Tag Archives: The Chronicles of riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

The Christmas and January sales may have wound down now, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of bargain-tastic gaming deals. Here’s the first of my weekly deal roundups of 2011. To get cheap games constantly shoved into your browser, head to SavyGamer.co.uk.

Get this week’s selection after the break.

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Those deals from this morning. With EVE, Lucidity and Battlefield 2? Forget them. They’re history.

Steam’s just put up it’s latest offers, with Tales of Monkey Island: Special Edition for £1.74 and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena for £7.99.

But you need to buy Mirror’s Edge. How much? £3. £3.24 to be exact.

Find the full list below.

• Quantz – £2.00
• Mirror’s Edge – £3.24
• Evil Genius – £1.74
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena – £7.99
• The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition – £1.74
• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – £24.99
• Section 8 – £14.99

Deals on the THQ and Lucasarts lot are still on though.

You’d be a fool to miss out. Go, go!

Gamasutra has the full scoop on Atari’s first quarter earnings, and things are looking pretty good. Boosted by the strong sales of games like Chronicles of Riddick and Ghostbusters, revenues soared 30% up to €54.5 million ($77.78 million).

However, Atari isn’t popping the champagne and threatening to stop supporting the PS3 just yet. The future, unfortunately, may not be quite as bright.

“This performance in the first quarter is mainly due to a favorable game release schedule and should not be extrapolated for the remaining of the year,” Atari stated.

More through the link.

The premium multiplayer Map Pack for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena has landed on Xbox Live.

It will run you 800 MS Points ($10.00) and includes: “Munity” and “Viper Run” for Butcher Bay Riot; “Sneerock” for Deathmatch; “Tracker Star” for Capture the Flag; “The Tangle” for Pitch Black.

Hit the link for extra details.

Sales data released from the NPD Group shows that videogames with film tie-ins saw a dramatic sales decrease this year in the US.

According to an article in the L.A. Times, the downward slope for the top franchises for the year had varying factors leading to underwhelming retail performance.

• Activision and DreamWork’s Monsters vs. Aliens has sold just 161,000 units since March 2.

• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, while critically acclaimed, sold around 100,000 units and the less than stellar performance can be blamed being bounced around during the Activision Vivendi merger.

• Disney’s Hannah Montana: The Movie sold just 65,000 units during it’s first three weeks. The article notes that “inexpensive video games aimed at girls, traditionally the foundation of Disney Interactive’s strategy, aren’t consistently hits.”

• Grin’s Wanted: Weapons of Fate has sold only 100,000 units since its launch on March 24 and NPD says that delaying the game for quality reasons, putting it being released much later than the film, had loads to do with the poor sales.

• The Godfather II has sold 241,000 units with the Xbox 360 version taking the fifth spot on the April top ten, but compared to the original game selling 4 million units worldwide, the figures are undesirable.

NPD says that movie tie-ins  have always been a reliable form of sales for publishers, and while Europe has also seen a decline in the sales for the niche, the firm’s unsure if this is a trend or just current market fluctuations.

Thanks, GI.biz.

Starbreeze’s The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Vin Diesel sold 100,000 units during its debut moth of April.

According to NPD, those numbers are for all platforms and include numbers for March even though the game did not hit shelves until April 7.

Just thought the Riddick fans would like to know.

More through Joystiq.

Atari has told Shacknews that the uproar over The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena DRM is unfounded.

Furthermore, reports that surfaced earlier in the month citing that the game could only be installed three times in total were deemed inaccurate by Atari.

While it’s true you can only install the game three times, you can do so on three different machines, and, providing you have a legitimate reason for needing more installs, customer service is just a phone call away.

“We implement this protection in an effort to avoid early piracy,” explained Atari.

“The [initial] activation code lets you install the game on up to three machines, with an unlimited number of installs on each assuming that you don’t change any major hardware in your PC or re-install your operating system.”

Legitimate owners have the option of revoking past installs if the limit hinders them in any way.

Game hits Europe on April 24.

DLC’s already in the works for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, IGN’s reporting.

The pack’s to include five new multiplayer maps, to add to the 15 included in the upcoming title’s retail release.

The action game’s out on April 24.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena has gone gold, Atari said today.

Getting excited about the Pitch Black mutliplayer mode over here.

