What a pleasant surprise

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is the latest in a long line of PC games to elicit an "Oh sweet, it's easily playable on modern machines!" The top-down action-adventure game with the sick af box art is back via GOG �it'll be $6.99 normally, but for a?? limited time, ?it's just $6.29.

Whether it's tangled-up IP rights �which seems to be the main factor here between Silicon Knights, Crystal Dynamics??, and Square Enix �or other outside factors holding back a re-release, you love to see a piece of gaming histor?y like this pop up out of the blue.

As someone who's not really tapped in, I hadn't realized that Legacy of Kain wasn't previously ava?ilable on GOG, but fans have been calling for it and I'm sure they're thrilled. Even though you could say this about a lot of these "good old games," this one strikes me as a particularly nostalgic re-release, whether you have vivid memories of vampire revenge with the PS1 original or the 1997 PC port by Semi Logic Entertainments.

Blood Omen is a memorable start to a storied series with super passionate fans, but apart from playing Soul Reaver �and more recently, as a thirtysomething, watching a full playthrough of Legacy of Kain �I feel like I've missed out. The story and world are awesome. And while I can't say I'm dying to play through (what looks to be) a challenging and in many? ways dated experience, I appreciate having the option to do so on a whim.

In other words, I'm happy for y'all??. Go slice up some mages for me.

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They were previously ordered to pay Epic $9.2 million

If you haven't been following the Silicon Knights vs. Epic Games Saga, it hasn't been pretty. A No??rth Carolina court ordered Silicon Knights to pay Epic Games millions ($4.5m in damages, and $4.7 in court fees), after a failed lawsuit by SK and a successful counterclaim by Epic. The counterclaim alleged that Silicon Knights was in breach of their licensing agreement, and the court? seemed to agree.

Midway through 2013, we learned that Silicon Knights was still alive and fighting the claim, but it appears as if the tale may be at an end, as a January 6th appeal judgment has ruled in favor of Epic. The only real remnants of SK that we can really track out in the open is Denis Dyack, who jumped ship to Precursor Games and helped head up a Kickstarter that failed multiple times.

As someone who grew up with Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Eternal Darkness, and Twin Snakes -- it's pretty depressing to see a once great studio go out like th?is.

No. 12-2489 [United States Court of Appeals For the Fourth Circuit via Gamasutra]

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Nintendo filed a new trademark mentioning "downloadable electronic game software"

Precursor Games, a.k.a. the ghost of Silicon Knights, is still trying to get Shadow of the Eternals off the ground, hoping to attract Kickstarter backers with the promise of David Hayter's gravelly pipes. However you feel towards Shadow of the Eternals, I think everyone can at least agree that a re-release of its GameCube spiritual predecessor Eternal Darkness would be greatly appreciated.

Siliconera has just stumbled upon a very interesting Eternal Darkness trademark that Nintendo filed on July 23. It looks similar to another trademark filed back in 2010, except this one has added language in the "goods and services" field that makes mention of "downloadable electronic game programs" and "downloadable electronic game software." This could point towards a potential Wii U eShop version of ED in the future.

Nintendo never ruled out releasing GameCube games on its Virtual Console, but the company has yet to hammer out any further details??. And since nothing was done with the older 2010 trademark, this could simply be Nintendo covering its bases. Either way, it's something to munch on.

The 2013 and 2010 trademarks are in the gallery below, and you can pull them up for yourself on the US Patent and Trademark Office site by clicking "search for trademarks."

Ninte?ndo Regis?ters New Trademark For Eternal Darkness, Covers Digital Distribution [Siliconera]

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Shadow of the Eternals developer was immediately terminated

[Editor's note: In light of some of the commenters' statements, I have slightly revised some of the wording of the original article so as to tone down ?my gut reactions. It's a topic I feel very strongly about, hence my response. But I understand that my personal thoughts should be left for another time and place.]

Shadow of the Eternals studio Precursor Games was hit by a major bomb yesterday when it was learned that one of the studio's own was arrested on charges of child pornography possession. Kenneth McCulloch of St. Catharines, Ontario, had his house raided following an investigation that dated back to April. A "significant" number of computers and hardware were seized and McCulloch pl?aced in custody.

McCulloch had been with Precursor ever since the team was still running wild as Silicon Knights. Obviously, he no longer works there -- CEO Paul Caporicci made that crystal clear in a forum post last night, while all other evidence of McCulloch's associatio?n with the company has been erased as though he ne?ver existed.

How this will effect the development of Shadow of the Eternals is a wor?ry for another day. For now, a man's career is pretty much over.

