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South Park: The Stick of Truth - All News

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Box Art

Thursday - February 25, 2016

South Park - Sold 5M Copies

by Myrthos, 23:16

Ubisoft has shipped 5 million copies of South Park The Stick of Truth.

While the path to release was rocky, South Park: The Stick of Truth was well-received by critics and fans. Ubisoft has today announced just how successful the game is.

On its third quarter earnings call today, the publisher shared that the Obsidian-developed RPG has shipped 5 million copies. At E3 this year, the company announced a sequel is in the works.

Where The Stick of Truth spoofed fantasy tropes, The Fractured But Whole riffs on super hero themes. South Park has featured a number of episodes with the cast taking on hero personas, giving Ubisoft San Francisco a foundation from on to build.

The next game in the series is due during fiscal year 2017. This places release no later than March 31, 2017, provided there is no delay.

Thanks Couch.

Wednesday - May 13, 2015

South Park - Sold 1.6M Units

by Gorath, 21:08

Gamestar.de read in Ubisoft's financial report that Obsidian's South Park RPG sold more than 1.6 million units so far.

Tuesday - February 24, 2015

South Park - New Podcast Review

by Couchpotato, 04:13

A website caled Quit or Continue published a late video review for South Park.

The Quit or Continue panel brave fart jokes, find Jesus and invade Canada for your pleasure, as they go down to South Park to have themselves a time.

Join the usual motley crew of Mike, Jack, Dave and Andy as we delve deep in the cavaties of Mr. Slave and co, in search of the legendary Stick of Truth. Do Stan, Kyle and Cartman finally have a game worth killing Kenny for? Listen in to find out.

Monday - February 23, 2015

South Park - 5 Reasons To Play The Game

by Couchpotato, 04:54

In-case you still haven't played South Park: The Stick Of Truth a website called IMPlayin has a new article with five reasons why you should. So yes it's another list article.

Recently, I was rather ill; I made sure to use my time wisely and so, I cracked out my copy of South Park: Stick Of Truth whilst in bed. I played through the whole game twice (once for fun whilst the second served as a mop-up for the few remaining achievements!) in the time I was ill; but I could have played it again easily, if it weren’t for the fact my movement came back and thus the next gen consoles became playable again (different rooms you see). Here’s 5 reasons why I absolutely love playing South Park: The Stick Of Truth.

Thursday - May 08, 2014

South Park - Review @ RPG Codex

by Couchpotato, 05:53

The RPG Codex Zed & Crooked Bee have written a new review where they share both of their opinions over Obsidians South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Zed: It took me 12 hours to beat the Stick of Truth on hardcore difficulty. I completed almost every quest I came across and my character reached the maximum level of 15. After beating the game as a Fighter, I tried replaying as a Mage for half an hour, before realizing the game stayed essentially the same – same QTE-centric gameplay, same jokes. As you mentioned earlier, throughout the story there’s only one real instance of a choice, with only a short-lived consequence. But while it doesn’t have a lot of reactivity nor much replay value, The Stick of Truth is a funny game. Not as funny as the TV show, but it feels like a genuine South Park experience. I would have liked to see more satire and witty humor, and the game doesn’t really introduce any new characters either. The absurdity and in-jokes seem a bit overdone compared to most other South Park creations.

Crooked Bee: Well, like I said, I personally enjoyed the overdone absurdity. The mechanics though, not so much. Quests, combat, exploration, it’s all very easy to get into – mostly thanks to the writing – but ultimately also very repetitive. That's why it’s a good thing the game is only 12 hours long; but also a bad thing, because I believe the full price is too high for that. (Thank you, Ubisoft, for a review copy.)

Zed: Yeah, while being a subjectively funny game, it’s not very good in terms of mechanics and systems. The social media stuff seems half-forgotten in the later segments of the game and there are rarely any reasons for you to re-visit locations. It’s like a long South Park episode coupled with the gameplay and interactivity of a Newgrounds flash game.

Crooked Bee: Wow, that’s harsh! (Says someone who did nothing but complain about the mechanics for the entire review.) But sure, if we are to judge it as an RPG – this is the RPG Codex, after all! – and not just an interactive South Park episode, it’s definitely lacking, a mixed bag made up of addictive and monotonous in equal measure. Some aspects (writing, atmosphere, loot, animations) are brilliant; the RPG core, however, the combat, quest structure, and character development, are very simplistic. The lack of any kind of non-linearity or improvements to the tired Paper Mario formula is a big downer, too. The flip side of this being an interactive TV show episode, I guess…

Zed: It is what it is, and as that good ol’ Codex saying goes, it’s “good for what it is.” I highly recommend this game to fans of South Park (especially fans of the more juvenile stuff) and fart enthusiasts (like Germans). I can’t really recommend it to grimdark serious-face CRPG players looking for something deep and rewarding. They will find none of that here.

Crooked Bee: Yeah, it’s an ultra-casual RPG lite, albeit a very solid one at that. Despite my nitpicking, however, this is also the best, and most skilfully written, comedic RPG I’ve played. If you can disregard that this is supposed to be an Obsidian game, you’re bound to enjoy it. It is a shame, however, that I can’t help but associate the excellent content with Matt and Trey, and the underwhelming gameplay and design with Obsidian. It may, of course, have been South Park Studios or the evil publisher Ubisoft who demanded that Obsidian should make the actual RPG side as unimaginative as possible, but given Obsidian’s best titles, I refuse to accept any blame for wanting the game to have been something more. Mr. Chris Avellone once mentioned he’d like to design a High School RPG some day; if this were it, I would be highly disappointed.

Sunday - April 13, 2014

South Park - Review @ GameBanshee

by Couchpotato, 05:28

GameBanshee's WorstUsernameEver has written a new review for South Park: The Stick of Truth. As usual here is the conclusion so be sure to read the rest of it.

South Park: The Stick of Truth isn't the ultimate South Park video game, weirdly enough. That's not because there are better South Park videogames (Obsidian's title wins easily, as most South Park games are utterly abysmal), but because it isn't what it aims to be. It's a strange pet project from two successful entertainment creators that previously moved from cartoons, to cinema, to Broadway musicals, always finding success along the way. Somewhat expectedly, they also find success here. Perhaps, looking at their history then, it shouldn't be surprising that they did so by writing an actual videogame, and not a South Park story awkwardly inserted into an unnatural format. And really, going back to my initial question, is an RPG even the best format for a South Park story? Well, possibly not. But as it turns out, you can write a South Park RPG that is both clearly South Park and clearly an RPG, and have it be a good game on top of that. That's no small feat. And while I'll be the first to argue that the game is heavily flawed, with far too shallow gameplay and quest design, I still have to tip my hat to everyone involved. I laughed from the beginning to the very end of the game. Yes, even at the fart jokes.

Thursday - April 10, 2014

South Park - Patch Three Released

by Couchpotato, 04:56

Obsidian has released patch three for South Park: The Stick of Truth. You can find more information on the games forum. Here is the short changelog.

April 8, 2014 - 12:00PM PST

Patch 03 is available on Steam now. It should automatically update itself after you exit the game. The patch is in testing at Ubisoft and will become available on the consoles soon.

Fixes:

  • Allows WASD keys to work as arrow keys during the Goth Dance mini-game.
  • Fixes a potential hang in the counter attack tutorial battle.
  • Fixed an issue where accessories would not show up on the player if a new game was started while having the Hoff face equipped.
  • Fixed an issue where the outfit might now show up on the player during the costume changes in the Photo Dojo.
  • Fixed an issue where using Mr. Slave in the Giggling Donkey could cause issues in the fight.
  • Fixed an issue where the dire bear quest may not properly advance in Canada.
  • Fixed an issue where content could be skipped if grounded in the Lost Forest.
  • Fixed a few typos in messages.
  • Fixed a potential crash while playing in the Portuguese language.
  • Adjusted the difficulty of the Alien Probe mini-game.
  • Adjusted the difficulty of the pooping mini-game.
  • Adjusted the visuals of the magic tutorials while using PC controls.

Tuesday - April 08, 2014

South Park - Pre-Order DLC Available

by Couchpotato, 05:09

The following news is a few days old, but I was busy last week. It seems you can now buy the Ultimate Fellowship Pack, and the Super Samurai Spaceman Pack on Steam.

Unlock the ultimate fellowship with the one pre-order pack to rule them all! Choose your class and pick your perk with four exclusive Stick of Truth costumes that come equipped with special abilities. Suit up as the Necromancer Sorcerer to increase your fire damage, earn extra gold by equipping the Rogue Assassin outfit, deal extra weapon damage with the Ranger Elf costume, or raise your defense with the Holy Defender outfit. The choice is yours, New Kid. Seize the Kingdom of South Park!

Thursday - March 27, 2014

South Park - Editorial @ Cheat Code Central

by Couchpotato, 06:18

Cheat Code Central has a short article about gender in South Park: The Stick of Truth.

We've come to expect certain things from our RPGs, and the ability to save anywhere is a big one. So is some element of choice, even when it doesn't have a major effect on the story. However, the biggest is the ability to decide our avatar's gender during a character creation progress. If we're able to decide everything else about our character, it only stands to reason that we could choose whether it is a he or a she.

Which is why it would initially seem odd that South Park: The Stick of Truth, a game that gives us so much control over our character's appearance, would make every player male. However, while it may seem like an issue and something we should question, it really isn't. In fact, the gender of the New Kid doesn't matter at all.

For the sake of the story, yes. The New Kid is male. Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a story in mind, and the gender had to be set for certain elements to work. Without getting into specifics, one of the storyline quests on the third day involves pretending to be some girl's boyfriend. Despite that moment, and a few similar ones, players aren't really forced to think of the New Kid as being male or female.

Friday - March 21, 2014

South Park - Editorial @ Gamemoir

by Couchpotato, 04:54

Gamemoir's Jack Rooney has written a new article for South Park: The Stick of Truth were he calls the game a wake-up call for RPGs. So do any of you agree with him?

Just this past weekend, I found myself shrunk to the size of a mouse in the midst of a journey through a grown man’s lower intestine in an effort to save all of South Park, nay, the world, from extinction and caught myself wondering what had led me to this point. Was it my love of RPGs? Perhaps I could credit my decision to play South Park: The Stick of Truth to my appreciation for the work of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Whatever it was that brought that moment into my life, I was exceedingly happy to be there and was having as great a time as I can remember while playing a video game.

Let’s deconstruct that last paragraph a little bit. Magic and wondrous technology are prevalent in the town/universe of South Park and, like many other RPGs, are used in your character’s combat capabilities and world navigation. However, unlike other RPGs, South Park does not rely on high fantasy or convoluted reasoning to give your character his powers. Teleportation? Alien anal probe. Object destruction? Farts. Character size manipulation? Underpants Gnome magic dust that is snorted into your system. In true South Park form, the game resists the urge to explain everything and take itself too seriously and remains hilarious the entire way through, provided you can get past the “South Park-ness” of it.

Wednesday - March 19, 2014

South Park - Sequel Potential @ IGN

by Couchpotato, 03:38

IGN has a new article & short video with South Park Co-Creator Matt Stone that talks about a posible Sequel for South Park: Stick of Truth. Here is the video.

South Park co-creator Matt Stone is leaving the door open to working on another video game with fellow showrunner Trey Parker.

Tuesday - March 18, 2014

South Park - Editorial @ Kotaku

by Couchpotato, 04:50

Kotaku's  Jason Schreier has a new article were he talks about South Park: The Stick of Truth combat system. He lists both the good and bad parts of it.

There was a point in South Park: The Stick of Truth—somewhere between performing an abortion and farting on Nazi zombies—when it occurred to me that Obsidian's new RPG isn't just ridiculous—it's also kind of brilliant.

Much has been made about Stick of Truth's impeccable comic timing—and it is impeccable!—but just as impressive is the game's turn-based combat system, which somehow manages to stay consistently fresh and entertaining throughout some 10 hours and 100+ battles. STEP ASIDE, FINAL FANTASY.

