Darksiders Devs Tout Sales, Patch

Darksiders developers Vigil Games has stated on its community blog that the action adventure title has sold 500,000 copies following its release in early January, which would indicate a major success for the original IP against stiff competition in the form of Platinum Games' Bayonetta, which released the same week. However, the article cited in Vigil's post uses independent "sales-tracking" site VGChartz as its source for the 500K number, which calls those estimates into question. There's no mention on Vigil's community blog about parent company THQ's internal sales tracking for the title. NPD's retail sales data for January will release later this month.

In other Darksiders news, Vigil also released a patch last week for the Xbox 360 version of the game to fix the significant screen tearing found in that version of the title. The Digital Foundry blog at Eurogamer ran an analysis comparing the game's performance before and after the title update was released. Via Eurogamer:

It's extremely rare that patches actually increase the performance level of a game. Cutting down screen-tear to an appreciable degree without impacting frame-rate involves some pretty substantial optimisations to the engine, so it was with some level of intrigue that Darksiders performance was put through the Digital Foundry frame analysis tools in both original and patched conditions.The result? Well, screen-tear is indeed dramatically reduced... the launch version of the game has 43.5 per cent torn frames. The new version is considerably improved, taking that number down to 21.6 per cent.

The Digital Foundry article includes a comparison video we urge you to check out as well. On a less scientific note, TeamXbox did detect a noticeable improvement in picture quality post-update, though there was a significant decrease in framerate (which The Digital Foundry also detected). This change seems perfectly acceptable, however, as the gameplay did not appear to be compromised. Darksiders received a 9.0 from TeamXbox in its review earlier this month.

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Kristen Stewart Says Robert Pattinson Is ‘Quite Bold’ In ‘Remember Me’THQ Announces Darksiders, Red Faction Sequels

THQ Announces Darksiders, Red Faction Sequels

THQ held their quarterly earningscall earlier today, revealing several in development projects scheduled for release over the next 18 months, as well as revealing layoffs and restructuring at two of its struggling studios. Juiced developers Juice and MX vs. ATV devs Rainbow have been restructured and renamed with the intent to focus them on digitally distributed titles, resulting in substantial layoffs.

Meanwhile THQ stated that Darksiders, their sleeper release from earlier this year, has shipped 1.2 million units to retail in the 4 weeks since it hit shelves. They also announced in development sequels to last year's Red Faction: Guerilla and their previous hit Saint's Row II for fiscal year 2011 (prior to April 2011) and 2012 respectively. Long in development shooter Homefront is also due some time this year.

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Modern Warfare 2 Gets Welcome Fixes

The latest glitch to plague Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer matches has apparently been addressed. A post to the Infinity Ward forums earlier today by Robert Bowling, creative strategist for the game, indicated that the "Infinite Care Package" exploit has been fixed by a title update that players will apparently receive the next time they start up the game.

Bowling's post also indicated other issues that the title update will address. Here's the full list:• Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized.
• Fix for "infinite care package" exploit.
• Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside.
• Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s.
• Fixes to prevent various XP hacks (including the prevention of negative XP).Once again, thousands of MW2 will rejoice and return to somewhat normal matchplay—as they did after the "Javelin" glitch was patched in December—though you know the exploiters won't rest until they find a new weakness to give them an advantage. Apparently, some gamers are too insecure to just play a game with their actual skill levels and have to muck it up for everyone else.



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Skate 3 Downtown Dev. Diary #1

SKATE 3 features an all-new co-op mode where teammates can complete challenges together while advancing each other’s careers. From rewarding epic bails and fails with a beefed up Hall of Meat mode to honing your craft with the all-new skate.School, players of all skill levels have multiple ways to “kill it” in the game. The franchise also continues to raise the bar for user created content with the "skate.Create" feature suite, an innovative toolset that empowers gamers to truly express their skate style by creating their own graphics, videos, and skate parks.

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Kristen Stewart Says Robert Pattinson Is ‘Quite Bold’ In ‘Remember Me’Despicable Me Announced

Despicable Me Announced

D3Publisher (D3P), a publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software, together with its parent D3, Inc., today announced a worldwide publishing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing for video games based on Universal Pictures and Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment's inaugural 3-D CGI feature, Despicable Me, the studio's first from Meledandri (Ice Age, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, Horton Hears a Who!), who produces through his Universal-based family-entertainment company.

The film follows Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), one of the world's greatest super-villains, as he uses his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays and a small army of minions to pull off the biggest heist in the history of the world. The video games are scheduled to release on console and handheld systems in July 2010 to coincide with the nationwide release of the movie on July 9, 2010.