CR??IME: St. Catharines man facing child pornography char??ges [Bulletin News N?iagra] (Thanks for the tip, Ocho)

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Kickstarter campaign to be temporarily shut down

The progress Precursor Games has made toward successfully funding Shadow of the Eternals has not been happening at the?? kind of rate that inspires much confidence. With two weeks left to go on the Kickstarter front, the studio has decided to "temporarily take down" the campaign on both Kickstarter and its own website on Thursday, June 6.

"This doesn't mean we are going away -- far from it," reads an update from Precursor. "We'll be re-launching the Kickstarter in just a few short weeks with a ??reveal of ?these exciting new developments.

"As we're closing the current Kickstarter campaign not a single dime from this campaign will be removed from supporters’ accounts and everyone from our website's crowdfunding campaign will receive full refunds via PayPal," continues the post. "As we re-tool our campaign and continue development, the forums on our site will remain open and active and any interested fans can still join the ‘Order of the Unseen’ to see our progress and join in the fun of creating content for the game thems??elves."

There are a number of worthy reasons to steer clear of the project, and although I think the developers are coming from the right place here -- giving the people what they want, or at least attempting to -- I'd be worried if I had money invested in Shadow of the Eternals right now.

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Dyack creates a 30 minute video asking you to trust him

Last year, Kotaku ran an article that blew the downfall of Silicon Knights situation wide open. The article in question is here, titled "What Went Wrong With Silicon Knights' X-Men: Destiny?" In it, Kotaku goes over what they've learned from sources close to Silicon Knights in regards the working conditions and poor handling of development cycles. The crux of the report alleged that Denis Dyack had a hand in everything, citing his large ego and poor management t?actics as reasons for the once great developer's significant drop in quality.

As you know, Dyack is now attached to the Eternal Darkness follow-up Shadow of the Eternals, and...it's not doing so well out of the gate. It seems as if the CEO for Precursor Games has asked Denis Dyack to respond directly, because their Kickstarter (yep, both of them) is influenced by people ??who vehemently distrust Dyack and hi??s shaky past.

Dyack claims that the piece is not true, and that it was linked so many times that it has "become" factual for many. Specifically, he alleges that he has "intercepted emails" from his own anonymous source that confirms his innocence. There's no real hard evidence to prove his innocence though, so it seems as if this is a case of "he said she sai??d," with Dyack's word against Kotaku's.

My take on the whole situation is this. Whoever is in the "right" in this particular instance is irrelevant and may never come to light. Dyack has had a troubled past regardless of what was published in this article, and attaching him to the project guaranteed that you would have t??o deal with that baggage. The choice was made by Precursor Games the moment Dyack was attached, and that somewhat sealed their fate -- now they have to deal with that.

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Eternal Darkness studio still hanging on by a thread

Silicon Knights claims to be alive and kicking following its legal battles with Epic Games. The Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes developer is in the process of licking its wounds after receiving an order to pay $4.45 million in damages and destroy all unsold copies of Too Human and X-Men: Destiny.

Silicon Knights chief financial officer Mike Mays tells Polygon the studio is "very busy" and "defini??tely alive." The developer has not filed for bankruptcy, despite having reportedly laid off the vast majority of its staff last year.

Company founder Denis Dyack is among those that have jumped ship, having joined his former Silicon Knights employees at Precursor Games to develop the crowdfunded spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness, Shadow of the Eternals. 

Silicon Knights isn't just operating on a skeleton crew; the company has sold off a number of its assets inc??luding its Ontario offices and technical equipment, some of which were purchased by Precursor Games.

Precursor CEO Paul Caporicci told Polyon his company "has no connection with Silicon Knights" and is merely "trying to turn a toug??h situation into something positive." 

Epic Games filed motions following the transfer of computers from Silicon Knights to Precursor Games last summer, requesting verification that the hard drives were formatted. Caporicci asserts his company purchased "completely wiped clean machines" and "there is no basis? for any liability or any claim against Precursor Games."

The conclusion of Silicon ??Knights' legal drama with Ep?ic Games is currently pending appeal.

Silic??on Knights unloads property, closes office, continues?? battle with Epic Games [Polygon]

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Precursor Games discusses Shadow of the Eternals

The crowdfunding campaign for Shadow of Eternals, the long-awaited spiritual sequel to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, has begun. The title is being developed by Precursor Games, a new studio formed last year from the ashes of Silicon Knights, which hop?es to raise $1,500,000 to fund this follow-up to thei??r 2002 GameCube cult classic. 

