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Humble Weekly: Mark of the Ninja, King Arthur's Gold
Stretch out your clicking fingers and get ready for some mad platforming action in the latest Humble Weekly Sale. Available for the week for any price you want are Shank 2, Blocks That Matter and Bit.Trip Runner. For $6 or more, grab Runner 2, Megabyte Punch and Fly'n. Add in King Arthur's Gold and Mark of the Ninja: Special Edition for $10 or more. All of these games individually would run $119. They're all either DRM-free downloads or on Steam, except for Fly'n, which is Steam only. As always, split your payment among the developers, Humble itself or charity, in whichever percentage breakdown you desire. Charities this time around are the American Red Cross and Child's Play. This week, Humble launched a new way for you to get your cheap-game fix with Humble Daily Bundles. Today, May 15, grab The Banner Saga, an artwork pack and The Banner Saga: Factions for $15 or more. Humble will run new daily bundles through May 26. [Image: Humble]
Canadian Indie Bundle on Steam: Superbrothers, Shanks and more
Our brothers and sisters in The Great White North are getting some time in the spotlight today with a new bundle on Steam. The Canadian Indie Bundle packages together games from Klei Entertainment, Capybara Games, Gaslamp Games and more for $14.99.Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, Shank and Shank 2 highlight this Canadian Indie Bundle, joined by Space Pirates and Zombies, Waveform, Hoard, Dungeons of Dredmor and Capsized. Many of the games in the bundle offer SteamPlay between Windows and Mac OSX.
EA Indie Bundle challenges your definitions, is live on Steam now
The EA Indie Bundle (yes, we assure you, it is barely-100-percent-mostly-ish possible for EA to have an indie bundle) is live on Steam, offering 70 percent off a package of six titles from four indie developers, or half off each individual game.Included in the sale is Warp, Shank, Shank 2, DeathSpank, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue and Gatling Gears. The DeathSpank titles are $7.50 individually and are available on PC and Mac through Steamplay, while the rest of EA's indies cost $5 and are PC only.Indie Game Magazine first spotted the bundle in the super-secret Steam registry files this morning. The sale is now officially on, set to disappear from Steam in one week on May 9.
PlayStation Plus in April: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta, free Shank 2, Shift 2 Unleashed
PlayStation Plus subscribers have a lot to look forward to in April. Starting on April 3, both Shank 2 and Shift 2 Unleashed will be available as free downloads for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Other free games for April include the PSOne Classic Silent Hill, PSN Minis Canabalt, Farm Frenzy 2 and Mystic Garden, and PSN title Frogger Returns.In addition to these free games, PlayStation Plus subscribers will get early access to the closed beta for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, which kicks off sometime this month -- no date yet, says the PlayStation Blog. Finally, discounts: House of the Dead 4, Disney Universe and GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City will all be on sale this month at reduced prices.
Klei Entertainment chowing down on new Eets title
Klei Entertainment, creator of the Shank series, is working on a second installment of its other original franchise, Eets, studio co-founder Jamie Cheng said at GDC today. Cheng presented at the Failure Workshop, showing off the many iterations and doomed decisions of Eets: Sugar Rush, a title Klei worked on for four years before it was canceled for good.Cheng said Klei was burnt out on Sugar Rush (later renamed Scrappers), so the new Eets title will probably have more to do with healthful eating habits and complete objects than anything else. We'll have more details on the failures of Klei, Supergiant Games, Enemy Airship and Northway Games in a separate story later today.
Shank 2 review: Refined brutality
Evidence would suggest that the developers at Klei got together in a board room and said, "Shank was really good. We should do another game exactly like it, only a little bit better." And wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what they did. Shank 2 could be mistaken for its predecessor at first glance, with similar 2D visuals and fast-paced violence. But look a little deeper and you'll find a little more meat, a little more nuance and, somehow, even more brutality. %Gallery-146793%
Shank 2 video schools us all on survival
In Shank 2's Survival mode, you may think staying alive is simply slicing and/or shooting dudes before they slice and/or shoot you. Turns out, it's not that simple.
Building a better game in Shank 2
For insight on how to develop a successful game, you need only look to Klei Entertainment CEO Jamie Cheng's approach to Shank 2. Aware that the main knock against the first game was its repetition, Cheng and the rest of the development team decided to rethink their approach to the design."When we started work on Shank, we had never built a brawler or fighting game before," Cheng told me. "We tried to provide the best scenario possible, but when we looked at the game as a whole, we realized that a lot of the scenarios tended to repeat themselves."As a result, Cheng said, the team decided to take a more holistic approach to the design of Shank 2. Enemies have been designed in such a way that they can't be defeated using the same tactics, and the mechanics have been tweaked. Blocking, meanwhile, has been removed entirely, which makes the combat flow even better and helps emphasize dodge rolls and the new counters.
Shank 2 cuts in on February 7 in North America, February 8 in Europe
Shank 2 will leap onto, shoot, stab, stab, shoot, slice, throw a grenade at, and shoot digital platforms starting February 7, when it arrives on PSN and PC in North America. The worldwide XBLA release, along with the European PSN version, will follow on February 8. The price is set for $10, € 9.99, or 800 Microsoft Points, depending on your choice of platform and continent. Shank 2's marquee feature is a new co-op survival mode that pits two players against a never-ending supply of enemies, so start looking for a friend with the same violent predilections you have. ... Actually, when we put it that way, that sounds like a bad idea.
Shank 2 gameplay clip is fun for the whole bloody family
We really should pay Shank back that $30 we owe him before he comes knocking on our door.
Co-op carnage abounds in new Shank 2 screens
Sure, it feels good to murder hundreds and hundreds of non-descript video game henchman, but you know what's even better? Doing it with a friend, of course!
Shank 2: Back for more
Klei Entertainment's Shank was a lovable, uncomplicated indie beat-em-up. The game's protagonist went on a murderous rampage using whatever he had lying around, including guns, a big knife, a chainsaw, and a few other items. It's probably no surprise that the recently announced Shank 2 is more of that kind of thing. The backgrounds are nicer and more colorful, Shank's enemies are more varied, and the controls are refined. It's a better, cleaner Shank experience. The indie charm is still there, and the whole game is more polished. Oh, and there's one big feature that will probably make the game for fans of the series: An endless online co-op survival mode.
Shank 2 announced during EA Vegas press conference, coming 'early 2012'
Electronic Arts is hosting a gaming press event in Las Vegas this week, and was promising the reveal of "at least one completely new title" and it looks like that title is ... Shank 2? In EA's liveblog, when asked "Is this the 'new ip' ?," EA's Andy Katkin replied, "You got it Mike." We're as confused as you are, but this other comment by Katkin may provide some insight. "Shank 2 isn't just a reboot of Shank," Katkin wrote, "it's an entirely new game." Klei Entertainment's Jamie Cheng said, "What we did was rip the game apart and reconstruct it to allow us to have more responsive controls and better graphics. We tore our combat system apart ... and created new controls to be able to use the enemies' weapons against themselves." Klei also added an online co-op mode, a feature largely tacked onto the original, by way of a "prequel" level. "Instead of just giving another co-op campaign that you play once and never play again," Cheng explained, "we took the mechanics and created a new way of playing: multiplayer co-op survival mode." We don't know what that string of buzzwords means either, but we suspect we'll find out soon enough (horde mode, right?). Shank 2 will be "available in early 2012," on the same digital distribution services as the original, including XBLA, PSN, and PC.%Gallery-135014%
