Despite numerous delays South Park: The Stick of Truth is almost here. While the now-classic TV series has had a bad track record with videogames in the past- 1998's broken South Park shooter, or 2012's lousy South Park: Tenorman's Revenge, anyone?- the involvement of Obsidian Entertainment (Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas) gave hope that this could finally be it. An RPG from the acclaimed developer with the close involvement of Trey Parker and Matt Stone and tons of show-quality animation only made the anticipation greater. Now we have two new trailers and a TV spot to further make us excited! This really makes it look like you're playing through an episode of the show.
First up is this new TV spot that shows off a bit of the story, including the return of some famous characters like Chef. After Isaac Hayes' infamous departure from the show (he left after they ripped on Scientology one too many times) they reused his old lines in a new episode that showed Chef being brainwashed, so it'll be interesting to see if they try something similar with Zombie Chef.
Next up is this gameplay footage that shows a little of what it will be like to explore the world, here in a wonderful sewer. The boys run across a familiar face or two down there. These last two clips are very, very NSFW so turn down the volume if you're watching this somewhere you shouldn't be.
And at last we have the Gingers. South Park's mistrust of the red-haired race is well-documented but now it appears that there's a whole new issue that we should have with them... a disease that they're catching that turns them into even more nefarious villains.
These trailers give lots of hope that this latest release date won't slip like the last few have. If that's the case we can expect South Park: The Stick of Truth to hit Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on March 4th in North America. Australia will get it on March 6th, with Europe rounding up the pack on March 7th.