South Park's combat system is sort of like a cross between Earthbound and Paper Mario. Your characters line up across from the bad guys, waiting their turns to use attacks and spells, and in order to execute those abilities, you perform mini-quick-time-events that involve pressing buttons in the proper order at the proper times to both attack and block your opponents' moves.

Thursday - March 13, 2014

South Park - German/Austrian Release March 27th

by Couchpotato, 05:15

Ubisoft announces on the games forum the new release date for the censored German & Austrian versions of South Park: The Stick of Truth is March 27th.

Dusseldorf, 12th March 2014 - Ubisoft ® today announced the new release date for South Park ™: The Staff of Truth ™ on. The Austrian and German versions of the game will appear on 27 March 2014 for the PlayStation ® 3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC.

South Park - Interview @ Eurogamer

by Couchpotato, 04:16

Feargus Urquhart is interviewed on Eurogamer to talk about the development of South Park: The Stick of Truth. Here is  a small snip of the interview.

South Park: The Stick of Truth was a strange project for the studio in many ways. It was 2D, and it had to offer something other than "you're talking or you're killing", which is what, he titters, Obsidian's work tends to boil down to.

Having outsiders scrutinise Obsidian's methods was new and at times challenging as well. But as as Urquhart the wise man reflects, "We only get better as game developers when we open ourselves up more to criticism.

"We had to step back and really think about how we made games, because this game couldn't be made the same way as a lot of our other games, and it taught us a lot and the game turned out great."

According to Metacritic, cringe, South Park: The Stick of Truth (on PS3) is one of Obsidian's best games, scoring a review average of 86 per cent (the same as KOTOR2 on Xbox).

Metacritic is relevant here because an 85-plus score was exactly what Obsidian needed Fallout: New Vegas to achieve in order to receive a bonus payment from publisher Bethesda. But it didn't; Fallout: New Vegas averaged an agonisingly close 84 per cent, and Obsidian lost out, despite the game being a big success for Bethesda. There was quite a fall out.

There's nothing like that in place for South Park: The Stick of Truth, thankfully, and Obsidian never intends taking that road again.

"We have a general policy whenever we're talking to different publishers now: we don't do anything that has to do with Metacritic. It's an unfair way of... in a lot of ways it can only be used as a way to take advantage of a developer.

"Ultimately if a game is financially successful, if a developer has back-end royalties on that, then they should make those back-end royalties if they made money for the publisher."

Sunday - March 09, 2014

South Park - Editorial @ MMGN

by Couchpotato, 04:54

MMGN has a new article about South Park: The Stick of Truth troubled development.

The Stick of Truth is finally here! Granted I, like many people I know, have kind of faded out on South Park in the last few years. Maybe binge watching the latest 10-20 episodes when I’m bored then moving on, but damned if the puerile and immature show didn’t make a huge splash on this little one’s upbringing.

It gave new meaning to crass, and established a platform from which the worst stereotypes could be brought out to play in a way which would often leave me with my jaw on the floor, but never in doubt about the positive underlying messages contained within.

So it’s about time we finally got our hands on South Park: The Stick of Truth. There’s been that rally game, there was the FPS (which was actually a lot of fun multiplayer on PC back in the day), but no one has effectively married South Park to a genre which would really allow its trademark narrative to shine through (RPG) and given it the budget it needs to actually come together.

Having played through the first 4-5 hours of the game, it certainly is exactly what you’d expect, which, if you’re anything like me, is of great relief.

Saturday - March 08, 2014

South Park - Interview @ The Guardian

by Couchpotato, 05:40

South Park Creator Matt Stone is interviewed by The Guardian to talk about satire, and his recently released RPG South Park: The Stick of Truth.

In Europe and Australia, some scenes in the video game have been censored.

I was told that Australia has different standards. They have their own ratings system, as does Europe, so I was told that we had to submit it for ratings and they come back and tell you this will pass, this won't. Ultimately, the full version of the game is in North America, so at least that version is out there, but anywhere it's censored [in the other version], we just put in little black cards explaining what has happened.

It's not that big a deal. It doesn't change things that much, but we weren't going to change the game downwards somewhere and just not tell anybody. You'll see how ridiculous that is.

How do you feel about that?

It does feel like a double standard, a little bit. We weren't willing to change the content, but also it doesn't ruin the game – it's like 40 seconds' worth of the whole game. As long as we could make a joke out of the fact that they made us cut this, that was fine.

Have the challenges of writing Stick of Truth given you an insight into why games traditionally haven't been very good at comedy?

A lot of comedy is timing and it's hard to control comic timing in an open world where you're not in control of when the joke happens. It's not really a writer's medium, because you can't write and mould and change on the fly like you can in a live show. Timing is one of those things that's pretty crucial to comedy and pretty hard for video games.

Friday - March 07, 2014

South Park - New Patch Available

by Couchpotato, 05:37

Obsidian has released a new patch for South Park: The Stick of Truth. You can find more information on the games forum. Here is the short changelog.

Patch Notes

Patch 02 is available on Steam now. It should automatically update itself after you exit the game. The patch is in testing at Ubisoft, and will become available on the consoles soon.

Fixes:

  • Fixed an issue where a buddy swap during an autosave could result in an infinite loading issue with affected save files.
  • Fixed potential infinite loading issues during transitions if a buddy swap has not previously occurred.
  • Fixed an issue where the camera could potentially lock to a zoomed view in cutscenes.
  • Fixed an animation popping issue on Cartman if the player selects the Jew Class.
  • Fixed an edge case issue where the player may not gain the "Unfriend Al Gore" quest when being spammed by Al Gore Facebook messages.
  • Some minor performance improvements in Canada.

Thursday - March 06, 2014

South Park - Delayed in Germany & Austria

by Couchpotato, 05:33

If you happen to live in Germany & Austria and were hoping to play the new South Park: The Stick of Truth RPG you will have to wait longer. It seems Ubisoft forgot to take out a unconstitutional symbol.

Here are the Steam details.

We’re sorry to inform you that we are unable to deliver your pre-ordered version of South Park: The Stick of Truth on March 6th as initially planned. The German and Austrian version of South Park: The Stick of Truth contains an unconstitutional symbol which means that we are unfortunately not able to release the game on the German and Austrian market at this time. This concerns all versions/platforms of the game. There is no need to amend or cancel your pre-order. A new release date of South Park: The Stick of Truth for the German and Austrian market will be announced shortly, and we will ensure that your order is delivered to coincide with this new date.

We are extremely sorry for the additional waiting time, and thank you for your understanding.

Wednesday - March 05, 2014

South Park - Editorial @ Strategy Informer

by Couchpotato, 05:23

Strategy Informer has new article based on a recent Reddit AMA. The best part of the AMA is the reason for the censored versions. So read on for more information.

If you thought you could turn some 0s into 1s and get the censored scenes in South Park: The Stick of Truth to show, then you'd be mistaken. The actual scenes are completely removed, including the audio.

A Ubisoft Associate Producer explained the situation, and their reasoning was to "avoid a “Hot Coffee” type situation," by ripping out the "20-second-or-so gameplay/cutscene" from the disc.

In place of the censored scenes are static images explaining what the actual scene entailed, along with a facepalming statue for European versions.

"I’m the Associate Producer on the game for Ubisoft. We did make a separate version just for Germany/Austria. There’s actually 5 versions: North/South America, Europe, Germany, Australia, and Russia. Only the North/South American one is completely uncensored on every platform. The Australian one is censored on all platforms, the European and Russian ones are censored on console only, and the German one is censored on console for anal probing etc as shown in this screenshot, and censored on both console and PC for swastikas, Heil Hitler arm salutes, etc." said 'walgiz' on Reddit.

Tuesday - March 04, 2014

South Park - Released & Review Roundup

by Couchpotato, 09:38

South Park: The Stick of Truth has been quietly released on Steam.  I do have a launch trailer, and a bunch of reviews though. So here is the new launch trailer from Ubisoft.

Now onto the reviews I will just be listing the sites, and the scores given to each one. Looking at the reviews it seems most sites scored the game favorably.

1. IGN - 9/10
2. The Escapist - 4/5
3. Strategy Informer - 9/10
4. Venture Beat - 95/100
5. Gamereactor - 8/10
6. Hardcore Gamer - 4/5
7. IncGamers - 8/10
8. Dual Shockers - 6.5/10
9. Dealspwn - 8/10
10. Entertainment Buddha - 8.5/10
11. Connected Digital World - 9/10
12. Eurogamer - 8/10
13. The Koalition - 90/100
14. GameSpot - 7/10
15. Rock, Paper, Shotgun - No Score
16. PC Gamer -90/100
17. Joystiq - 4.5/5
18. Edge -8/10
19. Polygon - 8/5/10
20. VG 24/7 - No Score
21. CVG - 9/10
22. Giantbomb -5/5

South Park - Editorial @ Gamers Progress

by Couchpotato, 05:24

Gamers Progress talks about South Park, and its part in gaming culture.

Its impossible to overlook the bond that South Park has had with video game culture since its early days. With South Park: The Stick of Truth coming out soon, Playing It Old School looks back at the intriguing relationship the series has had with gamer culture.

The series humble beginnings started when Trey Parker and Matt Stone created the short films The Spirit of Christmas (released in 1992 and 1995) which became one of the earliest viral videos. Its popularity lead to it being picked up by Comedy Central to become one of the networks most watched original shows.

After the show gained popularity in the late 90's; the duo would team up with Acclaim Entertainment to create a series of video games based on the series. They would experiment with several different genres in an attempt to develop the right game.

Monday - March 03, 2014

South Park - Preview @ The Gamers Pad

by Couchpotato, 05:08

If you want to read another preview for South Park: The Stick of Truth then head over to The Gamers Pad. Also as a reminder the game will be out in four days.

The combat system in South Park: The Stick of Truth is another thing that impressed me. I’m not a huge fan of turn-based RPG games but it nails it. It’s somewhat dumbed down a bit but not enough to deter fans of that specific genre and enough to have gamers (like myself) be able to understand it and start whipping out awesome attacks in no time. You have your HP bar, PP bar and Mana bar that you have to watch throughout the battles. HP is for health, PP is for your abilities (for example, a Jew-Jitsu attack) and the Mana bar is well, for farts. Yes, seriously. Managing these is vital to beating your foes as the difficulty of the game is quite apparent from the get go. I did find myself on the receiving end of some incredibly vicious curb stomps at times – but a little thought and tactical approach guided me on my way to be the one, truly awesome ‘new kid’.

Sunday - March 02, 2014

South Park - Preview @ Venturebeat

by Couchpotato, 05:00

Venturebeat previews the soon to released South Park: The Stick of Truth about the Jew class. Apparently the Jew class is a cleric you play in-game.

I expected more off-color jokes as a Jew, and if what I saw during the preview is representative of the full game, playing one is full of laughs and not particularly offensive. No Jew gold around my neck. No Moses-as-MCP Cone. You sometimes hear faint echoes of “Jews, Jews are lame” in the background (a line from the South Park Christmas Special’s Hanukkuh song). But I didn’t see anything that pushed the edge of decency.

The Jew, says Ubisoft rep Jon Miller, is essentially South Park’s cleric class. So it — and the Jewish humor the cartoon’s known for — could draw a lot of players; a lot of role-playing fans enjoy the mix of combat and healing powers that come with priest classes. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they, too, find the Jew to be pretty innocuous overall.

And this is stunning. South Park is known for its offensiveness — Ubisoft’s even censoring scenes featuring abortions and anal probes for some overseas markets. But when it comes to the Jew, I didn’t see anything that I would consider offensive at all. It may come later in the game.

Saturday - March 01, 2014

South Park - Interview @ Spike

by Couchpotato, 05:58

Spike.Tv had the chance to interview Matt Stone to discuss the Making of South Park: The Stick of Truth. Here is asmall part of the interview.