Like its predecessor, Shadow of the Eternals follows multiple characters across various time periods and settings as a cent??r?al protagonist attempts to piece together a mystery that is at the crux of these intertwining stories. 

Shadow of the Eternals will be released as a series of twelve episodic releases for Wii U and PC. Head over to the title's crowdfunding page if you'd like to contribute to the project. Additionally, you can check out a nine-minute gameplay demo and chat with Denis Dyack over at IGN. A word of warning, Precursor? Games isn't using Kickstarter or Indiegogo for the campaign. ?If for whatever reason things don't go according to plan backers and their investments will be at the mercy of Dyack and company.

Shadow of the Eternals [Precursor Games]

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Crowdfunding campaign for Shadow of the Eternals to kick off next week

[Update: According to IGN, Shadow of the Eternals will consist of twelve episodic releases?? for Wii U and PC. Precursor Games is seeking $1,500,000 to fund the project.??]

More than ten years later, a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is finally on the horizon. Titled Shadow of the Eternals, the forthcoming follow-up to the survival horror cult classic is being developed b??y Precusor Games, who has announced plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the project on Monday, May 6.

Eternal Darkness was ?developed by Silicon Knights and published by Nintendo in 2002. The title is most memorable for its "sanity meter," which dep?letes over time and enhances the game's ominous atmosphere with a variety of psychological scares designed to make the player just as unhinged as their onscreen counterpart.

Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack has been confirmed to be involved with the title, whose studio has been more notable for courtroom drama rather than game development in recent years. The company became mired in legal battles with Epic Games following the release of Too Human in 2008, alleging that Epic unfairly used Unreal Engine 3 profits to fund Gears of War rather than make improvements to the software.

After five years of litigation a North Carolina court ruled Epic's favor, ordering Silicon Knights pay $4.45 million in damages and destroy any unsold copies of games developed using Epic's engine. Too Human was pulled&n??bsp;from the Xbox Live marketplace shortly thereafter.

Look for more details on Shadow of the Eternals next week.

Shadow of the Eternals Teaser Trailer [IGN]

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Demos and themes also gone

Twitter let us know today that Silicon Knights' title Too Human disappeared from the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace today. Actually, everything related is also missing, i?ncluding the demo, themes, and gamer pi??cs. 

Where did they go? Well, remember the Silicon Knights v. Epic Games battle from a couple of months back? The court ordered that games using Unreal were to be recalled or destroyed, and Too Human's disappearance may have been a result of this ruling. Other titles, like X-Men Destiny and The Sandman, were al??so to be destroyed under the direction of the courts.

It's a sad story, really. It's even more sad to look at the Xbox product page, where you'll fi??nd that it's been str?ipped of all purchase links.

Got a sealed copy? First, HAHAHA. Second, you might h??ave a collector's item.

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Plus: RIP X-Men Destiny

Here's today's action-packed Destructoid Show!

Bethesda has released a big ol' video about The Elder Scrolls Online, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is allowing the internet teenagers to livestream their online gun-shooting right from their gaming system of choice, Silicon Knights is being forced to destroy all their Unreal Engine 3 games, and some Navy SEALs got in trouble for working on Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

The big news? Well, the cat's out of the bag about Grand Theft Auto V, and it sounds awesome. 

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Too Human, X-Men: Destiny, and more to be culled

Following Silicon Knights' lost legal battle against Epic Games, it has been revealed (via GAF) that the perpetually unlucky studio has been ordered to recall and destr?oy all unsold copies of its Unreal?? 3-coded games. 

The games due for the chopping block are:

• Too Human
• X-Men: Destiny
• The Sandman
• The Box/Ritualist
• Siren in the Maelstrom

The developer has until December 10 to get all the games back?? and eradicate them, at its own expense. Given reports that Silicon Knights was already in grave danger, this very well may be the last nail in its coffin. 

Silicon Knights and Epic Games were embroiled in a long legal battle after the former accused the latter of fraud, citing failure to produce a working game engine in Unreal Engine 3. Silicon accused Epic of "sabotaging" Unreal 3 licenses by providing inferior versions of the engine in order to fund its own production of Gears of War.

The lawsuit, which began in 2007, ended in a loss for Silicon Knights in 2012, with the studio being made to pay  $4.45 Million in damages. More recently, word has spread that Denis Dyack's company operates on a skeleton staff of five after ??having to?? let most of the employees go. ;

Many blame Dyack's ego for this whole thing happening, claiming he sued Epic out of an arrogant refusal to accept blame for Too Human's notoriously troubled development. In any c??ase, the studio has scored a fairly disastrous own goal, no matter whose fault it is. 

