The Epic Games Store was a bounty of free games throughout the holidays, offering free games like Celeste, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and even Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. The store is currently back to giving away free games every week. However, it’s starting 2020 off with a bang by offering three free games till January 9th.

These titles include Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition and Steep. The first two games are remasters of Vigil Games’ classics offering exploration, hack and slash combat and puzzle-solving. If either game interests you, then it might be worth checking out Darksiders 3 or Darksiders Genesis.

Ubisoft’s Steep is fairly different from the company’s usual offerings. It’s an extreme sports title with activities like wingsuit flying and snowboarding. Various challenges and disciplines along with different playable characters and multiplayer offer some decent competitive action. Check out our initial review of the game here.

The Nintendo Switch has seen decent support from THQ Nordic so far, who have already brought over Darksiders: Warmastered Edition to the hybrid platform. But that might not be it as far as Darksiders on Switch is concerned.

A listing for Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition has popped up for the Switch on Canadian retailer EB Games’ website, mentioning an August 30th release date (which might most likely be a placeholder date). But there’s more- it looks like one of THQ Nordic’s upcoming games – rather than re-releases of older ones – might also come to the Switch. That’s because a listing for Biomutant has popped up as well on EB Games. This listing, too, mentions what is most likely a placeholder release date (March 30, 2020).

In the absence of any official announcements, it’s best to take this with a grain of salt, even if retailer listings can often tend to be accurate. Darksiders 2 coming to the hybrid Nintendo platforms certainly looks feasible, if nothing else. Either way, until such time THQ Nordic makes an official announcement, chalk this up as a rumour.

Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Biomutant, meanwhile, is due out on those same platforms some time this year.

Gunfire Games’ Darksiders 3 is out later this month. However, those who pre-order the game’s Blades and Whip Edition from the Microsoft Store will have the chance to play enhanced versions of the first two games. THQ Nordic has announced that Darksiders: Warmastered Edition and Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition will receive Xbox One X enhancements.

Both games are playable immediately after pre-ordering Darksiders 3: Blades and Whip Edition. However, only Darksiders: Warmastered Edition has been enhanced to support 4K resolution. Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition will receive its enhancements later this month (and hopefully before the third game releases).

Darksiders 3 releases on November 27th and will be heading to Xbox One, PS4 and PC. It focuses on Fury, the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, as she journeys to kill The Seven Deadly Sins. Whips and magic will be Fury’s calling cards, though she can also use her mobility to fight enemies. Different forms can also be unlocked with their own unique abilities.

Following the Amazon listings for Darksiders 3, Gunfire Games’ much anticipated sequel to the action adventure series, Darksiders: Fury’s Collection – War and Death has appeared on the PlayStation Store.

What’s interesting about this compilation is that it seems to contain Darksiders Warmastered and Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition, the two remastered versions of the classic games that recently released for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. We’re not sure why Fury, the protagonist of Darksiders 3, has her name attached but if you want to catch up on the series on PS4, this is the best way to do it.

Darksiders 3 is apparently coming in 2018 for current gen platforms and will see players taking control of Fury, one of the Four Horsemen. Fury uses magic and a whip along with different forms to battle her enemies. She’ll be going up against the Seven Deadly Sins, of all things. Stay tuned for an official announcement from THQ Nordic soon.

GamingBolt had a chance to speak to Nordic’s business & product development director Reinhard Pollice and Gunfire Games design director John Pearl about the experience, especially with Pearl revisiting Darksiders 2 after three years. When is Darksiders 3 happening? The answer may not be what you expect (read: not anytime soon).

"We invested a lot of time and energy into the visuals. We upgraded all the texture resolutions or re-did textures completely. We changed the rendering output to true Full HD 1080p rendering where the previous generation version of the game was actually sub-720p."

What motivated the desire to remaster Darksiders 2 for current gen consoles (besides the fact that almost every other previous gen game is getting a remaster)?

Reinhard Pollice: Darksiders 2 is an extremely well aging piece of a game, and we think that it did not quite have the audience it deserves. Also, revisiting the game was a good choice as the game was left with some issues on the last gen platforms.

Why not include the original Darksiders in the Deathinitive package? Will it be remastered separately for PS4 and Xbox One?