Spike: After writing the show, and the movie, what was the thinking going into the game, as to how to make it a funny, interactive experience?

Stone: It was hard. The one thing I will say is that me and Trey have a really good sense of is how to make a 22-minute show that's funny. We know this scene has to be funny. We know scenes are about a minute and a half to two minutes long. There should be a montage. It should feel like this. We just have this intuitive sense of 22-minutes, and that just comes from years, and decades of doing that length. We've done movies, and when we do movies, or things like the Book of Mormon, or this game we always have to find our way there. We make a lot of mistakes, and go, "this is what it is. Oh, okay. That isn’t what it is, but we keep a little bit." So we do go like this (makes a hand motion in the approximate shape of a "z") to find that answer.

What we kind of found in this is that what we didn’t like in the first incarnation of the thing that we wrote. It was too much like cut scene hunter: you go here and you see something funny, and you go do some stuff, and then you maybe laugh when you see another cutscene. That was the main challenge of the game - how to make doing stuff funny. How to make it consistently. How to work the cutscenes in the game together in a fluid way where they kind of went into each other, so that there was actions in between them that made sense.

With South Park and the animation, we knew intuitively that it should be possible, because this was the look. It looks like the TV show. How do you go in and out of where you're in control, and not, and make it fun, that was the main challenge, totally.

Wednesday - February 26, 2014

South Park - Censoring

by Myrthos, 12:22

Rock Paper Shotgun have an article on censoring of South park: The Stick of Truth for consoles, but with none for the PC version.

Some of the censored scenes include:

  • A mini-game in which the doctor is performing an abortion on the player.
  • A mini-game in which the player is performing an abortion on the character Randy.
  • Five anal probing scenes involving someone actively being probed. The scenes play out as normal before and after the active probing sequences.

Apparently PC gamers are considered to be more mature and able to handle this type of content.

Saturday - February 22, 2014

South Park - Preview @ Ausgamers

by Couchpotato, 04:12

Ausgamers posted a hands-on preview of South Park: The Stick of Truth.

The short one-hour demo I took part in saw me playing the game on PC and in comparisons to the show in HD, it’s essentially 1:1. It might not seem like this is a big deal, but when you’re actually playing and interacting in the world, it is. Things like explosions or how people bleed or react when they’re injured are lifted directly from the show, and it’s really great to see a visual gem like this spewing forth from Obsidian. It’s no secret they don’t have the best track record in complete, issues-free development, but what I played looked and handled like a dream. It’s obviously far too early to call the game a success, but if this is a representation of the quality goal (and a result of the delay), then this will wind up being a very big feather in the studio’s cap.

Thursday - February 20, 2014

South Park - Inteview @ Gamasutra

by Couchpotato, 04:42

Gamasutra interviews former BioShock 2 Lead Jordan Thomas about his role in the soon to be released RPG South Park: The Stick of Truth. Here is a sample of the interview.

What was the state of the game when you came on? How contrary were your opinions to the overall design?

It varied a lot by the module of content we’re talking about. The town was already built to fulfill player fantasies of exploring, at will, the town of South Park, and that was a bit closer to my style. It felt like I had more editorial rights, as a player, and that’s the sort of thing I’m attracted to. The dungeons were more traditional, and given that the gameplay’s roots in games like Super Mario RPG and Earthbound were fairly lock-and-key outside of combat, that wasn’t a shock. I was simply hoping I could push for some 2014 sensibilities to creep in there, because ultimately it’s not targeting the same audience as the old-school RPGs that this game is referencing.

What was your role on the project?

I was brought on as a creative consultant, but my actual role is really amorphous. I was sort of a set of fresh eyes meant to play through the whole thing, read the script, and try to identify the places where either the joke wasn’t landing interactively, or identify something about the design that didn’t work for me personally. Then I'd make proposals about what we could do with the time available to improve it.

So I worked with [South Park creators] Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker] in L.A., and Obsidian as well, in Orange County. I just sort of flew back and forth, playing the game a lot and trying to offer advice.

So how did you get linked into this project? I understand Ubisoft picked this game up from THQ -- did you get pulled in immediately at that point?

No, not at all. Obsidian and South Park had really built the kind of skeleton of this thing long ago, and I came on mainly to help...sculpt the flesh, I guess? Which sounds awful, but there you go. I got linked in through this other, very complicated project I just finished that took itself very, very seriously -- that was kind of part of its brand -- and somebody said “hey, you know, Laurent [Detoc, President of Ubisoft North America] has this opening for someone to work as a design consultant.”

I said “Okay, I’d love to work on something that has a deeply ingrained comedic tone,” just as a palette cleanser, you know? And that’s why I’m here.

Sunday - February 16, 2014

South Park - Preview Roundup

by Couchpotato, 05:21

A bunch of sites have released new previews for South Park: Stick of Truth. Here are just a few of them I mangaed to find today.

PC Gamer

It really is an impressive facsimile of the show. The layered papery caricatures are perfectly reconstructed, wobbly walking animations and all. The game shares the show's voice talent, the writing is sweary and sharp. I didn't see any evidence of branching quest-lines or narrative forks, and combat was trivial, but it's fine fan service.

CVG

From what we've played, it's clear that South Park: The Stick Of Truth could very likely be the game fans of the series have been waiting for. Who knows whether the rest of the game retains the same standards, but if you only the play the same hour as we did, you're gonna have yourself a time.

IGN

Regardless of how solid its under-the-hood RPG mechanics are, it’s unlikely to win over those who don’t find the show funny, but it certainly stands a good chance to at least lure in RPG fans who are new or neutral to Parker and Stone’s no-one-is-safe social satire. If its first couple hours are any indication, then we may one day soon look back on The Stick of Truth as the best and most authentic licensed game ever made.

Gamespot

Ultimately, The Stick Of Truth is going to live and die by its humour; what I briefly saw of its RPG mechanics didn't seem exciting enough on their own--and even then, there's got to be context to all its ribbing on Jews, Chinese people, religion and, well, just about anything you could possibly be offended by really.

Gamereactor

Series' fans will spot plenty of cameos and locations, but there's also a cracking, and deep, combat system in place, with timed counter-attacks, special abilities and rock hard battles making for gameplay that is, to badly paraphrase the show, pretty sweet.From our new hands-on, the game's gone from a tie-in novelty to a must play. Even if we feel guilty for laughing.

Saturday - February 15, 2014

South Park - New Gameplay Footage

by Couchpotato, 06:05

Ubisoft has released a new thirteen minute video for South Park: The Stick of Truth. Now before you watch be warned it will spoil the games beginning.

The New Kid, his coming foretold by sacred and ancient prophecy, makes his arrival in South Park in this new 13-minute gameplay video.

Friday - February 14, 2014

South Park - On Track For Release

by Couchpotato, 03:36

IGN has news that South Park: The Stick of Truth has gone Gold, and will release on time in March. Hopefully nothing happens in the last few weeks.

Development on South Park: The Stick of Truth is now complete and, after numerous delays, it's finally headed off to manufacturing ahead of its release early next month.

Ubisoft announced today that Stick of Truth has gone gold. It's had a long journey to this point, having originally been set to be published by now-defunct publisher THQ. Ubisoft acquired the rights to the title when THQ's assets were auctioned off early last year, and it was slated to be out before the end of 2013. Before that could happen, it was delayed until what now would appear to be its actual release date in March.

The Stick of Truth -- and its various pre-order bonuses -- is coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on March 4 in North America, March 6 in Australia (where it's been modified due to the inclusion of anal probes), and March 7 in Europe.

Wednesday - February 05, 2014

South Park - Will Not Use Uplay

by Couchpotato, 06:34

IncGamers has the news that South Park: The Stick of Truth will not be using Uplay.

Some people are not huge fans of Uplay, especially those who saw their Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag save disappear into a void for no reason. Those people should be pleased to learn that the Ubisoft-published South Park: The Stick of Truth will not be making use of the platform.

That information comes from developers Obsidian, who first state that “Uplay is not featured in Stick of Truth.”

That all indicates that South Park: The Stick of Truth will be a Steamworks game only. It’s due for release in early March, unless the curse of Ubisoft PC delays strikes before that time.

Tuesday - February 04, 2014

South Park - Three New Trailers

by Couchpotato, 01:06

South Park: The Stick of Truth is almost ready for release, and Ubisoft has three new videos to remind everyone. Here is one of the clips.

You can watch the others clips here and here. Enjoy everyone.

Sunday - February 02, 2014

South Park - Pre-Purchase Now on Steam

by Couchpotato, 00:59

Steam announces that you can now pre-order South Park: The Stick of Truth.

South Park™: The Stick of Truth™ is Now Available for Pre-Purchase on Steam!

From the perilous battlefields of the fourth-grade playground, a young hero will rise, destined to be South Park’s savior. From the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comes an epic quest to become… cool. Introducing South Park™: The Stick of Truth™.

All Pre-Purchases also include the "Ultimate Fellowship" Pack with four exclusive Stick of Truth costumes that come equipped with special abilities. Suit up as the Necromancer Sorcerer to increase your fire damage, earn extra gold by equipping the Rogue Assassin outfit, deal extra weapon damage with the Ranger Elf costume, or raise your defense with the Holy Defender outfit. The choice is yours, New Kid. Seize the Kingdom of South Park!

Saturday - January 25, 2014

South Park - Behind the Scenes Video

by Couchpotato, 01:37

There is a new video released for South Park: The Stick of Truth with Matt Stone, and Trey Parker giving us a look behind the scenes of the games development.

Wednesday - January 15, 2014

South Park - Most Anticipated RPG @ OnlySP

by Couchpotato, 03:45

OnlySP has a new article that calls South Park: The Stick of Truth one of the most
anticipated games of 2014.

South Park: The Stick of Truth is being developed for play on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 but not for next generation consoles. It is being developed by Obsidian Studios who are well known for their experience with RPGs such as Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Alpha Protocol. Parker and Stone have done their very best to keep Obsidian from straying from the game they want to see. Every level is designed so that it fits perfectly into the landscape of the South Park series while the controversial subject matter is present in all its vulgar awesomeness. In fact if you were to walk in on someone playing the game after it’s released you’d almost swear you were watching an extended interactive episode of the show.

Saturday - December 21, 2013

South Park - Preview @ Cheat Code Central

by Couchpotato, 04:13

Cheat Code Central previews South Park: The Stick of Truth.

You just can't keep the South Park kids down. This unlikely RPG, born of a collaboration between South Park's creators and the RPG wizards at Obsidian Entertainment, has survived the meltdown of publisher THQ and been purchased and knocked into shape by the Templars at Ubisoft. After several delays and three tie-in episodes of the TV show, South Park: The Stick of Truth has a (probably) final release date of March 4, 2014.

What's this South Park game all about? The player portrays a new kid in town, with a fully customizable South Park style look. The locals appear to be in the middle of LARPing, and the new kid has to fit in with the coolest fourth graders in town—Cartman, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and maybe Butters (he's a paladin, and paladins are so totally uncool). Horrible enemies like elves, underpants gnomes, and gingers are attacking the town, and the New Kid, who has apparently been dubbed Sir Douchebag by Cartman, is tasked with finding the mythical Stick of Truth in order to defeat them.

Will South Park: The Stick of Truth bring fans old and new flocking to play a turn-based RPG on last-gen systems? It's a bit of a gamble for Ubisoft to take, but at least we know the company took the time needed to polish the game rather than simply release it as it was after THQ folded. As far as licensed games go, this one should be in pretty good shape.

Wednesday - December 18, 2013

South Park - Censored in Australia

by Couchpotato, 20:45

I know we have a few watchers from Australia so this might intrest a few of you. It seems South Park: The Stick of Truth is the next game to be censored for release.

Player Attack has two articles about the subject. You can find the first one here, and the second one here. You can always use a proxy if you want the untouched version.

