Along with working on two major current-gen games in Darksiders: Wrath of War and a Warhammer: 40K MMO, THQ-owned Vigil Games is packing up its stuff and moving to a brand new 33,000-square foot studio in another part of Austin, TX. Unsurprisingly, in confirming the move to Kotaku, THQ reiterates its desire to attract new employees as development ramps up on the aforementioned titles.

Though the move was likely decided well before UFC 2009 Undisputed hit store shelves -- and quickly went flying right off those same shelves -- the 1.01 million unit sales of the game couldn't hurt the moving situation. Plusher couches at the new offices, perhaps? If it happens, remember: you heard it here first!

E3 was brütal! If you blinked, for a split/second, you missed something. Even if you were trine to keep up, it was a blur -- staying a.wake like that, you only pushed yourself to the brink of your own dark void. That's where Joystiq comes in; to crackdown on the madness; to reach out ... with conviction -- phew! Crysis averted.

We've scoured the dark corners and survived the inferno to piece together this roundup of all things Xbox at E3. Why? Just 'cause we love you. So, draw nier and shift your eyes past the break.

During our hands-on experience with Darksiders, Joe Madureira joked that he could hide all of Battle Chasers #10 throughout the game. Cruel, Madureira, cruel. If you're a fan of the comic, then you'll know that issue has been a long time coming. Like eight years long. Eight. very. long. years. Even at the glacial pace the book was used to, that's been more than enough time to finish the series.

We asked Madureira if there would be any hidden easter eggs featuring his artwork through the game, and he joked "Yeah, actually Battle Chasers #10 is scattered throughout the levels! Maybe I can finish it before the game comes out." We won't hold our breath, Joe. But seriously, when this game goes gold, please think about returning to the drawing board and putting that thing to bed. We'd love to read it.

Vigil Studios' Darksiders is a game that was nothing short of surprising at E3. With barely any marketing behind it, the game has been under many a radar. Well, consider that no more, because we ripped the lid right off this sucker, and found a highly enjoyable melange of gameplay inside.

Our time spent with Darksiders' creative director Joe Madureira yielded more than a confirmation of release date and a demo, as we noticed a familiar voice ringing out through our play session. As fellow Joystiq staffer Kevin Kelly raised an eyebrow, we both realized who it was: Mark Hamill. Voicing The Watcher, a demon locked in protagonist War's gauntlet, his voice is unmistakable. Madureira proceeded to confirm our suspicion, stating, "Yeah, we got Mark Hamill."

Indeed, you did, and we consider it a massive victory.

Joe Madureira, creator and founder of Vigil Studios, told us during our hands-on with the action adventure Darksiders (which seems to have dropped its Wrath of War subtitle) that the game will have a January 1st release date in 2010. "We figure it's a good time," Madureira said, "Everyone will be at home, and it's a good time to play games."

They also plan on releasing a demo on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network before the holiday period. "We want to remind everyone that there will be a good reason to hang onto their gift cards." Nothing says Happy New Year like Auld Lang Syne, champagne, and reaping the souls of the undead. Keep checking back for our report on the game, which is looking shiny.

It's been a while since the last time we saw THQ's Darksiders: Wrath of War and we must admit, we like what we see in this latest trailer. It's certainly a novel idea to choose a protagonist that's "War" itself, taking on both the forces of Heaven and Hell. Plus, War, as in the Horseman of the Apocalypse, happens to wield a sword that's arguably as big as the horse he's riding. One word for you: badass.

THQ may not be doing so well financially, but the company doesn't want you to think it's down and out. In fact, it wants you to know it's planning for the future -- the distant future even! Announcing projected titles for the fiscal year ending 2012 (that's April 1, 2011 - March 31, 2012, folks) like Darksiders 2 and Red Faction 4, the company clearly hasn't written itself off yet. Hell, it's projecting titles that are still unproven intellectual properties!

Filed away in the middle of a more than a month-old investor's report, GameSpot found a slide revealing four full years of projected THQ releases. Though the slide notes, "Release schedule subject to change," we were shocked enough to learn the company's planning sequels to games that have yet to be released. For THQ's investor's sakes, let's hope Darksiders and Red Faction: Guerrilla turn out to be the cash cows the company apparently anticipates them to be.