April 7 is the day PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 users in North America will get their hands on it. Those in the rest of the world will have to wait until April 24.

Press release after the jump.

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Vin Diesel’s told G4 that he “begged” for online multiplay to be included in Assault on Dark Athena.

He begged. He probably cried a bit too.

The actor told the TV station that the game was well into production as a single-player-only entity, but Vin put his foot down on the subject of a multiplayer component at the eleventh hour.

See the video after the break. The game’s out on April 24.

Thanks, Kotaku.

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Qore Episode 10 is now up on PSN, and a preview of what you’ll get is posted after the break.

This week, the Sony folks get some hands-on time with the upcoming Big Surf Island expansion pack for Burnout Paradise, travel to Sweden to visit Dark Athena creator Starbreeze, and talk Alpha Protocol with Obsidian.

A segment on user-created content for LittleBigPlanet is included along with a chat with the creator of famed level, The Azure Palace.

Qore subscribers will also receive a voucher for High Velocity Bowling, to be sent to the email address associated with your PSN account within seven days of the digital mag’s release.

An exclusive Resistance: Retribution theme is also available.

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Starbreeze has released a developer diary chronicling the production of Assault on Dark Athena.

Video talks bout the new campaign, the remaster of Escape from Butcher Bay, and how the title turned out to be much larger than originally planned.

It’s expected on April 7 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360–with the PC and PS3 demos arriving soon according to Atari.

Hit the link to watch.

You’ll find a video of the first ten minutes of play from the Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena demo after the break.

The Starbreeze semi-sequel appears to be fantastic from a very brief look. The movie’s shot from 360 code – the PSN demo’s undated as yet.

As expected, the title’s heavy on the atmosphere and violence, as was the Xbox original, and you’re going to be using the shadows a lot to not be dead. You’ll see us learn this lesson by being dead a lot.

It’s out for PC, 360 and PS3 on April 24. There’s 16 grabs from this footage here.

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If you’re a PS3 owner wanting to get your hands on the Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena demo that went up on Live this morning, best not to hold your breath: Atari just said it’s “coming soon” in a press release.

An Atari UK rep told VG247 that there was “no confirmation” on a date for the PSN demo this morning.

The 639Mb 360 demo’s pretty bloody splendid, so news of a PSN delay is unlikely to sit well.

The full game releases for PC, PS3 and 360 on April 24.

After the break. We’ve just just played through the first 10 minutes of the just-released Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena demo, and it’s just as beautiful, violent and unforgiving as we’d hoped.

The screens show drone control, narrative delivery, hand-to-hand combat, destructible environments and more.

We’ll have the video up as soon as we can.

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Here. It’s a 639Mb download. More soon. Thanks, Blerk.

Update – Here’s 16 grabs from the first ten minutes of play.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena will release on April 7 in North America and April 24 in Europe, Atari’s just confirmed.

The disc features the new, full-length Assault on Dark Athena campaign, an HD remake of Escape from Butcher Bay and multiplayer options.

It looks great, to be blunt. PC, 360 and PS3 all get a version.

Press release after the break.

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Starbreeze Studios has reported $2.84 million in sales and $627,000 in profit for the three months ending on December 31.

And the future’s bright. Announcing an upcoming EA Bourne game hasn’t hurt matters any.

“This news was enormously popular in the industry and also in many newspapers outside the games world,” said CEO Johan Kristiansson.

“Revenue figures for the books and movies on Jason Bourne show that it is one of the largest properties currently in existence in the entertainment industry.

“It feels like a very good vote of confidence for our work that the EA, the world’s leading game publisher, wants to start a project of this caliber with Starbreeze.”

As well as the new Jason Bourne title, Starbreeze is working on the Atari backed Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, expected in April.

The latest Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena trailer released today, and looks pretty damn sensational. In a really, really violent way.

If you’re after a nasty action game, you’ve found it. That shouldn’t be a recommendation. And yet it is.

Take a look. It’s out for PS3, 360 and PC next month.

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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena demo is to release in “early March,” according to this TheGameReviews report.

The game itself’s releasing on April 7, says that story, although neither this or the demo date has been officially confirmed. It’s listed as “spring” by Atari at the moment.

These dates came from reps at Comic Con.

Full thing through there.