Count To Five: AC2 DLC, FFXIII Box Art, and Dante's Demo

This blog really isn't a place I plan on putting a lot of news. The 1UPs, Gamespots, Gamasutras and JoyStiq's of the world or place better fit for breaking news being they actually have full-time staffs dedicated to that. Besides, I more or less reserve my actual reporting for The Game Reviews and some of my opinions for Bitmob. But when I'm not doing a full-blown highlight of something here, I do want to quickly highlight certain news and other random thought I'm probably tweeting elsewhere anywhere.

Welcome the Count To Five. Here I'll highlight five bits of news or things that pique my interest or quick thoughts for which I'm not dedicating full articles here or elsewhere. And being practically everything else new I'm debuting around start with it....

1. Final Fantasy XIII Box Art Reveal

 See, not exactly huge news. But being I'm anticipating this game like a person dying of thirst anticipates fresh water, I'm showing it the love.

2. Spring 2010 Blooms More Assassination

Ubisoft annouced two packs of DLC for Assassin's Creed II set for next spring. Entitled "Battle of Forli" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities" (releasing in January and Feburary repsectively), the DLC would presumably be set near the latter part of AC2's Ezio's timeline or soon after if the actual bonfire is any indication.

3. Abandon All Hope Next Week

EA annouced "Hell's Gate", the Dante's Inferno demo, will release on PSN December 10 and on Xbox Live Christmas Eve. The demo will feature the entire first level of the game.

4. Dan Hsu and Demian Linn Back At EGM

As announced via a press release, the new Electronic Gaming Monthly has brought former EGM Editor Chief Dan Hsu and former Reviews Editor Demian Linn to oversee the reboot of the magazine. Hsu shared his thoughts on coming "full circle" on Bitmob today.

5. Game of the Year Thoughts

Still yet to play some of the major title (Uncharted 2 and Dragon Age: Origins stand out) but my short list of games I'd be considering for year end honors are coming together. Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed II, an Batman: Arkham Asylum stand out in my thoughts as nominees for best console game, Splosion Man and Shadow Complex are personal favorites on the downloadable sphere. Won't be tossing out any nods officially until after Christmas, but there's my thoughts are now.

Assassin's Creed II Video Blowout + Underscore Update

Sorry for the prolonged absence from the blog. Aside from the little gem from Bitmob on grinding, I've not done much that's noticable on the site since mid-October. I've moreso been spending time improving some things on the backend, making changes to the video player. But I have been uploading videos for when I had the time to present them.

Speaking of, in that time, quite a bit has come from the last of my personally anticipated games of the holiday in Assassin's Creed II. So, in the event it you've missed some of the developer diaries amongst everything in the AC2 hype train, allow me to dump on to the caboose with this threesome of videos including the live action Lineage trailer.

All's Fair In Love and War: Especially War

If you're like me, you appreciated a lot of the first Assassin's Creed did, but found the combat not the best it could be. Now granted, any assassin that's worth's his price probably isn't getting into many public fights, but in the event you have to throw down, you'd really like to thrown down. As such in this developer diary from the AC2 team at Ubisoft take a little time to talk about how Ezio is throwing down, who's he's going toe to toe with, and about an little tactic called running away and living to fight tomorrow.