Ken Levine thinks you’re a pussy. Well…sort of. He thinks your games are too easy, and as a result, he’s giving Bioshock Infinite a much harder, much more unforgiving mode when it releases later this year.

1999 mode, named after a time when Levine says games were much more challenging and is designed to offer challenges to the players that the average campaign wouldn’t.

“We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” said Ken Levine, Creative Director of Irrational Games. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.”

So just how hard is 1999 mode? Players will have to take a more demanding look at things like in game choices, health and weaponry. Players will also not be able to respawn if they do not have sufficient resources to do so.

“I’m an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me,” Levine said. “So we went straight to the horse’s mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games. 94.6 percent of respondents indicated that upgrade choices enhanced their BioShock gameplay experience; however, 56.8 percent indicated that being required to make permanent decisions about their character would have made the game even better.”

THQ has announced that Bioshock Infinite will release sometime in the fiscal 2013, which kicks off this April.

Well that came out of nowhere. It seems that Obsidian, the folks behind Fallout: New Vegas, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II are teaming up with THQ to create an RPG based off of South Park

Okay, Okay..I hear your groans, but it the developers swear that this isn’t a cash in like the other games that featured the characters. As unveiled in this month’s Game Informer, the game will reportedly follow the show’s four main characters, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as they defend their town from various threats.  The game gets immediate points for having Man-bear-pig on its first image.

South Park: The Game is due out in the second half of next year for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

In the past, THQ and Volition’s Saints Row series has been the equivalent of the Scary Movie films. They take something successful and loved, in this case the Grand Theft Auto series and mock it for all its worth. Sure, it’s passable, but it never sets its sights higher than being a goofy version of something that came before it. Until now that is.

With Saints Row: The Third, Volition has thrown caution (and pretty much everything else to the wind) and carved out a brand new identity for its goofy open world action game. Sure, you’re still going steal cars and run amok in a large virtual city, but the heart of the latest Saints Row comes with its new over-the-top action move direction that’s created some of my favorite gaming moments of this year. Perhaps it’s fitting that Saints Row’s defining moment came in its third game, just as it did for the series that it once emulated.

At the end of Saints Row 2, the Third Street Saints have defeated all of their rivals and have thus turned their once little street gang into a media empire. They’re spokesmen for Japanese Energy drinks, they’re on billboards – they’re targets.  It’s in a routine bank heist, with an actor looking to “do some research” for the upcoming Saints movie that things go awry. The bank tellers begin to fight back and it’s not long before the Saints find themselves in jail. Just when the Saints are beginning to doubt what they’ve become, an organization known as The Syndicate bribes the cops and lets the Saints out and the organization’s leader, business man Philippe Loren attempts to make a deal with the Saints; give up two thirds of their revenue and he’ll let them live. Of course, that doesn’t sit well with the our anti-heroes, who stage one of the most off the wall escapes in gaming history and Saints Row: The Third begins proper.

Well, to be honest, any Saints Row game before this one would have began there, but the moments before this scene set the stage for some of the game’s big changes. You’ll start by creating your character, and while not all of your options are open to you at first, throughout the game you’ll be able to create some truly out there characters. I started out with a well dressed and dapper Spaniard with a unibrow and several moles, but as the game worse on he became something else entirely; a cross dressing clown with pigtails and blood dripping down his face.  Saints Row: The Third truly lets players create whoever they want to be their lead character, including zombies. Yes. Zombies.

The core gameplay of Saints Row: The Third remains the same, take cars and run amok in an open world city while trying to make a name for yourself, and it’s deeply satisfying – for the most part. The new city of Steelport is a large one filled with vastly different sections of the city, like the bustling downtown filled with lights and illuminated billboards, the residential section and the industrial section. I often found myself just finding cars and driving around the city, just to see what I could find. Handling is more forgiving like Grand Theft Auto III and it’s spinoffs than the realistic Grand Theft Auto IV, so you’ll be able to have a lot more fun driving around and not have to worry quite as much about taking those turns as 90 MPH.

