The Darkness

Comic-Con is fast approaching and the announcements continue to roll in. Following news that 2K Games’ The Darkness II will be delayed until February 2012 comes confirmation that a Darkness movie is in the works. Independent film studio Mandeville Films (The Fighter) has joined forces with Image Comics studio partner Top Cow to bring “The Darkness” graphic novel to the big screen…

NowGamer: The Darkness II's lead designer Tom Galt has confirmed that Digital Extremes will expand on what worked in The Darkness: What Starbreeze did well, in a nutshell, were characters and story...

Above: ZeniMax is rumored to have acquired Machinegames, a development studio comprised of a lot of the folks who worked on The Darkness

After buying up Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami's studio, Tango Game Works, earlier this week, it appears that id and Bethesda owner ZeniMax may have bought yet another studio, Machinegames...

Here's a great indicator of how slowly the wheels can occasionally turn. During Top Cow Productions' Comic-Con panel, head of the comic publisher, Marc Silvestri, was finally able to announce that a follow-up to The Darkness (based on the Top Cow IP) was in the works. We're not surprised if the news has a familiar ring to it: The company hinted at a sequel during the 2008 NYCC ... 15 months ago. In more immediate news, the company announced that the original game would soon be added to the greatest hits value line-up on PS3 and Xbox for $29.99.

PS3 Fanboy writes: Good grief, where did all these games come from? There's a lot to choose from, especially if you're in the US or Europe. Despite the quantity, there's not a huge amount of overall quality. The only games in the list worth looking at are Overlord, Bourne and Battlefield. Don't be downhearted, Asians. You've finally got your hands on The Darkness. Only a year late, then. Here's the full release list: US Games * Battlefield: Bad Company * Top Spin 3 * Wall-E * Hellboy: Science of Evil * Overlord: Raising Hell * Hail to the Chimp EU Games * Battlefield: Bad Company * Beijing 2008: The Official Olympics Game * The Bourne Conspiracy * Guitar Hero: Aerosmith * Kung Fu Panda * NASCAR 09 Asian Games * Enemy Territory: Quake Wars * The Darkness

The sequel to The Darkness is under development, according to the creator of the source material, comic book publisher Top Cow Productions.

Speaking at NY Comic Con 2008, staff from the comic book publisher responded to a QA question about the game by saying: "We can't say Darkness and video game sequel in the same sentence. So, Darkness. Wink. Sequel."

It's currently unclear whether the sequel is being handled by original

A constantly updated list of rumors (some confirmed) for the new PSN content delivered weekly. Thread cites sources and media related to the game. This week's updates include: - Condemned 2: Bloodshot Demo* - Dark Sector Demo* - The Darkness DLC* - Rock Band DLC, Earache Thrash Pack - Rock Band Patch, In-Game Music Store - PSP Theme [Ape Quest]* * denotes rumored content Note: Though this is a forum post, it's not an opinion - it's a collection from many different sources. The information is timely and updated immediately. This source has been approved as an exception on N4G in the past (http://www.n4g.com/NewsPending-100526.aspx) because it links to industry professionals.

The critical popularity of flagship titles, mixed with continued fan attraction to established franchises and the introduction of valuable new IPs (intellectual properties), has also led to considerable commercial success. Software sales are on the rise to the tune of around $10.5 billion (through October) in the United States, while the UK gaming market has taken a total of around £1.52 billion during 2007.

Trusted Reviews: Games of the Year - Part One. As our Andy noted back in November, it has been a fantastic year for games, In fact, it's arguably been the best year ever. However, all that bounty has left us in a dilemma. We originally planned a top ten list for the end of the year, but looking at the long list of titles we've been forced to expand that to twenty - and even then we've had to sacrifice a few of our darlings and lose a couple of still great franchise updates that we felt didn't quite do enough to justify inclusion: Sorry Unreal Tournament III and Sega Rally, apologies Guitar Hero III, Football Manager 2008 and Pro Evo.

Kotaku's Brian Crecente has a leaked copy of the National Institute on Media and the Family's annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, set to be officially released tomorrow. This year's report card is broken into five parts: ¿ The MediaWise Video Game Report Card ¿ The Buying Guide ¿ The ESRB Rating System and Ratings Education Efforts ¿ The Retailer Ratings Education and Enforcement Surveys ¿ Annual MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll of Kids and Parents Kotaku gives a quick summary for each part.