We're making a note here: huge disappointment -- since Kim Swift's February interview with X-Play, where she mentioned the existence of a Portal 2 project, we've been salivating at the thought of the continued adventures of Chell, GlaDOS, WC³, and the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Unfortunately, it seems we'll be wearing our spit guards for quite some time -- according to a recent Eurogamer interview with Valve's Doug Lombardi, any sort of continuation of the beloved franchise will not be hitting store shelves this year.

Lombardi expressed Valve's desire to create an equally "revolutionary" successor to the lightning-in-a-bottle first person puzzler, rather than cash in on the franchise at the height of its popularity with a quick and dirty sequel. Oh, Lomby, can't we have both? We're all about instant gratification -- especially gratification involving cake, and a particular silent, springheeled heroine.

Like rummaging through celebrity trash for the latest gossip, it often makes us chuckle as to where new video game news emerges, something only reinforced by last weekend's New York Comic Con. Buried beneath action figures, cosplayers, and that Super Girl Barbie we absolutely must have, came word of an upcoming sequel to last year's comic-inspired FPS The Darkness.

The news was unleashed during a discussion panel with American comic company and The Darkness publisher TOP COW, during which (according to comic blog The Quarter Bin) it was said: "We can't say Darkness and video game sequel in the same sentence. So, Darkness. Wink. Sequel." While hardly an absolute confirmation, the news is enough to make our stomach rumble with a hunger that only hearts will quell.

[Via WorthPlaying]

Atlus this afternoon announced plans to bring Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 stateside, giving us plenty to keep busy amidst reruns of Scrubs and E.R. when the game ships for the Nintendo DS this summer. Atlus confirmed that the sequel, which follows the 2005 release that made us all believe that we could cure cancer with a flick of the wrist, will make it to retail on July 1, offering new modes and operations for armchair surgeons.

But wait, isn't that a full month before the game will be released in Japan? Has the world gone topsy-turvy? We touched based with Atlus and learned that this is indeed the case -- not that the world had gone into a tailspin, but rather that we can expect to stitch up wounds vicariously through Derek and Angie before our friends overseas. The official we spoke to also noted that while the team struggled with a number of titles for the sequel "there really was no other more fitting thing to call the game than Under the Knife 2." Honestly, they can call it anything they want, just get it in our hands STAT!

It appears as if SouthPeak and developer Reality Pump have big plans for Two Worlds: The Temptation, as the previously announced release has been upgraded from mere expansion to full-on sequel status, with the game expected to ship to retail this fall for both the PC and Xbox 360. The Temptation will pick up following the events in the first game, a title mind you that was almost universally derided when it was released in 2007.

While SouthPeak remains mum on many of the sequel's specifics, the company notes that The Temptation will pack in "as much content as the original," as well as a new graphics engine, improved voice overs and "more intricate" missions. The publisher also describes the sequel's combat as "revamped," a fancy term that we hope translates to "not horribly broken."

After vowing to triple spending on game development in 2007, Disney has announced Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals, a follow up to last year's Pokemon-inspired RPG that's expected to ship for the Nintendo DS this fall. In the same breath, Disney also confirmed that the original title has shipped more than a million units globally and was the best-selling third-party DS game in North America last year, no doubt making the return trip to the well a no-brainer for the animation powerhouse.

Like the original, Beyond the Portals is being handled by Japanese developer Jupiter, and will include a number of additions including a new "three-dimensional perspective" and an online battle system. As surprised as might be otherwise, some of the new game announcement's thunder was stolen by Disney CFO Tom Staggs, who last summer casually mentioned that Spectrobes "warrants a sequel in the games business." Still, be careful what you wish for, as Disney marketing guru Craig Relyea calls the game "part of our plan to expand the series in the coming years."

The good folks over at Trademork have noticed a March 3 USPTO posting by Crytek for "Crysis Warhead," which could either refer to a sequel to the best-selling PC game, one of those rumored console ports or a scary new experimental explosive (or possibly a long-overdue remake of an Amiga classic. Or a strange new candy. Or ...)