"Despicable Me has all the right ingredients for a successful game," said Bill Anker, vice president of business development and licensing, D3P. "The film's unique cast of characters and playful, mischievous action will translate exceptionally well into the interactive space. We look forward to working closely with the Universal team to deliver an authentic and compelling gameplay experience for fans of the film as well as gamers of all ages."

"Working with D3Publisher, we look forward to creating a fun-filled game loaded with humor, clever puzzles, in-game rule breaking and surprises," said Bill Kispert, vice president, Digital Platforms, Universal Partnerships & Licensing. "Players can explore the slightly wicked side of themselves as they carry out hilarious capers on a comical quest for world domination."

In Despicable Me: The Game, players will experience the inventiveness of being a despicable genius as they become Gru, the film's criminal mastermind, planning heists and plotting attacks on Gru's archnemesis, Vector, as they work their way to villainous greatness. Despicable Me: The Game offers a unique blend of action and puzzle solving that combines the fun of commanding an army of loyal-but-manic minions and using an arsenal of wacky gadgets, weapons and vehicles to entertain players of all ages.

About Despicable Me (The Movie)

In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden deep beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by an army of tireless, little yellow minions, we discover Gru (Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon (Yes, the moon!) in Universal's new 3-D CGI feature, Despicable Me.

Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad.

One of the world's greatest super-villains has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes. www.despicable.me

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Alpha Protocol A Man Alone Trailer

Developed by award-winning development studio Obsidian Entertainment, makers of smash hits including Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II The Sith Lords™ and Neverwinter Nights 2™, Alpha Protocol is slated for an early 2009 release for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Windows-based PCs.

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Xbox Live This Week Secret Weapons over MLB (22410)

There's a larger than usual crop of new Xbox Live Arcade releases this week, as Greed Corp. for 800 MS Points ($10.00 USD), Fret Nice for 1200 MS Points ($15.00 USD) and Lazy Raiders for 800 MS Points ($10.00 USD) all hit the Marketplace today. We should have reviews up for each of these titles in the coming days. Meanwhile, I'm sure most of you are much more excited for the new Borderlands DLC The Secret Armory of General Knoxfor 800 MS Points ($10.00 USD), which released on Tuesday (after a weird snafu that let it go live but prevented anyone from downloading it). From our Secret Armory of General Knox preview:

Speaking of decent guns, Gibson let us in on another aspect of General Knoxx that's extremely enticing: The expansion will bring a new class of weapons to our inventories. These "pearlescent" guns are going to be the best you can get, and when I asked how much better they were going to be, considering I felt that some of the "orange" arms were actually pretty disappointing, he told us they new guns would be "much better than orange." We weren't shown any, so we'll have to take his word for it for now. However, we were shown a new "super chest" that you can find; this is supposedly a Crimson Lance supply chest with a double layer of shelves for a bigger selection.

Before the Gearbox guys packed up, they took me to the room where General Knoxx is located. No spoilers to be given here, but I will tell you to go there only when you (and your co-op team) are good and ready, because he's a Level 64 behemoth who'll bring the pain. Hopefully, he lives up to the old saying: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall...and the bigger their loot drop is."

Sweet. Ninja.

This week also sees the release of a demo for 2K Sport's baseball revival MLB 2K10. From our hands-on with the MLB 2K10 demo earlier this week:

Another cool aspect is the feedback you get on the pitcher's composure. If your pitcher gets rattled by allowing a bunch of hits and runs, you'll not only get a display of the pitcher's lowered confidence, but if it gets really bad, you'll feel his accelerated heartbeat through the controller's rumble function, and when you try to aim a pitch on the edges of the strike zone in that condition, you might find that the cursor stutters and shimmies all around the spot, to show how erratic his throw might be. You can help him out a little by calling for a mound visit, which can be directed to help the pitcher's stamina or composure, though, like actual MLB rules, you only get one visit to the mound per inning unless you substitute.

That'll teach him to crowd the plate.

Finally, Games on Demand gets a little dirty this week with the release of the off-road racer Pure for $19.99 USD. From our Pure review:

It's often said that "God is in the details," which happens to be the perfect mantra for Pure's visual package. Notice how the rider's clothing textiles sway properly in relation to the amount of wind resistance imparted upon them. Or how mud can and will be added to just about any part of the rider or his/her ATV. Proper suspension animations and wheels/tires which actually look correct at-speed are other little touches that Blackrock has flat-out nailed in Pure.

Sweet. Jumps.

