'...Lynch?'

Movie trailers are one of my great loves, I don't need to quantify that, just go with it, I have a collection of several thousand. Several thousand movie trailers. Almost every one of them better than the films they are advertising. Trailers are an art form and I abhor 99% of movie previews today, all doing the same shtick, almost identical, all using the same flow, pace and trickery. The art of clever movie marketing has been (almost) lost.

Video games trailers have stepped it up in the last decade, the arrival of platforms such as YouTube and other social media outlets meant that publish??ers can now sell their video games as you would any movie, with cinematics and out-of-context footage combining to get your potential audience hyped way, way before you smash their dreams with crushing rea?lity.

Case in point: This trailer for 2010's Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, which is my favourite video game trailer. It shows two event??s, taking place in different countries, threatening ??to combine. In Shanghai, medicated psychopath James Lynch sleeplessly tosses and turns in bed. There's something on his mind. Lynch goes to the bathroom to study his various anti-murder pills, while his inquisitive girlfriend, Xiu, asks him what's wrong. "My old friend Kane flies in tomorrow..."

Where is Kane now? Adam Kane ?is under fire somewhere in the United States, the result of yet another disastrous heist exploding into violence. As his associates drop?? dead around him, Kane makes a poorly-planned escape dash through a children's playground, randomly firing at what seems to be a small army of cops. Ending up on a lonely playing field, out-of-shape, out-of-ammo and out-of-luck, the abject failure of what was surely his "foolproof" plan dawns upon him. Kane needs to get out of the U.S... Fast.

"Oh, that's nice," replies Xiu. "...Shall we all go out for dinner?" Lynch doesn't reply, just staring at his meds, fully aware?? of what Kane's arrival ??will mean for his new "lay low and try not to kill anyone" lifestyle. The game's logo flashes outside in the neon lights of Shanghai city.

It's an awesome 90 seconds, juxtaposing the unsettling quiet of Lynch in the East with the roaring chaos and anarchy of Kane's piece-of-shit life in the States. We see Lynch with a girl, looking somewhat mello??w, but the fores??hadowing of the bullet-riddled bodies about to show up on Shanghai's streets is very apparent, and we pity Xiu for her naivety of the upcoming danger. In a clever technical touch, the scenes with Lynch are extremely quiet, forcing you to raise the volume, which makes the violence of Kane's cuts all the more jarring.

We all know how Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days finally turned out. It was all style (a style I loved, mind) and no substance, featuring crushingly simplistic and numbing, repetitive gameplay. But this just reiterates what I said above; the medium o?f trailers can do a really good job of building hype and hope, or,?? in this case, a false portent of what might have been.

The post This trailer for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is my favourite video game trailer, but what’s yours? appeared first on Destructoid.

Rights lost in split from Square Enix

The two Kane & Lynch games were, on paper, exciting propects. The first, Dead Men, was intended to be a pulse-pounding, squad-based heist thriller, similar to films such as Heat, but was a fumbling, awkward game. The 2010 sequel, Dog Days, had some great trailers, and chose a very unique "handheld" visual style, but was ultimately just a repetitive and sha??llow shooter experience.

Developers Io Interactive, speaking in an interview with gameindusty.biz, primarily about Hitman, also revealed that in their recent divorce from publishers Square Enix, they actually lost the rights to the unlikable psychopaths (That's Kane & Lynch, by the way, not Square?? Enix). This leaves the ?nefarious duo floundering with a company that likely has zero interest in risking a third title, a reboot, or any other projects starring gaming's least-favourite scumbags.

This news will likely be met with apathy from many, as the brand has become notorious in gaming's zeitgeist. The frustration here is that Kane & Lynch wasn't a guaranteed failure. Both titles had some initiative and intriguing elements, for example, Dog Days' great "Undercover ?Cop" multiplayer mode. The characters themselves, though thoroughly despicable, were somewhat in??teresting in their self-destructive, train-wreck shenanigans.

In today's gaming world, many titles don't get one chance, let alone two, yet Kane and Lynch blew them both. For me, it'll always be a brand that, in the right hands, could be a well-made, gritty, morally-questionable and inventive co-op series. Only time will tell if anyone else is brave enough -- or foolhardy enough -- to bring the duo out of solitary conf?inement.

IO Interactive interview [gameindustry.biz]

The post Don’t expect IO Interactive to try Kane & Lynch again appeared first on Destructoid.

Looking at life down the barrel of a gun

Shooters seem simple. You step into the shoes of your typical tough guy space-marine or mercenary and empty clip after cl??ip into the faces of Nazis, or aliens, or alien-Nazis from the vaguely disembodied gun bobbing up and down in front of you. It's a time honored video game tradition, one of the most easily understood and digestible play experiences out there. What more can be said about them?