Where Saints Row: The Third really makes its mark though is with its new over-the-top action sequences. Finally carving out its own identity, Volition has presented a number of high octane moments that are a complete blast to play. Take for instance that scene where the Saints attempt to rob the bank, it starts off as you’d expect, going through and shooting everything in your path, but it soon turns into something that like nothing you’ve ever played before.  Before long you’re jumping from building to building Uncharted style and hanging from a safe that’s being hoisted from the building via helicopter. You’ll also parachute into a crowded party and much more. It’s almost impossible to play through these missions without a smile on your face – or much more, laughing loudly.

Perhaps that’s the real genius of Saints Row: The Third, even while creating its own identity, the game never loses sight of its roots and never takes itself too seriously, keeping its comedy fully intact. The game manages to mock not only games like Grand Theft Auto but movies, music, pop culture and even itself. Throughout the game you’ll catsit a lion, take out furries and even visit a Tron inspired world. I firmly believe that the real appeal of any open world game like this is to be the biggest douche-bag you can be, and Saints Row does that perfectly by allowing me to summon an airstrike against an entire city…while being completely naked.

It’s also remarkable how Volition has managed to integrate the music into the game’s core experience. Parachuting into a crowded party would be exciting enough with a royalty free guitar riff behind it, but when you put Kanye West’s “Power” behind it, the scene becomes something different entirely, it becomes a spectacle. The game is filled with these moments, in fact one of my favorite moments of the year comes early in the game, if you turn your car’s radio to a specific station, the characters will sing the entire song “What I got” by Sublime. When it happened, I had to stop what I was doing and just watch the game, it’s an even bigger feat when you take into account that the game allows you to choose between three different voices for your character.

Aside from the game’s main missions, there’s tons to do in Saints Row: The Third. You can commit insurance fraud, surf on jet planes and even get a sex change. The game also features a number of different modes including the aptly titled “Whored Mode” (yes, you read that right) and a pretty fun multiplayer suite.  Saints Row: The Third is an adult playground that drops you in and lets you do well….pretty much whatever you want.

The Blast Factor: In the past, it was easy to cast off Saints Row. It’s just a funny Grand Theft Auto clone. It’s uninspired. Now though, thanks to a series of improvements and most importantly the series finally carving out its own identity, it’s almost impossible to ignore Saints Row: The Third. It’s a tongue-in-cheek thrill ride that gives the player ultimate freedom. It may not be perfect but it’s easily the best game of the series.

Once in a while, with a batch of very sub-par games in a genre, one will shine brightly among the rest, proving that such a game genre should exist in the first place. WWE ’12 is that wrestling videogame who rescues the pack, showing the public a phenomenal title can come from such a niche.

On an apparent downward slide, the wrestling videogame industry was hurting. A cult following could only provide so much support when the franchise slowly spiraled out of control. It eventually went into a place where even the most hardcore fans wouldn’t follow (see Hulk Hogan’s Main Event… *shudder*). As of lately, it’s been hard for the wrestling industry in general. But with major changes in the industry (such as The Rock coming back! Who’s stoked?!), the whole aspect of wrestling seems to be on the upswing as it fights its way out of a very deep hole. And it’s swinging hard and fast.

A quick side note before diving deep into the vast universe of WWE ’12:  My apartment is full of diehard fans that were drooling at the sight of this game. Collectively, we’ve been playing these games together since we all met in freshman year of college. Nights have turned into mornings as we’ve created our own characters, move-sets, finishers, and story lines, challenging each other’s titles, interweaving character paths. This traditional has gone for four years and counting as our created superstars, such as Bo Wilson, the Canadian Olympian, or Bad Doktah V, the mad scientist with a hobby of creating evil monsters, have all gone through the test of time just like the real wrestlers through the decades. Just be wary of the judgments made in the review since the game was not only scrutinized by me, but also by the hardcore fan boys that I live with.

We tend to be a bit intense at times.

With that said, let’s explore WWE ’12.