It's hard not to feel sorry for the studio, and it's never pleasant to hear of people losing jobs and being unable to make the games they love. With a charitable heart, then, I pledge my sword to Silicon Knights -- if you guys need help locating and destroying copies of Too Human, I?'m your man. I'll?? do it gladly. I'll do it for free.

Just please let me help annihilate Too Human.

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After a protracted legal battle lasting five years, a North Carolina court has closed the book on a suit brought forth by Silicon Knights against Epic Games, alleging that the developer of Unreal Engine 3 competed unfairly by using funds from licensing the engine to develop Gears of War instead of making improvements.

According to a statement given to Polygon by Epic's legal counsel, a jury has dismissed a??ll claims against Epic as well as finding in their favor on a counterclaim that Silico??n Knights were in breach of their licensing agreement. The court has awarded $4.45 million in damages to Epic Games, which doesn't include possible coverage of their legal fees; Epic has thirty days to file a request for a reimbursement of that from Silicon Knights as well.

Ouch. I guess now probably isn't the time to get excited about the possibility of an Eternal Darkness sequel, eh?

Epic Games wins lawsuit agains?t Silicon Knights, awarded $4.45 Million [Polygon]

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Not long after David Braben had his semi-annual whinge about use??d games, Deni?s Dyack has joined the party and declared that used games will destroy the videogame industry as we know it. Sigh. 

"I would argue that used games actually increase the cost of games," he claimed. "There used to be something in games for 20 years called a tail, where say you have a game called Warcraft that would sell for 10 years. Because there are no used games, you could actually sell a game for a long time, and get recurring revenue ??for quite a while. Recurring revenue is very key.

"Now there is no tail. Literally, you wi?ll get most of your sales within three months of launch, which has created this really unhealthy extreme where you have to sell it really fast and then you have to do anything else to get money."

Denis said that used games are cannibalizing the market, and that "there's not going to be an industry" if it continues. Y'know, this is the kind of melodrama??tic rhetoric that was said about game rentals back in Dyack's precious glory days. It also echoes what the movie industry said about VHS?? once upon a time.

An industry dies when those running it respond to competition by dumping burdens on the shoulders of consumers and acting like victims, rather t?han working to encourage customer loyalty.

Right now, we have publishers inspiring outrage and anger from its fans, we have incompetent DRM, online passes, and excessive DLC turning people off, and the mouthpieces of the market are?? throwing little pity part??y for themselves. If this industry does die, it'll have only itself to blame.

Oh, and Dyack's studio was responsible for X-Men: Destiny. Maybe don't s??hit out a disgusting joke of a game if ?you don't want people trading it in, yeah?

Pre-owned increases cost of games, canni??ba??lizes industry, says Dyack [GI.biz]

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Today, Mash Tactics is joining the fight for mutant rights in X-Men: Destiny. Destiny has received some heavy criticism, but surely it has plenty to offer a couple of comi?c book fans like Carnage and Wesley. Tune in and see which meta-humans will triumph, or suffer the wrath of our Mr. Destructoid Sentinels.

Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4pm Pacific. Watch Jon Carnage and Wesley Ruscher down energy drinks and freestyle rap about the human perineum on Destructoid's Twitch TV channel. Also, there are videogames being played. Join us for your chance to win prizes, talk to industry guests, and witness all of the glorious antics.

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Raccoons are pretty much the best animal ever and it's a shame that so few games feature the little guys. If Tom Nook and Sly Cooper just aren't cutting it for you anymore, former-Silicon Knights producer Erik Peterson's new studio Romper Games has a new platformer you might just be interested in. Raccoon Rising is an upcoming iOS title that draws its influences from a variety of ??classic games. 

Much like Sonic the Hedgehog, the story follows a raccoon on a quest to save other woodland critters from robot invaders destroying their forest homeland, while the soundtrack is very reminiscent of the Donkey Kong Country series. On the other hand, the gameplay, design, and visuals have a much more modern feel to them -- the saw blades, especially, evoke memories of Super Meat Boy. It looks great. Can I get it on my Android?

Raccoon Rising will be a??vailable for iOS devices come November ??17th for $0.99.

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Comic book videogames have enjoyed varying degrees of quality over the years, but their stock has rarely been higher than now. Batman: Arkham Asylum and the upcoming Batman: Arkham City are critically acclaimed, while Spider-Man has been holding up Marvel's end with the well received Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. 