A whole lot as it turns out.

Shooter field-strips the familiar and simple gunplay genres of the video game world to their base components and scrutinizes every piece. Picking a?part a genre that is so often dismissed as fluff entertainment by even their most ardent fans, or worse, scapegoated as the cause of everything from falling grades to school shootings, to figure out what makes the act of pulling a virtual trigger so compelling.

Shooter (Book)
Released: June 2, 2015
MSRP: $5.00

Shooter is a collection of essays from recognizable names in game criticism speaking on a wide range of topics related to games that involve some kind of gunplay. Some chapters take a deep dive into the mechanical and technical details that make shooters what they are. Steven Wright's “The Joys of Projectiles: What We've Forgotten About Doom” for example, laments the rise of “realistic” modern shooters and how their largely interchangeable hitscan assault rifles have abandoned many of the mechanics that made early FPS games so pleasurable and skill testing. Others are more personal, such as Gita Jackson's touching reflection on how Counter-Strike could be seen as a microcosm of the (seemingly one-sided from her self-deprecating perspective) sibling rivalry she shared with her brother. Shooter strikes a great balance, it never gets so bogged down in technical minutia that it ?feels like a lecture in game design, but has enough mechanical grounding that it doesn't j??ust become a series of anecdotes either.

The games Shooter examines are varied and numerous. Of course genre forebears and trendsetters like Doom, Half-Life and Call of Duty are discussed as you would expect, but there is plenty of attention paid to less bombastically popular titles as well. Genre-defying shooters like Red Orchestra 2 with its brutally unforgiving depiction of realistic combat, and the insidious darkness of Far Cry 2, which sets aside the typical rationales for heroic violence to make the player complicit in something unsettling, get entire chapters dedicated to them??. It's a great technique. By examining the few games that step outside of the bounds of typical FPS conventions and power fantasy dynamics and figuring out why they feel so different, it is easier to pinpoint the standard tropes and expectations of the genre that have become so ubiquitous that ??they are nearly invisible.

Perhaps the greatest praise I can give to Shooter is that it made me reexamine and reflect on my feelings about a few games. When a piece of criticism grabs you by the collar and demands you take a second look at something, you know its doing it's job right. Filipe Salgado's chapter on the intentional ugliness and barely contained chaos of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days almost made me want to play through the game again with a fresh set of eyes -- eyes more willing to see past the clunky mechanics and thoroughly unlikable protagonists to scan for deeper meaning. Almost anyway (this is still Dog Days we're talking about).

At its best, Shooter feels like a lively conversation with some very smart people who enjoy, but expect more from, their trigger happy games. Its snappy, intelligent, and occasionally funny. At it's worst, the book veers into the pretentious. At times, it feels less like a conversation and more like an awkward dinner party dominated by a lecturing windbag everyone is too polite to interrupt. Thankfully these rough patches are few and far between. The rest of ?the book is well worth putting up with the occasional ?eye-rolling turn of phrase.

Mostly though, Shooter feels important. The industry needs more “capital C” Criticism to unravel the subtext and ideas behind the games we love. Games mean something. They impart messages, communicate ideas, either by conscious choice on the part of their developers or by the assumptions they make -- the casual omissions and things taken for granted. We have to start examining these ideas in a mature, intelligent, and yes, academic way. Shooter isn't the first example of this kind of criti??cism in games writing of course; there have certainly been other books written, and articles penned (on sites like Destructoid, I might add) that dive into thes?e waters. But, it is still very much a nascent field. Video games are a young medium, and we haven't had time to establish a critical tradition like film and literature has. We need to cultivate these voices; the generation of writers that will talk about games in a serious manner in the coming decades.

What better way to stake a claim in this new field than to gather a variety of exceptionally talented voices to talk about and critically examine what ??is generally considered gaming's dumbest, most?? developmentally arrested genre? The thrill of shooting a Cyber-Demon with a rocket launcher may be obvious and simple, but there is a lot to unpack when you take a closer look.

The post Review: Shooter appeared first on Destructoid.

Also Guardian of Light and Startopia

With just under a week left to go before it vanishes, the Square Enix Humble Bundle 2 has added bonus titles: Startopia, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and the Kane & Lynch Collection.

If you already locked in your purchase for the pay-more-than-the-average tier, you're good to go. Otherwise, it has climbed to $7.57 since we last covered this bundle, so that's the price to beat.

I had forgotten how gross the Kane & Lynch series is. Funny image, though.

