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There's a panicked struggle at the heart of every engagement in Company of Heroes 2's multiplayer mode. While a lot of real-time strategy games will emphasize squad matchups as a primary means of success in force, Company of Heroes 2 has a much more dynamic environment constantly providing interesting variables to every skirmish.

Much of my own success was ensuring my squads were pressed up against a wall or moving from building to building - staying out of the open. Most real-time strategy enthusiasts and really anyone who's seen a war movie in their life will tell you that's basic stuff, but what makes it feel so special in Company of Heroes 2 is just how rewarding it is to see it impact gameplay. A squad with good cover can take on several adversaries and still live to tell the tale.

The Humble Indie Bundle's first decidedly non-indie bundle, the THQ Bundle, has come to its anticipated end. All told, says the organization, the bundle raised $5 million, split as buyers chose between THQ, charity donations, and the Humble Bundle group itself.

The whole project seems to have been a rousing success: 885,251 bundles went out the door, and THQ added a few big games into the pack during the sale. The average price for all titles sold was $5.76, and the top contributor to the cause was THQ's president Jason Rubin, who at the end had contributed a total of $10,000 to the proceedings.

In fact, considering THQ's financial battles lately, this might be one of the company's biggest successes this year. Wonder what else they've got over there to bundle up and sell out the door?

Metro: Last Light's title is slightly misleading, since there's really nothing "light" about the game at all, at least according to the latest grim, Bible-quoting trailer. Hey, we never liked being happy anyway.

Along with that uplifting video, THQ is offering a free Steam key for Last Light's predecessor, Metro: 2033, to each person who "likes" the Metro Facebook page from December 11 - 16, while supplies last. There's only so much room in the THQ digital vault, after all.

#impressions The first thing I thought, while checking out Metro: Last Light during a demo presentation in a Manhattan hotel a few weeks ago, was "Another grey shooter? Seriously?" More »

The kind of ridiculous THQ Humble Bundle has added yet another game, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Game of the Year Edition. The space marine-filled RTS joins eight other THQ PC games including Saints Row The Third, Red Faction: Armageddon, Metro 2033, Darksiders, Titan Quest and Company of Heroes and its two standalone expansions.

Dawn of War is now included for those who pay above the average bundle price, as are Saints Row The Third and Titan Quest. With said price hovering just under $6 as of this writing, that's a lot of games for not a lot of scratch.

If the actual game proves as funny as its trailers, then Obsidian's South Park: The Stick of Truth will be doing very well. Our favorite parts from this video are Cartman on Kenny's enthusiasm for the Princess role, and a Mickey-taking cameo from Mr. Hankey.

#southparkthestickoftruth As irreverent and ribald as you expect South Park to be, here is the trailer for South Park: The Stick of Truth, which premiered at tonight's Video Game Awards. It gives you a look at the game's playable classes, plus all sorts of cameos from the show's long run, and elsewhere (is that Master Control from Tron?) No release date, though. More »

The Humble THQ Bundle received a couple little bonus additions today, in the form of Titan Quest and the Red Faction: Armageddon downloadable content "Path of War." Titan Quest was a Diablo-esque RPG created by the now shuttered Iron Lore studios. Red Faction: Armageddon's "Path of War" DLC was released shortly after THQ announced it would abandon the franchise.

The Humble THQ Bundle, which includes a cornucopia of the publisher's games, earned over $2 million in 24 hours. With six days to go on the pay-what-you-want bundle, it's currently pulled in $3.7 million, with the average purchase of the eight-game bundle a mere $5.58. That's about four and half shares of THQ stock.

EDIT: THQ tell Eurogamer that they still hold 40K rights, so Creative Assembly are taking the Fantasy road. Skaven: Total Warhammer!

The distant rumble on the horizon is the sound of gathering forces. Specifically The Creative Assembly and the Games Workshop. Sega has just announced that the former has set up a special development team to work on the latter’s IP. This is like Everest climbing K2.(more…)

The last time THQ got involved in the movie business, things didn't turn out so well for the associated game. But we have faith all will be good in the adaptation of real-time strategy series Company of Heroes. This first trailer has it all: Nazis, explosions and Tom Sizemore squinting at stuff.

