Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Reviews

Darksiders may be dead, but its developers will live on as the newly formed Crytek USA

Anthony John Agnello
By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Many of THQ’s studios and properties survived the company’s bankruptcy, finding new life at new publishers. Ubisoft saved THQ Montreal, Sega took on Relic, and Koch Media took on Saints Row creator Volition. Vigil Games, sadly, wasn’t so lucky. Having just finished Darksiders II, a game that didn’t light up sales charts in the first place, Vigil was hard at work on a new franchise, but no publisher wanted to take the risk. What’s a studio with a cult following, new ideas, and little marketability to do? Start fresh. Germany’s Crytek opened Crytek USA Corp. in Austin on Tuesday, its first US studio, with much of Vigil’s core staff at the center.

“Crytek has always enjoyed a special relationship with gamers and business partners in North America, so establishing a permanent presence in the US was a natural step,” reads a statement from Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, “We are extremely excited about the work that we will be undertaking from our strategic new location in Austin, with David Adams and his team of 35 experienced developers.”

Recommended Videos

David Adams was the general manager of Vigil Games before THQ failed to find a buyer for studio. “I’m thrilled to be a part of the newest Crytek studio, which will boast some of the brightest development talent in the industry.” While Yerli mentioned that Crytek USA has an initial staff of 35 in addition to Adams, not all of them are former Vigil team members.

“We weren’t just looking at Vigil’s team [for staff], but the whole Austin development community,” Yerli told Gamasutra. What will the team be working on? Crytek also bought THQ’s Homefront series, so will Vigil start working on a sequel to that game? “It would be pretty much safe to say that this team will be working on online games… and kick-ass triple-A productions. It is going to be quite a significant investment for Crytek over the next five years.”

Yerli did emphasize that Crytek will not be buying the Darksiders license for Crytek USA to continue development on.

This isn’t the first time that Crytek has saved the remnants of a moderately successful studio with a passionate fan base. Following its dissolution in 2009, Crytek bought what remained of TimeSplitters developer Free Radical after that studio was crippled by canceled projects like Star Wars Battlefront III. Now called Crytek UK, it’s that studio that’s reportedly working on Homefront 2.

Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
Is Manor Lords multiplayer or co-op?
A medieval market in Manor Lords.

You can easily lose hours designing your village and appeasing your citizens in Manor Lords all by yourself. There are so many different avenues to achieve victory, but the only competition or help you can normally find is in the form of NPCs. Other factions around the map can be helpful or harmful depending on how you play, but what if you wanted to team up with a friend to combine resources, or perhaps compete to see who can crush the other first? Many strategy and city builders thrive on multiplayer components, but does Manor Lords offer those same modes? Make sure you know the answer before making your purchase if that's your intention.
Is there multiplayer or co-op in Manor Lords?
To cut to the chase, the answer is no. Manor Lords is a purely single-player experience through and through. There are no cooperative or competitive modes in the game at all, so there's no way to interact with anyone else either on PC or console. This game was just released out of early access, and there is plenty of content on the way, however, we regret to inform you that multiplayer is not in the plans for the time being.

One developer took to the Steam forums to release an FAQ on the game. One question specifically asked if there is any multiplayer or cooperative gameplay in the game. The response said that "he focus is on a refined single-player experience, with no multiplayer or cooperative modes planned at the moment."

Read more
All console commands and cheats for Fallout: New Vegas
The courier holding a gun with a welcome sign in the background in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

From the moment you begin your adventure in Fallout: New Vegas, you've already cheated death. Your first playthrough of the game should be done as the developers intended, though maybe with a couple of mods to make the experience a little smoother, but nothing that breaks the game. That said, it's been over a decade since the game came out, so odds are you've already played through the intended way at least once. This is when you can have some fun tinkering with the game and play using console commands and cheats if you're on the PC version of the game. There are a ton of commands you can input to manipulate your character, the world, objects, and more. Here's a full rundown of all the cheats there are and how to activate them.
How to enter console commands
Opening up the command console to type in your cheats is just a single keystroke away. While in the game (not paused), hit the ~ key located below your escape key. This will remove your HUD and bring up the prompt to type in any of the below cheats.
All Fallout: New Vegas console commands and cheats

Because there are so many console commands, we're going to break them down into general categories to make it easier for you to find what you're looking for based on what you want to do.
Faction and reputation cheats
addreputation <form id> <variable> <amount> -- Increases your reputation with a faction.

Read more
How to get a gun in Another Crab’s Treasure
Kril has a gun

Another Crab's Treasure no doubt looks like a kid-friendly game, but hiding beneath its charming and cute exterior is a challenging soulslike experience that can test the mettle of genre veterans. Those who either can't or don't want to engage with such intense difficulty throughout this underwater adventure can make great use of a variety of assists. Among these is a rather shocking, but hilarious option that can completely negate nearly all of the game's challenge while providing some laughs along the way. Here's how to get a gun in Another Crab's Treasure.
How to get a gun
To give yourself a gun in Another Crab's Treasure, head over to the Settings menu. Navigate to Assist Mode at the bottom of the menu, then scroll to the bottom once more to a setting called Give Kril a Gun. Toggle this on, then back out and resume your game to find that Kril now has a massive pistol on his back in place of a shell.

This new gun on your back provides you with more than just a funny visual, though -- it actually allows you to shoot and kill any enemy in a single hit, nearly eliminating all of the challenge from the game. Additionally, if you're after trophies or achievements, the first time you shoot a crab with the gun will also unlock "This Kills the Crab."

Read more