The post Kane & Lynch join the Square Enix Humble Bundle 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

Hurry, hurry, step right up

UPDATE: Due to me having ca?r trouble and not being able to update this till now, the contest has been arbitrarily and retroactively extended to 1:08 PM EST. Any entries?? before this time now qualify for prizes. Isn't this great? 

Hey there, boys and girls! To commemorat??e the great deals on Steam this weekend, we've thrown together a spontaneous contest. Now you can compete to the death for f?ame and glory!

All you have to do to enter is create the funniest fan art that you can muster and submit it in the comments. The one that makes me l??augh the hardest wins! We'll also be having second place and ??a special "Sad Trombone" prize.

Here's what's at stake:

• First Place:Tomb Raider Collection (or a combo of games of equal value)
• Runner-Up: Your selection of one Final Fantasy title
• Saddest Little Trombone: Daikatana or Murdered: Soul Suspect

The contest runs from 2:30am EST Sunday until 12am EST Monday, so get those pictures in??.

Remember: Even you could be a winner.

The post Step right up and wi??n a prize from the Square Enix Steam sale appeared first on Destructoid.

This sale are sick

This weekend's Square Enix Publisher Weekend sale has some ridiculous deals. Some of my childhood favorites that I didn't even know made it to PC are on there, including the whole Lega??cy of Kain series.

Here's some of the highlights:

• Final Fantasy III. IV, VII, VIII, XIII, and XIII-2 are all 50% off
• Tomb Raider Collection features every Tomb Raider game ever released on PC (except Lara Croft and the Temple of Osirus) for $15.99
• Thief Collection includes Thief Gold, Thief II: The Metal Age, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Thief (reboot), for $11.24
• Eidos Anthology: 34 games with their DLC for $31.19
• Daikatana for $1.74
• and a ton of other stuff too!

This sale has some of?? the most iconic games of the late '90s and early '00s. If you haven't had the chance to play these, or haven't played them for a while, almost every game in this sale is money well spent.

If you're hank??ering for one of thes??e games, but just struggle with commitment, check back tomorrow for a chance to win one of these titles!

The post Raid Square Enix’s tomb with this weekend’s Steam sale appeared first on Destructoid.

Jimquisition happens every Monday!

Some gamers are skipping Grand Theft Auto V, unwilling to play the role of a thief, a gangbanger, or a psychopath. While others may shy a??way from being the villain, Jim Sterling actively revels in it.

Indeed, to play the villain can not only be fun, it can be ?downright fascinating.

The post Jimquisition: To Play The Villain appeared first on Destructoid.

Am I the only one who finds this just a little freakin' insane? Enslaved: Odyssey to the West failed to even sell half a million copies, while the absolutely dreadful Kane & Lynch 2 -- with its half-finished?? campaign, crappy multiplayer, and total lack of polish -- does over a mil??lion.

The worst game of 2010 more than doubling one of the year's most beautiful, original, and well-crafted titles just demonstrates to me how screwed up the market truly is. We complain about sequels and rehashes, we whine about publishers not putting out original content, and then this ha?ppens, and ?we realize it's nobody's fault but ours. 

So yeah, enjoy your next Guitar Hero or Call of Duty, folks. You've f*cking earned it.

The post Enslaved sells 460,000, Kane & Lynch 2 breaks a million appeared first on Destructoid.

Has critical and commercial failure spelled the end for the Kane & Lynch series? Acc??ording to Eidos president Ian Livingstone, it hasn't. He believ?es that the characters of Kane and Lynch are just too good to kill off, and we have not seen the last of them. 

"We haven’t made any announcements about Kane & Lynch going forward, but we all know that Kane and Lynch are two amazing characters who have a lot of brand equity," he says. "Kane & Lynch 2 clearly had a Marmite effect on people.

"You either loved it or hated it. Some people liked the juddering camera, home video style. Others absolutely hated it. Some loved the characters. Some didn’t like the characters. But it’s artistic, thrill-a-minute instant action stuff. I thought it was a great game, but I can understand people might not have like??d it."

I don't think it's quite so black-and-white as Livingstone paints it. For example, I love Kane and Lynch as characters, I just hate the shitty games that IO Interactive puts them into. I loved the concept of Dog Days' juddery camera, I just hate how the game's three-hour ??campaign gave me a headache because of it.

I agree that Kane and Lynch as characters have serious potential, but I don't think that potential will be met with IO at the helm. Sorry, but Dog Days demonstrated that they just can't hack it an?ymore. 

Eidos: Kane & Lynch "will not disappear" [Eurogamer]

The post Eidos: ‘Artistic’ Kane & Lynch not ready to die yet appeared first on Destructoid.