With X-Men: Destiny, ??Silicon Knights hopes to follow up on these triumphs by giving the X-Men a game to be proud of. 

Silicon Knights did not succeed.

X-Men: Destiny (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 [reviewed])
Developer: Silicon Knights
Publisher: Activision
Released: September 27, 2011
MSRP: $59.99

X-Men: Destiny's first big mis-step is in forcing players to choose between three "original" characters with very limited, linear abilities. Although each playable mutant has a backstory, none of the?m possess any real personality, and their super powers are restricted to one of four basic types. At various stages of the game, players get a "choice" between one of two new abilities, determined by their main starting power. 

There is some basic customization to be had by equipping the "genes" of established X-Men characters. Genes come in three varieties -- Offensive (attack bonuses), D??efensive (defense bonuses) or Utility (bonuses to speed, jumping or dodging). For example, equi??pping Toad's offensive gene causes attacks to become poisonous, while using Juggernaut's utility ability turns dodge maneuvers into powerful attacks that knock opponents back. 

In addition to genes, there are also suits to be discovered throughout the adventur??e, based on Marvel's heroes and villains. These suits are mostly cosmetic changes, but if the player finds and equips all three genes related t?o the same character, they can unlock an X-Power. This is a powerful, temporary status that grants even more bonuses to attacks. 

X-Men: Destiny frames itself as a roleplaying game, but nothing could be farther from the truth. It is, in essence, an incredibly shallow button-masher and nothing else. For a game so focused on player choice, there are very little in the way of tangible options. You don't create your own character, most of the abilities and suits are only slightly varied or cosmetic in nature, and the pathetic narrative choices throughout the game seem to make very little difference to how it's actually played. The game keeps setting you up to choose between Cyclops' X-Men or Magneto's Brotherhood, but your character's attitude remains the same and often runs contrary to your choices, while??? the missions are essentially unchanged. 

There are sidequests that can be undertaken in order to curry favor with a faction, and by sidequest, I mean that you find a character, accept their mission, get whisked away to a small "challenge" arena and have to kill everything until you win. Earning the approval of factions seems to influence nothing. It appears to just be there to look like it does something. 

With its half-hearted attempts at dialog trees (although a branch-less trunk would be a more fitting metaphor) and insulting shallow character customization, X-Men: Destiny is a game that is interested only in aesthetically resembling an action-RPG, rather than act??ually being one. You'll be led to believe that your choices ma??ke huge differences, and that the game could open at any second to feel truly sprawling and deep, but it never happens. Characters talk about choices without offering any and speak highly of things to come that never occur. 

This might not be so bad if the game was any fun to play, but unfortunately Silicon Knights took the same skin-deep approach to combat as it did to everything else. I'm a fan of hack n' slash gameplay, but Destiny is limited and repetitive to such a degree that it makes Dynasty Warriors look complicated. You fight the same enemies almost from beginning to end, your combos -- such as they are -- rarely evolve and are visually lackluster, and there's barely any player feedback to the attacks. You could close your eyes, smash the controller with your firs?t, and most likely get through huge portions of the game without a care in the world.

This issue is carried over into the bosses, most of which require the same button-mashing approach to defeat. The final boss is amazingly insulting in this regard, since it's nothing more than a repeat of two bosses (and a recurring mook enemy) already during the course of the game, except slightly easier. Larger bosses consist of the same tired, "dodge attack, hit obviously exposed weakpoint" strategy that we've seen a thousand times before?, with no attempt to be even faintly clever?? or surprising. 

Unskippable cutscenes and dialog that one is forced to listen to -- even if the player accidentally hits the same dialog option twice -- ?completes the picture to create one of? the biggest wastes of time released in recent memory.  

The best that can be said of the game is that it at least works, and features a pleasant variety of X-Men characters, including some of the lesser known ones. There's a huge amount of potential in the character building and it can be quite cool to see what effect the genes have on a character's abilities, but the overwhelming simplicity and repetition kills any lasting excitement that can be had, especially once you realize that the only truly noticeable difference in genes is in determining what color your attacks are. 

To cap it all off, X-Men: Destiny is unpleasant to look at. With its washed out colors and empty, grey environments, it resembles a game that would struggle to look decent five years ago. The voice acting is largely terrible, the music completely forgettable, and one has to wonder if anybody on the development team actually cared about what they were building. It looks thrown together, rather than fully developed, cobbled from bits lying around on Silicon Knights' studio floor and giv??en just enough attention to make everything work. 