The first thing you’ll notice when you pop the disk into your console is that developers took serious time and effort to make ’12 as smooth and realistic looking as possible. Superstar faces, for the most part, look like the real superstars, the voices are actually their voices, and their move sets and their entrances are exactly their real entrances. The graphics are impressive, clean and the presentation is out of this world. In games past, frame rates would get caught in the currents and freeze up, limbs would go wild into spasms during matches, and the presentation slowly decayed. No such thing exists in ’12. It took me hours of game play for me to experience my first glitch (which I expected much, much sooner considering how glitchy both Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 and 2011 were).

The superstar entrances are truly pristine. The fireworks and pyrotechnics are 99 percent accurate and the entrance videos are the real thing. The lighting is very cool and the fluidness of moves makes for a great show. Even when characters talk, their mouths are attempting to work with the words that are spoken. It’s nice to see so much time spent on even the tiniest details in a game so large.

The Rock returns and delivers a Rock Bottom to Cena.

Combat is usually where past wrestling games have been lacking. They’ve been a lot of show and no mechanics. My roommates had mixed feelings on how the game handled when in the ring (or outside of it).  Thinking since we had been playing the series of wrestling games for so long, we upped the ante and put the computer difficulty on “Legend.” This was a very poor choice, as developers have changed controls completely to make combinations and chains free-flowing. After creating my character, Flynn Withers, the crack-cowboy-hooligan, I decided to try him out against Chavo, who is a relatively low level. With him on set on “Legend,” Chavo decided to bring the pain and tossed my poor cowboy around like a rag doll, totally disregarding the fact that his level was 12 or so below mine. I swear he Gory Bombed me at least twice… If you’ve played previous wrestling games like Smackdown vs. Raw ’09, ’10 or ’11, you’re in for some abrupt changes in controls.

Countering and reversals, the most important thing in any wrestling game, is still one trigger, but a lot more difficult. One of the first things my friend yelled out as Mark Henry was beating him to a pulp was that the game was not user friendly to beginners. I would have to agree. If caught in the rampage of a chain or combination, it can be teeth-grittingly frustrating to try to reverse your way out of it. Not to mention, the signatures and finishers can be so quick to follow, at times, it seems impossible to block. It all takes time to get used to. Time and practice.

The grappling system is what took the biggest changes. Grappling is set to one button (“A” or “X” depending on your console) and then works with directional stick movement. When grabbing an opponent, you have seemingly endless options. You can hold the bumper and target a part of the body to deal a strike to, you can toss them, Irish whip them, you can signature/finish them if you have such an option cued up.  It was overwhelming at first and really confusing, considering we we’re all a bit too stubborn to check out tutorials. Taking the time to know your superstar’s move set is vital, and once you know the set it’s possible to string together some devastating combos.

Pinning has been changed as well, removing the desperate button mashing routine. Instead, there is a meter that can be compared to kicking a field goal in Madden. You’ll hold “A” and attempt to stop the meter in the blue area to kick out from a pin. Using the resiliency ability can give gamers the opportunity to temporarily enlarge their blue area for an easier kick out. The more your superstar is beaten up, the smaller the blue area is. It makes for some pretty quick matches at time and is insanely nerve racking.

Overall, the buttons have been swapped and changed around to the point where ’12 is a brand new addition to the genre. It can be difficult to get the hang of, but through the creation of a move set or playing any of the story options, it gets easier with time. A few of my friends would argue that it’s too complicated and would prefer it go back to 2010 set up. It really depends on the gamer’s preferences.

WWE ’12 has set a new bar with options for creation to the point where it’s almost too much. After pouring hours upon hours into creating a character, a move set and an entrance, I realized there was still the possibility to create a ring, a logo, and even a story with scenes and matches cued up. There are probably even more things to create that I haven’t even found yet due to the vastness of ‘12’s creation opportunities.

WWE '12's creation feature is easily the best of the series.

Although I’m still angry for one sole reason: The point system still exists…

The point system is at the bottom of the screen when creating a character. Players are allotted only a set amount of points to dress and accessorize their superstar. These points run out extremely fast when trying to dress your character appropriately, making it difficult to really make what you want. You may like a jacket that fits with your character’s persona, but it may cost so many points that he’ll go pants-less, much like our created superstar Batty the Banker (a very formal man with a very nice green velvet jacket and no pants we loves leg drops – very professional, we thought). Since our original creations on Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, it’s been absolutely impossible to recreate our masterpieces due to the point system… We all loathe it, and you most likely will too. It’s a terrible flaw to a wonderful concept.