Once, I thought there was at least some cold, profit-maximizing business precision that guided whatever awfulness-seeking missile explodes games into not-great movies, but now I’m not even sure of that anymore. I mean, don’t get me wrong: Company of Heroes is a work of absolute RTS brilliance, but it’s not exactly a household name. And yeah, much as I think my most brilliant tactical masterpieces – for instance, a nuanced little number I like to call TANKS EVERYWHERE – are worth their own movie adaptations, the game’s brand of top-down contemplaction doesn’t exactly make for the best big screen material. Then again, this one’s direct-to-DVD, so I guess that solves that. But obviously, making the leap to a new medium required Company of Heroes to take some liberties. For instance, when I say “making the leap,” I mean that literally. Across the top of a train. Like Indiana Jones. See for yourself after the break.

(more…)

#companyofheroes Nobody tells me anything any more. More »

Darksiders 2 will suddenly summon "The Demon Lord Belial" as downloadable content this week. Death seeks out the last remnants of humanity and faces off against the Demon Lord Belial in this DLC, which is included for those with a "Darksiders 2: Season Pass."

The Demon Lord Belial is $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points) and rides onto PS3, Xbox 360 and PC tomorrow, December 4. It'll cross the pond December 6 for Europeans with PS3s. Speaking of THQ, remember that you can currently pay what you want for a whole mess of games from the publisher in the Humble THQ Bundle.

The Humble Indie Bundle has taken a turn for the mainstream, today offering the Humble THQ Bundle, which includes six THQ games for whatever price you think they're worth, available for two weeks. Saints Row: The Third is the bundle's locked game, freed up only if you pay more than the average.

The six games up for grabs are Company of Heroes, CoH: Tales of Valor, CoH: Opposing Fronts, Red Faction: Armageddon, Metro 2033 and Darksiders. Each purchase comes with the soundtracks for Saints Row: The Third, Darksiders and Red Faction: Armageddon, and two Company of Heroes compilations.

As always, the Humble Bundle includes the option to distribute your money as you wish, between charity, THQ or Humble Bundle itself. If you're looking for a monetary serving suggestion, may we suggest looking up THQ's current stock price and following along with us as it navigates a path of financial turmoil.

This trailer for Metro: Last Light features real actors coping with their loss of identity in the series' post-apocalyptic version of Moscow. The game is expected to arrive in March 2013 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

In Soviet Russia, ice breaks you... especially when one tries to drive across it in a multi-ton vehicle that's being bombarded by mortars. Here's some gameplay footage from the upcoming Company of Heroes 2. Grab the series up to now for whatever price you want in the Humble THQ Bundle.

In just over 24 hours, the Humble THQ Bundle has brought in $2,386,749.04 (and rapidly counting), proving that any misgivings that some might have had over a non-DRM-free, Windows-only, less indie than usual Humble Bundle were trumped by the desire for cheap games - and charity, of course.

The top contributor as of writing is THQ president Jason Rubin, who paid $1,050 for games he certainly could have gotten for free. In third place is Turtle Rock Studios, whose $1024 contribution may just help keep THQ going long enough for Turtle Rock to finish its game.

#humblebundle Right now, the Humble Bundle featuring THQ games has earned more than $2.3 million, with more Hell, someone's even paid over a thousand dollars for the seven titles on offer. Wait a minute, that name seems familiar… More »

#guillermodeltoro Guillermo Del Toro had been helping out on a video game with THQ before, well, THQ basically ran out of money. But that doesn't mean the game is dead. More »

Even though THQ's reconfiguration earlier this year presumably spelled deAth for inSane, Guilermo del Toro still tried to shop it around. He's hopeful that the game is back on track to production now, going on to say "it seems like we're going to be developing it after the first meeting we had."

"I can't disclose where it was, but we went to a great developer on the first meeting and it seems that they're picking it up because they love the package." He says that a year and a half has been spent working on the game already, with potentially two years' work ahead before the game can be released. "We put a good year and a half into it and we have the universe quite figured out, but we are now going to take that and start doing all the leg work with coding it, creating the engine, and starting to test it. It's going to take a good two years of modeling and rendering and creating the environments and all of that. The basic tenants of the game is that it's created, but now we're going to need to start actually making it."

