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

On Monday, Karen and David clashed over their mutual passion for Michael Paré on our latest podcast.

On Tuesday, we suffered an identity crisis while examining BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 launch trailer.

On Wednesday, we covered the announcement of Grim Dawn, a new action RPG from the creators of Titan Quest.

On Thursday, we ventured into the old west for a peak at Ubisoft’s Wii exclusive Red Steel 2.

On Friday, we realised that the angst ridden protagonist of Nier draws his power from a signed copy of Twilight.

Thanks for reading.

Erin Marcon – Editor

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RECENT FEATURED CONTENT

Square Enix has released another angst ridden trailer for Nier, its forthcoming action RPG set in a world ravaged by disease. As the gravel voiced protagonist, you’ll be scouring the land in search of a cure to the debilitating Black Scrawl. With your own daughter knocking at death’s door, you’ll feel entirely justified in dicing up anyone who dares stand in your way.

The trailer previews a range of bloody encounters, including an epic boss battle in which your gargantuan foe demonstrates unsettling powers of recovery. Then, despite the gravity of your quest, you fire off a Nathan Drake style one liner. Classy.

The one minute clip also includes a brief glimpse of the selcouth volume that appears to be the source of your supernatural talents. While I couldn’t make out the title, I’m quite certain that it’s either Magic for Dummies or, more likely, a copy of Twilight signed by Stephanie Meyer.

Nier is due for release on 360 and PS3 in autumn 2010.

A new trailer has emerged for Red Steel 2, the long awaited follow up to Ubisoft’s poorly received Wii launch title.

While the original Red Steel was set in the modern day Tokyo, its sequel takes place in a stylised approximation of the American old west. The clip previews one of the key locations in the game, a mining township known as Caldera. It will be your job to free the town from the clutches of a sinister gang known as The Jackals. It will be Ubisoft’s job to convince us first person swordplay is viable on the Wii.

Red Steel 2 will be among the first non-sports titles to employ Nintendo’s criminally underused Wii MotionPlus peripheral. Nintendo has supported the device in the only way it knows how, following up Wii Sports Resort with a whole lot of nothing. Hopefully the addition of MotionPlus will enable the Red Steel 2 to become the showcase for motion controls that its much hyped predecessor was intended to be.

Red Steel 2 is due for release in March 2010.

The dark origins of the Hokey Pokey…

Independent developer Crate Entertainment has revealed a handful of details regarding its inaugural project. As reported by Big Download, Grim Dawn is to be a PC exclusive downloadable action RPG set firmly the Diablo mould. Given that the studio was formed by veterans of Iron Lore Entertainment, this will come as no surprise. Iron Lore’s Titan Quest was one of the more successful Diablo knock-offs of its time and Grim Dawn is being developed using the same engine.

The action takes place on a world very loosely inspired by the Victorian age and players will clash with multiple alien species in a desperate bid to prevent the destruction of the human race. Crate are promising to deliver both a substantial single player campaign and ‘specially balanced’ multiplayer scenarios. Expansion content in the form of additional character classes has already been mooted.

Crate are targeting an early 2011 release window for Grim Dawn.

Note: The image above is derived from Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. We’re still waiting for the first screenshot of Grim Dawn to emerge.