On the other hand, the opportunities are endless with customization. It’s easy to gut sucked in. You may plan on putting an hour aside to work on your superstar, but you’ll glance at the clock when you’re finally finished to see that five hours have gone by. It’s fair to say, even though the point system limits creativity, it makes for evolution of characters if you’re recreating on the new platform.

There are quick options too, if you’re not looking to spend ages on any one thing in particular, which is a nice touch. There are pre-set move sets from old superstars, and you can even use some older superstar move sets that just aren’t labeled in the game specifically (just poke around online and they’ll show who corresponds to each number). Same with entrances: there is a quick edit option to just use someone else’s entrance. What’s great is you can still utilize personal mp3s for entrance music, so if you’ve already uploaded music for previous wrestling games onto your console, they should be good to go.

There’s absolutely no limit to what you can make (unless, of course, it’s actually dressing your character). It’s up to you to decide how deep you want to go into customizing your wrestling world. It’s having the option that makes it so fantastic.

Road to Wrestlemania is the attempted storylines for WWE ’12. And, honestly, they weren’t as bad as I assumed them to be. Usually, the purchase of a wrestling videogame was for the sole reason of multiplayer. This mode, however, is worth one play through.

The modes are broken into three paths. It’s the standard “bad,” “neutral,” and “hero” set up. With each path obviously labeled, the game does not allow you to make your own decisions. You’ll be prompted to fight matches with certain superstars and your fate will already be decided. It probably could have been made better by giving players the option to make a choice, that way there would be some sort of replay value, but the story is already scripted and ready to roll. If you fail an objective, you’ll be forced to restart.

Even winning some matches will earn players a prompt to hit “Y” (or triangle depending on platform), which will cue a cut scene. Sometimes, after laying down the smacketh on an opponent, you’ll still lose because that’s the path of the story. This is understandable considering it’s a story, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

Of all of them, the hero path is the best (which always seems to be the case in videogames). Players will control a new wrestler with the name Jacob Cass who has just joined the WWE and is being mentored by Rey Mysterio. They’ll be prompted to either create Cass or choose someone to model Cass after.

Do not choose an already custom made superstar!

In case you couldn’t read that, I’ll put it in all caps.

DO NOT CHOOSE AN ALREADY CUSTOM MADE SUPERSTAR!

The game will make your superstar into Jacob Cass, changing the character’s build. The appearance should be fine, despite that, but if you’ve spent a long time tweaking the build of your superstar, you’ll find this immensely frustrating.

Getting past that flaw, you’ll fight against Kevin Nash and his WCW cronies as they attempt to destroy Monday Night Raw for good. It’s a story filled with betrayal and twists and, overall, it’s definitely worth the play through. There were a few dull moments of filler where you fight Vader and Animal in backstage brawls over and over again, which definitely gets old. But teaming up with some legendary superstars is pretty cool, not to mention homage is paid to old legends such as Eddie Guerrero. If you play any of the roads, it should be the “hero” path.

Universe mode is probably one of the coolest and in-depth options ’12 has to offer. You can play as any superstar, included custom ones, and work your way through a schedule of events. You’ll be matched up with and against random superstars as you fight your way to the top. You can play through every match on the calendar, but that would be outright ridiculous if you did. A simulation option is available for players to breeze through matches that don’t involve them or their allies. Again, this is a prime example of WWE ’12 giving players complete control of their game play.