X-Men: Destiny is an ugly, boring, lazy little game. Even if it were free, it would be insulting to ??have one's time wasted in this way, but the fact it's being sold for sixty dollars rubs salt in the wound. It tries to eke out an existence by pretending to be a far richer and more satisfying game than it is, but the promise of a better?? experience only serves to hammer home just how bad the final product actually is.

The only purpose Destiny serves is to demonstrate exactly what happens when developers don't care about what they're making. It's an exercise in apathy, and any customer who buys it would be within their rights to feel angry?? that they paid good money for something that never had any intention of being enjoyabl?e, existing solely to make easy money off a comic book's name.

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Activision is preparing to launch X-Men: Destiny ??across North America tomorrow, and has released a trailer today! How's that for a wacky coincidence??

If you're not in the know, Destiny is an action/RPG from the fine folks at Silicon Knigh??ts. You can pick one of three characters and make all sorts of choices with them, hence the game's name. Reactions have been luk?ewarm on the game so far, but we should be getting our review copy today or tomorrow and will endeavor to provide a summary soon. 

Who's picking it up? Anybody?

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Silicon Knights have released a behind-the-scenes video of X-Men: Destiny with interview segments featuring Stan Lee. X-Men: Destiny will be the developer's first released game since Too Human back in 2008. It also shows o??ff a fair amount of mutant brawling along with some slightly unco??nvincing character models. The talking heads featured however seem pretty confident with the direction they're taking the game in.

Stan Lee doesn't feature too heavily but his answers are refreshingly low-key and honest. The video touches upon the choices your personally customized  X-Men will have to make. This affects the combination of powers you have and which side of the mutant war you'll be fighting for.. Who does Stan Lee side with? You'll have to watch to find out. X-Men: Destiny wil?l be out ?September 27 on both PS3, 360, Wii and DS.

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Activision showed off X-Men Destiny last night at a preview event. It's probably the first X-Men game where you'll start out as a total nobody. But what's?? neat about Silicon Knights' upcoming title is that you have the opportunity ?to make a nobody a real somebody by shaping their mutant powers and alliances. 

Read on for our preview of X-Men Destiny.

X-Men Destiny (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
Developer: Silicon Knights
Publisher: Activision
To be released: September 27, 2011

There are three new characters in X-Men Destiny, each of which will become official X-Men. I chose to play as Aimi Yoshida. Aimi was smuggled?? out of Japan on a tanker ship, just as her family was about to be rounded up and put in a mutant containment camp. She arrives in San Francisco where she joins the X-Men. She joins two other selectable characters: Grant and Adrian. Adrian seems a bit more serious, but Grant is just a dumb jock tha??t wants to get down with mutant powers. 

Starting out, Aimi was an empty shell, awaiting my input. I chose to ??give her "density control," which gave this small girl big ol' arms of rock. Suddenly my punches were meaner and more meaningful. Punching the ground actually leaves holes. The power didn't fit her looks (striped leggings!) but I was too busy punching in baddie faces to gi??ve it too much thought. 

Your player can be further upgraded with X-Genes, which let you equip and upgrade different powers, RPG style. You can actually nab the powers of other X-Men you encounter, letting you evolve in the way you choose. Further character customizati??on happens through decisions presented throughout the game. You'll pick friends and decide alliances as the story progresses.

This particular demo progressed through a series of closed-room enemy clean-ups. Large text reading something like "10 enemies remaining" would appear in the environment, right in your?? fighting area. These caged brawls weren't that exciti??ng, but maybe that has something to do with how little time was spent showing the game's potential. This demo was closer to a series of interactions with very young-looking X-Men. In that short demo I ran into Toad, Emma Frost, Quicksilver, Iceman, and Cyclops. Each interaction would have them showing me a skill, or fighting alongside me. It seemed more like a taste of what is to come beyond this demo more than anything else.

The fighting itself wasn't particularly engaging. It may just be that this wa??s an early dem??o, but swarms of enemies kind of hung back waiting for me to attack them. They didn't put up much of a fight, and when they did I used the same basic attack to push back and move on, rarely needing a secondary shock attack to supplement. It's beat-'em-up button mashing for most of the time, which proved to be satisfying, but again, not exactly exciting. 

There's a lot of cool ideas from Silicon Knights in this license, but I'm just not seeing them in this demo. Here to hoping we can see more of the potential realized in the future. X-Men Destiny comes out this September for Xbox?? 360?, PS3 and Wii, so they had better get a move on!

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Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack has criticized the mobile gaming market, stating that 17,000 "Fart" applications and an average gross of ??$700 per title could do harm to the game industry as a whol?e. 