Australia censors South Park: The Stick of Truth

Even with the introduction of an R18+ adults only rating in Australia, video games are still being edited before making it Down Under. The latest? South Park: The Stick of Truth, which was labelled R18+ last week. Turns out, Aussies will be getting a censored version of the cartoon RPG when it arrives in March.

At this stage, it's unclear exactly what has been changed in the game, but a spokesperson from Ubisoft has told us that a "slightly modified version of South Park The Stick of Truth has been approved for release in Australia on March 6".

The Australian Classification Board actually rated South Park: The Stick of Truth twice. The official rating was the second time the game had been through the process. Three weeks earlier, the Board rated another Ubisoft title, Codename, which had the same "High impact crude humour, sex scenes and references to sexual violence" as South Park.

Monday - December 09, 2013

South Park - VGX 2013 Trailer

by Couchpotato, 04:30

Here is the full trailer for South Park: The Stick of Truth from VGX 2013.


Saturday - December 07, 2013

South Park - VGX Teaser Trailer

by Couchpotato, 03:44

Here is a short VGX video teaser for South Park The Stick of Truth.


Friday - November 01, 2013

South Park - Delayed to March 2014

by Couchpotato, 03:29

Ubisoft announces that South Park: The Stick of Truth is delayed to March 4, 2014. It joins the ever increasing amout of games being delayed this month.

Why the new delay? Well, when Ubisoft picked up the game, we thought: Easy. We’ll put some marketing muscle behind Stick of Truth, toss some additional development resources at it, then take it to the finish line with Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The game’s almost done, anyways – so what more could we do?

Apparently, quite a bit more. “Within three weeks after acquiring the game, we sadly realized we had to turn this thing upside down if we hoped to deliver the experience everybody wanted,” says Ubisoft North America’s president Laurent Detoc. “It’s been such a major overhaul to get to the point where we are that we couldn’t let it go, even if that meant missing December.”

South Park’s creators wholeheartedly agree. “We always wanted the game to feel like you’re actually in an episode of South Park,” say Matt Stone and Trey Parker. “Getting the game up to the crappy standards of the show has been a real challenge and we’re excited to say it’s taken way longer than we thought it would.”

Here is a video to go along with the announcement.

Friday - October 18, 2013

South Park - Pre-Order Offers

by Couchpotato, 00:44

Ubisoft and Obsidian Entertainment have announced new details for the South  Park: The Stick of Truth pre-order offers.

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES SOUTH PARK: THE STICK OF TRUTH PRE-ORDER OFFERS

London, UK – 17 October 2013 - Today, Ubisoft®, South Park Digital Studios and Obsidian Entertainment announce details on South Park: The Stick of Truth pre-order offers: two packs of additional in-game content.

Pre-order the game now at ShopTo and get The Stick of Truth Ultimate Fellowship Pack including four exclusive Stick of Truth costumes that come equipped with special abilities:

-  Necromancer Sorcerer Costume: Bonus Fire Damage
-  Ranger Elf Costume: Bonus Weapon Damage
-  Rogue Assassin Costume: Bonus Gold
-  Holy Defender Costume: Bonus Defenses

In addition, pre-orders at GAME will allow you to push your role playing skills to the limit with the Super Samurai Spaceman Pack including three exclusive Stick of Truth costumes that come equipped with special abilities:

-  Superhero Costume: Buffs at Start of Combat
-  Samurai Costume: Buffs when you Defeat an Enemy
-  Spaceman Costume: Emergency Shields

Players who pre-order via the Uplay shop http://shop.ubi.com/SPKStickofTruth will receive both The Stick of Truth Ultimate Fellowship Pack and the Super Samurai Spaceman Pack as a bonus. The Grand Wizard Edition is also available now for pre-order and includes:

-  South Park: The Stick of Truth Game
-  Grand Wizard Kidrobot® Cartman Figure
-  Kingdom of South Park Map
-  And The Stick of Truth Ultimate Fellowship Pack presented above

Wednesday - October 16, 2013

South Park - Preview @ CraveOnline

by Couchpotato, 01:25

CraveOnline has posted a new preview of South Park: The Stick of Truth based off a demo from the NYCC 2013.

Our first stop at New York Comic Con 2013 could not have been more fitting. Ubisoft’s massive booth stared convention-goers dead in the face as you hit the show floor. Lines gathered quickly around the two main attractions, including the smaller structure where we had the chance to check out a ten minute gameplay video of Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG South Park: The Stick of Truth.

For those of us who endured the 1998 N64 game based on the show, this is a welcome relief. Writers and creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker aren’t just looking to make a quick buck this time around. They are fully committed to producing a quality game that not only embraces their off color brand of comedy, but also celebrates (and pokes fun at) the long history of role playing games.

Our preview ran through an early section of the game where the player, as “the new kid,” sets out on a mission with a few of the main characters from the show. The boys wind up face to face with a series of RPG tropes including a bard, the tavern at the inn and a handful of elven archers. This would normally seem all too typical if it weren’t wrapped in the South Park art style and sense of humor.

Monday - October 14, 2013

South Park - Preview @ GamrReview

by Couchpotato, 01:54

GamrReview has a new preview of South Park: The Stick of Truth to read if your interested.

As Matt and Trey had much creative input and clearly provided all the voices, the humor is spot on, offering a ton of laughs in just the ten minute demo span, with Kenny the princess on the verge of being raped and Cartman being every ounce as funny and maniacal as ever. At one point when Jimmy was speaking and getting hung up on a word, you could literally watch him go on for a couple minutes until you decided to move on. Even though I didn't actually get to play the game, sitting back and watching how accurately the developers have captured the essence of South Park was good enough for me.

The gameplay is traditional, turn-based RPG action, as well as a mix of out of combat abilities that will help the player progress through the level and weaken enemies before the start of a fight. The turn-based combat is much like the JRPGs of old, with enemies on the overworld that can be encountered and battles occurring on another screen with the boys on one side and their enemies on the other.

There are a good amount of abilities to choose from besides the normal attack option, though attacking and many of the abilities follow the Super Mario RPG/Mario & Luigi formula, allowing you to cause more damage or hit an enemy more times if you tap the button at the right time. It requires more skill and interaction than just pressing one button the whole time, which makes for a more enjoyable experience.

Saturday - October 12, 2013

South Park - Preview @ Capsule Computers

by Couchpotato, 00:28

Capsule Computers has posted their impression of South Park: The Stick of Truth based on a early demo of the game.

The game plays like a traditional turn-based RPG. You control the “New Kid,” and engage in a series of battles against other kids (there are other enemy types, but only kids were present in the demo). Using traditional RPG mechanics, you select your weapons and do battle, timing your hits for maximum damage. The best comparison to a modern game that I can think of would be the Paper Mario franchise. Timing your hits perfectly deals more damage, and blocking and deflecting are also time based, and keep you on your toes throughout the battle.

During the brief demo, I got to see a variety of different weapons in action. Things like the Vibro-blade (actually a vibrator), the “Staff of Major Boobage,” and the F***ing Ninja Stars all acted very differently to one another, and required different skills and timing to use effectively. This variety in the combat speaks favourably to the game, and should hopefully result in an experience that avoids repetition (which is a common problem in turn-based RPGs). Outside of battle, you have access to small spells to help you traverse the over-world, get to new areas, and even sneak up on enemies. It is surprising how well all of the elements in South Park work together in the RPG setting.

The demo I saw at the expo was quite brief, but from what I saw, combined with our previous experiences leads me to believe that this will be a solid entry for South Park fans and RPG gamers. South Park: The Stick of Truth will be hitting store shelves on December 12th on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and fans of the series really shouldn’t miss this one. For all the South Park news as it becomes available, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers.

Thursday - September 26, 2013

South Park - Release Date & Grand Wizard Edition

by Couchpotato, 01:23

South Park: The Stick of Truth finally gets a release date of December 10. Along with this annoucment is a new trailer , and information it's getting a special $80 collector's edition.

 

Today, Ubisoft, South Park Digital Studios, and Obsidian Entertainment announced South Park: The Stick of Truth, will be available on the North American continent on December 10 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC.

Fans can check out the latest action in South Park: The Stick of Truth by watching the new “Destiny” trailer, released today. In the trailer, the New Kid steps forth and fulfills his, well, destiny.

About South Park: The Stick of Truth:
Arm yourself with weapons of legend to defeat underpants gnomes, hippies and other forces of evil. Discover the lost Stick of Truth and earn your place at the side of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as their new friend. Succeed, and you shall be South Park’s savior, cementing your social status in South Park Elementary. Fail, and you will forever be known… as a loser.

In addition, consumers who pre-order South Park: The Stick of Truth will also receive the Ultimate Fellowship Pack. Choose your class and pick your perk with four exclusive Stick of Truth costumes that come equipped with special abilities. Suit up as the Necromancer Sorcerer to increase your fire damage, earn extra gold by equipping the Rogue Assassin outfit, deal extra weapon damage with the Ranger Elf costume, or raise your defense with the Holy Defender outfit.

South Park: The Stick of Truth Grand Wizard Edition, a must-have for any self-respecting South Park fan worth his weight in cheezy poofs, will also be available on December 10 for the expected retail price of $79.99. This limited Grand Wizard Edition features a trove of mystical items from the deepest reaches of South Park to aid you in your quest to acquire the Stick of Truth and rid the realm of evil.

The Grand Wizard Edition includes:

South Park: The Stick of Truth Game
The full game on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC.

Grand Wizard Kidrobot® Cartman Figure
Pose the Grand Wizard Cartman and his stick of authority with this six-inch replica figure from Kidrobot®. The Grand Wizard Cartman figure is not available in stores and can only be found in the Grand Wizard Edition.

Kingdom of South Park Map
The entire town of South Park has been charted, plotted, and mapped. Chronicle your own conquests with this one-of-a-kind piece of South Park history.

The Stick of Truth Ultimate Fellowship Pack
Unlock the ultimate fellowship! Included for free in the Grand Wizard edition.

Saturday - September 21, 2013

South Park - Interview @ Game Informer

by Couchpotato, 00:43

Game Informer has re-published an interview for South Park: The Stick Of Truth from 2012.

It's been a long time since we revealed South Park: The Stick of Truth on our January 2012 cover. Since then, its publisher THQ has gone belly-up and the game has been picked up by Ubisoft. Luckily for fans of the show (and comedic video games), the Obsidian-developed game is still on track for a holiday release. As we look forward to the sure-to-be ridiculous RPG, we decided to revisit an interview that I conducted with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for our January 2012 cover story.

Sunday - August 25, 2013

South Park - Preview @ GamesRadar

by Couchpotato, 00:11

GamesRadar has a new preview for South Park: The Stick of Truth and says it's,"Less a video game, more a long, playable episode."

Ubisoft's Gamescom demo for South Park: The Stick of Truth was a brief one. But in the few minutes it ran for, it provided swathes of evidence of the game's legitimate credentials, both as a truly worthy South Park game and as a video game in its own right. In fact, like Rocksteady's Arkham games--to make a superficially odd but utterly fitting comparison--Obsidian's RPG feels like one of those rare video game adaptations that's less an interactive collection of references and iconography and more an extended work of canon.

It's there right from the basic presentation, which never breaks from the series' 2.5D, 'looking into the room' visual style. There are no cel-shaded cheats or series-betraying 3D camera pans here. There's not a thing to make you feel you're not watching an episode of the show, aside from the obvious player control.

Saturday - August 24, 2013

South Park - Preview @ Game Informer

by Couchpotato, 00:48

Game Informer has a new preview for South Park: The Stick of Truth based on the GamesCom demo.

Our Gamescom demo begins with epic fantasy music, complete with harp strings and monk-like chorus chanting. In South Park: The Stick of Truth, the entire town of South Park has been pitted against each other in an epic roleplaying game. As Sir D***hebag, players join Cartman on a quest to become cool.