It would appear that "you didn't get it" has officially become the popular way of developers to escape acknowledging criticism of their games. While talking about Kane & Lynch 2, IO Interactive has joined the ranks of Silicon Knight, Factor 5 and Dark Energy Digital in transf??erring the blame of a poor review entirely to the reviewer.

"I think it's a game that you either love or hate," says general manager Niels Jørgensen. "It's interesting that w??e have scores ranging from 1/10 to 9/10, so we have critics that really loved it and those that didn't really?? get it."

A fairly innocuous comment at first glance, and I must voice my respect at IO for being cool and accepting of the fact that negative reviews happened without going completely insane like some people.

However, this implication of not "getting" games is starting to really disturb me, as it screams of a developer completely ignoring any and all complaints about a game, regardless of their validity. It's not a comment I think we should let slide. I am one of the few people who could claim to be a "fan" of the original Kane & Lynch. You can't argue I don't "get" IO's work.

My complaints -- that IO did nothing to build upon its narrative groundwork and refused to improve fundamental gameplay/technical issues -- isn't a case of "getting" it. It's a case of shit that needed fixing, and how can we expect IO to fix anything if it's going to shrug off valid problems with casual indifference? Not only does it insult the intelligence of the critic, it insults the very medium of videogames,?? that you are so arrogant as to refuse to acknowledge your own failings.

Developers need to stop this passing of the buck if they have any respect for their own work.

The post IO: Some reviewers didn’t ‘get’ Kane & Lynch 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

To me, Kane & Lynch seems like an ideal candidate for the whole game-to-movie conversion process. You strip out the technical and mechanical issues, and hopefully, hopefully, y??ou have an interesting story??. Jamie Foxx and Bruce Willis are still on board, after all.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said of the film's director. Patrick Alessandrin (District 13: Ultimatum) is no longer attached to Kane & Lynch -- and the planned?? October start date has been pushed into "TBD" territory. Yikes.

According to the Los Angeles Times, three directors are being considered: Wayne Kramer (Running Scared), F. Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen, The Italian Job), and Antoine Fugua (Brooklyn's Finest). Of those, I suppose Gray sticks out to me the most. Who would be your ideal director for Kane & Lynch?

'Kane & Lynch' struggles to break out of jail [Los Angeles Times via MTV Multiplayer]

The post The Kane & Lynch movie needs a new director appeared first on Destructoid.

I've oste?nsibly guaranteed that Square Enix will never send me a review copy again.&nbs??p;

Ah well.

The post Destructoid nomi??nates a very special game of the show appeared first on Destructoid.

If you play Kane & Lynch 2 and feel that there's not enough content with its five??-hour story mode and limited multiplayer ?maps, then don't worry. IO Interactive was busy preparing downloadable content instead of finishing development of the full game!

Not one, not two, but three download??able content ??packs will be available on August 31 -- The Multiplayer Mask Pack, Alliance Weapon Pack and Doggie Bag Pack. New weaponry and maps will be made available in these packages, for a price that's yet to be announced. 

Even before release, the game has menus and items that are already locked out and have a message stating that they "require downloadable content" which means that, instead of concentrating on making sure the original game was good, IO Interactive was alrea??dy making a load of extra content that it intended to charge for. It also means the content is already on the disc, so?? you'll be paying for a key, not a download.

Given how we just reviewed the game and gave it a 1.0, coming out with a DLC announcement on launch day is pretty much a giganti?c slap in the face. The main game isn't even worth the $60 asking price, so to charge for content that is already on the disc is an unbelievable insult.

Next time IO, make a game that's at l?east worth ten dollars first, THEN worry about nick??el and diming us.

The post Kane & Lynch 2 DLC already on the way appeared first on Destructoid.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was one of the most notorious games of this generation. Famously bad, the game made headlines after a GameSpot reviewer gave it a low score and ended up ?fired because, allegedly, it had upset Eidos and the site's marketing department.

After a backlash from critics and a name forever tarnished with corrupt business practices and dreadful quality, it's surprising that Kane & Lynch ever managed to get a sequel, but here we are. Two of gaming's sleaziest, most grotesque, sociopathic old bastards are back, and this time IO Interactive has a cha?nce to get its honor back. 