“As an example, my under??standing is that there are 17,000 fart apps right now," he said. "Those are more fart apps than anyone could possibly ev??er consume. What that does ... when you start having performance oversupply, it accelerates the commoditization that drives the value of games down. EEDAR did a talk at a conference where they said the gross average for an iOS game -- gross, not net -- was $700. I can guarantee you that a company like ours and most people cannot survive on a $700 gross.

"So what’s happening is you have a lot of people going into this hoping that they’re going to get this smash hit like Angry Birds ...? And I’m not saying there aren’t quality games on the iOS, because there are; there are some good games there, but there’s so? much performance oversupply and so much commoditization, that it actually is affecting, in my opinion, the industry in a very negative way."

I agree that the saturation of mobile apps can be ludicrous -- any successful game is quickly copied by a dozen other so-called developers -- but I feel that consumers do a great job of implementing their own quality control. Moreso than in the retail market. Genuinely good iOS games, for example, tend to become smas??h hits. Indi?e developers have a better chance against major publishers, and rip-offs or low quality titles are generally given poor reviews and sell badly. 

Contrary to what Dyack sugg??ests, I think the mobile app market is perfectly healthy, and superior to retail in at least one way. Rather than having a small amount of rich men in business suits (some of which don't even like games) de?termine what titles are successful, everybody has a chance to get noticed, and the consumers ultimately decide what games live and die. At least as far as iOS goes, I think direct customer control is having a rather positive influence. 

That might not be a nice thing for the suits, but ?I think it's pretty good for the rest of us. 

Nintendo Is ??Right About iPhone Apps Hurting Industry in 'Very Negative Way,' says Dyack [Industry Gamers]

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Silicon Knights visionary Denis Dyack has criticized social gaming as found on networks like Facebook, accusing the medium of harming traditional games and predicting that the whole concept is going to crash harder than Too Human. 

"It is damaging traditional gaming for sure but ... how it’s going to work out is anyone’s guess," said Dyack. "The trend that I see is it’s probably going to be one of the biggest bubble??s and explosions that our industry's seen in a long time and I think when it crashes it’s g?oing to crash very hard. I don’t think there’s an economy there."

"I don’t know about Zynga -- I think that’s a big micro, but I think that the amount of venture that’s being poured in, in general, that's most of the video game industry investment. As far as I know right now?, it's going into pure social gaming. It looks like marketing to me. It doesn’t look like real gaming. And maybe it’ll change, I don’t know. It looks very, very dangerous."

Dyack believes that a lot of the benefit of social gaming is "imaginary" with developers radiating "Pie in the sky ideas." According to the developer, when the time comes to show some actual revenue, a lot of these companies embracing social games will come up sh?ort. 

Facebook Gaming Will 'Crash Very Hard,' say?s Dyack [Industry Gamers]

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The saga of Too Human, Silicon Knights' Norse-mythology-meets-sci-fi RPG which spent ten years in develo??pment hell only to receive a cool reception upon release, may not be over. In a recent interview with IndustryGamers, CEO Denis Dyack has stated that Silicon Knights, "in?tend to finish the trilogy but no comment beyond that."

Which isn't entirely true, because he also mentions the "very public litigation" surrounding the title. That would likely be referring to the suit Silicon Knights brought against Epic Games in 2007, claiming that Epic failed to provide support for the Unreal Engine which caused delays in the development of Too Human. That trial is currently awaiting a federal jury.

Silicon Knights? on Too Human: We Intend to Finish the Trilogy [IndustryGamers via Shacknews]

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Considering it's being developed by a well-known developer (Silicon Knights) and is based on a popular comic book franchise, we certainly haven't heard much about X-Men: Destiny.

Maybe that's about to change, starting with the reveal of one of the game's new mutant heroes, Aimi Yoshida. Activision tells us?? that Aimi was smuggled out of Japan on a tanker ship, just as her family was about to be rounded up and put in a mutant containment camp. She arrives in San Francisco where she hooks up with the X-Men and apparently has to fight for her life against killer mutants and soldiers. ?Maybe she was better off staying in Japan.

X-Men: Destiny is scheduled for a release later this year, just a few months from now. Based on what little you've seen, what do y??ou think?

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The first images of Silicon Knight's upcoming action title, X-Men: Destiny, have leaked onto the Internet by way of a Y??ouTube video. Oh, Internet -- ?you so crazy!

