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The Darkness II delayed; demo available at Comic-Con

Jackie Estacado returns with the Darkness at his back… on his back? Maybe it is that the Darkness has his back…

First, the bads news. 2K Games has delayed the release of The Darkness II. Previously scheduled to ship to stores in October, the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 game will now be released on February 7, 2012.

Anyway, 2K is celebrating 15 years of The Darkness comics at Comic-Con this year. They will be co-hosting a special panel called “Spreading The Darkness: From Comic Book to Video Games and Entertainment” featuring Marc Silvestri (co-creator of The Darkness) and Mike Patton (the in-game voice of The Darkness) amongst other talented people from Top Cow Productions.

2K also plans to have 8 playable demos of The Darkness II up and running for your enjoyment at the Top Cow booth. You will get to experience first hand what they are calling Quad-Wielding. Now you can use those two extra demon arms to maim and dismember some poor schmoes while your hands remain free to perpetrate mayhem with heavy ordinance.

It is nice to see a video game respecting the source material enough to emulate it in style and spirit. It won’t be October, but you’ll get a chance to wield those extra demon arms you always wanted soon.

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A cop, a wrestler, and a porn star walk into the Saints Row 3 voice cast

It sounds like the beginnings of a bad joke, doesn’t it? And yet, that is the perfect description of the newly announced voice cast for THQ’s Saints Row: The Third.

Daniel Dae Kim, known to Saints Row fans everywhere as the voice of Johnny Gat, will reprise his role in The Third. In the new game, Gat has become “the face of high class crime,” which is a far cry from Kim’s appearances as Jin on “Lost” and Chin Ho on “Hawaii Five-0.”

The wrestler is none other than Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster will fill the (thankfully) yellow boots of Angel De LaMuerte, a legendary professional wrestler. According to THQ, Angel was “betrayed by his former tag-team partner Killbane, now the merciless leader of the Lucadores street gang.” To exact his revenge, he teams up with the Saints.

Finally, the porn star is none other than Sasha Grey. Surprisingly, the “Entourage” star won’t be playing a porn star (THQ refers to her as just “Actress Sasha Grey” in the press release). Instead, she’ll lend her voice to Viola DeWynter, the mastermind behind The Syndicate’s financial empire.

So anyway. A cop, a wrestler and a porn star walk into a bar and the bartender says…

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Family Guy Online MMO announced by 20th Century Fox; customize your character today!

20th Century Fox has announced Family Guy Online today, a new MMO based on the popular television series. An open beta for this free-to-play, browser-based, 3D game will be launching later this year. Eager players can start customizing their own characters today at the game’s website. You can then annoy your Facebook friends even more by posting your character directly to your Facebook page. Lucky fans attending San Diego Comic Con can make characters right there on the show floor, and can get limited edition Family Guy Online posters signed by the mayor himself, Adam West.

Fans can explore all of Quahog, from Spooner Street to the Drunken Clam, and interact with characters from the show, including the whole Griffin family and all of their wacky neighbors. You can choose to either go solo in a single-player experience or team up with your friends. Fans will also be happy to hear that the show’s writers are a part of the development team.

The social online game production company, Roadhouse Interactive, is at the helm of development. Hosted on the Unity platform, the game will have “vibrant graphics,” and “the flexibility of the platform will allow the game writers and developers to continuously evolve the game play and content.”

I bet whoever made the call to bring Family Guy back on the air is celebrating right now.

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Batman: Arkham City Collector’s Edition grapples for shelf space

On this week’s podcast, we briefly touch upon limited and collector’s editions, which, of course, brought us to Batman: Arkham Asylum‘s legendary bundle that came with a life size batarang (which you can’t throw at your cat). Unfortunately, there won’t be a drivable Batmobile with the upcoming Arkham City, but it’s an appealing collector’s edition nonetheless. For $99, you’ll get the game (wow!), a custom Batman statue from Kotobukiya, an art book, early access to the Iceberg Lounge challenge map, a skin from the iconic The Dark Knight Returns, a digital copy of the soundtrack, the original animated movie Batman: Gotham Knight, and four collectible cards.

That’s actually a great deal of content for your money, and certainly won’t take up as much space as some other WB Games collector’s editions.

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Supergiant narrates Bastion’s XBLA launch tomorrow

Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade promotion on the Xbox Live Arcade is finally here and Supergiant Games’ Bastion is up first. The action RPG looks very reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda and the Warp Zoned staff loved it at this year’s PAX East. If Bastion is new to you, you can check out the launch trailer above to get a taste of the game’s constant narration or there’s a description right here:

Bastion is an action role-playing experience that redefines storytelling in games, with a reactive narrator who marks your every move. Explore more than 40 lush hand-painted environments as you discover the secrets of the Calamity, a surreal catastrophe that shattered the world to pieces. Wield a huge arsenal of upgradeable weapons and battle savage beasts adapted to their new habitat. Finish the main story to unlock New Game Plus mode and continue your journey!

Bastion will be available to download from the XBLA tomorrow for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). A PC version is also in the works, which will be available later this year.

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New Releases: Captain America, Just Dance Summer Party, Call of Juarez The Cartel

I realize that Harry Pottermania has taken over the world, but there are still plenty of new games coming to stores this week.

First, there’s Sega’s tale of the man who punched Hitler in the jaw, Captain America: Super Soldier, for the DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. A very different kind of fight is going on in Ubisoft’s Call of Juarez: The Cartel (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) as a cowboy cop takes on the drug cartels. Finally, you can do a little dance with another Ubisoft title, Just Dance: Summer Party for the Wii.

Hmm, while it’s probably too early to pass judgement on all of these games, going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 again might not be a bad idea.

Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)

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Call of Duty Elite beta begins

Activision has announced that the Call of Duty Elite beta has begun and a “limited number” of invitations have been sent out.

Call of Duty Elite is the publisher’s new community service for the Call of Duty franchise and it’ll officially launch on November 8 alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. For now, Xbox 360-owning Call of Duty: Black Ops players will serve as guinea pigs during the beta test. Naturally, the service will expand to PC and PS3 owners after the official launch.

The Call of Duty Elite beta will test select features such as “stat tracking, the use of custom player groups, competitive events and video sharing.” The final beta, which Activision calls “a major upgrade,” will feature extensive clan support, a mobile/web app and video content created by top Hollywood talent.

“Call of Duty Elite is all about connecting our amazing fans around the globe in ways never before possible and we are excited to get their feedback so they can help us further develop, tune and test the service, as we head into our launch in November with Modern Warfare 3,” says Chacko Sonny, Studio Head, Beachhead Studio.

Activision will continue to release more Call of Duty Elite beta invites in the coming weeks.

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Duke Nukem Forever takes a number two on June bestseller list

Duke Nukem Forever gives players the option to fish a turd out of the toilet bowl and smear it all over the walls of the game world. So it seems rather fitting that Duke’s latest adventure has landed in the #2 spot in The NPD Group’s list of bestselling games for the month of June. The Mighty Duke was toppled by Rockstar’s L.A. Noire; the detective yarn is celebrating its second straight month at the top after it lead the May NPD report as well.

A trio of other June releases also earned their way into the top ten. Sony’s InFamous 2 took the #3 spot, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D hookshotted its way into #5 and Cars 2 stopped for gas at #9.

You can find the full top ten after the break. (more…)

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