"You're playing a CIA agent, it's designed to show the atrocities," Turner told CVG in an interview, "It's pretty awful and if you fail to see that side of it than you're not getting the whole picture. That being said, I thought it took it a little far; it was pretty out there. But I like seeing that they have guts like that."

Turner did say the mission's scenes, shown in advance of the game's release, were taken out of context. "When the footage got leaked thousands upon thousands of people saw it on a clip not knowing what it was," he said to CVG. "I'm not saying they were overreacting but people were generating these pretty outlandish opinions even though they didn't know what the scene meant in the grand scheme of the game."

Interview: Army of Two: 40th Day [CVG via Gamers Reports]

"We had this whole market in the US that thought the tone was cool, but in Europe everyone thought it was ridiculous and tasteless and a bunch of frat guys running around", EA Montreal's Reid Schneider told GI.biz.

Their solution? Let players tailor the tone of the sequel to the way they're playing it. "One of the things we learned was that we're never going to be able to please both. So the way you interact with your partner and decisions you make – if you're doing a lot of fist bumps – these influence the tone and the dialogue of your character. If your taking it on a more serious level then the game reacts seriously."

As neither an American nor a European, I feel I'm qualified to say that if you're skimping on the fist bumps, you're missing the point.

EA Montreal's Reid Schneider [GI.biz]

Three old Xbox 360 titles are made new again this week, thanks to the magic of digital delivery. Today you can download Army of Two, Midnight Club: LA, or Sonic Unleashed directly to your Xbox 360, with no need to leave the safety and comfort of your own abode. Just because we say you shouldn't play Sonic Unleashed is no reason not to drop $29.99 for it and see why you shouldn't play it for yourself!

Midnight Club: LA also rings up at $29.99, while EA's buddy mercenary joint is a steal at $19.99.

Has anyone out there purchased a game through Games on Demand? I've only picked up BioShock myself, and that's because I was given a code to test out the service when it launched. Has the convenience moved you?

Xbox 360 Games on Demand: Army of Two, Midnight Club: LA and Sonic Unleashed [Major Nelson]

This isn't your average video game comic book deal. The agreement between EA and publisher IDW actually creates a separate imprint, EA Comics, with EA handling all creative aspects and IDW in charge of printing and distribution to both retail and digital outlets.

"We've seen an increasing number of video game tie-ins with comics over the last few years. This marks another step in our strategy for extending EA's wholly-owned game properties to new media. It is exhilarating to be working with the comic book creators directly," said Mike Quigley, Group Vice President, Global Marketing, EA Games Label.

The first book is Army of Two, kicking off in January of next year with a story that follows Salem and Rios after the events of the first game, forming their own Private Military Corporation. The story is written by Peter Milligan of Hellblazer, X-men, and X-Statix fame, with interiors by Dexter Soy and covers by Chester Ocampo.

Details on the Dragon Age comic are still being ironed out, though they've got a cover artist in Humberto Ramos and a writer in the form of acclaimed (and in some cases reviled) science fiction author Orson Scott Card.

It looks like EA is taking the comics business extremely seriously, calling out the big guns and creating its very own imprint. It should be interesting to see how such big-name talent handles video game comics.

Our two-player session, played with Electronic Arts own Matt Turner, producer on the Army of Two sequel, dropped us into a Beijing zoo. Probably the worst zoo ever, considering the dead wildlife scattered about and the fact that everywhere we looked, everything seemed to be on fire.

I should back up a bit. Because the first thing we actually got a peek at was Army of Two: The 40th Day's weapon customization features. And whenever someone asks why I think The 40th Day will be a hell of a lot better than its predecessor, I point to features like this.

Weapons customization was something that the original Army of Two did well. But EA Montreal is adding a little more to the formula. As in the original, players will be able to swap bits and pieces from gun to gun, letting them combine the stock of an AK 47, for example, with the barrel of an HK G36, add a front mount, scope, unique cartridge, whatever, as long as those guns are within the same class. Turner says The 40th Day will have some 8,000 combinations, including some special "homebrew" additions.

Turner showed a handful of those during our preview, including a pair of bayonets made from a screwdriver and a kitchen knife, a stock that appeared to be fashioned out of scrap metal, and a suppressor made from a soda can. Some of those will be found in the world of Army of Two, not from the in-game store. Whether players will actually covet some of these D.I.Y. parts remains to be seen.

With our weapon loadout readied, we, as Rios and Salem, headed into the hippo pit, ready to do battle with whomever was pointing a gun in our direction. We attempted to put the suppressors on our sniper rifles to good use, taking out a handful of well armored grunts patrolling the pit. Turner succeeded in staying stealthy. I did not, missing the skull of my target and alerting the rest of the group.

Turner talked at this point about "enemy symmetry," the feature that supposedly gives Army of Two: The 40th Day's AI-controlled bad guys the same abilities that the player has. That includes taking cover and the ability to feign death, making it harder than facing a group of baddies that simply run and gun, hoping to overwhelm you with force.