Was that chance taken, or is Kane & Lynch a series forever doomed to be consigned to bargain basements and trash cans? Read on for the full review of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Xbox 360 [reviewed], PS3, PC)
Developer: IO Interactive
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Release date: August 17, 2010

Kane & Lynch 2 takes us to Shanghai, China, where former schizophrenic murderer James Seth Lynch is trying to straighten up his act. He's still running illegal errands, killing people, and generally being a scumbag, but he's got a girlfriend now and seems to have?? gotten his mental problems in check. He and Adam "Kane" Marcus revive an old alliance for one last score -- setting up an arms deal so that the two men will be set for life. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong and soon the duo find themselves on the run from one of Shanghai's most powerful -- and violent -- men. 

Dead Men had its fair share of flaws, but one thing that stood out was the amazing characterization, interesting story, and variety of unique and innovative scenarios. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has none of this. The story is far less inspired this time, and with a single-player campaign that stretches to five hours at a generous estimate, there is no time for exploring character depth or even changing the scenery. Dog Days has nothing of the first game's ambition and vision, and from its sterile beginning to the rushed and alienating ending, there is absolutely nothing in Dog Days to compel the player onward. 

Insultingly, however, while IO Interactive took all the good bits out of Dog Days, it left all the bad things in. Everything that was terrible about Dead Men has, for some inane reason, been preserved in Dog Days. It's a broken, messy, slo?ppy, completely unbalanced joke of a game, with a cover system that doesn't work, checkpoints that sometimes land you in the middle of deathtraps, and slow, frustrating, boring gunfights against enemies that absorb more bullets than Scarface.

Kane & Lynch 2 almost parodies the cover-based shooter genre with gunfights that see players trading shots against massively overwhelming opposition that takes forever to die. What this means is that most of the game is spent pinned down behind cover, with the player's health dropping to near-zero whenever he so much as pops his head above cover. One is expected to fight ??this way, slowly attempting to whittle away an enemy's health before hiding again, regaining health, popping up and attempting it again. Now and then, a player can throw an explosive barrel or fire extinguisher, but it doesn't do much.  

What's worse is that the cover system barely works. Most of the time, enemies can shoot you to ribbons through the cover, and many of them will just ignore the system altogether?, run up to your spot, and blast you pieces. The game has a "down but not dead" feature which basically means that Lynch will fall over if he gets sh??ot enough times. It's unnecessary and -- you guessed it -- incredibly irritating. The game's full of cheap shots, clustering enemies around corners or in hiding places to constantly ambush the player. Most of the deaths in the game is not due to player error, but the game's tendency towards ambushes or breaking the rules of its own game in order to look "challenging."

It's not fun. At all. It meanders between extremel??????????????????????????y dull and intensely annoying, and not once does it ever become enjoyable, satisfying or?? rewarding. 

In Dead Men, you truly felt like you were on an underworld adventure, and the game was full of surprises. A prison break, a bank robbery, a fight against a digger truck, a skyscraper assault and more gave the game a truly vast and varied feel that went some way toward making up for its sub-par gameplay. Kane & Lynch 2 t?akes place entirely in a dark and dreary Shangh??ai and is a pure corridor shooter throughout with nothing to break the monotony. 

The relationship between Kane and Lynch, arguably the biggest draw of the entire IP, feels like it barely exists. Their interactions are limited and neither one of the duo are explored in any depth. The campaign was poorly scripted, with a story that barely even feels like it's there and characters that lack the sleazy charm of the original game. Lynch himself is a far less interesting character, with h??is hallucinations no longer part of the game and no real reference to his former madness outside of the occasional forgettable quip. 

And then we get to Kane & Lynch 2's big gimmick -- the Youtube-style graphic effects. Dog Days is presented like an online video, with a camera that shakes and jitters as if it were being held by hand and graphics that are full of visual distortion and artifacts. As a concept, it's incredibly clever. Stretched out over several h??ours, however, and it will hurt your eyes. The camera swaying can be switched off, but the distortio??ns and effects cannot, and they're the things that really do the damage. After I beat the mercifully short single-player mode, I was in actual physical pain from eye strain. The effect would have been cool for a level or two, but over the course of an entire game, it's more painful and distracting than I imagined it would have been. 

Dog Days boasts a multiplayer component, which consists of three game modes -- Fragile Alliance, Undercover Cop and Cops & Robbers. As in Dead Men, the multiplayer is full of inventive concepts and cool ideas, with Fragile Alliance being the sta??r of the show. If you never played the first game, it's an online co-op mode in which players pull off a heist and try to escape with as much cash as they can. However, the players can screw each other over for more loot, or abandon their friends if they reach the escape vehicle first. Cops & Robbers is exactly how it sounds, with one side being the cops who are trying to stop a heist undertaken by a team of criminals. I could, unfortunately, not get into a round of Undercover Cop, but it's just like the other modes with one player who is secretly a cop and needs to stop the robbery covertly.