Reinhard Pollice: It would have been close to impossible to include Darksiders in the same app with DS2 so we would have needed to do two separate applications anyways and it would be easily another 6 month of work so we decided to go for Darksiders 2 first.

What new content and tweaks can players look forward to in Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition besides the DLC?

John Pearl: We revisited many of the encounters and rebalanced them to make sure they were challenging but fair.  There were encounters that felt too hard or too easy for where they took place in the game’s progression and we adjusted them accordingly. Additionally there were some major boss encounters that didn’t yield a reward in the form of a unique weapon or item, this is one of the ways we made the DLC content feel more integrated and those bosses will now drop items. All of these items have been rebalanced to an appropriate level to when the player will now find them in game. Additionally there were very few weapons previously that benefited from Arcane Power so a player who went with arcane gear would’ve been at a disadvantage compared to someone focused on strength.  Another thing we added was we hide additional skill points in hard to reach treasure chests. The skill points were previously only given out each time the player leveled and as specific quest rewards. This meant there was a hard limit of 49 possible skill points to spend in the 2 skill tress. Now players who want to explore every nook and cranny of the world can maximize their build even more.

We’ve also added “Deathinitive” Difficulty to the game which is actually harder than the previously max level difficulty “Apocalyptic”. This should present a major challenge to even the most die-hard Darksiders fans.  If that wasn’t hard enough, we’ve also updated Nightmare mode to Deathinitive difficulty where previously it was set at Apocalyptic. Nightmare mode is our truly hardcore mode, where if you die your save is deleted and you have to start over.

Can you tell us about the overall changes to the visuals and frame rate performance of the game?

John Pearl: We invested a lot of time and energy into the visuals. We upgraded all the texture resolutions or re-did textures completely. We changed the rendering output to true Full HD 1080p rendering where the previous generation version of the game was actually sub-720p. We changed the lighting model which becomes quite obvious when comparing screenshots – we think this all adds up to a really nice looking game.

What are your thoughts working on PS4 and Xbox One? Were there any hurdles in developing for either console compared to the previous generation?

Reinhard Pollice: Both of them are great platforms to work with. Working on the PS4 was a bit more straightforward than on the Xbox One. On Xbox One we had to learn just a lot of things as they were completely changed from the previous generation. However the more we became familiar with it the more it made sense and the more we liked it. Sony and Microsoft are really competing on a very high level but I hope that some things like patching and certification processes become even less strict.

"I was quite sceptical about VR. I mean VR is not a natural add-on to the way we are used to play games now. The visual possibilities are amazing but that needs to go hand in hand with things like camera, controls or user interface etc."

Quite a bit has been said about the Xbox One’s hardware and how it pales in comparison to the PS4. Where do you see both consoles in the long run, especially with the rising power of PC hardware?

Reinhard Pollice: The main factor for home consoles is still the price compared to beefy gaming PCs. In the next years consoles will be still a big factor and probably even beyond that if a console manufacturer finds the right formula for price, power, service quality and content offering. Xbox One has just recently announced some great things like backwards compatibility. So I expect them to close the gap.

Has the experience of bringing Darksiders 2 to current gen consoles helped aid you in developing future projects like Darksiders 3?

Reinhard Pollice: Of course – shipping a title is always invaluable experience that we at Nordic can use for all our projects. So for example working on PS4 and Xbox One will be a great help for upcoming titles that we announced for those platforms like our huge Open World RPG “ELEX”. With regards to Darksiders 3 I can only say that the more successful Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition becomes the more likely Darksiders 3 is.

What improvements or changes would the gameplay see if Darksiders 3 were to happen?

Reinhard Pollice: There are a few very good and obvious possibilities gameplay-wise for Darksiders 3. We are evaluating all these paths carefully. But I am not here to talk about a maybe-Darksiders 3 😉

Generally speaking, what are your thoughts on the emerging technologies in gaming like virtual reality and HoloLens? Will there be a place for third person action adventure titles like Darksiders?