The game features a silly interpretation of magic. Since most of the characters in the game are in fourth grade, the most magical thing any of them can do is fart, and our hero is good at magic. While wandering the basement he farts into his hand and then throws this ball of magic at a lantern on the wall. The gas explodes and knocks down a wall, clearing the way for us to further explore the dungeon.

Friday - August 23, 2013

South Park - News Roundup

by Couchpotato, 00:44

I managed to round up more news for South Park: Stick of Truth. So lets get started. To begin we have a few previews.

Kotaku

For almost two years now, I've been following South Park: Stick of Truth with feverish anticipation.

As I've written before, it's the type of game that feels like it was made just for me. The stellar writing of South Park's creators combined with JRPG-like combat and springy, vivid animation that feels like it was ripped straight out of a TV? Yes. Yes! Bring it on, Obsidian.

But... I'm worried. I'm worried because it's almost September, and Stick of Truth still has no release date.

"Wait a minute," you are undoubtedly thinking. "Didn't Ubisoft say the game will be out this fall-slash-winter?"

GameReactor

An epic and grand conflict is ravaging the small town of South Park. Humans and elves are in open war against each other because the elves have stolen The Stick of Truth. You are the knight Sir Douchebag, who together with the royal sorcerer, is attempting to get the truth stick back.

Or to put it another way, the kids are doing live role-play, Stan and Kyle are the elves, while Cartman has donned the wizard hat and is ruler of mankind. And then there's you, the new boy in class. Sir Douchebag.

Watching South Park: The Stick of Truth, is a bit like watching an extra-long episode of the TV series. Between sequences, and there a lot of those, it looks just like the show. The sequences we see in the Gamescom demo are relatively long (up to a few minutes), but also pretty funny, both because of the dialogue and the complete absurdity of seeing the characters running around in homemade costumes, pretending they are in a fairytale world.

VideoGamer

South Park: The Stick Of Truth could very well be the funniest game ever made. Admittedly that's not saying much given the dearth of comedy titles - humour has yet to become its own genre in the industry - but Matt Stone's and Trey Parker's first entry into the digital world (the other, terrible licenses they had nothing to do with don't count) has the potential to get by on its jokes, script, and sheer unbelievable nature alone.

Every time the game is showcased - as it was today at GamesCom - it manages to earn countless laughs, even from a room packed full of individuals. Whether that's because Randy Marsh is getting machine-probed, anally, by what appears to be an alien (as he cries out 'Why!'), to Cartman making jaw-droppingly shocking comments about the fate of Princess Kenny, it is always only a line away from making you, at the very least, crack a smile.

And to end the newsbit we have some new screenshots. So give them a look.

Monday - August 12, 2013

South Park - Release in 2013?

by Couchpotato, 01:15

Den Of Geek asks the question that many of us are curious about,"Will South Park: The Stick of Truth Release in 2013?"

Gamers are anxiously awaiting a release date for South Park: The Stick of Truth, the South Park RPG that has been delayed a couple times already.  But, here we are mid-August, and there still isn't a release date in site for the game.

We've reached out to Obsidian (and Ubisoft) many times to inquire about a release date for the game, which its latest trailer teases that it is "coming in 2013."  However, Obsidian says, "Unfortunately, we are still unable to comment. When Ubisoft is ready, they will be announcing the new date."

Monday - July 29, 2013

South Park - Preview @ Smashpad

by Myrthos, 13:22

Smashpad has taken a look at South Park: The Stick of Truth and wrote an article based on what they saw at Comic Con.

The creators were not pleased with the quality of South Park’s self-titled first game and their intent was not to create another video game. They warmed to the idea and decided that if they were going to do it, they would have as much control over the project as they do the show, which they write and direct themselves. With so much involvement, that led to 16 years worth of characters and ideas to be poured into the initial script for The Stick of Truth. Every character was included and the game quickly became far too bloated. Parker and Stone found ways to cut down content and narrow the focus while still personally believing that they've honored what has been. But what do to with so much cut content? Stone stated that “those words… that phrase… those letters” kept popping up with each cut: DLC. DLC tends to be a huge issue within the gaming community, but Stone firmly stated their stance: “Fuck that.” Their decision was that if they couldn’t include an idea in the game, they could easily work it into future episodes.

Thursday - July 25, 2013

South Park - Preview @ GamesRadar

by Couchpotato, 02:10

GamesRadar has the latesr preview for South Parth: The Stick of Truth.

Trey Parker started by saying that several years ago making a game sounded really simple, and that it’d be cool to make something like Skyrim, but that feels long ago now. After the two started with a massive script for the game, the real test was cutting the content into a manageable size for the developers. Parker brought up that some were suggesting the cut stories could be DLC, to which Trey said, “F**k that.” Apparently the South Park creator is no fan of post-release content.

Later during Q&A Stone and Parker talked about their history as gamers and the many games that inspired The Stick of Truth, including Paper Mario and Zelda. Trey took particular inspiration from Earthbound, as the mundane American setting and child heroes fit well with the South Park property.

Saturday - July 20, 2013

South Park - Interview @ Polygon

by Couchpotato, 00:35

Polygon has a new article syle interview with Trey Parker, and Matt Stone the creators of South Park.

Parker and Stone repeatedly lamented the protracted development cycle of South Park: The Stick of Truth, calling it a six-month-long Tuesday — referring to the frantic day before South Park the TV show airs, when the show's creators are still tweaking, writing and animating.

When a fan asked the duo how they felt as the game's original publisher, THQ, crumbled and whether they feared the game would be canceled, they joked they felt relieved, thinking, "Oh, good, it's over!"

"We really just read about it in the news," Parker said, "that they were going bankrupt, that someone else bought [the rights to] the game. Once we heard who had bought it, we got really excited. We flew up to [Ubisoft] and all that momentum picked up and we got really excited again."

When asked by another fan what games they loved to play, as both admitted to being fans of the medium (if not fans of previous South Park games), Parker initially said Crash Bandicoot 2. His slightly more serious answer, as it related to The Stick of Truth, was Nintendo's EarthBound.

Source: N4G

Friday - July 19, 2013

South Park - Why isn't Cartman funny?

by Couchpotato, 01:03

Video Game Sophistry seems to have a stick stuck some were after releasing a video showing their distaste for South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Playing South Park at E3 was a distinctly unfunny experience - FIND OUT WHY!

Source: N4G

Monday - July 15, 2013

South Park - Preview @ MTV

by Couchpotato, 01:27

MTV has written a preview for South Park: The Stick of Truth. At first I didn't think I would like the game, buy now I can't wait to see it in action. What about You?

Stick Of Truth sounds like an episode (along with Parker and Stone, both Mona Marshall and April Stewart, who provide all the female voices, are also involved), it also looks like one, to an uncanny degree. In fact, never before has a game based on some other form of media so closely resembled the source material.

I asked Nathan Davis and Alvin Nelson, the two producers of the game, if the game's visuals were tricky to pull off:

Davis: "That was one of the first things that Matt and Trey talked to us about; can you make it look exactly like the show. It's a lot more work than you realize.

In the initial phase of the prototype, the visual style was easily to emulate. But in terms of making an extended game, where you have many different levels, many different perspectives, cut scenes, and the like, it takes a lot of time and back and forth with [South Park Studios], to make sure we're on the same page."

I also enquired if the game uses the same "engine" that the show is built upon, and the answer was no, but it does borrow some assets:

Nelson: "Everything is built from the ground up, but we did utilize [South Park Studios]'s characters files and some of their backgrounds.

They also sent us their animators, to check out and approve every single animation we've ever done."

Unfortunately, despite the fact that it was part of a holiday showcase, there is still no release date for the game. It could come out this holiday season… or it could not! Basically, "South Park: The Stick of Truth" will come out when it's good and ready.

Tuesday - June 25, 2013

South Park - Preview @ Shopto

by Couchpotato, 02:28

Shopto released a new preview for South Park The Stick of Truth.

No need to pretend like you’re too mature for South Park, we all watch it. It’s immature, silly, and over-the-top, but it’s funny and we love it for that. Thankfully, South Park: The Stick of Truth, upcoming RPG from Obsidian, is just the same. It’s over-the-top and silly, but it works so well that you can hardly fault them for it.

In fact, I don’t think you can fault them for it at all. It’s amazingly well done. All your favorite characters from every season of South Park are there, all dressed for their character, as The Stick of Truth is set in the fictional setting of a LARPing group, where all the characters are fighting for The Stick of Truth.

It’s voiced by the same cast and looks like you’re watching an episode of the TV show. There’s no visual cues that would immediately lead you to believe that you aren’t watching a pre-rendered TV show, it’s all extremely well done. That’s one of the big sticking points for a South Park game, too. It has to look like that. The second your brain realizes it isn’t watching a TV show, the game loses some of its credibility. Obsidian nailed this aspect of it.

Let’s not forget though, South Park: The Stick of Truth is an RPG. It’s not some ‘barely an RPG, mostly an excuse to make a South Park game’ RPG either, it’s a real, tried and true RPG. You’ll traverse your way through South Park Elementary in a side-scrolling manner, navigating around enemies, hoping that if you need to battle, you’ll have the upper hand and be able to engage them first to get the upper hand in battle.

Thursday - June 20, 2013

South Park - Preview Roundup #4

by Myrthos, 12:51

Just in case you think there is still some new info to be had from the previews of South Park; The Stick of Truth, here are a few more.

Post Gazette

If you don't have the proper objects to take out your enemies, they will engage you within the battle area. Arena combat is turned base. It requires a lot more than a 10-minute presentation to understand a RPG battle system, but it looks like it matches the depth of any other mainstream RPG based on the few battles I witnessed. Characters will have signature attacks, and the animations that go along with them look hilarious. The new kid and Cartman battled in a clash of farts at one point.

Coin-Op.TV

This RPG has plenty to offer – from action sequences to puzzle solving to battling. The best part of game is how the game is both completely absurd and rooted in the reality of the universe. You have spells as you would in any RPG, but an ice spell is simply dumping a cooler full of ice and water on your enemy. Fireballs are farts cupped in your hand and thrown through fire. Like I said, much of this is completely absurd and yet, hilarious.

Nerd Reactor

Battles are played out just like a turn-based RPG games. By touching an opponent you enter battle. You control Butters and the new kid, who are equipped with different skills with cool names. A thunder attack has your character throwing water at the opponents. This is followed by tossing an electrical item onto the water. There’s an ice-based skill where you can pull out a fire extinguisher, which all require mp. In a tribute to a specific episode, mana is restored by eating a Chipotle burrito.

Wednesday - June 19, 2013

South Park - Preview @ Aggrogamer

by Myrthos, 12:30

Aggrogamer share their views on South Park: The Stick of Truth with us.

What was also damn cool was the fact that while the traditional attacks and magics, like water blast and fireball, are in the game, Obsidian has tailored them to be as a fourth grader in a LARP would use them. For instance, Water Blast consisted of a hand pumped Super Soaker blasting water at the enemy while Chain Lightning employed a puddle of water spilled over the target's area and then a cattle prod thrown down. There are supposedly over 80 different attacks like this in the game, but that was not heard directly from Obsidian or Ubisoft.

As this is a game "about being the coolest kid in the land," what else would you expect other than "Facebook" being the hub for all of the events and communication in the game. Part of what is kept in track is all of the main missions and side missions in the game. At one point they showed Douche-bag saving a girl who later joined him in the form of a "Facebook" friend. This was briefly gone over, but it is safe to assume that this will be the tracking for all of the things that you may do while on the hunt for the Stick Of Truth.

Finally, and this is a bit of the really new, there are at least three different factions in the game and Douche-bag gets to select one of them at some point. In the demo I saw, we began fighting on the side of Cartman (Humans) and then were given the option to jump ship to Kyle (High Elves) after beating down Cartman. The third came in at the end of the demo where Craig informs us that he has take the Stick and has branched his own group. Craig's group being the more demonic and "evil" looking of the three.

