South Park the Stick of Truth News: Release Date Delayed, Gameplay Trailer Revealed

South Park: The Stick of Truth has suffered several delays already, and now a new delay has pushed the game back from a December 2013 release date to March 4, 2014. If the launch date holds, the game will be released almost one year after it was originally intended to come out. 

Despite the most recent release date flub, Ubisoft, who bought the game from the bankrupt THQ, has released a new gameplay trailer for the game that shows the trademark South Park humor, as well as the game's unique RPG elements. The trailer begins with Cartman, "Princess" Kenny, and the playable character (who players create themselves) go to the Inn of the Giggling Donkey, aka one of the kid's house. The Inn is full of kids dressed in typical fantasy attire and the bar serves sports drinks such as Fairy Ale and other magical potions. After a lengthy cutscene where the group tries to find "The Bard," the trailer switches to gameplay. The transition between cutscene and gameplay is seamless, due to the game's perfect copy of the cartoon's artwork.

Players wander around the basement of the house, and can explore and interact with the environment. However, the player (and Butters, the companion character for the trailer) eventually encounters The Bard, aka Jimmy, and his elf companions. Combat is turned-based, with the player's party members having several options for combat. Many different abilities are seen in the demo, such as Jimmy singing songs to give stat boosts to his minions. Most combat abilities are time-based. By timing attacks and blocks players can easily take on foes even if they are outnumbered.

Once the battle is over, players can collect loot from their foes. In addition, other enemies can be dealt with by interacting with the environment. An example can be seen when the player opens a window to let an ally into the room and knocks out enemies before they have a chance to get engaged in combat. Players can also order allies to perform certain tasks like casting healing spells. The trailer ends with another battle. We see that players can bring forth Butters' alter ego Professor Chaos as a summoning ability and then a cutscene plays out.

The game looks very amusing and fits both the South Park aesthetic and classic RPG tropes. Look out for the game on the PlayStation 3,Xbox 360, and PC in March.