Reinhard Pollice: I was quite sceptical about VR. I mean VR is not a natural add-on to the way we are used to play games now. The visual possibilities are amazing but that needs to go hand in hand with things like camera, controls or user interface etc… A couple of games are more fit then others for this and add a lot to the overall experience of a game. For example the BulletTrain demo on the rift was a really great VR experience that brought action gameplay to a new level. Also the Gunfire crew are working on a great VR title – “Chronos“. For third person action adventures like Darksiders it is a bit difficult. I think you have to go a step back and for example provide a total different camera scheme as we are used to see today. But after all I think that a lot of gamers still want the way we play games today.

What do you think about introducing multiplayer into the Darksiders universe, be it through co-op or competitive play?

Reinhard Pollice: It would be really cool! I would love to play that but I don’t think it’s the only way to achieve the most fun for a Darksiders game.

When do you think you will actually begin to work on Darksiders 3? You do know that fans want it.

Reinhard Pollice: Sorry, no comment.

"I am not sure if cloud based processing is the future. After all games should work forever and I am sure that in 10 years from the original launch most providers will have shut down their services – just look into the past – even very cheap services have been shut down already."

The remastered version runs at 30fps on both the consoles. Was there a specific reason why you guys did not achieved 60fps on the PS4 and Xbox One?

John Pearl: When we started out, we looked at what it would take to achieve 60 FPS but we knew it would be a very challenging undertaking. It sounds easy especially as other games have achieved it but it really depends on howthe game was built and how versatile the engine is on console. In the end we would have had to re-do some levels from scratch to achieve 60 FPS. Some areas in the game currently run well over 60fps while others run at 30fps. Running the game unlocked allowing the max frame rate would end up resulting in a lot screen tearing and an overall poor experience for the players.

Additionally, to get an engine running at a solid 60fps on consoles it has to be a goal when creating the engine and the assets or at least a lot of serious work has to be put into it to get it running at 60fps.  The engine that both of the Darksiders games run on were not optimized to run at 60fps on console nor was the data optimized for that.  There would have had to have been major overhauls to the way things were rendered at the core of the engine and some major changes to some of the visuals.  There are technical cheats out there that would allow the game to run at 60 fps at the cost of a variable resolution.  We decided a locked 1080p at 30 was more important to us than the 60fps with major drops in resolution.

I am sure you must be aware about Crackdown 3 that uses the cloud to enhance physics and destruction effects. Do you think the next Darksiders could use something like that given that the scale in the previous games has been nothing short of impressive? Furthermore what are your thoughts on cloud based processing used to improve visuals?

Reinhard Pollice: Yes, I have seen something about that but first they need to ship with that. I am very much looking forward to it. Great physics/destruction effects were also possible with the last generation – just look at our title “Red Faction Guerrilla”.

I am not sure if cloud based processing is the future. After all games should work forever and I am sure that in 10 years from the original launch most providers will have shut down their services – just look into the past – even very cheap services have been shut down already.

Did the Xbox One’s eSRAM posed any issues while developing the game on it?

Reinhard Pollice: Well, there isn’t a lot available so we had to cleverly use it.

So what is next from the development team? What projects are you currently working on?
Reinhard Pollice: At Nordic Games we have a focus on PC titles based on our IPs for 2016 – We are working hard to shape SpellForce 3 and The Guild 3 into awesome games and then we are hard at work with “ELEX” the next big open world RPG – this time in a fresh Science Fantasy setting.

John Pearl: At Gunfire Games, we’ve got a few projects in production. Primarily we’re focused on finishing up Chronos. An action adventure game made exclusively for the Oculus Rift and will be available at launch. Fans of Darksiders and action adventure games in general will find a lot of love in Chronos in terms of combat, puzzles and exploration. We’ve also been working to update our Gear VR game Herobound: Spirit Champion to take full advantage of the higher specs of the Oculus Rift.   Additionally we’ll be launching a smaller, multi-player focused game called Super Fuse Ball on steam in the very near future. Suffice to say, we like to stay busy!

Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition is out now for PS4 and Xbox One and it’s a surprisingly strong remaster of the three year old action adventure title. One question remained though – given the technology on hand, why didn’t developer Gunfire Games go with 60 FPS? The original game ran at 30 FPS and there’s clearly enough power on the current gen to handle a higher frame rate.