And that about does it for this week. We'll have another update next week as Microsoft begins their Block Party promotion with Toy Soldiers

Kristen Stewart Says New Movie Shows ‘Different Types Of Love’

Just Cause 2 Anatomy of a Stunt Vol. 2

Eds. Note: You should read our hands-on impressions of Just Cause 2 here! From our hands-on:I know what you’re saying: How can something as simple as a grappling hook make that huge of a difference? Well, we’ve been banging on a build of the game for two days now, and let me tell you: It can and does. The grappling hook enables you to do so many insane things in Just Cause 2, that you’ll probably find yourself just playing with it at times and ignoring your missions. This is not a grappling hook like you’ve played with in Bionic Commando or Lost Planet; this is something straight off the drawing board of a madman. A madman who likes to have fun.

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THQ Announces Extended Darksiders Demo

Gamers will be able to get to grips with DarksidersTM' true essence in the upcoming release of a 90-minute game demo for Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3 based on THQ Inc.'s critically acclaimed action-adventure game.

The demo contains the entire first dungeon encounter from the game, the sprawling Twilight Cathedral. This engaging and challenging level contains dozens of puzzles for players to solve, new pieces of equipment to discover and epic boss battles against the monstrous demon Jailer and the savage bat-winged Tiamat. Representing a cross section of Darksiders' key features, the demo will take approximately 90 minutes to complete for the average player. The demo will become available to download from Xbox LIVE® and PlayStation®Network on February 25.

David Adams, General Manager of Vigil Games commented:

"We are really pumped to be bringing a playable demo for Darksiders to Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. We really wanted to give gamers a true idea of the variety of gameplay that the game offers and so rather than just making a standard 20-minute demo version of the first few levels, we decided to give away this massive level and reveal the true essence of the game."

Darksiders is now available at retail outlets worldwide for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system for a suggested retail price of $59.99.

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Modern Warfare 2 Gets Welcome Fixes

The latest glitch to plague Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer matches has apparently been addressed. A post to the Infinity Ward forums earlier today by Robert Bowling, creative strategist for the game, indicated that the "Infinite Care Package" exploit has been fixed by a title update that players will apparently receive the next time they start up the game.

Bowling's post also indicated other issues that the title update will address. Here's the full list:• Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized.
• Fix for "infinite care package" exploit.
• Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside.
• Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s.
• Fixes to prevent various XP hacks (including the prevention of negative XP).Once again, thousands of MW2 will rejoice and return to somewhat normal matchplay—as they did after the "Javelin" glitch was patched in December—though you know the exploiters won't rest until they find a new weakness to give them an advantage. Apparently, some gamers are too insecure to just play a game with their actual skill levels and have to muck it up for everyone else.



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Samurai Showdown Sen Screens

Celebrate the 15th anniversary of SNK PLAYMORE’s revered weapons-based fighting franchise with the most brutal and visceral Samurai Shodown installment ever produced — Sen (formerly known as Edge of Destiny). Set in 1791 during the twilight days of Japan’s feudal Edo period, Sen reveals a society on the brink of collapse, as encroaching Western influences threaten to overrun the ancient, once-hidden culture of lords, serfs, and samurai.

     

     

Click here to view all screenshots

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R.U.S.E. Story Trailer

R.U.S.E. is a one-of-a-kind real-time strategy game that allows players to bluff their enemies to lead their nation to victory, controlling the action using views that range seamlessly from the heart of the battlefield to the full theatre of war. Players will be plunged into the action thanks to the exclusive IRISZOOM Engine which offers an intuitive interface that allows for smooth, rapid transitions from a birds-eye view of the entire conflict, down into the heat of the battle and vice versa.

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Zeno Clash New Attacks Trailer

In the land of Zenozoik, the city of Halstedom is ruled by a powerful clan, one which Ghat has betrayed by committing a terrible sin. Now, Ghat's brothers and sisters are pursuing him and his companion Deadra through strange and twisted lands, beyond the boundaries of the sane to the ends of the world. What was Ghat's crime and why did he commit it? The bare-knuckled brawl to reach the truth has just begun.

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Splinter Cell Conviction Release Date Confirmed

Splinter Cell: Conviction has been delayed a number of times, but Ubisoft is absolutely, positively sure this time that it's coming out on April 13th. How sure? Well, they sent us rocks with the game's logo and date LASER-ETCHED into either side. See for yourself.

Thankfully, this rock was delivered, rather than thrown.

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Koei Releases More Dynasty Warriors Screens

With DYNASTY WARRIORS®: Strikeforce up to four friends can join together online and experience Tactical Action combat in whole new way. As a team, players will travel to different cities throughout Imperial China to embark on quests, and use coordinated assaults to conquer heavily‐armed fortresses and colossal beasts.

