The Last of Us Announcement Trailer December 14, 2011

A secret reveal this year at the VGAs included this Playstation 3 exclusive which is in development at Naughty Dog, the company responsible for the hit Uncharted series.

When I first saw the game trailer during the VGA’s I was reminded of Namco’s Enslaved, which also took place in a colorful post apocalyptic world where the vegetation reclaimed the cities.  The game released in 2010 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and I considered it an overlooked little gem worth whatever price you may find it at right now.  Apparently the similarities in style between the two games is no coincidence, I heard one of the designers of that game is working on The Last of Us.

The Last of Us is coming to the Playstation 3.

Duke Nukem Forever Single Player DLC Released December 14, 2011

The first single player downloadable content for Duke Nukem Forever has been released to the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.  “The Doctor Who Cloned Me” follows our hero Duke Nukem as he faces with his longtime mortal enemy Dr. Proton, who is planning to unleash a clone army of Duke Nukems with the intention to use them to…take over the world (of course!).

For those of you who may remember when I talked about what had been cut from Duke Nukem Forever, this synopsis may sound familiar to you and that’s probably because this was included in the original design document for Duke Nukem Forever, written way back in 1998 or so.  Still no mention of Bombshell in it, but rumors have it that one more DLC for the game is expected.

The Darkness II Co-Op Trailer December 14, 2011

From the looks of it, 2K Games is no longer on a “no comment” policy when it comes to asking questions about multiplayer in The Darkness II, as they have just announced that the game is shipping with an entire cooperative campaign.

Four new characters have been introduced, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and each with their own axe to grind against the evil brotherhood which endangers Jackie Estacato.  Want to know more about them?  Well this new trailer breaks it down perfectly.

The Darkness II is coming Feb, 2012 to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Announcement Trailer December 14, 2011

First shown at the Spike VGA Awards this year, here is the full trailer for the next story in the Alan Wake universe.

Its exciting to see where the series is headed.  The character of Mr. Scratch was first introduced towards the end of the first Alan Wake game.  He has the exact same appearance as Alan, and it is said that, “his friends would be meeting him soon.”  Originally, Scratch’s name was not spoken clearly.  When his name was said, a scratch sound effect was played over it, almost like it was being censored by something otherworldly.  When interviewed about him later on the developers made it clear that the name Mr. Scratch was another name for The Devil, teasing just what would be in store for us in future Alan Wake games.  Did anyone else notice that when Alan saw Mr. Scratch on the drive-in screen he almost looked as if he was Max Payne standing over his wife in the prologue of the first Max Payne game?

Well, what we have in store for us looks just fantastic.  It looks like all the gameplay of the original Alan Wake game is intact but we will be seeing just a major expansion of that.  The signature light versus darkness gameplay (a staple of the first game) remains, with Alan using flashlights and flares to harm his enemies before firing on them.  We also see Alan firing his first ever automatic weapon in the trailer.  Since all the weapons in the first game were semi-automatic, this hints that there will be new weapons in this game.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is coming Q1 2012 exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade.  No price has been confirmed yet.