Given 
the pedigree of previous South Park games, there was very valid reason for gamers to be worried about South Park: The Stick of Truth. The game’s multiple delays did nothing to assuage those fears.
But as the game hits stores today, critics say there’s actually a lot to love. It is, however, absolutely not for the faint of heart.
THQ 
has shut its doors.
A bankruptcy auction marked the formal end of the company that was once the industry’s third largest publisher, divvying up its pieces among bidders like Vikings after a raid. Several companies bought THQ’s franchises and developers for total of about $72 million.
THQ, 
once the third-largest publisher in the videogame industry, is no more.
A bankruptcy auction, concluded Wednesday, has broken up the company into pieces and sold them to competitors, along with its key videogame titles and licenses, dashing executives’ hopes that it could remain intact with the help of a corporate white knight.
There’s 
a certain irony that THQ — a company whose name is an abbreviation of Toy Head Quarters — met its fate less than a week before Christmas.
Make no mistake, THQ as we’ve known it is no more. The name might live on — and many of the games that were in the pipeline will likely make it to market. But even if that entity eventually proves to be a major force in the video game publishing industry at some point in the future, it won’t be THQ that succeeds. It will be its offspring.
Struggling 
publisher THQ is looking even more vulnerable after the company announced plans Tuesday to push back the release of its three biggest upcoming releases and suspend all earnings guidance for the foreseeable future.
The company also announced it had hired an adviser to help it review its options and find new ways to raise money. Investors were quick to punish the company’s stock, with THQ shares plunging 42 percent Wednesday morning.
South Park has 
been around the video game block a few times, but its latest trip could be remarkably different.
South Park Digital Studios and Obsidian Entertainment, makers of “Fallout: New Vegas,” are teaming to create a South Park role-playing game. THQ will publish the title.
Chris Morris: Journalist 