If you want some variety, there is also Arcade Mode. I lied about the variety, because it's ?just Fragile Alliance for pe?ople without friends.

The ideas are great, but they are unfortunately married to the same broken gameplay as the story campaign,with its ambushing AI and broken cover system. Essentially, you're just playing the single-player mode with a bunch of other people who have to suffer it with ??you. Misery loves company, but company does not make this?? game any less miserable. 

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a game that plays how it looks -- it's distorted, confusing and thoroughly ugly. The fact that IO Interactive had a second chance and squandered it seems to suggest that the excuses made for Dead Men simply weren't true. The "mistakes" have happened all over again, and worse, anything that made Dead Men enjoya??ble has been sucked out to leave a shriveled, decaying husk. 

This game was Kane and Lynch's chance to get a title that such interestingly dark characters deserve, and it's a chance that has been wasted on incompetent design and half-hearted writing. I actually cannot think of a single positive thing to say about the game, and the fact that I have been rooting for this IP from the moment the first game was announced just makes it all the more infuriating. I wished nothing but the best for Kane & Lynch as a series, but the appalling nature of Dog Days confirms to me that this franc?hise will never be what it deserves to be. 

There is only one thing that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days succeeds at. It makes Kane & Lynch: Dead Men look really, really good. 

Score: 1.0 -- Epic Fail (1s are the lowest of the low. There is no potential, no skill, no depth and no talent. These games have nothing to offer the world, and will die lonely and forgotten.)

The post Review: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days appeared first on Destructoid.

While this launch trailer is all CG, it captures what the game is perfectly. A gritty f*cked up shooter starring two anti-heroes that don't give a damn. We've seen the game a ton already here at Destructoid -- from the single-player to the multiplayer -- and like what IO Enteractive has done with Dog Days.

The demo is available for all to download and I'm really curious as to what you guys think of Dog Days so far. You guys liking it? Hate it? What do you? think of the unique camera and visual stuff?

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will be out for ??Xbox 360, Pl??ayStation 3 and PC on August 17.

The post Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days gets a launch trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

There's about a week left before Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days comes out, so you should get on the pre-orders if you're interested. There's actually ??four different pre-order content packs that you'll nab at retailers Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart. 

The Greed Betrayal and Regenge multiplayer pack is one, and there's another called Eight Chinese costume masks. The Comic preview pack gives you a 16-page look at the DC Comics WildStorm first issue. Finally, the Fragile Alliance Strategy P?ack gives you tips and tricks to be the best.

In related news, there's a new co-op movie for K&L2. It's a pretty short but fun trailer that sho??ws lots of gunfire, cussing and things being blown up.

The post Kane & Lynch 2 preorder details, co-op trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

I'll say one thing for Square Enix and Eidos, they've not been shy on the trailer front. Here is another video for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, thi?s one centered around Marcus Kane, the embittered ex-mercenary who decided to trav??el to Shanghai and work with schizophrenic maniac James Seth Lynch once again. 

As with all Kane & Lynch 2 videos, it's suitably violent and thoroughly sleazy, which is good. The game's out a little later this month and I'm really looking forward to it. Well, it's good to have something in August to look forward to. 

Who else is planning to pick this up?

The post Kane & Lynch 2 gets yet another trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Here's a brand new trailer and a batch of fresh screenshots for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, otherwise known as pretty much the only retail g?ame in August that I'm looking forward to. The latest trailer is pretty mental, with lots of violence and shouting, which is pretty much what you'd expect. 

The game's out on August 17, and by all accounts, ?it seems to be a drastic improvement over the first title, which had bucketfuls of promise but stumbled in the execution. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, because I've always loved these characters and really want to see them in a good game.

The post Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days trailer and screens appeared first on Destructoid.

We previously told you that a Kane & Lynch comic book was on the way. All well and good, especially considering the flawed-but-interesting nature of K&L, b??ut now we have something even better: a couple of pages from the debut issue, in addition to some gorgeous cover art.

This series is being written by Ian Edginton, with Chris Mitten handling the art. The covers are coming?? to us from Ben Te?mplesmith, who continues to impress as always.

Kane & Lynch #1 goes on sale August 4, and as with many of these game-to-comic adaptations, this? one seems worth looking into if you want more fiction to go alongside what's available in the games. Generally speaking, there's always room for more.

The post A quick glimpse at the Kane & Lynch comic book appeared first on Destructoid.

All you PS3 owners out there who have been waiting to get your hands on the Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days like 360 owners have been doing for a while now don't have to wait much longer -- as long as you pay Sony 50 bucks a year or 18 bucks every three months. PlayStation Plus owners are going to be getting the demo for the game this Tuesday with n??on-Plus subscribers getting it on July 27.

