Armchair Diplomat

I've unintentionally managed to create a perfect Monopoly Guy mask

It’s still a little bit of a wait before we get our hands on Army of Two: The 40th Day, the much awaited sequel to the original co-op bromance.

To keep the fans occupied in the meantime, EA has released the oft-hinted-at Custom Mask and Armour Creator, which allows players to create their own mask and shoulder-pad designs for use in multiplayer.  The entire thing is run by a flash program that allows you to stretch and re-colour shapes and text, kind of like the way custom decals are handled in the Need For Speed series.

Being the chronic character customiser that I am, I had a muck around today and managed to make a couple of classy additions.  I mean, when you get down to it, there just aren’t enough shooters that let you suit up in a tuxedo t-shirt.

I can’t wait to see what kind of designs end up online.  I know I’ve got several other ideas ready to adorn my face mask.

Army of Two: The 40th Day will be available world-wide on January 13th, 2010.

Red vs Blue? It's like they WANT their own machinima series

EA has released a new trailer for Army of Two: The 40th Day, showing off the variety of co-op moves open to Rios and Salem.  I’ve linked you to the YouTube version, as the original version doesn’t seem capable of playing correctly for me (even on ADSL2+).

While there are several old favourites from the first game (step-jump, back-to-back, etc.), the lads also have a couple of new tricks up their sleeves, including a “mock surrender” ploy used to flank your enemies, and some good old fashioned body shields.

They’ve also released a selection of new screenshots showing off their multiplayer component, which you can check out here.

Most importantly, however, the Army of Two twitter feed has been abuzz about the announcement of a Custom Mask and Armour Creator, which is supposedly in private beta at the moment.  No other details appear to be forthcoming, but it sounds as if we’ll be making our own pretty looking face-protectors this time around (I bags the tux print armour!).

Now for those of you with weak stomachs, please be advised that neither these new screenshots or video includes any bro-fists (although at the end of the video there’s something in the “bro-elbow” department).  Viewer discretion is advised.

Pro bro duo Salem and Rios

Toky-bro Games Show is stirring up a lot of extra eye-candy for us gamers, including some new details out of Army of Two: The 40th Day.

EA Bro-treal have updated the bro-fficial site with a stack of brand new pretty pictures of the title. While certainly new shots of the game, they don’t really bro off much that’s new to the game, bro-stly just machine guns and man-love. But if you don’t like hot guy-on-guy-on-gun action, then why even brother reading about Army of Two?

They’ve als-bro dropped the next installment of their developer diary, which you can watch here.

While the bro-riginal was by no means perfect, I’ll certainly be grabbing The 40th Day when it comes out January 8th, 2010.

Cool story bro.

Did Winona use Ryder-Gate as a cover for her mercenary work?

EA Montreal have posted up images of the box art for Army of Two: The 40th Day on their Facebook feed for everyone to gawk at.  To tell the truth, it doesn’t look like they’re departing very far from the original box art, other than to face Salem and Rios to camera and put their “nasty” face on.

I’ll say one thing however, what’s with Rios’ eyes being twice the size of Salem’s?  I mean I know he’s the soulful one, but ca’maaan!  It’s like Winona Ryder was his stand in glamour model or something.

Actually, when you think about it, that’s not as crazy as it sounds.  Winona did take a big hiatus earlier this decade after Ryder Gate.  And the original Army of Two did have early levels take place in 2001 and 2003.  If she’d piled on the weight and gotten a cool facial scar, could she have bee one of the founding fathers of Trans World Operations?  I’m still waiting on more conclusive evidence, but it seems fairly obvious to me that it’s highly plausible.

Of course she would have taken time off between the aircraft carrier and Li-Jiang river missions to go and play Spock’s mum.

… it probably wasn’t a very long shoot anyway, this story still holds water.  If you still don’t believe me, however, feel free to judge for yourself!

Oh, "Army of Two", I get it

OK, so here’s the thing, for all those who need to catch up on the action: Salem and Rios are two mercenaries, who worked together for the private military. They worked together, thus making them an army of two. Two people.

With me so far?

OK, good. Now at the end of the first Army Of Two, Salem and Rios had uncovered the corruption of the private military that was hiring them, and decided to start their own PMC: Trans-World Operations. Which now makes them … wait for it … the army of TWO.

In related news, it turns out that One Piece is actually the name of the treasure, and can be found on the Grand Line.

More to the point, true to their Twitter’d word, the Army of Two site has confirmed a release date of January 12, 2010, for Army of Two: The 40th Day (or Jan 8th for the EU!). It joins the likes of … well, almost every game we were looking forward to this year, being released the first quarter of next year.

As a little bit of a bonus, people who pre-order the game will be rewarded with that game’s multiplayer “Extraction” mode before all the regular schmucks get it (which will be around a month later, if I understand it correctly). Apparently …

‘Extraction’ mode pits a team of four players against a series of unique enemy waves as they move from point to point in the ruined city.

… or so says almighty Twitter, anyhow. I’m not certain what difference a month makes to anyone’s decision to pre-order, but if you’re probably going to pre-order anyway (like I am), well you might as well get something for it.

Check out the announcement on the Ao2 blog.

My mind was inexplicably drawn to this image

Saw this one over on GamerLimit and couldn’t help but repost.

So when EA Montreal made the original Army of Two, they comissioned a weapons design contest from the fans to include in the game itself.  The winning designs, the SAL-86 and the BST-V1 were included as unlockable content with the original game.

Well now that the sequel is coming closer and closer to release, they’ve announced they’ll be running the very same contest this time around two.  The challenge?  Design EA a weapon that they can include into Army of Two: the 40th Day.  The site includes the usual set of rules and regulations: the weapon must be at least feasible to the current era, be able to be implemented into the game and not include any trademark material.

The parameters are kind of wide open, but if the last game’s winners are anything to go by, they’re not going to be looking for tactical innovations like the double-barrel broadsword launcher.  Which is a pity, I could see Rios taking to one of those.

Peruse the details.  If I could imagine any new weapon that didn’t somehow have a medieval one attached, I’d probably totally enter.  Oooh, I know, the Gunblade!  Wait a second … curse you Final Fantasy!