the-darkness-ii posts

Canadian-based developer Digital Extremes is expanding to a new office, thanks in part to a $2.5 million grant from the provincial government of Ontario. The developer, based in London, Ontario, will use the money to move to a larger 33,000 square foot office space in the city, according to a report at IFPress.com.

Digital Extremes currently has 150 employees and has planed to hire 30 more team members, according to the report. It recently finished its work on the PC port of Homefront and is currently working on The Darkness II (shown above) for release this fall. The game is using Digital Extremes' in-house Evolution Engine.

[Via Gamasutra]

Big Download has learned that the just announced first person shooter sequel The Darkness II, developed by Digital Extremes, will be using the next version of the developer's own in-house Evolution Engine for its graphics base. This bit of news was confirmed by Digital Extremes' PR rep via an email.

While most of Digital Extremes' previous game projects have used various versions of Epic Games' Unreal Engine it created the Evolution Engine for its 2008 third person action game Dark Sector. There's no word on what new features will be added to the new verison of the engine for use in The Darkness II, which is due out this fall for the PC and other platforms. The developer does offer third party developers a way to license the Evolution Engine for games made outside of Digital Extremes.

The Darkness II, the sequel to 2007 console-only first person action game, has just been announced by publisher 2K Games. Unlike the original game developed by Starbreeze Studios the sequel will also be released for the PC sometime this fall. The game also gets a new developer in Digital Extremes.

Based once again on the Top Cow comic book series, The Darkness II has players taking on the role of Jackie Estacado who is now head of the Franchetti crime family. He has been holding in the supernatural powers of The Darkness since the events of the original game but now a mob war and an attack on Jackie's life is causing The Darkness to come out. The game is supposed to allow players to use both first person shooter weapons in both hand and the Demon Arms power of The Darkness at the same time in what the press release states is the game's "Quad-Wielding gameplay."