     

     

Click here to view all screenshots

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First MLB 2K10 Screens

Major League Baseball 2K10 celebrates baseball’s core battle: Pitchers vs. Hitters. Improved pitching mechanics and right-stick swing controls let you pound the strike zone and rake like a pro, while a totally revamped fielding system, hundreds of new signature animations and a star player rating system bring the action to life like never before. Get ready to battle.

     

     

Click here to view all screenshots

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Iron Man 2 War Machine Trailer

Iron Man 2 takes gamers deeper into the world of Iron Man, adding to the excitement of the upcoming Marvel Studios film. Iron Man 2 offers fans a chance to play against epic enemies not found in the film of the same name, such as the unforgettable Crimson Dynamo. In the game’s original story, Tony Stark has gifted the world with new technology in order to make it a better place. His philanthropic nature isn’t enough to keep evil at bay, however, as Iron Man’s enemies have crafted their own devious designs based on the technology. In this new trailer, get a look at War Machine, Iron Man's new ally in the fight against weapons of mass destruction.

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THQ Announces Darksiders, Red Faction Sequels

THQ held their quarterly earningscall earlier today, revealing several in development projects scheduled for release over the next 18 months, as well as revealing layoffs and restructuring at two of its struggling studios. Juiced developers Juice and MX vs. ATV devs Rainbow have been restructured and renamed with the intent to focus them on digitally distributed titles, resulting in substantial layoffs.

Meanwhile THQ stated that Darksiders, their sleeper release from earlier this year, has shipped 1.2 million units to retail in the 4 weeks since it hit shelves. They also announced in development sequels to last year's Red Faction: Guerilla and their previous hit Saint's Row II for fiscal year 2011 (prior to April 2011) and 2012 respectively. Long in development shooter Homefront is also due some time this year.

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Dante's Inferno Descent Trailer

Dante’s Inferno takes gamers to the western world’s most definitive view of the afterlife as created by the 13th century Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Each of the nine circles will showcase its own distinct look, with demons, monsters and geography that are crafted straight from the poem’s vivid descriptions. Using Death’s Scythe and Beatrice’s Holy Cross, and a slate of magic powers with a deep, customizable upgrade system, players will experience a fast and fluid 60 frames-per-second gameplay experience. The game is out on February 9 for the PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360 and the PSP. Witness Dante's descent into the deepest corners of the underworld, battling the unholy demons of the nine circles of Hell, including Lust, Greed, Heresy, Violence and Treachery.

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Just Cause 2 Freedom and Chaos Trailer

With over 400 square miles of some of the most incredible gameplay locations ever seen, Just Cause 2 gives you the freedom to take on the world in more ways than you can possibly imagine. Freedom to decide where to go: snow-topped mountain ski resorts, sun-kissed tropical beaches, beached oil tankers in the middle of a desert, floating brothels or lost Japanese WWII soldiers on ‘skull’ island. Freedom to accept any mission: work for any of the three island factions, choose from almost 200 missions, challenges, assassinations and more. Freedom to bend reality to your cause: surf jet fighters into oil rigs, ‘helicopter hop’ from the burning wreckage of your aircraft and hijack your pursuer, devastate heavily defended military installations with nothing but your grapple and a snappy one-liner. Just Cause 2 gives you the freedom to make the game your own. This is your Just Cause.

As Rico Rodriguez, the Agency's most powerful weapon, players must take on the island of Panau and its military regime in order to track down Rico's former boss and mentor, Tom Sheldon, who has gone rogue with millions in Agency cash and intel. Using a unique grapple and parachute combination, there is no vertical limit as the air becomes your playground: grapple a passing plane in flight, hijack helicopters, BASE jump from the tallest buildings or mountains and leave a trail of chaos and destruction in your wake. Just Cause 2 offers players the freedom to attack missions any way they choose and, with over 100 vehicles and countless upgrades and collectibles, the choices for relentless adrenaline-fuelled action are limitless.

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Darksiders Devs Tout Sales, Patch

Darksiders developers Vigil Games has stated on its community blog that the action adventure title has sold 500,000 copies following its release in early January, which would indicate a major success for the original IP against stiff competition in the form of Platinum Games' Bayonetta, which released the same week. However, the article cited in Vigil's post uses independent "sales-tracking" site VGChartz as its source for the 500K number, which calls those estimates into question. There's no mention on Vigil's community blog about parent company THQ's internal sales tracking for the title. NPD's retail sales data for January will release later this month.