That symmetry made it noticeably difficult to tackle the dozen or so grunts that swarmed in. Taking refuge behind the bodies of rhinos and hippos worked for a while, but the AI soldiers we were up against were all crack shots. So was the Heavy, an incredibly well armored mini-boss type whose only vulnerability was his protective helmet, a carry-over from the first Army of Two. Eventually, with the help of the more skilled Turner, we made it out of the pit, through a tram tunnel and into the next encounter.

The next encounter, Turner took time to explain the "pre-combat" buzzword he'd dropped, basically the planning stages of how one wants to handle a volatile situation. Our previous pre-combat tactic—attempting to snipe the heads off each grunt in the hippo pit—was a failure. This one, however, worked well.

Turner sneaked up behind the commanding officer in the section of the level, taking him hostage and ordering a trio of grunts to drop their weapons. They complied and I took the opportunity to tie down the three remaining prisoners, a non-violent solution that gave us a positive morality boost. That less lethal option also gave us access to a weapons cache—a new sniper, scope and some cash—which we wouldn't have been able to plunder if we'd simply killed everyone in that portion of the zoo.

Our successful completion of that portion kicked off another Heavy mini-boss encounter. This one was similarly armored, but instead of wielding a shotgun, he was carrying a grenade launcher, hip pockets packed with ammunition. Turner explained that we had to target the grenades on each hip to take him down. But it didn't quite go that smoothly. Both of us died amid the swarm of new grunts.

Like our previous hands-on experiences with Army of Two: The 40th Day, we walked away impressed. While the first game had its share of problems, many of them seem to be addressed in the sequel. We'll know for sure when The 40th Day arrives on January 12, 2010.

Reid Schneider and Alex Hutchinson, executive producer and creative director for Army of Two: The 40th Day spoke about the moral choices that will affect the co-op shooter at Comic-Con, showing how decisions will affect the story line. There will be numerous "good" and "evil" choices players can make, which EA will be tracking and publishing, pitting American players against European players in a battle of who's more "moral."

Schneider said the Army of Two team will be tracking those choices via its Telemetry software, which provides feedback based on what people are doing in the game. (We understand that players can opt out of having Telemetry track their game progress.)

"We're curious to see who's more moral, America or Europe," said Schneider."We're going to dig that up, then put that information out 40 days after the game is out."

Hutchinson says that when E3 attendees were polled on which decision to go with during Army of Two: The 40th Day demos "it was 100% evil." Sounds like we're off to a bad start.

While the full, official reveal of Army Of Two: The 40th Day's versus modes will be unveiled "shortly," Hutchinson made Schneider a bit nervous with the details he offered. Our ears always perk up whtn someone starts a sentence with "I shouldn't be telling you this, but..."

The creative director said to expect a "fully client/server" connection for Army of Two: The 40th Day multiplayer, with "many more modes and more people allowed to play."

The original Army of Two featured a trio of multiplayer game types, supporting up to four players.

Expect to be able to drop in and drop out of co-op focused multiplayer matches. And say goodbye to the region locked restriction on multiplayer games. The 40th Day dudes say you'll be able to play with your global buddies, making a co-op get together a little bit easier.

You can see images of the prototype figures above, and while there's no information regarding release dates or any other figures in the line, it'd be weird if they weren't released alongside Army of Two: The 40th Day later this year.

God I hope you press a button on the back and they fistbump/pat each other gruffly on the ass.

[via Gamervision]

Army of Two, Battlefield: Bad Company, Devil May Cry 4, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction all get the price drop and new packaging effective June 16.

"Games deemed ‘Greatest Hits' have reached a significant sales threshold. This latest selection features several critically acclaimed titles, including Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Metal Gear Solid 4, which represent the high caliber of quality software that is available on the PS3 system," said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president, product marketing, SCEA. "We're looking forward to making this group of best sellers even more accessible to consumers, while we continue to deliver more value to the overall PS3 platform."

When I played the Army of Two sequel a few weeks back—more about that later—I certainly don't remember any precocious kids hanging out with Rios and Salem. But in a game where you can kill armed soldiers and civilians, you need a third, tinier smart ass to offer additional comic relief.

But that's probably not the focus of these new Army of Two: The 40th Day shots, which look rather spectacular, by the way. See if you agree by perusing the gallery below.

Among the list of games getting future merchandising are The Sims, MySims, Dead Space, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Dante's Inferno and Army of Two.

"Creative Minx is proud to be working with EA, and to be able to represent such a strong portfolio of highly-recognizable gaming titles," Andi Riordan-Scott, President of Creative Minx Marketing. "We look forward to building successful merchandising franchises across multiple categories and distribution channels for EA's top brands and leveraging the awareness of its strong consumer base."

Let's hope this includes Dante's Inferno wind-up babies and Army of Two hockey masks.