Monday - June 17, 2013

South Park - Preview Roundup #3

by Couchpotato, 00:39

Here we are for the third time for more previews for South Park: The Stick of Truth based on it's showing at E3.

RPGFan

Combat itself plays out very similarly to Mario & Luigi, with timed button presses for extra damage becoming a must. All of the skills, like the rest of the game, involve a combination of school-age "magic" and real-life perversion. It's safe to say that Obsidian didn't skimp on any of South Park's foul-mouthed humor, as our demo's final battle with Cartman saw us mashing the A button to overpower his farts with our own.

It's tough to call South Park: The Stick of Truth "gorgeous," with its cardboard cut-out characters, but it is easy to say that it is extremely true to the show. Take away the HUD and UI and an argument could be made that just maybe you're watching an episode of the television show. The environments are equally impressive, with destructible objects aplenty. South Park's level-up system takes place within the world of - what else - Facebook, as the New Kid gains power by finding new friends in South Park, and the aesthetic works quite well.

USA Today

Combat is turn-based, so players alternate turns with computer-controlled enemies they will encounter. The spells and abilities players use are comical, such as a lightning spell involving a bucket of water, jumper cables and a car battery, or the Flame Blast combining a can of hairspray and lighter. To restore mana, players must down burritos.

The show's humor is on full display during Stick of Truth, starting with the rampant passing of gas that serves as the game's equivalent to magic. After cupping his hands to catch farts, the player tosses them to cause damage.

"No magic with the fan running," shouts Butters. "You'll kill us."

Tech News Daily

Game developer Ubisoft demonstrated how "The Stick of Truth" would honor the show's spirit at E3 conference in Los Angeles. The demo begins, as so many episodes do, in South Park Elementary School. Rather than playing as existing characters from the show, the game puts players in control of a new student, dubbed "Commander Douchebag" by Eric Cartman, one of the show's main four characters.

The Commander finds himself in the middle of a war that's broken out in the school between two factions competing for the titular Stick of Truth — an artifact that holds either great power, or just provides a plot device for 8-year-old boys to fight over. Green-hatted Kyle leads the peaceful Elves, while Cartman has taken control of the belligerent Wizards. The Commander recruits series regular Butters into his party and sets out, under Cartman's orders, to stop Kyle.

The game looks exactly like the show, and the animation retains its occasionally jerky feel. All of the series regulars reprise their voice roles, and the music sounds like a parody of the epic tracks in games like "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim."

Friday - June 14, 2013

South Park - Preview Roundup and Video

by Couchpotato, 00:14

A bunch of previews for South Park: The Stick of Truth have been released recently. Here a few of them and as a bonus a video interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker. 

IGN - "How South Park: The Stick of Truth Farts its Way to Greatness"

Gameplay systems abound now; this isn't just the lightest of light RPGs. You have a full inventory of weapons (like Cartman's Mom's vibrator), including your personal special attack: farting. You can use the power of your a-hole to blast open vent shafts, then use the Underpants Gnome ability to shrink yourself down and fit through the small opening. You can fart at loose wires holding light fixtures over the top of your enemies, severing the frayed cord and dropping it onto your foes below, zapping them. You can fart near broken, exposed gas lines in order to create inferno waves. In fact, the demo ended with an epic ass-to-ass duel between you and Cartman, with each kid trying to overpower the flaming fart blast of the other.

Yes, this is still a Paper Mario-style role-playing game, but it just feels more fully fleshed out now. The show's characters and lore are so flawlessly married to the gameplay systems -- Stan gets enraged when you take out his dog Sparky in battle that he goes into a frenzy mode and attacks more furiously, for example -- that xxx. And the fan service is off-the-charts. The visuals are 100% dead-on with the show, such that if someone doesn't see you manipulating a controller, they will genuinely think you're watching an episode on Comedy Central.

Digital Trends - "The Stick of Truth’ offers a putrid waft of fresh air"

The game looks like a South Park episode – almost to the point that it is easy to mistake the gameplay for CGI. To be fair, the animation isn’t exactly high tech in the TV show, but it’s almost disorienting at first. If you are a fan of the show, the word “immersive” just doesn’t seem strong enough. The simple way to describe the game South Park: The Stick of Truth is that it feels like you are playing an episode of the show.

All the voices are present from the TV show as well, and the humor was both accurate for the show and bizarre. At one point, the person in charge of the demo changed the character’s outfit from a wizard’s robe to fishnet stalkings and a bustier. Oh, and they also gave him a new weapon that looked like a dildo.

“Like.” One of the more interesting conceits of the game is found in the upgrade trees. The personal menus are stylized to look like the new kid’s Facebook page. The more you do and complete, the more friends requests you will receive. These somehow tie in to your strength, but exactly how wasn’t clear.
Takeaway

The humor won’t be for everyone, and the JRPG mechanics might not win over some. But despite the traditional gameplay, you can’t deny the fierce creativity at work. It’s refreshing, and stands out in the sea of violent titles that dominate gaming today.

Leviathyn - "Come On Down To South Park"

One element that pleasantly surprised me was the emphasis on environmental puzzle solving. One scenario has multiple kids blocking your way through the school. No problem; Randy Marsh has taught you the secret of the Nagasaki fart (which you can see in the trailer below). Farting clears the path no problem, until a kid set-up with a fan bars your path. The player has a number of options here: they can walk around trying to figure out another solution, trigger the sprinklers to short out the fan or teleport up to the ducts to bypass the situation altogether.

During our time with The Stick of Truth, we saw more cameos than you could shake a Manbearpig at: Mr. Slave, the aliens, Jesus, Satan, hippies, the Underpants Gnomes, the Woodland Critters, Mr. Hanky and the Crab People all made appearences at some point. A long as Towlie gets included at some point, I’ll be happy.

Tuesday - June 11, 2013

South Park - Releasing This Holiday Season

by Couchpotato, 00:51

According to GameBanshee South Park-The Stick of Truth will be released this holiday season.    

During Ubisoft's E3 presser we were shown a new, brief trailer for Obsidian Entertainment and South Park Studios' South Park: The Stick of Truth, including an all-new fart joke, and, most importantly, a tentative release window: this holiday season.


Thursday - June 06, 2013

South Park - New Screenshots And E3 Trailer

by Couchpotato, 00:03

I uploaded a few more screenshots for South Park: The Stick of Truth. You can use this link to the games gallery on RPGWatch.


Wednesday - June 05, 2013

South Park - Preview Roundup

by Couchpotato, 00:06

South Park: The Stick of Truth is getting allot of attention this week. Here are a few previews from various sites.


GameInformer

Creativity helps in combat, but it’s also necessary for navigating the school’s dangerous hallways. Butters and New Kid encounter an enemy kid standing on a huge rubbish blockade. Normally, New Kid could use his powerful fart ability to knock him from the hill, but a strategically placed fan makes this difficult. Players have a few options in this dilemma. They can either trigger a sprinkler above the fan to short it out, or use an anal probe satellite to teleport into the vents above. Once within, Butters and New Kid harness the power of the Underpants Gnomes to shrink themselves and navigate the narrow ventilation shaft. These multi-path situations look like entertaining breaks from the otherwise straightforward combat.

...

The presentation concludes with a standoff between Kyle and Cartman. New Kid must choose a side, and the dev at the controls chooses to fight Cartman. New Kid’s opening strike is to throw a piece of poop at Cartman (which was acquired earlier after defecating in a urinal). The fight concludes with a spectacular fart duel between the two, which plays out like two Dragon Ball Z characters blasting each other.


Joystiq

South Park: The Stick of Truth features your typical slate of role-playing game features: loot in the world including new gear that changes the way your player looks, the ability to make decisions to craft your players story, and more. Each of these elements, however, is decidedly injected into the ideals of the South Park series. For example, since your character's ability is based on baking brownies, eating burritos is the obvious way to refill your mana meter.

Despite its focus on devastating butt thunder, South Park: The Stick of Truth has its charming moments. In one scene during the hands-off demo, Butters was ordered to heal the protagonist during a battle in the hallway of South Park Elementary. Butters' magic healing ability consisted of walking to the player character, giving him a pat on the back and promising, "I got your back bro." I burst out laughing.


Destructoid

The entire demo was set in the elementary, and you will have to navigate through the school to reach the Stick's location. There's an all-out war going on, with lots of obstacles that you'll need to get through. A number of rooms for example have obstructions blocking your path; an easy challenge for the New Kid, renowned for his magical abilities. You can use your slingshot to shoot down lighting that will in turn knock out kids. Or you can shrink yourself down in size and make your way through ventilation shafts to get around blocked routes. An alien probe that bursts out of your ass can also teleport you up to specific hard-to-reach areas.

Your biggest magical ability is your farting skills. At any time, you can press and hold the appropriate button to fart into your cupped hands and toss out fart balls. Or you can just let out blasts of farts when the situation requires it. This particular attack is also called the "Dragon Shout" attack, and yes the New Kid is also called the Dragonborn. Yup, no shame.


Official Xbox Magazine

Cartman’s kingdom is run out of his backyard, the “elves” are actually kids with fake ears, and being a Dragonborn just means the New Kid is really, really gassy. Nearly all of the “magic” in this goofy RPG are practical objects used to make their L.A.R.P. feel more epic: casting a lightning spell means tossing water on your enemies and zapping them with a car battery, and mana potions are just burritos and other flatulence-inducing foods. There are some supernatural forces involved, though — the Underpants Gnome’s magic allows the New Kid to change size, and Alien Probe technology lets him teleport around. There’s also the matter of Clyde Donovan, Cartman’s former ally who has since decided to try his hand at necromancy, resurrecting dead animals with weird green goop (that he found in a barrel) in order to create his own army.


VentureBeat

And going places others can’t reach is pretty much what South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have done for the last 16 years. That’s one quality they definitely brought to The Stick of Truth by both writing and voicing the game for developer Obsidian Entertainment. For its part, Obsidian — the studio founded by the team behind seminal role-playing games such as Fallout and Planescape: Torment — brought the genuine South Park to a video-game format for the first time ever. The most amazing thing about The Stick of Truth, hands-down, is how anyone watching others play will easily mistake it for a normal episode of South Park. The characters and their simple animations look exactly like they do on television. It’s an exact translation.

That includes a nice dose of social commentary. South Park serves as one seriously biting satire, after all, even if it presents the message in a purposely offensive, highly juvenile manner. The New Kid can make friends with other kids to increase his power, and he’s the only one who can bring factions like Girls and Goths together in a common cause. And yes, he does see the light and turn on Cartman, who takes it about as well as you’d expect.


Polygon

Magical abilities carry grand names and DIY executions. A Lightning Volt, for example, will see one of the South Park kids dump a bucket of water on a foe, then drop a car battery with exposed wiring into the resulting puddle. Healing Touch is simply a tap on the back and a reassuring "Yeah, that's it little buddy," from Cartman. A Funnel of Frost is a fire extinguisher and Hammer of Justice... a hammer.

Spellcasters in South Park can also unleash streams of fireworks, flaming flatulence and undead cats revived by the power of toxic waste at their foes.

Some of those spells play out more dramatically and more punishingly depending on the timing of a button press within a certain window. The action is reminiscent of the timing-based flourishes applied in games like Nintendo's Mario & Luigi RPG series or the active reload actions of Gears of War.

Thursday - May 30, 2013

South Park - Present At E3

by Myrthos, 13:18

Ubisoft has announced that South park: The Stick of Truth will be available at their E3 booth, so that at least gives some hope the game will be released.

In the mean time, here is the E3 teaser in which Aisha Tyler is convincing Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO, to let her host the E3 2013 media briefing:

Friday - May 03, 2013

South Park - Still On Track For 2013 Release?

by Couchpotato, 00:50

Ubisoft has confirmed that South Park: The Stick of Truth is expected to release this year. However according to VideoGamer.com they have reason to believe that the date may not be accurate.