According to early details of the game, players will choose from one of three new, young recruit X-Men, at least one of which ap?pears to be a dude with some ugly tribal tattoos. Truthfully, a YouTube video isn't the best way to get your first look at game screenshots; the damned music probably isn't helpin??g. But I'd be lying if I didn't say my first thought was "ewwwww!"

I'm doing my b?est to withhold judgment until I see the game in action, and know a little b??it more about the title. I hope to hear more soon, because these images (and that damned song) are burning into my brain, and I expect to have nightmares. 

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Silicon Knights has been very quiet since the release of Too Human, but the studio has reared its head in an upcoming issue of Official Xbox Magazine, bringing some details of its next title, X-Men: Destiny. 

Naturally, you want your information in easily dig??estible chunks, so here's a handy list of the current Intel: 

• Game focuses on the "tough decisions that an average X-Man has to make."
• Set during a period where mutant hate is at its height, and when the X-Men have suffered a significant loss.
• The player character is the child of a "human zealot" who campaigns against mutants as "nature's greatest mistake."
• One of three characters to pick, all of whom are now part of official X-Men canon.
• The game features X-Genes, which allow you to build your character with the skills of other mutants.
• "Decision Moments" occur throughout the story, presumably Destiny's take on "moral" choices.
• Gambit, Magneto, Surge and Quicksilver are four of the famous faces who will pop up.

The last time Activision published an original Marvel game was with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, a title that was generally well received (though I found it a little boring). Hopefully, X-Men: Destiny can top it. We could always do with some more good? comic book games. 

Silicon Knights' X-Men: Destiny - first details [CVG]

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X-Men: Destiny was announced earlier this year, and I somehow missed that it was being developed by Too Human and Eternal Darkness developer Silicon Knights. Well... it is!

Not content with all of its big VGA reveals, Spike and GameTrailers TV aired a new teaser for the title last night. It doesn't show much of the game itself, but it does hint at a visual style. It also reveals a handful of X-Men that will appear in the game, which is mostly comprised of the usual s??uspects.

Destiny will have players taking on the role of a new mutant to the team, with an emphasis on choice and player control over -?- wait for it! -- their destiny. Sounds ??good. It's out next year, and I look forward to seeing more.

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Rumors of a Silicon Knights-developed game named The Box have been making the rounds long before Too Human hit the Xbox 360. And there’s no real reason to ??toss the possibility aside yet, especially in light of the game’s name surfacing on a CV.

According to this translated document, artist Zhang Shao-yong worked on The Box and Too Human as part of a “games special effects production” team at S?ilicon Knights between June 2005 and April 2008.

The Google-translation (which is, assumedly, horribly wrong) gives us an id??ea of what he did on both titles: “the application of particle and material?? performance of explosions, smoke, water, fire, weather and so on.”

There’s no doubt Silicon Knights is working on at least one unannounced IP, but we’re not sure if The Box is that IP. Heck, we’re not even sure The Box still exists or if its that SEGA-tied title as speculated. Time will reveal the answers, but we went ahead and contacted SK to get the them now in case we die in a car accident tom??orrow or something.

[via CVG, image]

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Everybody is currently feasting upon cloud computing's nuts at the moment, with services such as OnLive promising a streaming videogame experience that could change the world forever. Dyack is a firm believer in the power of such cloudy chicanery, predicting that it could signa?l the end of the "golden era of videogames" and usher in a new dawn.

"2009 may be the end of the golden era of video games as the first cloud models for games are announced," he states. The Too Human creator believes that cloud computing will end the tyrannical rule of second-hand games and piracy. So confident is Dyack in the power of this voodoo, he even discounts the issue of lag, claiming that all it would take for lag to disappear would be for hardware to be installed in every major city in the world. Is that all?!

Don't worry though, Dyack and his crack team of Too Human developers aren't ready to abandon consoles just yet: "Silicon Knights will continue?? to do console games as long as they're profitable."

Thank Christ for that!

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Silicon Knights, last seem dividing the videogame community over its much-hyped Too Human, have been relatively quiet lately. Until recently, when a potential upcoming title -- Siren in the Maelstrom -- was revealed by Telefilm Canada on a list of up??coming projects. 

Speaking to Eurogamer, a spokesperson? for the developer was unsurprisingly quiet and vague. 

"Silicon Knights is busy working on several exciting projects. Unfortunately, ??it is too early to disclose any details."

The "several exciting projects" could be a lot of things. A Too Human sequel, a game that's nothing at all like Too Human, that game they announced for Sega almost five years ago. Or Siren in the Maelstrom. Or all of them at once, which will squeeze our brains like some bizarre Eternal Darkness psychological torture. 

So, are you excited or what?

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