The auction that could see THQ’s properties sold off one by one begins today, but at least one franchise may not be up for bids. Selling South Park: The Stick of Truth to another company without the consent of South Park Studios would violate its contract, the company claims.

Polygon reports that South Park Studios filed a formal objection last week, asking the court to remove South Park: The Stick of Truth from the auction proceedings unless several conditions are met. These include compensation for at least $2.275 million in defaulted payments, express consent to the sale, and assurance of future performance. South Park Studios also wants to reserve the right to buy back the game in exchange for payment of THQ’s “actual costs.”

THQ responded, saying the license underlying The Stick of Truth was exclusive, which means federal copyright law doesn’t prohibit its transfer. THQ also said it’s “evaluating” the monetary defaults South Park Studios claims it owes.

South Park: The Stick of Truth was originally set for a March release, but was pushed back to sometime “early in fiscal 2014.” It remains to be seen how the sales process will affect THQ’s in-development properties.

We’ll let you know as soon as the results of the auction become available, but until then you can check out our thoughts on where THQ’s properties would be most at home.

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THQ is on the edge of foreclosure. But the publisher today announced a forbearance deal with Wells Fargo which gives the company until January 15, 2013 to secure financing alternatives with an unidentified sponsor.

The Saints Row: The Third and Darksiders II publisher indicated it was pursuing alternative options when it announced consultation with a private equity broker and withdrew financial guidance earlier this month.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Wells Fargo. This agreement enables us to continue focusing on bringing our games in development to market,” THQ CEO Brian Farrell said in a statement. “Meanwhile, we are evaluating financial alternatives that will transition the company into its next phase.”

The release warns the potential sponsorship may not come to fruition, and if it does, it may bring about “significant and material dilution to shareholders.” THQ also announced the departure of its chief financial officer Paul Pucino in the release.

THQ delayed several of its games earlier this month, including South Park: The Stick of Truth, Company of Heroes 2, and Metro: Last Light.

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Our demo took place over two maps, one being a tutorial-style scripted map with a single squad of infantry, and the other a full-blown campaign level (which takes place between 1941 and 1945), complete with base-building and AI allies. The first map was set just outside Moscow, and demonstrated the brutality of the extreme cold mechanic. If your soldiers are unfortunate enough to be huddled up out in the frigid winter air, a little thermometer icon will indicate their rapidly dropping body temperature.

Ignore this, and your soldiers will succumb to hypothermia, dying where they stand (and they don’t turn into ice cubes like in the cartoons). To counteract the cold weather, you’ll need to recruit engineers to build fire pits on your position, or take refuge from the below-freezing temperatures in an unoccupied building. In fact, combat engineers are a huge resource to your forces – they may not output good damage, but without them there to construct base buildings or toasty fires, your entire infantry army is as good as dead.

After the straightforward “bunker down, shoot, march ahead” play of the first mission, we thought we could take on the Nazis without breaking a sweat. Not so. The second map tasked us with capturing three control points on the battlefield; the more you had under your control, the further the enemies’ counter would decrease. This was a 2v2 scenario, so we were paired up with an AI teammate who knew what they were doing. We might not have been victorious (okay, the computer completely crushed us), but we did get to see quite a few abilities and units in action.

Metal beasts like the KV-1 Heavy Tank were absolutely terrifying to encounter in the fog-of-war, though tank-vs-tank battles were far more of a fair fight. They also demonstrated the driver/gunner injury systems; if your vehicle’s under heavy fire, once of its operators might get killed inside the vehicle. If the vehicle is then abandoned, any force can rally a troop to take command of the tank, effectively converting the unit to join their side. Stumbling on a vacant tank is akin to finding a $20 bill on the ground – one that can shred through infantry with a single shell.

The most terrifying vehicle was the Katyusha Rocket Truck – if Team Rocket of Pokémon fame had access to this vehicle, Ash would be straight-up dead. This real-life long-range siege unit fires a truckload of missiles in quick succession, and could cover an area the size of a football field in devastating explosions and debris. On the other hand, the Katyusha is a sitting duck from close range; this is the kind of unit you’ll want to well away from the front lines for maximum efficiency.

We also got to see some of the commander abilities in action. Activating our IL-2 Sturmovik Attack signaled a gigantic warplane to fire on the specified position. It would then circle the area for a few seconds, raining hot lead on any units unfortunate enough to get caught in its sights. Expect the other commander abilities to be just as tide-turning, where using them at a crucial moment could spell the difference between victory and defeat.

CoH2 feels like the Company of Heroes you know and love, with more strategic wrinkles – like body temperature and cracking ice – to keep you on your toes. It also won’t require a high-end PC to play; while the original CoH was rather taxing on lower-end computers, CoH 2’s new engine had been built to be much more efficient. We look forward to sharing more CoH 2 info as the game approaches its 2013 release.

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Now that you’re all firmly divided into “glowing with nostalgia” or “squinting with confusion,” maybe the more refined among you can tell the young folks about how Voltron was a pretty big deal in the 1980s. The cartoon and game alike focus on a team of young pilots and their color-coded spacecraft, all of which are also robotic lions, and which can be combined into one gigantic fighting robot, the titular Voltron. So it’s essentially Transformers plus Power Rangers by way of Macross, all bathed in a 1980s neon glow and suffused with some sort of message about teamwork and/or the brutal annihilation of interplanetary evil.

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The game, which features clips and key moments from the cartoon, looks to follow the show’s formula pretty faithfully: rove about shooting things in your lions for a while, then join up to form Voltron and smack some skyscraper-sized monsters about. The challenge of five-player co-op play as Voltron ought to add a unique element to the title. If nothing else, it’ll answer the question of, “how was Voltron controlled anyway?” (Turns out the answer’s likely to be “clumsily, with swearing.”)

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Above: If you were looking for Penthouse ladies and nakedness combined, we helpfully refer you to pretty much anywhere else on the Internet

Email codes will be flying through the digital ether right now, enabling purchasers of the Saints Row: Double Pack or Red Faction: Armageddon pre-order to access the Initiation Station. The general public can join in on the beta on Nov 1, building custom characters for use within Saints Row: The Third when the game’s released on Nov 15. In the meantime, interested parties can register with the Saints Row community to vote on your favorite custom characters – let us know what you come up with.

Oct 25, 2011

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The Deckers are one of the rival gangs you’ll face in Saint’s Row 3, joining the game’s cast of reprobates from various crime movies and 50 Cent videos. These pasty ne’er-do-wells, however, look to have stepped off the pages of a William Gibson or Neal Stevenson novel (possibly by way of everyone’s favorite realistic depiction of computer use, the 1995 movie Hackers).With one masterful stroke, Volition has near-effortlessly tied together Saint’s Row, Tron: Legacy, the spate of hacker attacks plaguing software companies of 2011, and every goofy, overblown 1990s techno-thriller about cybercriminals and “decking.” Not bad for a 90-second clip, no? Shit will get virtually real when Saints Row: The Third drops on November 15.

Sep 12, 2011

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