[Pic]

See, when we learned that the game was going to carry the secondary title with the acronym "TFD," well, we had our hopes set on Army of Two: Total Fistbump Destruction, a title suggested by Kotaku commenter strawberrycream. Then EA is all "It's actually Army of Two: The 40th Day!"

It's like when you're set on having a lavish sushi dinner, then a last minute change forces you to have a freezer-burned microwaved burrito instead.

Maybe it's just me. Here are six screens of buddy on buddy action.

Joystiq in particular has received a ton of info from an anonymous tipster, who goes into great detail on the sequel, allegedly titled Army of Two: The 40th Day, which definitely jibes with the "ARMYOFTWOTFD" discovered yesterday in the teaser site's Java tracking. Protagonists Rios and Salem return reluctantly to duty in Shanghai, where a network of private military contractors is looking to take over in the name of a mysterious leader. Throughout the story the player will be making moral choices that affect the game's multiple endings. The informant also mentioned followers, which would technically make the game Army of Two plus guests.

The game improves over the original with enhanced artificial intelligence (sorely needed), environment damage, a deeper weapons customization system, and improved networking for the once again outsourced multiplayer.

Check out the Joystiq article for details on the first few levels of the game, but remember...none of this means anything until we have official word on Army of Two: The 40th Day.

Rumor: Army of Two sequel called 'The 40th Day' [Joystiq]

The official Army of Two web site now has the splash image seen above, but little else. The site's meta content, however, features the description "The definitive third person co-op shooter is back" which would certainly imply a sequel. That is, if EA honestly feels that Army of Two was the definitive third person co-op shooter.

Perhaps the only other hint is the game's possible code name "ARMYOFTWOTFD" used on the site's tracking Javascript. That may be purely placeholder or simply code that's not indicative of the final name, but we like to think it is, if only to justify combing through Javascript with our work day.

Regardless, we're hoping that the Kotaku readership will generate winning backronyms on the "TFD" portion of the name, helping us wipe away our case of the Thursdays.

I'll start—Army of Two: Too Funky Dudes!! Yes, with the double exclamation point.

Army of Two [Official Site - thanks, Morgan!]

The publisher has invited local press to visit the offices of EA Montreal next Monday, then spill all embargoed beans on Thursday. Our best guess? It's an Army of Two sequel.

I mean, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau wasn't exactly vague about the prospect of a follow up to the co-op shooter, telling Variety last year that EA has a "sequel idea planned" for Army of Two. Plus, an Army of Two sequel was rumored to have been announced in February, then called off due to weather. No, seriously!

Of course, EA Montreal may be pulling the lid off another title, perhaps another SSX or even a completely new franchise. But if we had to bet, well, it wouldn't be on another Boogie.

EA Montreal Announcing Mystery Game On March 12 [Shacknews]

Yup, a snow day! Which means the event was called off. That didn't stop word leaking out about which games were due to be revealed, though. According to a report on VG247, not only were the three new Need for Speed games due to make an appearance, but also some new stuff.

Like a brand new, unannounced game from DICE, which VG247 reckon is a new Battlefield title. Also meant to be shown was an Army of Two sequel.

EA, not wanting the surprise spoiled, refused to confirm any of this, of course. Meaning we'll have to wait until the snow dies down and the event's rescheduled to hear more.

Snow cancels new DICE console game showing in UK [VG247] [Image]

It's intended to help parents decide what to/not to buy their kids. You will enjoy this list. While some choices - GTAIV, Manhunt 2 and Condemned 2 - are to be expected, others aren't. Or are, but weren't expected for the reasons The Timothy Plan (who are sounding more like a prog rock band each time I type that) list.

Take Army of Two. It's a violent game, sure, and they say that, but The Timothy Plan also have a black mark next to its name for..."homosexual encounters", based on the fact there are "somewhat homo-erotic undertones between the two main characters". And that's a bad thing? I thought it was the only thing that saved the game, in a Transporter-oil-wrestling kinda way.

Metal Gear Solid 4's sexual warnings are equally good-timey, warning "Some of the game's women are wearing sexually revealing clothing and romances are implied". Fortunately Snake's romances weren't explicit, or we'd be looking at a Timothy Plan boycott of Konami's big-seller.

You'll find the full list below.

The Timothy Plan VideoGame Guide [The Timothy Plan, via GamePolitics]

Take, for instance, the above Virtua Fighter 5 theme. Series starlet Sarah may still look virtually beautiful — what a pretty eye you have! — but she now has a bit of creepy stalkerishness to her gaze. The same mismatched layout applies to themes for games like Army of Two, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Castle Crashers and more. For the full list of usable, but visually gimped themes, read on.

NXE: When Old Themes Go Bad [OXM]

The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what's going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics. I told EA right off the bat I wasn't a gamer, and that appealed to them because they didn't want to simply replicate the game.'

Army of Two is a string of EA film deals that includes licensing Mass Effect to producer Avi Arad and a Sims movie at Fox. Mass Effect movie, that we can see. But Army of Two? Really?

Army of Two movie in the works at Universal, EA producing for the first time [The CutScene]