The recent filing isn't Crytek's first hint at extension of the brand -- the company has also filed for trademark protection of "Crysis Wars" and "World in Crysis." Whatever the inevitable sequel/spin-off/port/expansion ends up being called, we just hope they cap the system requirements now. That way, we may actually have a computer that can actually run the game in its most beautiful detail when it eventually comes out.

With an investor coup and plummeting stock to worry about, investing in sequels to already average properties would seem to be one of the last things on the mind of Eidos parent SCi Entertainment. The game world, however, seldom subscribes to our own brand of logic, as Eidos has announced plans to revisit one of its non-entities in Avalanche Studios' Just Cause, a decidedly tepid – and altogether brief – stunt-focused action game that managed to parachute below most players' collective radar in 2006.

Set for release later this year for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, the game will once again cast players in the role of vigilante Rico Rodriguez, this time taking him out of the Caribbean and into the fictional island country of Panau in South East Asia. Of course, more over-the-top action and stunts are promised, though if Eidos was unable to make players care about the franchise the first time around, we doubt that "the same but more of it" is enough of a tag line to make anyone but the most ardent action fans blink in the game's general direction.

Sure, Dead Space isn't out yet, but given its business-savvy publisher (Electronic Arts), talk of sequels is inevitable. Speaking to EuroGamer Germany, executive producer Glen Schofield explained how he envisioned the game as a franchise. "I'd love for this to become a well established franchise; we've created a huge and rich back story and universe, so other games could easily be made."

New details about the survival-horror game were also revealed. You play spaceship engineer Isaac Clarke, who stumbles upon space zombies on a routine mining vessel call. Your goal is to survive, rescue survivors, and probably kill monsters while you're at it. Schofield said that the game will feature in-game cutscenes (à la Half-Life) and upgradeable weapons and skill trees (à la BioShock). He also said that there will not be a cluttered HUD to distract immersion, which leads us to believe it might have something to do with those lights on the backpack seen in the concept art (pictured).

Schofield mentioned downloadable content, which is reportedly under way for the game (here's an idea: put that content in the game now and work on DLC after it goes gold). Dead Space, with fun hyperboles like "scariest video game ever," is expected this fall for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Today's Today was the day. After being "announced" over a year ago, Gears of War 2 is now was available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Millions of voracious gamers have reportedly flooded the site in the moments since the announcement, hopeful that their early action will guarantee them a copy of the highly anticipated game. The title is expected to be in incredibly short supply when it's released Nov. 15, 2008.

OK, we'll come clean -- everything in the last paragraph is pretty much made up (except for the [brief] Amazon pre-order, oddly enough). While a Gears sequel seems like a no-brainer (and has been hinted at a few times), the game hasn't been officially announced yet. And while Amazon lists did list Nov. 15, 2008 as the release date, you have just as good a chance at picking the right date by taking a dart to a calendar of Q4 2008. Whenever the release comes, though, we're relatively confident that hundreds of copies will be available at your local Best Buy, making pre-ordering 11 months in advance kind of pointless. Then again, posting "FIRST!" in comments threads is pretty pointless too, and people still do that, so go nuts!

[Original headline: "Pre-order Gears of War 2 ridiculously early"]

By merit of the attached Halo 3 beta, the success of Realtime Worlds' Crackdown was none too surprising. However, the critical acclaim and overall quality of the title turned more than a few heads. Any Business 101 textbook would tell you that the best move would be to release a sequel. Alas, it's not meant to be.

Speaking at an Industry All Stars event (via Develop Magazine), producer Phil Wilson said that there is no sequel "Microsoft were a little late in stepping up to the plate to ask for Crackdown 2," he said, "and by then we had already started working on bigger, better things." Those bigger and better things are a cops-and-robbers themed MMO due out next year entitled All Points Bulletin (APB) and an undisclosed project for release in 2009.

APB will reportedly focus on customizable characters and vehicles; given the descriptors, we wonder how much of Crackdown's spirit (and re-used assets) will be the online game.