GamingBolt spoke to design director John Pearl about the same and he noted that, “When we started out, we looked at what it would take to achieve 60 FPS but we knew it would be a very challenging undertaking. It sounds easy especially as other games have achieved it but it really depends on how the game was built and how versatile the engine is on console. In the end we would have had to re-do some levels from scratch to achieve 60 FPS. Some areas in the game currently run well over 60fps while others run at 30fps. Running the game unlocked allowing the max frame rate would end up resulting in a lot screen tearing and an overall poor experience for the players.”

It was also dependent on the original engine the game was running at. “Additionally, to get an engine running at a solid 60fps on consoles it has to be a goal when creating the engine and the assets or at least a lot of serious work has to be put into it to get it running at 60fps. The engine that both of the Darksiders games run on were not optimized to run at 60fps on console nor was the data optimized for that. There would have had to have been major overhauls to the way things were rendered at the core of the engine and some major changes to some of the visuals. There are technical cheats out there that would allow the game to run at 60 fps at the cost of a variable resolution. We decided a locked 1080p at 30fps was more important to us than the 60fps with major drops in resolution.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a developer for this – it’s just that we’re so used to most remasters trying to hit 60 FPS and 1080p resolution. Regardless, what do you think about the decision to stay at 30 FPS for Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition? Let us know in the comments.

Cloud assisted gaming seems like it will garner steam when Microsoft launches Crackdown 3, a game that uses the cloud to enhance physics and destruction effects. GamingBolt recently spoke with Reinhard Pollice who is the Business & Product Development Director, Nordic Games and asked him whether hypothetically, the next Darksiders could use something like that given that the scale in the previous games have been nothing short of impressive. It must be noted that Nordic Games have not yet confirmed a Darksiders 3.

Talking about Crackdown 3, Pollice stated that he has seen the demo and he is looking forward to how it shapes up. “Yes, I have seen something about that but first they need to ship with that. I am very much looking forward to it. Great physics/destruction effects were also possible with the last generation – just look at our title “Red Faction Guerrilla”.”

“I am not sure if cloud based processing is the future. After all, games should work forever and I am sure that in 10 years from the original launch most providers will have shut down their services – just look into the past – even very cheap services have been shut down already.”

Pollice is possibly referring to OnLive, a cloud based service that went defunct in April of this year. However Microsoft’s cloud service is an all together different beast. It’s not a service as Microsoft won’t be charging its users for the same. It’s not going to stream games like PlayStation Now but will instead only focus on making the visuals better.

Only time will tell whether Microsoft’s cloud service is successful but in my personal opinion, it will only grow as more multiplayer/online only games adopt it to deliver fantastic visuals.

Nordic Games’ Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition marked a comeback of sorts for the Darksiders franchise, which languished in obscurity since THQ went bankrupt. However, this wasn’t simply a remaster job – Nordic Games has other plans for the franchise.

As a representative stated on the Steam forums, “Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition was just the start.

“Since we acquired the franchise we were looking for options for doing a DS3. The remaster was just a way to get some spotlight on the franchise again, reactivate the community and have a better starting position for DS3.”

Gunfire Games handled the Deathinitive Edition and it’s good news that it consists of former Vigil Studios team members including co-founder David Adams who have all worked on the franchise before. How long will Darksiders 3 take though and would you look forward to playing it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Darksiders 2: Deathinitve Edition is out now and has signaled the return of Vigil Games’ action adventure for the current generation of consoles. It’s even more interesting how Gunfire Games, the team that handled the porting process, is composed of several former Vigil staff members with publisher Nordic Games also offering its support.

GamingBolt actually spoke to Nordic’s Reinhard Pollice, business and product development director, on the development of Darksiders 2 for the PS4 and Xbox One. Given that the game was optimized fairly well for PS3 and Xbox 360, did the team face any hurdles in bringing it to PS4 and Xbox One?

“Both of them are great platforms to work with. Working on the PS4 was a bit more straightforward than on the Xbox One. On Xbox One we had to learn just a lot of things as they were completely changed from the previous generation. However the more we became familiar with it the more it made sense and the more we liked it. Sony and Microsoft are really competing on a very high level but I hope that some things like patching and certification processes become even less strict.

As for the Xbox One and how its power compares to the PS4, we asked Reinhard how both consoles would fare in the long run especially as PC hardware becomes more advanced.