South Park: The Stick of Truth is still on track for release this calendar year, Ubisoft has told VideoGamer.com, despite the game being absent from the publisher's latest official release schedule.

VideoGamer.com contacted Ubisoft earlier this week to enquire about the game's status after noticing that the game was not included in the publisher's latest release update sent to media on Monday.

However, a Ubisoft representative told VideoGamer.com that it had no further update on the status of the title and that the game was still "scheduled for release in calendar 2013".

South Park: The Stick of Truth was acquired by Ubisoft for $3.2m following THQ's closure earlier this year.

The game had been due to launch later this month while under THQ, but was delayed following its acquisition by Ubisoft.

Tesco currently has the game dated for release on August 23, which would coincide with Ubisoft's summer blockbuster Splinter Cell: Blacklist, as well as Saints Row 4, Disney Infinity and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

VideoGamer.com has reason to believe that the date may not be accurate, however.

It was revealed earlier today that South Park's developer Obsidian is also working on a "unique" next-gen title.

 

 

Tuesday - April 16, 2013

South Park - Release in August?

by Myrthos, 12:46

Where others say 2013 or the end of the year (which look like placeholders), Tesco claims the release is the 23th of August. Then again it might all be a rumor with Tesco just making this up.

Thursday - January 24, 2013

South Park - Sold to Ubisoft

by Dhruin, 11:42

It seems the rumours were true and Ubisoft has purchased the publishing rights for South Park: The Stick of Truth from the now-defunct THQ. No word on the objection from South Park Digital Studios but Kotaku has a letter from THQ bosses Brian Farrell and Jason Rubin:

To All THQ Employees:

We now have the answers we've been seeking through our financial restructuring and
Chapter 11 case. While much will be written, here are the facts of the bids and auction
that occurred t:

  • Yesterday morning, we received a competing bid for the operating business,
    along with Clearlake's offer, and numerous offers for separate assets.
  • During an auction process that lasted over 22 hours, the final conclusion was
    that the separate-asset bids would net more than a single buyer for the majority
    of the company.
  • Shortly, we will, present the results to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which must
    concur with our assessment.
  • The proposed sales of multiple assets is as follows :
  • Sega agreed to purchase Relic
  • Koch Media agreed to purchase Volition and Metro
  • Crytek agreed to purchase Homefront
  • Take 2 agreed purchase Evolve and
  • Ubisoft agreed to purchase Montreal and South Park

We expect these sales to close this week.

Wednesday - January 23, 2013

South Park - THQ vs South Park Studios

by Dhruin, 13:07

Joystiq reports that South Park Digital Studios has filed an objection to THQ's asset auction, claiming THQ does not have the right to sell the game:

In an objection filed in Delaware bankruptcy court, South Park Studios claims that the Deal Memo does not allow other parties use of the South Park IP, and even if the game does end up at a different company, THQ owes South Park Studios at least $2.275 million. South Park Studios "also reserves the right to exercise its option to acquire from THQ all elements of the games and related products under the Deal Memo."

THQ filed a reply on January 21, requesting that the court overrule the objection and allow the sale to continue, though it says it is working toward a consensual resolution with South Park Studios. THQ argues that the license is exclusive and therefore transferable as THQ sees fit. As for the $2.275 million, THQ is "evaluating the amount that South Park asserts is owing" and plans to work with South Park Studios to resolve the issue.

Eurogamer says the rumour is Ubisoft was the winning bidder for South Park but that remains to be confirmed.

Monday - January 07, 2013

South Park - Preview @ Plus XP

by Myrthos, 12:46

Plus XP share with us their views on South Park: The Stick of Truth, warning us with this message: "This article contains adult humour which some readers may find offensive.". However any humour is not to be found in the preview, let alone the adult version of it, so don't get too excited.

In this role playing adventure you play as the new kid at South park elementary who is trying to make their way up the social ladder. As you start in your simple quest however, the school breaks out into a city-wide live action role playing game. This role playing game soon turns nasty, leading to an epic battle between good and evil that could poetically consume the whole planet.

During E3 2012 it was confirmed that there will be 3 DLC packs released after the game hits home consoles. The first of these is titled “Mysterion Superhero” and will be released exclusively for Xbox 360. The DLC is a nod to the classic South park episode where Eric Cartman tries to become a superhero vigilante and fails. Xbox 360 owners will be able to use their Kinect devices, and the game will also feature voice commands and the opportunity to verbally berate Cartman, which is always fun.

 

Thursday - December 13, 2012

South Park - Will it be Good?

by Myrthos, 12:39

1Up tries to describe the things that can go right or wrong with South Park: The Stick of Truth, based on what is shown to us up to now.

With all these other elements -- visuals, humor, voice acting -- looking as though they've been nailed, the one big question mark becomes the gameplay itself. Developer Obsidian's track record has its ups and downs; although its games often have great ideas, the execution is not always what it could be. (Alpha Protocol, in particular, serves as a great example of that.) What it's trying to do with Stick of Truth does not appear to be the most complex or innovative thing. Its apparent Super Mario RPG inspiration has been cited more than once; hearkening back to older titles to some degree matches the relatively crude look of South Park. And if aspects of Mario RPG are rearing their head, that makes it possible that Chrono Trigger could also be serving as a source of inspiration. I think I speak for many RPG fans when I say I am more than OK with that.


At the same time, I'm hopeful Obsidian doesn't settle for nothing more than replicating the sort of 16-bit RPG gameplay seen in Mario RPG and its contemporaries and then layering all of this South Park goodness on top of it. Indications are that it draws heavily from such games, which is all well and good, but I want to see something more. I'm happy the combat system entails more player interaction than selecting an attack and waiting for both sides' turns to play out. But as I'm currently playing through Paper Mario: Sticker Star and seeing what kind of truly interesting ideas can be fit within the framework of fairly standard RPG combat, the prospect of going back to something comparatively vanilla doesn't sound especially appealing to me.

Sunday - December 09, 2012

South Park - New VGAs Footage

by Dhruin, 00:11

New footage from South Park: The Stick of Truth has been unveiled at the VGAs. The intro to the entire show is a South Park segment and then after a silly intro from Samuel L. Jackson, there's a new trailer (skip to around 5.00 if you can't stand the pageantry).

Tuesday - November 06, 2012

South Park - Delayed Two Months

by Dhruin, 20:38

THQ has released its latest fiscal results, also announcing some key titles have been delayed. South Park: The Stick of Truth has been pushed back two months according to serveral sites. From Kotaku:

THQ has delayed the much-anticipated South Park RPG as well as shooter Metro: Last Light and the real-time strategy game Company of Heroes 2.

South Park: Stick of Truth, originally slated for March 2013, will now be released in early fiscal year 2014, THQ says. In English, that means April, May or June.

Metro: Last Light and Company of Heroes 2, both slated for early next year, are now due to come out in March.

Interestingly, other articles are foreshadowing the death of THQ, with articles like Gamasutra's THQ: Is this the beginning of the end?

Wednesday - October 10, 2012

South Park - Interview @ Joystiq

by Dhruin, 23:02

Joystiq has some short comments from Chris Avellone on the opportunity to work on South Park: The Stick of Truth

Obsidian was dropped into South Park with a surprisingly clear vision of what to do, as a concept had already been proposed. "We didn't actually know what they were thinking about in terms of RPGs, so we went up there for one day, they ran us this animatic sequence of how they imagined the opening of the game playing," and Obsidian "got it" immediately. "It was hilarious, and we got it, we see what you're trying to make here. It's going to feel like the show, it's going to look like the show. Here's how you interpret the controller mechanisms."

What wasn't as clear from the outset was whether the Stick of Truth offer was true. "I would never have thought we'd get a chance to do an RPG like that, and like holy crap," Avellone said. "When we first heard about it, I seriously thought some other game company was punking us. 'Ha ha ha, we're from South Park and we want to do an RPG!... ha ha, fake.'"

Saturday - August 11, 2012

South Park - Preview @ 1Up

by Dhruin, 01:34

A short preview of South Park at 1Up:

The game starts off by placing you in the shoes of the new kid in town. You'll assemble your avatar from a variety of facial features pasted onto your iconic circular head, adorn your hero with an assortment of winter clothing, and proceed to venture forth into the profane wilds of South Park. The game draws inspiration from the high-fantasy episode The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers, so the various character classes in the game are represented via slightly tweaked versions of D&D tropes. Though the game certainly displays some PC-inspired elements such as branching dialogue trees, the battle system in The Stick of Truth draws heavily from simpler RPGs of the mid-'90s. In fact, the demo that Obsidian was showing at times felt almost like an homage to games like Super Mario RPG

Wednesday - August 08, 2012

South Park RPG - Preview @ Daily Mail, Gameplanet

by Aries100, 23:07

Daily Mail has a preview for this game.

 A sort of random quote:

Graphics are brilliant. Everything from the little 'bobs' the characters do when they move to their quirky facial expressions has been captured. Indeed, it almost looks like you’re watching an episode. In a nod to Skyrim and Fallout, The Stick of Truth is an open-world game. Characters can level up certain skills, such as magic or weapons, and can choose different classes (Mage, Cleric, Fighter and Thief) in their quest to become...cool. Each time you level up, you’re treated to Cartman dishing out your (often rude) new title. Combat is turn-based, which will appeal to hardcore RPG fans fed of clunky real-time combat often associated with modern games in the genre.

GamePlanet also has a preview for this game.   A quote from the opening:

Enter Obsidian Entertainment, the developer behind hit role-playing games such as Fallout: New Vegas. The studio is closely collaborating with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to produce what may be one of the best South Park episodes. Because that’s exactly what the game feels like, a South Park episode. South Park: The Stick of Truth begins with a brief opening that mimics the cut-out style and cutaways of a typical episode. It introduces ‘the new kid’ whose family has just moved to the Colorado town. The parents suggest exploring the neighborhood to make some friends so that they can get some “alone time”, and as they exit inside you could be forgiven for thinking something went wrong, as the scene seems to freeze.

Source: GameBanshee

Wednesday - July 25, 2012

South Park RPG - Preview @ Capsule Computers

by Aries100, 21:22

Capsule Computers has a preview for this game.   A quote on the plot:

The general plot of South Park: The Stick of Truth is that the entire town of South Park has been swept up in yet another craze, this time live-action role playing and in classic South Park fashion, it all gets unbelievably out of control. The LARPing plot lends itself well to an RPG game and it seems to work wonders here in the world of South Park in which it pokes affectionate fun at the genre itself.

Sunday - July 15, 2012

South Park RPG - Preview @ Joystiq

by Dhruin, 14:14

Joystiq has a preview of South Park based on seeing two sequences at Comic-Con:

You get a quest, just like a "real" RPG, but it's Cartman telling you to go get him some Kung Pao chicken. Weapons can be modified to add poison or fire attacks, but the weapon is a toilet plunger, and the modifier makes characters vomit when sick. You put your name in at the beginning just like a standard RPG, but Cartman disregards whatever you type in and calls you Douchebag instead. When Cartman sets you off on your quest, he echoes all of those RPGs you've played before, before throwing the convention right into comedy land: "Will you seize your destiny," he asks, "or will you be a disappointment, like Butters?"

Wednesday - June 06, 2012

South Park RPG - Previews @ GameSpot, Kotaku, NZ Gamers

by Dhruin, 23:09

Here's a trio of South Park articles, though don't expect much new.

GameSpot talks between staffers about what they've seen in a video interspersed with footage from the trailer.

Kotaku thinks it's one of the best things they've seen at E3:

Next-gen graphics? Innovative controls? Nonsense. The best thing I've seen at E3 so far is a video game based on an animated TV show.

...and from NZ Gamers:

But it does look like there will be a reasonable degree of sophistication in the titles weapon loadout and customisation. We did see evidence of serious thought being put into how the RPG mechanic works. There are a range of armours and weapons to choose from - and all of them come with Parker and Stone's unique twist. For example, in lieu of a sword, your character can equip himself with Cartman's mum's dildo. Apparently its quite ferocious.

