Darkness this Summer?
