Earlier this week, EA launched an indie bundle. Not-so-coincidentally, the Internet proceeded to explode, and I’m now typing this while holding a tin can with a piece of string attached next to my PC. I even said some things about it, though admittedly, mostly to kick off a discussion about an only partially related topic. However, off the back of that, I ended up getting in touch with Klei Entertainment technical designer Nels Anderson, who directly worked on four> of the six games (both Deathspanks, both Shanks) featured in EA’s bundle of befuddlement. And while he agrees that the name itself is “a little gross,” writing off the whole thing as yet another bile-drenched belch from a money-devouring giant would be to turn a blind eye to some pretty enormous benefits for the developers involved. EA Partners is not EA proper. It seems like an insane notion, but here’s the short version: “total creative independence.” And the long version? Well, it’s quite a bit more complicated than that. And it’s after the break.

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The Baconing is the new game that isn’t a Deathspank game, but does have Deathspank in it, coming “this summer” from Hothead. We’ve not seen much on it since it’s announcement in June, but here’s a peek at The Forest of Tomorrow, where it apparently tastes like science, and the Clone-A-torium, where from the looks of things a whole lot of cloning is going on. Click the images to embiggen. (more…)

Hothead Games, sans Ron Gilbert, have released the first visual details of their next game, The Baconing. Which is of course a DeathSpank game. But oddly one that absolutely does not mention DeathSpank in the title. Here DeathSpank tries on all his underwear at once, which as we all know summons an evil version of yourself, in his case the AntiSpank. And they say that gaming is immature. There’s pics and a trailer below.

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is not the only game Hothead is currently working on, it transpires. Those man-fellas and lady-fellas are also turning their attentions to a third DeathSpank game. DeathSpank is, you might recall, the creation of former Lucas Arts heroman Ron Gilbert; he’s now reunited with former colleague Tim Schafer at Doublefine, with Hothead confirming to Kotaku that the ‘Spank will be entirely their own work. It is called The Baconing, it is promised to be major improvement upon the first two games, and it features (in fine, crappy superhero comic tradition) The Anti-Spank.
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Ouch! I’ve just been shot by the news gunman. I hate that guy. So, it turns out DeathSpank pt. 2, Thongs of Virtue, will be released on November 30th and will include both console DLC The Snowy Mountain Dungeon as well as an exclusive co-op partner named Tankko- “half-man, half-spider and all awesome.” Caw, it feels like it was only yesterday that DeathSpank came out. Probably because it basically was. Four weeks between releases? I could do with some more of that in my gaming diet. Trailer after the jump. (more…)

We spent quite some time expecting DeathSpank to come to PC, posting trailers, talking about it, and so on. Then it didn’t. Was it coming out on PC, or not?> We didn’t know. We asked around. Did anyone> know? We asked the developers. Hothead weren’t saying. We looked under a rock. There was nothing there. Finally, we stood around in Castle Shotgun, shrugging and looking puzzled. What was going on? It looked like we were never> going to get DeathSpank. But then last month – lo! – it was finally confirmed for PC. A comedy loot-collect goblin basher from Mr Ron Gilbert seemed like a logical member of the PC club, and it has now put its name on the dotted line. But what does that mean for our game collections or our wallets? I descended into the binary bowel of my digitally downloaded Steam version of the game to find out. (more…)

Ron Gilbert’s comedy Diablo-alike, Deathspank, is out now on Steam for £9.99! I mean, technically it was also out yesterday on Steam for £9.99, but it’s RPS’s firm belief that news gets better with age. You know, like fine wine, or the Bond films of Roger Moore.

I played DeathSpank when it first came out on Xbox Live and really enjoyed myself. The jokes are hit and miss, but come at you in such relentless volleys that you can end up doing a fair bit of giggling. Combat and progression were tighter than I was expecting, too. Ye olde trailere after the jump. (more…)