[Via GameSpot]

THQ CEO Brian Farrell has revealed that the company plans to only release one or two hardcore titles as part of its "significant business realignment." According to Gamespot, Farrell stated at a recent conference that the new model would cut the publisher's previous development expectations in half and focus on quality over quantity.

Don't expect to see the changes until at least 2010. THQ already has four core titles set for 2009: Red Faction: Guerilla, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2, Darksiders: Wrath of War and Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor. Saints Row 3 could become one of those two 2010 titles, considering the game is currently in development.

No, it's not a new game title. It's the real-life struggle of THQ, which made word of internal studio closings and significant layoffs official today, as it reported losses of $115.3 million in its fiscal Q2. In total, five studios will be shuttered and 250 employees released (approximately 17 percent of the publisher's workforce), and the company will reduce its forecasted development spending by $100 million in the fiscal 2010 year. "THQ plans to focus on fewer, higher quality titles, and to align its organization and cost structure accordingly," outlines the quarterly financial report. "We will dominate the fighting category!" added CEO Brian Farrell during today's conference call, plugging upcoming WWE and UFC titles.

As for those "higher quality titles," THQ has pushed Volition's Red Faction: Guerrilla into the first quarter of fiscal 2010 (April-June 2009) and Darksiders: Wrath of War into the second quarter (July-September 2009). Also absent in the short term, CFO Colin Slade will be taking an unspecified medical leave of absence. "I'm looking forward to returning to THQ as soon as possible," said Slade before retiring from the call.

One of the biggest things we missed at E3 this year was the upcoming Vigil Games / THQ title, Darksiders: Wrath of War. How we managed to miss this one is still unclear -- we can only assume that it was in our blind spot the entire time. So, during our recent jaunt down to Austin for the Game Developer's Conference, we made time to stop by Vigil and take an in-depth look at the the team's debut title and two-year labor. Luckily, they weren't holding any grudges against our non-existent E3 coverage and were nice enough to give us a huge chunk of time with the game and the designers.

Concept artist and Vigil founder Joe Madureira and lead designer Hadyn Dalton sat down with us for two hours, taking us through the game and showing us levels that haven't been released to the public just yet. We got to take control of protagonist War and do battle with enemies, solve puzzles, and even take his massive warhorse Ruin for a spin. Check out the full writeup after the break, and be sure to check out the gallery, full of exclusive images from the game, just below. If you've been itching for a Joe Madureira Battle Chasers fix, this might be about as close as you can get.

Looks like we'll get to control a god of war War himself and do it with style in Vigil Games' open-world action game, Darksiders: Wrath of War. Considering that Joe "Mad!" Madureira of X-Men and Battle Chasers fame is the developer's creative director, the fact that it's looking smoking hot doesn't surprise us.

This new video of Darksiders features Madureira and Vigil's general manager, David Adams, talking about all of the nifty stuff you can see and do thanks to the game's open world nature. It's worth noting that the video is from the upcoming E3 demo of Darksiders, meaning that we'll get our hands on the game's latest milestone later this month to report on all the nitty-gritty (and pretty-pretty) details.

An open world action-adventure game with some very nice looking graphics? How did we not see this before? Joystiq even wrote a preview, and yet somehow we missed it. Anywho, a new developer diary for DarkSiders has been released and the game is looking pretty nice. As stated above, it's an action adventure game with open areas, slick looking combat, puzzle solving and, of course, character upgrades. In short, it looks hot. The beginning of the video notes that the footage is taken from an E3 demo, so hopefully we'll be getting our hands on it when the show starts later this month.

Darksiders: Wrath of War won me over at a recent THQ game-preview event. I hadn't heard of the game before, but maybe I just forgot because of its premise.

"Wouldn't it be cool if we had a game where you ride around as one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, just beating the crap out of anything you encounter?" One gaming exec might say to another. The second might reply, "Sounds great. Let's make it an open world, kind of a GTA-meets-Left Behind-meets-Spawn. Also, let's give ourselves raises."

Darksiders looks like it'll pull off this eye-rolling premise with impressive style and genuine action. I wasn't given a chance to play, but after watching two live demos, I'm anticipating this early-2009 game.