The demo gives you a hint at what the single- and multiplayer components will be like by allowing players to play as Lynch in Shanghai for the single player and test out the "Fragile Alliance" multiplayer mode. In case you don't feel like putting the demo in for automatic download or getting it at the PlayStation Store you can always just read Jim's Jimpressions on it or Hamza's time spent with the multiplayer.

So does?? the early access make the subscription worth it?

K?ane & Lynch 2 demo dropping Tuesday for PS Plus subscribers [TVGB]

The post Kane and Lynch 2 demo hitting PS Plus on Tuesday appeared first on Destructoid.

Can't wait to step into the shoes of a schizophrenic sociopath and shoot Chinese policemen in the face? Good news is coming your way then, with news that Square Enix is publishing Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days a week earlier in t?he US and Euro??pe, wisely avoiding a clash with Mafia II. 

Kane & Lynch 2 will now launch on August 17 in North America and August 20 in Europe. I'?ll definitely make sure I get a copy, as this is a game I've been really hopeful for. How about you lot? Anybody else picking it up next month?

The post Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days getting released a week early appeared first on Destructoid.

A fresh batch of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days screenshots are here for your amusement. Look at them if you like looking at screenshots of thin????gs. 

After having played the demo, I am keeping myself optimistically? hopeful for the full?? game. As somebody who actually enjoyed the original despite its glaring problems, seeing this fantastically grotesque duo in a tigher game is very encouraging indeed. These characters deserve to be remembered for good things, not for getting Jeff Gerstmann fired. 

Unfortunately, it's far easier to remove a good reputation than a bad one, so I can only keep my fingers ??crossed I suppose. 

The post Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days screenshots are for looking at appeared first on Destructoid.

We've already told you all about Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days' multiplayer mode "Fragile Alliance," and I'm sure you're chomping at the bit to get some time with it. However, you might want to take a step back and get some practice in before you jump in with no experience. I'm talking about practic?e here, and what better way to practice than in the game's Arcade mode, which is the single player version of "Fragile Alliance."

Jumping right into multiplayer and getting my ass kicked is practically a past time for me so having a chan?ce to feel my way out and plan out the best ways to get the most money in this mode will be a very helpful thing. It does sound like some serious strategy will need to be used to come out on top and that blatant random shooting isn't going to win anyone anything here.

Definitely looking forward to this. Anyone else other than Jim and me?

The post Kane and Lynch 2’s Arcade Mode gets screens appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm one of the most forgiving writers you'll find on the subject of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. No, it wasn't a good game, packed full of balancing and technical problems, but its commitment to miserable protagonists and unconventional gameplay situations made it a guilty pleasure of mine. Having just given the demo for Dog Days a go, I am hopeful t??hat thi?s game is everything the first one could have been. 

First off, I loved the new visual approach. The swaying "handheld" camera, the grainy quality, and the pixelated nudity/gore make for a surprisingly effective graphical quality. I was dreading that the "Mockumentary" style would distract me from the gameplay, but it enhances the experience rather than get in the way, providing a unique and engaging atmosphere that certainly resonates in the "Reality TV" culture.&n?bsp;

As for the gameplay itself? The word "improvement" is probably something you'll see in a lot of reviews. It's tighter, grittier, and above all, far more competent than the first game. Player characters still feel quite flimsy and go down quickly, but the new "get up in cover" option that appears when you're downed is a big help. Firefights can feel a little too drawn out, but otherwise the action is much?, much better than the first.?? 

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days honestly looks like it'll?? be so much better than the first, finally giving the game's two brilliantly rotten antiheroes the kind of title they finally deserve. I shot guys in the head and I had fun, and that's all you can really ask for at the end of the day. I'm really looking forward to getting the full game after my time with this demo.

The post Jimpressions: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days demo appeared first on Destructoid.

So, Nick told you about the forthcoming Kane & Lynch 2 demo. I'm here to remind you it's no longer forthcoming. While a traditional open-to-all demo is coming to PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 before the game comes out, you can head here to sign up for an exclusive early 360-only demo.

You may get a redeemable code, you may not. ??Either way, Eidos and?? Square Enix get your email. If I happen to get a code, I'll likely give mine out on Twitter or somewhere.

I really, really like the potential for the multiplayer. Assuming it works as depicted so far, there's going to be a lot?? of good, memorable experiences to come out of it and the whole "you can completely screw over your teammates" mechanic. And hey, this specific mode (Fragile Alliance) is in the demo. Nice.

The post Get the Kane & Lynch 2 demo today, possibly appeared first on Destructoid.