In other Darksiders news, Vigil also released a patch last week for the Xbox 360 version of the game to fix the significant screen tearing found in that version of the title. The Digital Foundry blog at Eurogamer ran an analysis comparing the game's performance before and after the title update was released. Via Eurogamer:

It's extremely rare that patches actually increase the performance level of a game. Cutting down screen-tear to an appreciable degree without impacting frame-rate involves some pretty substantial optimisations to the engine, so it was with some level of intrigue that Darksiders performance was put through the Digital Foundry frame analysis tools in both original and patched conditions.The result? Well, screen-tear is indeed dramatically reduced... the launch version of the game has 43.5 per cent torn frames. The new version is considerably improved, taking that number down to 21.6 per cent.

The Digital Foundry article includes a comparison video we urge you to check out as well. On a less scientific note, TeamXbox did detect a noticeable improvement in picture quality post-update, though there was a significant decrease in framerate (which The Digital Foundry also detected). This change seems perfectly acceptable, however, as the gameplay did not appear to be compromised. Darksiders received a 9.0 from TeamXbox in its review earlier this month.

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THQ UFC Undisputed 2009 Sells 3.5 Million

(Editor's Note: Read our UFC Undisputed 2009 review.)

THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) and Zuffa, LLC today announced that UFC(R) 2009 Undisputed(TM), the critically and commercially acclaimed debut videogame based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship(R), has achieved "Platinum Hits" status in North America for the Xbox 360(R) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, as well as joined Sony's "Greatest Hits" collection in North America for the PlayStation(R)3 computer entertainment system. Having shipped more than 3.5 million units worldwide to date, both versions of the videogame originally launched on May 19, 2009 and are now available for the suggested retail price of $29.99."Reaching 'Platinum Hits' and 'Greatest Hits' status is an honor that speaks to the strength of our software and the power of the UFC brand," said Brian Coleman, Vice President of Global Brand Management, THQ. "With a reduced price point, more players can now step into the Octagon(TM) and take part in the ultimate virtual UFC experience."

"We are excited that so many fans around the world have helped us achieve these impressive milestones in our debut year," said Dana White, President, UFC. "UFC 2009 Undisputed opened the door for us to further share the UFC brand with videogame and fight fans around the world, and we cannot wait to return this spring with the release of UFC Undisputed 2010 on May 25, 2010."

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Despicable Me Announced

D3Publisher (D3P), a publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software, together with its parent D3, Inc., today announced a worldwide publishing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing for video games based on Universal Pictures and Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment's inaugural 3-D CGI feature, Despicable Me, the studio's first from Meledandri (Ice Age, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, Horton Hears a Who!), who produces through his Universal-based family-entertainment company.

The film follows Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), one of the world's greatest super-villains, as he uses his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays and a small army of minions to pull off the biggest heist in the history of the world. The video games are scheduled to release on console and handheld systems in July 2010 to coincide with the nationwide release of the movie on July 9, 2010.

"Despicable Me has all the right ingredients for a successful game," said Bill Anker, vice president of business development and licensing, D3P. "The film's unique cast of characters and playful, mischievous action will translate exceptionally well into the interactive space. We look forward to working closely with the Universal team to deliver an authentic and compelling gameplay experience for fans of the film as well as gamers of all ages."

"Working with D3Publisher, we look forward to creating a fun-filled game loaded with humor, clever puzzles, in-game rule breaking and surprises," said Bill Kispert, vice president, Digital Platforms, Universal Partnerships & Licensing. "Players can explore the slightly wicked side of themselves as they carry out hilarious capers on a comical quest for world domination."

In Despicable Me: The Game, players will experience the inventiveness of being a despicable genius as they become Gru, the film's criminal mastermind, planning heists and plotting attacks on Gru's archnemesis, Vector, as they work their way to villainous greatness. Despicable Me: The Game offers a unique blend of action and puzzle solving that combines the fun of commanding an army of loyal-but-manic minions and using an arsenal of wacky gadgets, weapons and vehicles to entertain players of all ages.

About Despicable Me (The Movie)

In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden deep beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by an army of tireless, little yellow minions, we discover Gru (Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon (Yes, the moon!) in Universal's new 3-D CGI feature, Despicable Me.

Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad.

One of the world's greatest super-villains has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes. www.despicable.me

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Lego Harry Potter Years 14 Debut Trailer

LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 1-4 will give gamers the chance to experience the magic and adventure of Harry Potter in a uniquely LEGO way. Playing as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley™ and Hermione Granger™, as well as other favorite characters, gamers will have the opportunity to attend lessons, cast spells, mix potions, fly on broomsticks and complete tasks to earn house points. Throughout the game, players will also have the freedom to explore iconic settings from the wizarding world including Hogwarts castle, Diagon Alley™, the Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmeade™!

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