The demo will be available around the world to Xbox Live Gold subscribers on January 17, however it won’t hit the PlayStation Network, Steam or Xbox Live for silver subscribers until January 24, for some reason PlayStation 3 gamers in Europe and Asia won’t get access to the demo until January 25.

When critics reviewed The Darkness back in 2007 it was quite a hit considering the expectations, the Xbox 360 version currently has a metascore of 82 (based on 63 reviews), whilst the PS3 version received a metascore of 80 (based on 35 reviews). The storytelling and graphics were complemented by most, however IGN highlighted AI and gameplay mechanics as problem areas, therefore it will be interesting to see whether Digital Extremes can build upon the success that Starbreeze Studios brought to the original game.

We’re not sure why Starbreeze aren’t developing The Darkness II, however rumors suggest that other titles meant that they simply were too busy with other projects to take on the second installment. Looking back at previous games developed by Digital Extremes we think that The Darkness II is in safe hands – having worked on BioShock, BioShock 2 and Homefront in recent times there’s no question that Digital Extremes should be more than comfortable with this new first-person shooter – let’s hope we are not disappointed.

The Darkness II’s release date has been set for February 7 in the US and February 10 in Europe, we haven’t been told a great deal about what to expect from the demo, but to whet your appetite we have embedded a video below showing some gameplay footage.

Will you be embracing the darkness come February 7? Or will you decide once you play the demo? Let us know in the comments section below.

The first release news we brought our readers about the sequel suggested an October 4th release, which is today, but it was soon followed up with news that the date had been pushed back until 2012. The only thing fans are able to enjoy today is the trailer courtesy of CVG, which can be viewed below. It shows Jackie’s ability to use his creature-like arms to nibble away at enemies, throw them about and even grab parking meters and car doors and use them as weapons at the same time as he’s firing two guns.

The result of this ability makes for some very gruesome action. Enemies are decapitated, hurled up into the air and split, clean in half or are simply grabbed off the ground and are hit or pounded back into the ground so hard that they explode into a cloud of blood. These tentacles can also rip off individual limbs if the players are feeling sadistic.

If you’re interested in getting this sequel then we’re afraid you’re going to have to wait until February 10th, as this is the expected release date, unless you live in North America in which case the wait isn’t so long as they get it February 7th. Be sure to check out the trailer below for some awesome previews.

Are you a fan of The Darkness? Will you be getting the sequel next year?

According to a recent article by CM Boots-Faubert over on the gamingupdate.com website, the publisher 2K Games has recently announced that The Darkness II game – which is a sequel to 2007’s The Darkness – is now scheduled to be released on February 7th, 2012 in North America and a few days later on February 10th, 2012 for everyone else.

The Darkness II game, which is based on the supernatural comic books created by Top Cow Productions, puts players back in the shoes of protagonist Jackie Estacado. Although The Darkness II has much of the same gameplay as the original, it does come with an interesting new tactic called ‘quad-wielding,’ which enables Jackie to use his darkness powers and firearms at the same time.

Besides announcing the new release dates for The Darkness II, 2K Games also announced that they would be making an appearance at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International. The publisher is holding a special panel for the game to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The Darkness, which is entitled ‘Spreading The Darkness: From Comic Book to Video Games and Entertainment.’

The Darkness II discussion will feature top talent from Top Cow Productions, including co-creator of The Darkness and CEO Marc Silvestri and COO and President of Top Cow Productions Matt Hawkins. The panel will also feature developers from Digital Extremes, and the in-game voice (and musician) of The Darkness, Mike Patton.

The Darkness II panel will be taking place on Thursday, July 21st from 12:00pm until 1:00pm in Room 9 of the San Diego Convention Center. The publisher will also have 8 playable demo kiosks at the event, so fans can go and check out the game – which will be available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and the Nintendo Wii U – for themselves.

We’ve also embedded the E3 2011 gameplay trailer below this post, just in case you haven’t seen it yet. Will you be picking up The Darkness II game?

2K Games has confirmed that The Darkness 2 will be released this fall, no solid release date has been set, however we can confirm that Starbreeze won’t be developing the next installment as they are busy with another game, instead Digital Extremes got the job.

Digital Extremes was founded back in 1993 and have worked on games such as Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Championship, Pariah, Warpath, Dark Sector and both BioShock releases in the past, therefore it would be fair to say that they have the quite a bit of experience with pretty impressive first-person shooters.

Apparently The Darkness 2 will build on the solid foundations set by its predecessor, one exciting thing we have heard is that the game will offer “quad-wielding”, this allows you to simultaneously fire two weapons whilst slashing, grabbing and throwing enemies with your Demon Arms.

I missed out on The Darkness first time round, therefore I will be keeping a close eye on the sequel especially with the quad-wielding feature, will you?