For the next 15 hours (as of the time of this writing) Darksiders II is on sale! Usually a healthy $50, today it is a mighty 66% off, making it only $17. That is so cheap, I’ve already bought it for two friends that I know wanted it. I am getting Christmas sorted, friends.

None of the DLC appears to be on sale, unfortunately, the ‘season pass’ costing upwards of the game itself at this point. There is, however, a deal for the Prima Official Strategy Guide, if you’re a collector of such things, or for some reason can’t just Google yourself a walkthrough. Alone, the guide is also at 66% off, making it just shy of $12, or you can buy the game and the Prima Guide together for also 66%, making it $27.20.

If you’re on the look out for a new game to tide you over on the weekend, maybe give Darksiders II a try. It’s got a metascore of 81/100 apparently, but at this point, it’s cheap enough that you won’t be too mad if you end up hating it (though reading our review first might be a good idea).

Source: Steam

When Darksiders II released back in August, it was topping the sales charts in the US for that month. Despite this, industry analyst Michael Pachter has said that the game is struggling to break even. “August release Darksiders II has sold an estimated 1 million units to date, and appears to be struggling to approach its 2 million units break-even threshold,” he said in a note to investors.

THQ have restructured themselves in recent months to become a more streamlined company since they first began having financial troubles. In their first fiscal quarter of this year, they were back in the black. Pachter, however, believes things could still be tight for THQ in coming days.

“Darksiders II‘s performance and a history of game delays and cancellations leaves us skeptical that THQ can successfully execute its turnaround strategy, which centers on a streamlined release slate. If any of THQ’s Q4 13 releases are late, liquidity is likely to be tight by next summer unless either Homefront 2 or the Patrice Désilets game are released by then.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Vigil Games and THQ have formally announced the next DLC pack for Darksiders II, which was teased last week. The new pack arrives on October 30 on all platforms, although PlayStation 3 owners outside the US will have to wait an extra day. We don’t have local pricing yet, but it’ll be around the USD$10 mark (800 MS Points).

As for what the pack contains, it adds a whole new gameplay zone called the Shadow Lands, which features two dungeons, new enemies, secrets, and unique legendary loot. Apparently aimed at high level players, the Abyssal Forge boasts the “hardest enemies and puzzles yet” as it pits you against the Abyssal Forge, a living machine built by a madman, which has constructed a huge army and now threatens the world.

Source: Darksiders II

Vigil’s announcement last week in response to complaints from PC gamers about missing features in Darksiders II has borne fruit, with details being released on the game’s blog about what exactly the upcoming patch will contain.

“Your feedback is incredibly important to us, so we have been working around the clock to address issues that some of you have been having, as well as adding features you have requested,” writes Vigil.

“We are working on fixes for a number of bugs which can potentially block progression that have come to our attention, while also exploring adding additional features you have been asking for. This work includes vsync updates, improved shadow map resolution, X-axis options and additional keyboard mapping options (amongst other community requests). We hope to roll out a number of patches to address these issues in the weeks to come.”

Our Darksiders II review made particular note of the PC release’s lack of platform-specific features.

Source: Darksiders II

THQ’s Mathew Everett has responded to complaints about Darksiders II’s lack of PC-friendly features. The publisher representative told the Darksiders community that both he and Vigil’s Jay Fitzloff genuinely believed the game would contain full .config files and proper mouse and keyboard support when these features were promised during a pre-launch preview event.

“Unfortunately, especially at the end of the development cycle, sometimes things change at the last minute, and this was one of them. This puts us in an uncomfortable spot as we were acting on the best information we had at the time, and it has turned out not to be in the final game (at this point). Since it was always the intention to implement these features, as I type this, the development team is checking to see what items can get added into the game. While I can’t promise what can be done, I can promise we are working with the proper teams and have expressed the importance of including them in a patch,” he said.

Everett has apologised for giving inaccurate information, describing it as an unintentional error. “We are doing everything we can to address it. We will circle back when we have more information,” he promised.

Our Darksiders II review made particular note of the PC release’s lack of platform-specific features.

Source: Darksiders II Community Forum

Death comes for us all, and now he’s come to Darksiders II on PC. How does it shape up on our favourite platform? We sent Nick Kolan along to take a look.

The first all gameplay trailer for Darksiders II is out, called “Death Comes for All”. It is pretty impressive and shows some nasty looking beasties, not least of all one who looks an awful lot like Cthulhu (who, I am pretty sure, is not part of the traditional Good v Evil mythology). Anyway, check out the trailer below and let us know what you think!

THQ are pinning a lot of their financial hopes on Darksiders II, the sequel to their original Darksiders. Jacob Saylor is a big Darksiders fan, and entered the E3 demo booth very excited to see what would happen next. What he found, however, was a mixed bag.