Welcome to the Black List, our regular retrospective on the week in games.

On Monday, we ignored our superstitions just long enough to post our 13^th podcast.

On Tuesday, we covered the announcement of Portal 2, a stand alone sequel to 2007’s landmark puzzle platformer.

On Wednesday, we were devastated by the realisation that forthcoming FPS Bodycount won’t feature Ice-T.

On Thursday, the latest revelations about Vanquish were almost too intense for us to handle.

On Friday, we revealed that a sequel to Scribblenauts is in the works.

Thanks for reading.

Erin Marcon – Editor

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“Dear Diary – With each passing day, the urge to kill becomes stronger…”

Work has commenced on a follow up to one of 2009’s most divisive releases. The rumoured existence of a Scribblenauts sequel was this week confirmed by Warner Bros. Interactive. Development of the DS exclusive has been entrusted to 5^th Cell, the studio responsible for the ambitious original.

Scribblenauts featured a unique game mechanic. Each level challenged you to obtain a golden star by creating and combining items. By entering words on the DS touch screen, you could create any object were likely to require. You could, for example, summon jumper leads to spark a car into motion or a human brain to lure a zombie into your trap. Most problems could be solved in a variety of ways.

The major selling point of the sequel is the addition of adjectives. I imagine this will enable you to summon a small boat or a red cape or an angry rhinoceros. A sensible camera and accurate controls wouldn’t go astray either. Though undeniably imaginative, Scribblenauts was often a chore to play.

Scribblenauts is due for release on Nintendo DS in spring 2010.

I need a new prescription. These glasses are useless!

More details have emerged regarding Vanquish, the forthcoming shooter from SEGA and Platinum Games.

It seems the game will take an old-school approach to world politics, pitting Russia against the US in a struggle to dominate the world’s few remaining energy sources. Though the world isn’t post apocalyptic, it certainly looks to heading in that direction, with San Francisco already reduced to rubble.

In an attempt to distinguish his game from every other shooter before it, director Shinji Mikami relies heavily on the concept of ‘intensity’. As the heroically named Sam, you’ll be donning futuristic armour and battling to liberate a space station. Vanquish certainly looks and sounds like Halo intense.

Knowing the sophistication, and dare I say it, intensity, of shooters like BioShock 2 and Modern Warfare 2, Platinum Games may have a hard time convincing us that Vanquish is the next big thing.

SEGA has now revealed that Vanquish will be released on 360 and PS3 in summer 2010.

It took me all summer to build that treehouse…

Codemasters have announced Bodycount, a new action game featuring Ice-T and the hardcore metal posse he formed in the early 90s. Actually, that’s not the case at all, but someone needs to make that game immediately. In its place, we have the latest first person shooter from Stuart Black, who you may know as the co-creator of Black, the eponymous 2006 shooter from EA and Criterion Games.

Bodycount is set to deliver what the publisher describes as “an orgy of bullets and destruction”, which actually sounds a little unpleasant, doesn’t it? Details of the story remain scarce, but we do know that you’ll be assassinating targets on behalf of a secret organisation. In addition to the single player campaign, Bodycount will also feature cooperative and adversarial multiplayer modes. There will be significant emphasis on destructible cover.

It’s certainly one to watch, but if Black was truly dedicated to the project, he’d change his name to Stuart Bodycount.

The game is due for release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early 2011.