As for the original plans of creating a trilogy, that idea is not so set in stone any more. "I think we're going to concentrate on making it a great game and then we'll see. Obviously, among the assets was that idea, so I think there's a possibility. But we are not exploring it."

#wiiu E3 is a time for a lot of huffery and puffery about video games, much of which turns out to be true—just not all of it. More »

#wiiu Oles Shishkovtsov, from Metro developers 4A Games, delivered a short-but-interesting verdict on Nintendo's new console recently when he said "[The] Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU." More »

#thq If you think you've had a rough couple of weeks, pour one out for THQ. Its stock price did a swan dive on Nov. 5, the same day of a disastrous earnings call that sent up rumors the publisher is trying to sell itself off. Then word passed it was in default on a $50 million credit arrangement. Now it's being sued for unlicensed use of original art. Tattoo art. More »

Death is here to chop Darksiders 2 prices by 66 percent for PC. Both Steam and Amazon currently have deals on the apocalyptic action game, dropping the regular $50 price to $17. The deal runs for the next day and a half of Steam, the Amazon sale doesn't say when its time is up.

Despite Darksiders 2 selling 1.4 million copies since launch, THQ CEO Brian Farrell said the game sold "below our expectations." The publisher is currently hanging on to life by a thread.

A bright spot in THQ's awkwardly brief investor call today: the company reports that Saints Row: The Third has shipped five million units, in line with the performance THQ expected from the crass sandbox game over its lifetime.

A sequel is currently underway, due "beyond fiscal 2013," meaning sometime after April 2013. It incorporates content from a canceled SR3 expansion, Enter the Dominatrix.

#darksiders Just when you think you know where this live-action short from Somewhat Awesome Films is going, it, uh, surprises you. Vigil Games added a deeper level of customization to Darksiders II and is central character apparently can't get enough of all the goodies he finds. Except for Resident Evil 6. Can't say I blame him on that one. More »

Darksiders 2 is getting its second chunky piece of DLC in time for Halloween, with Abyssal Forge available to download on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on October 30. Except if you're playing on PS3 in Europe, in which case you'll have to wait one day longer, until Halloween itself. Abyssal Forge is priced higher than Argul's Tomb, coming in at $9.99 or 800 MSP.

Vigil Games further detailed the DLC today, which features a new swampy area called Shadow Lands. It includes two new dungeons, along with new enemies and unique loot. Vigil claims Abyssal Forge features "the hardest enemies and puzzles yet."

It'll also spotlight the meaty-looking dude in the above picture. He's an outcast known as the Mad Smith who's been wasting his years away by building an army, probably with that giant thingamabob he's holding. We expect he'll find another use for it when you meet him in Shadow Lands.

If you like Eastern European first-person shooters, paranormal nuclear fallout, and desperately gasping for air, then you, friend, are in luck. That's if you don't already have Metro 2033, because THQ is cutting the 2010 cult hit down to half-price on Xbox Live, starting tomorrow. The publisher tells us the novel adaptation will be available on Games on Demand for $9.99 until Monday, October 22.

If you missed the recent Steam sale (or if you'd prefer the game on Xbox) then this isn't a bad consolation offer for a tense shooter we handed four out of five stars to. But for the love of Бог don't forget your gas mask.

#metro It's kind of faded into the background now that most people like to focus their anger on downloadable content, but for me, multiplayer has always been the biggest problem with modern, big-budget video games. More »

THQ may have put the kibosh on director Guillermo del Toro's Insane project, but that doesn't mean the idea is dead and gone forever.

Del Toro is in the middle of doing press for his upcoming Pacific Rim movie at the New York Comic Con this week, and he mentioned that he's still trying to find a good game company partner for Insane. "Now we are talking to developers," Del Toro said, according to Kotaku. "When something doesn't happen in one way, I just continue pursuing it in another way. I'm not giving up on Insane."

Asked for a dream developer to work with, Del Toro said he's a big fan of Valve and the games they make. In fact, one of the robots in Pacific Rim will be played by voice actress Ellen McClain, also known as GlaDOS from Valve's Portal series. "I called the guys at Valve and said, you know how much I am a fan of Portal, can the AI be GlaDOS?" Del Toro said.