If you're one of the thousands, nay millions, hoping that a Gears of War sequel is on the plate for Microsoft's super-secret Min-E3 plans ... you're just going to have to wait longer.

Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games, tells BeyondUnreal.com that they are not announcing a sequel to Gears this year at E3. He writes to them, "Did you see the update we just did for Gears of War last week? We're still working on the first one." Rein has been saying since GDC that there are no plans to announce a sequel, even though it's been no secret that many will eventually be released. This is the year of Halo for Microsoft, however next year...

In what is sure to be a moment filled with shock and awe, it looks like Sony is gearing up to make another God of War game. Well, yes, we're stretching a bit there. Officially it's just to "join the God of War team," which could mean the GoW team is busy working on something other than the multi-million copy selling franchise. But, come on, 1080p true HD Kratos would be the hotness. You could count the pores on his shiny bald head and probably see the little wisps of rage wafting off his body.

The two job openings are for a senior technical artist and a senior designer for "combat." So, even if the team isn't going to be working on the entirely expected God of War 3, at least it'll have combat -- and that team knows how to do combat. Worry not Kratos lovers, the God of War 3 announcement can't be that far away.

[Thanks Kspraydad]

GameCareerGuide.com gives Dead Rising a New Yorker Magazine-style treatment and goes all highbrow in reminiscing about the title. Dead Rising occupies a very strange place in gaming. It was obviously a hit and talks of a sequel were already in the works a week after the game premiered. But, putting aside the tiny-text and the punishing save system, those horrors were eclipsed by Otis and that walkie-talkie.

There's plenty of "drinks at the Palm" moments in the piece. Like you'll have to read all three pages to understand what this quote actually means, "Dead Rising has, as you might put it, a profoundly 'old-school' sensibility -- a pre-Miyamoto one, even. Its goal is to recapture what once made video games entertaining, by getting rid of many of the institutionalized assumptions that have made them boring, or frustrating, or arbitrary."

Highbrow analysis aside, Dead Rising certainly was a game where the concept was in the right place, along with the writing, the heart, the brains -- mmmm, brains. It was the structure of the game that hurt, especially the menacing way you failed for missing one of those picky, picky case files. The GCG piece actually explains that one should think of Dead Rising as a classic game where you should expect to play it through on one life. Fail? Well, then you should start over. Yeah, the piece gets weird, but that's because you have "institutionalized assumptions" about what to expect from a game. Read the piece and then come back to let us know what you think -- we know you will.

Pandemic could be developing The Dark Knight, a video game based on the forthcoming movie, alleges a rumor posted by IGN. Supposedly, sources close to the project have linked the Mercs 2 developer to the Batman Begins sequel tie-in. Private equity firm Elevation Partners has apparently gained rights to the title through its alliance with Pandemic and BioWare, but "insiders" insist that EA, which handled the lackluster Batman Begins game, will publish The Dark Knight.

Pandemic currently has five secret projects in the works, with 'Project B' having the most obvious relationship to the Batman rumor; though the "B" could simply stand for "Brisbane," the particular Pandemic branch that is heading up the mysterious game. Project Y, which promises to "break new ground in its category" also offers a possible connection to The Dark Knight. With few exceptions, both Batman games and movie-licensed titles are often met with groans -- could Pandemic flip the script?

Pandemic has yet to issue a response to the rumor. When questioned by IGN, an EA representative declined to comment.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

After spewing some mumbo jumbo, Sony's Phil Harrison moved on to a more finite announcement in his conversation with MTV. Harrison talked LocoRoco sequels: "We're going to bring LocoRoco back in a couple of new ways with some new friends in the future."

A PSP sequel is the obvious direction to take, but don't rule out a downloadable PS3 game with motion controls. As for these new friends? That implies a cannibalization of the franchise. You know, enough characters to put together a 'kart racer' and 'zany sports' spin-offs -- with a LocoRoco 'puzzler' and 'mini-game collection' on deck. Hey, it works for the other guy...

[Via PSP Fanboy]