[Update] We've clarified with a Square Enix rep that "exclusive" means for a limited time only, and that PlayStation 3 and PC gamers can expect a "consumer demo" in the future, as well. No timing has been revealed, so if you want to get your Kane & Lynch 2 on next week, it's 360 only.]

[Original] Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is out on August 24, ?but you want to try it out a bi??t early, right?

Well, Square Enix Europe has announced that a demo will be coming exclusively to Xbox LIVE. Tokens in "limited quantities" can be received by? heading over to kaneandlynch.com, and then redeemed for a demo of the game which will give you a taste of the game's campaign, arcade, and multiplayer modes (including "Undercover Cop," "Cops & Robbers," and "Fragile Alliance").

The demo goes live on July 1, and the tokens will be available for a limited time. The sign up is currently only available via the UK portion of the website, but more w?ill be a?dded over the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled.

The post Exclusive Kane & Lynch 2 demo hitting Xbox 360 in July appeared first on Destructoid.

We've known for a bit that Square Enix's Kane & Lynch 2 would be getting its own comic book. The game story's comic, which further explores the duo's past, is getting its adaptation from DC's Wildstorm label, and is written by Ian Edginton. Chris Mitten, who also works on the series WASTELAND, is the comic artist, but Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Fell) is the cover artist.

Today we have the exclusive first look at Temp?lesmith's work for the comic's first issue cover. I'm totally digging the art style. To get a better look, you can see the full image in our gallery below.

The???? first issue, set at 32 pages, will go on sale on August 4th.

The post Exclusive: Kane & Lynch 2 comic book cover appeared first on Destructoid.

I am seriously running out of clever headlines to inform you of gameplay videos on the E3 showroom floor. We just have a seriously staggering amount?? of them to show off for you, as you have most likely noticed.

Next up is some action from Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. We've given you plenty of reading on the game even before E3 ??started, but nothing like seeing it actually being played by someone to judge if it's going to stink as much as the first one did.

I'm definitely digging whatever level they're playing. It seems relatively original and like it could be fun, but I can't seriously tell from the video if we sho?uld be expecting anything great or even good from the game. What about you? Preparing for more disappointment or excited for the improvements?

The post E3 10: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days show floor video thing appeared first on Destructoid.

So around 10:30 last night, I received a phone call from an unknown number. I sent the call to voice mail for two reasons. One, I gave at the office. Two, I was trying to watch RoboCop with my wife. Priorities.

Turned out it was Lynch from the game Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. I think he had the wrong number, because he called me "Kane" in message. Okay, it wasn't actually the real Lynch, guys. He's no?t a real person. He's a character. From a game. And games are?n't real.

In any case, the voice mail (which you can listen to in the above video) is a setup for the upcoming sequel, which has Kane and Lynch reuniting for a gig in Shanghai ("??you know, the one in China?"). The simple, clean job doesn't go as planned and then a whole bunch of people get shot. Sounds pleasant.

The message was also an opportunity to see how well Google Voice translates messages. The answer: could be better. At one point, it has Lynch saying "Levy Jones has some Armstrong, but I needed most." That doesn't even f**king mean anything. Levy Jones is offended.

Full Google V?oice and human ear transcriptions after the jump for LOLs and those who ??can't watch the video above.

Google Voice robot transcription:

It's me, which I didn't know I've been checking. I don't wanna chat and hi. I hope you get this message soon cos I've got a job and I can use your particular brands of expertise. Anyway, we up pretty badly last time but well. Just wanted to different just thought I'd get it looks good and well aware of it is big enough to take us into retirement. You know we're not getting any younger. I got a girlfriend. So my priorities heard not the same. I can't afford any scraps okay. Anyway, call me back. Levy Jones has some Armstrong, but I needed most. Alright they act Jane Hi, I that it'll be good too. You know all see you again spite of everything happened. I'll show you around??. Bye.

Actual transcription by a human being:

Hi, ?it's me Lynch. I'm in, um, Shanghai… you know, the one in China? I, uh, hope you get this message soon because I've got a job and I can use your particular brand of expertise.

I know I, uh… we fucked up pretty badly last time around. But this one is different. It's a solid gig, looks good and well run. And big enough to take us into retirement and shit. You know, we're not getting any younger. Look, I've got ??a girlfriend now. So, you know, my priorities are… not the same. I can't afford anymore screw up??s, okay?

Anyway, call me back. It's an easy j??ob, just some arms going where they're needed most. Alright right? Oh yeah, Kane? I, uh… it'll be good to&hellip?; you know… see you again. Despite of everything that happened. I'll show you around. Bye.

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