“The main factor for home consoles is still the price compared to beefy gaming PCs. In the next years consoles will be still a big factor and probably even beyond that if a console manufacturer finds the right formula for price, power, service quality and content offering. Xbox One has just recently announced some great things like backwards compatibility. So I expect them to close the gap.”

Have you played Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition and not been scarred by the game’s obsession with threes of everything? Let us know in the comments.

With Darksiders 2, Vigil Games wanted to change up the aesthetics from the first game for a more animated dark fantasy style of game. This also marked Vigil’s modular approach to level building, offering a unique look to each environment while cutting down on the time spent creating them. The approach facilitated Vigil’s desire to have a more open world littered with secrets, enemies and hidden bosses. Darksiders 2 also marked the first time that the series would rely on cut scenes using in-game assets as opposed to pre-recorded FMV scenes.

The Deathinitive Edition essentially saw Gunfire Games rewriting its renderer in order to implement physically based rendering. Gunfire then went about reworking each texture and surface in the game. How significant are all these changes and how does it compare to the original game?

As it stands, Darksiders 2 maintains its detailed art design. Whatever many would have thought about the “cartoonish” art style, it actually works very well for the entire game. Considering how intricate the art already was, it’s amazing that Gunfire actually went back to completely replace assets or simply make pre-existing assets stand out better with improved texture filtering. While the texture work hasn’t seen a massive overhaul (this isn’t Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on the Xbox One by a long shot), you’ll still notice a number of subtle improvements over the original. These are apparent in the environments, NPCs and characters, particularly during scripted sequences and cut scenes.

Head to head comparison between the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions of Darksiders 2. Select 1080p and 60fps option for best possible playback quality.

Even with its brighter and more colourful art style, Darksiders 2 was fairly gritty. So it’s interesting to see the remaster opt for a cleaner look. If you compare the Deathinitive Edition with the original game, the lack of the dark and grimy feel seems even more obvious. Whether Gunfire simply opted for a different colour palette or decided to take a more refined route with the visuals, the difference is certainly there.

There isn’t too much to say about the shadow quality but the engine in the base game has also been revamped to have more detailed shadows. If you go back to areas in the original and compare them with the Deathinitive Edition, you’ll find shadows filling up previously empty spaces. Again, it’s a nice touch and certainly showcases Gunfire’s passion and familiarity with the game.

When Darksiders 2 released for PCs, the variety of options felt a bit barebones. Nonetheless, it was well optimized and ran very well across different configurations. It also didn’t demand a whole lot of resources to run smoothly. For the sake of comparison, we pitted the PS4 and Xbox One versions against the PC version since it could ran at higher resolutions and at 60 frames per second.

The PS4 and Xbox One versions feature a 1080p resolution and marginally unlocked frame rate. Frame rate performance is slightly better on the PS4 but both games have very little by way of performance issues, save for the odd judder here and there.

The Deathinitive Edition also features anisotropic filtering in both versions, which results in detailed surfaces even over long distance. A custom SSAO solution brings ambient occlusion and softer shadows to the mix and draw distance shows significant improvements. Oddly enough, the foliage looks exactly the same as the base game. Not that we’re complaining or anything but it was fairly odd.

We’re somewhat disappointed that the game doesn’t run at a 60 FPS frame rate, especially considering its age but as it stands, Gunfire Games worked hard to ensure that Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition wasn’t a simple port, resold for the sake of raking in a bit of extra cash. Despite the criticisms against the gameplay and puzzles, Darksiders 2 has an art style and large open levels that we rarely see in games these days. It’s an interesting mesh of gameplay styles from other games that managed to break from the derivate identity of its predecessor and establish the series as its own entity.

And that makes it especially tougher to judge Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition. Perhaps the success of this remastered title will result in Darksiders 3. We still stand firm on the lack of 60 FPS being a major issue, especially because the 30 FPS frame rate is unlocked and a few drops can be seen every now and again. As it stands, a game as action packed and movement-oriented as Darksiders 2 would have benefited greatly from 60 FPS.

Nonetheless, Gunfire Games has proven its worth when it comes to developing Darksiders for the Xbox One and PS4. If Darksiders 3 does eventually arrive, we can’t wait to see what it brings to the current generation of consoles.