South Park RPG - Preview Roundup

by Dhruin, 01:04

It doesnt look like we'll get any RPG-related surprises at E3, so expect a lot of repetition with the four major titles we haved to play with: Dishonored, Dawnguard, Divinity: Original Sin  - and South Park: The Stick of Truth. Here's a small collection of E3 previews:

Wired.com:

Cartman gives you your first mission: Go to City Wok and get him some kung pao chicken. But this is interrupted when a rival gang of elves storms the backyard-castle. This is your introduction to battle.

It’s basically like Paper Mario: By adding a second timed button press when your moves are executing, you can do extra damage. Another timed button press when an enemy is attacking you will give you a “perfect block” where you take no damage. Even special attacks have timed events.

You can win items after battle; two that I noticed were a “Speed Potion” (a can of energy drink) and a “Revive Taco.” Weapons all have a Damage and Speed statistic, which you can upgrade — one particularly sluggish weapon was labeled as “Retard Slow.”

Kotaku:

I had the chance to check out upcoming role-playing game South Park: The Stick of Truth last night. It's ridiculous—think Paper Mario with hilarious South Park-style humor and what seems like it will be awesome RPG gameplay (as you might expect from developer Obsidian, the makers of Fallout: New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2, among other games).

VentureBeat:

“To make the game feel like [you are in an episode of South Park], it has to look right,” Stone said when talking about The Stick of Truth from the stage of Microsoft’s presentation. “It has to look like an episode of South Park … which is pretty crappy.” Stone gave Obsidian a lot of props for getting the visuals up to Stone and Parker’s standards.

Parker and Stone also revealed that for the first time ever, they’ve mapped out the fictional town of South Park because of this title. “The funny part is, we were writing it, and saying, ‘Maybe you’re here and you go to Stan’s house to Kyle’s house,” Parker said. “And after fifteen years of doing the show, it was the first time that Matt and I were, like, ‘Where is Kyle’s house?’”

Games Radar:

Far from majestic, the wizard king was Cartman, and the kingdom was his back yard. We watched as the new kid was guided around by the big-boned star,  and was introduced to different characters from the show who were scattered around the kingdom. Every character had the appropriate voice and tone, and visually, everything looked like it was straight out of the television show.

After giving the ten cent tour Cartman sat in a chair obviously inspired by Game of Throne's iron throne, and asked the new kid his name and class. Classes were typical RPG cliches like fighter and mage (it looks like they cut the "Jew" class talked about earlier in development), and the naming process pulled up the typical input screen.

IGN:

And so begins your adventure in South Park, in which, lead designer Matt MacLean tells us, "you have to make friends with the major characters of South Park." Wandering down the street, the first few kids playing near a tree are hardly welcoming. "Go away kid! You can't play with us." Butters, however, is much more accepting, and he brings you to the Wizard's -- a.k.a. Eric Cartman's -- house, where he makes his realtor joke. He takes you to the backyard where a whole fantasy kingdom has been set up, including the "armory" run by Clyde, the "stables" (i.e. the sandbox, where Cartman's cat is treating it like a litter box), a "Rock of Insanity," a "King's Tower" lookout point where you can see the whole town (mapped out in full for the first time ever), and the "Pool of Vision" (a kiddie pool).

Tuesday - June 05, 2012

South Park RPG - Official Site Launched

by Dhruin, 13:00

An official site for South Park: The Stick of Truth has been launched by THQ - there's not much there beyond the trailer and preorder links but hopefully we'll see more soon. Here's the accompanying fact sheet - interestingly, it still says Fall 2012:

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Embark on an epic quest to become... cool.  

Product Description

From the perilous battlefields of the fourth-grade playground, a young hero will rise, destined to be South Park’s savior. From the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comes an epic quest to become… cool. Introducing South Park: The Stick of Truth.

You begin as the new kid in town facing a harrowing challenge: making friends. As you start your quest the children of South Park are embroiled in a city-wide, live-action-role-playing game, casting imaginary spells and swinging fake swords.  Over time the simple children’s game escalates into a battle of good and evil that threatens to consume the world.

Arm yourself with weapons of legend to defeat crabpeople, underpants gnomes, hippies and other forces of evil.  Discover the lost Stick of Truth and earn your place at the side of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as their new friend. Succeed, and you shall be South Park’s savior, cementing your social status in South Park Elementary. Fail, and you will forever be known… as a loser.


Key Features
  •  The Definitive South Park ExperienceWritten and voiced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, The Stick of Truth brings their unique brand of humor to video gaming.
  • The Epic Quest To Become... Cool
          Earn your place alongside Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, and join them in a   
          hysterical adventure to save South Park.
  • Friends With Benefits
         Recruit classic South Park characters to your cause.
  • Intense Combat
         Arm yourself to the teeth with an arsenal of magical weapons and mystical
         armor.
  • South Park Customization
         Insert yourself into South Park with something like a billion character, clothing,
         and weapon combinations.

Product Specifications

Publisher:               THQ Inc.
Developer:              Obsidian Entertainment
Category:                OMGRPG 2.0
Release:                 Fall 2012
Platforms:               Xbox 360®, PlayStation® 3, PC

Monday - June 04, 2012

South Park RPG - E3 Trailer

by Dhruin, 22:12

THQ has released the E3 trailer for South Park: The Stick of Truth - I have to say, I laughed.

Source: GameBanshee

Wednesday - May 16, 2012

South Park RPG - Delayed to 2013

by Dhruin, 22:30

It appears South Park: The Stick of Truth has been delayed to 2013 according to THQ's recent financials. From Cinema Blend:

THQ announced the delay during their latest earnings report. They expect to release the game during their fiscal fourth quarter. This period runs from January 1st, 2013 until March 31st.

The publisher didn't mention why they're delaying the game. However, it's not hard to guess the reason: polish. They've been adamant about only shipping the game once it's perfect. 

Sunday - May 06, 2012

South Park RPG - Name Change?

by Dhruin, 11:20

GameInformer has noticed Xbox.com shows the title of Obsidian's South Park RPG as South Park: The Stick of Truth. Is that the real title? Time will tell.

While I'm at it, Green Man Gaming is offering preorders (no release date beyond "2012"). It seems a bit early but - according to GMG - Steam is required, so presumably this is a Steamworks title.

Thursday - April 12, 2012

South Park RPG - Won't Ship Until It's "Perfect"

by Dhruin, 01:14

GameBanshee has noticed a lengthy interview at Ripten with THQ's Executive Vice President for Core Games, Danny Bilson. The conversation covers a number of topics primarily related to their financial woes but, on the last two pages, South Park RPG is discussed:

MF: When it was announced, it was slated for a 2012 release. Is that still going to happen?

DB: Potentially, but it’s going to be very close. It’s all about… because that game is being written by Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker]… some of the production process ebbs and flows with their schedule. They are in the middle of a season right now, and as soon as they are done, they get back to the game, and their season takes them out for a couple of months at a time. Again, it’s like I said about Darksiders. We can’t afford to ship it until it’s perfect.

Matt and Trey won’t ship until it’s their vision of this ultimate role playing game, where you’re the new kid in town and it’s like being in a South Park episode. Once all the pieces are together, we’ll announce a date and we’ll ship it. I can tell you from progress and process. I’ve got sections of the game that they’ve completed; they are phenomenal. If you like South Park, and I love South Park, it’s South Park! It’s incredible and it’ll absolutely be the funniest game ever made. There’s no two ways about it.

MF: I’m a fan of Obsidian. Chris [Avellone] and Feargus [Urquhart] are fantastic. It seems like a match made in heaven. When you say that there are segments that have been completed. Are you just talking about dialog, or is there actual gameplay.

DB: No! I’m talking about the game! There are sections of the game where all the voices are in and all the writing and rewriting has been done by Matt and Trey. When you get all the pieces together, it’s what everyone wants it to be. Again, this was their vision. this game came to us. Matt and Trey wanted to do a great game. They had even contracted Obsidian themselves before we came in and, I believe, there was work going on for about a year. They were looking for a publisher to get it involved and pick it up and drive it the rest of the way. That’s what we’ve been doing since the end of last summer; somewhere around there.

Source: GameBanshee

Tuesday - January 03, 2012

South Park RPG - First Screenshot @ AllGamesBeta

by Aries100, 21:44

AllGamesBeta happened to get a glimpse of the first nine screenshots from this game. You can view them here.

Source: GameBanshee

Saturday - December 24, 2011

South Park RPG - Animating the Game

by Dhruin, 22:25

GameInformer has another dev video interview for South Park with lead animator Shon Stewart describing their approach. The intro:

Shon Stewart is an animation geek. He animated some 2D projects while in college but quickly learned the art of 3D animation for projects like Fallout: New Vegas. Now he's the lead animator on South Park: The Game and his primary directive is to dissect the animation of South Park and recreate it for Obsidian Entertainment's new RPG: every geek's dream. Watch the video to learn how the team at Obsidian analyzed movement on South Park, how closely they work with the animators of the show, and why Shon Stewart has the perfect job.

Tuesday - December 20, 2011

South Park RPG - The Sounds @ GameInformer

by Dhruin, 20:39

GameInformer has a video interview with audio director Scott Lawlor - here's the intro:

The voices of Matt Stone and Trey Parker have become synonymous with comedic gold. A majority of the voices in South Park are performed by the two creators and the same will hold true for South Park: The Game.

Obsidian Entertainment's audio director Scott Lawlor is in charge of not just implementing the iconic voices into the game, but also the sound effects and music. To ensure that the game sounds exactly like the show, the team at South Park Studios is opening the doors and sharing all of South Park's audio resources, including the show's composer and entire catalog of music. Check out the video below to hear samples and learn more about the working relationship between the audio team at Obsidian Entertainment and South Park Studios.

Monday - December 19, 2011

South Park RPG - Developing a true South Park game

by Dhruin, 23:13

The latest GameInformer article on Obsidian's South Park RPG is a video interview with project director Chris Parker:

Some may look at Obsidian Entertainment's catalog of games and say that developing a 2D RPG based on South Park must be a piece of cake, but the team says it presents itself as a "different" challenge. Between converting their Dungeon Siege III engine to present a 2D world, precisely recreating the look of the show, and ensuring that players are laughing all the way through, there are a handful of hurdles that Obsidian Entertainment must clear before the game is on store shelves. The man overseeing the development of this delicate project is Chris Parker, and you can check out the video below to learn how Obsidian is tackling the challenge of crafting a massive and comedic RPG.

Friday - December 16, 2011

South Park RPG - Gingers, Gnomes and Goths - the Factions

by Dhruin, 23:24

GameInformer writes about the potential factions in South Park, such as the Ginger Kids, Vampire Kids, Goths and Underpants Gnomes. For some reason it's all speculative rather than taken from the game, suggesting GameInformer's big reveal series is a bit premature.

Tuesday - December 13, 2011

South Park RPG - Good Times With Weapons: The Combat

by Dhruin, 22:26

GameInformer has an interview with Matt MacLean, Lead Designer on Obsidian's South Park RPG. It's a 6 minute direct to camera conversation with only a couple of still shots to break it up but - here's the accompanying blurb:

Combine Obsidian Entertainment's extensive knowledge of RPG design with the personal gaming tastes of South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker and you end up with the combat mechanics of South Park: The Game. Taking cues from the Paper Mario series, the combat is a turn-based exercise that depends largely on the player's active and precise participation. Matt MacLean is the lead designer on the game and he sat down with us to talk about the tone of the overall game, the mechanics of combat, and what the South Park RPG has learned from Final Fantasy 7.

Information about

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Modern
Genre: RPG
Combat: Turn-based
Play-time: 10-20 hours
Voice-acting: Full

Regions & platforms
World
· Homepage
· Platform: PC
· Released: 2014-03-04
· Publisher: THQ