Using my Flynn Withers, I inserted myself into lower matches, fighting against Otunga and Del Rio. After defeating them in the ring, cut scenes took place and one of them to a cheap shot to my crotch, causing a rivalry between them. Managers will get involved, allies will get involved, divas will get involved, there’s really no telling what will happen after each match. Tag partners will choose to not help, the Heavy Weight Champ will come in and wreck house, it all happens and without warning. I tried to make it as realistic as possible, so I worked my character into the upper ranks of Raw in order to fight my way into Smackdown. Winning matches and sustaining momentum will cause your character’s levels to rise slightly, while a defeat will crush momentum and downgrade you a little. You’ll fight Number One Contender matches to have a crack at specific belts and people can interrupt matches and alter who wins or loses. The best part is it is always changing. You’ll make shaky alliances that will flip-flop in the next match, or you’ll make the worst of rivals that will beat you down before the match even starts with a metal pipe (yes, that happened to me). Due to the unpredictable nature of the mode, it’s a lot of fun and keeps players coming back for more, even if it’s just to defend a title.

What’s nice is almost any mode in WWE ’12 can be turned into a multiplayer situation. The only exception was Road to Wrestlemania, which is primarily a single player story.

Multiplayer is much like it’s always been and probably the largest selling point for ’12. Again, developers really stress the idea of customization to gamers, and made every match option a possibility. You can have a 40-person Royal Rumble or you can fight your way to the top of a six-man ladder match (tried it, I suggest you don’t, it took over an hour).  Everything is there, from First Blood matches to Iron Man matches to Elimination Chambers.

The Back Stage Brawl matches, however, were a bit of a disappointment. There is only one stage with multiple areas, which was amazingly intriguing at first, but got old real fast. You can push someone through car windows, or smash their head with a door, but honestly, 2010 got it right. There were plenty of items to use and the item grapple option was wonderful. WWE ‘12’s brawls are far more lacking and get stale after exploring the whole area once with friend(s).

WWE ’12 does offer online play as well as online sharing that’s definitely worth checking out. People will create absolutely everything throughout the game that can be shared and downloaded by other gamers. They’re rated, and the higher the rating the more downloads you’ll probably get. Say you’ve spent considerable time on creating an arena and want to see what others think. Just upload the ring and see how it does, it’s all in good fun. It is very similar to Halo Reach’s option to create maps with an online download option. Uncovering the process was quite refreshing, showing that other people poured as much of their life into ’12 as I did.

As far as unlockables go, there’s a ton. There are old superstars to unlock, new arenas, new titles and new attires. The Road to Wrestlemania will unlock a lot of them, and so will fighting through the WWE Universe. There’s a lot to unlock, however, and it will take full exploration of the game to get everything out of it.

To put it simply – if you have the time for WWE ’12, it will reward you.

BLAST FACTOR: Among the broken remains of the wrestling videogame world, WWE ’12 shouts over Cena’s taunt of “You can’t see me!” and demands recognition. It’s smooth and looks incredible, is outrageously accurate in representation of the superstars, and has fluid combat controls. If you’re a fan of the older games, be prepared for different controls. The customization options are through the roof and unrivaled by any wrestling game thus far. Players have the ultimate control they’ve been looking for… except for that damn point system. WWE ’12 demands a lot of time be put into it and is a very simplistic equation of “work in = work out.” For those looking to really dive into the depths of a wrestling game, this is the game for you. With endless options, gamers can literally spend days creating and building their own worlds. It’s truly amazing what can be accomplished.

There is a lot there for fans to reminisce about, and tons of superstars are available for play (I’m especially glad Edge is still in the game despite his recent retirement). On the other hand, some of the game play can seem repetitive and may bore some gamers if not played with friends. The Road to Wrestlemania will briefly satisfy some, but for most it will grow stale quickly. Universe mode is a huge plus to the game and can keep the single player mode alive longer than a normal wrestling game would survive. Ultimately, ‘12 is definitely meant to be played with friends and is a multiplayer game at heart. This is a game for the fans, but maybe not for the casual player. Exploring WWE ’12 and committing time to it, however, can spark interest of the wrestling world in anyone and give gamers a new appreciation for a genre that seemed so close to a three count. Get that shoulder up, WWE ’12 is here.

We get a ton of promotional stuff for upcoming games, but for Saints Row 3, THQ is going about things a bit differently, they’re sending out giant purple dildo bats. I’m going to let that digest for a minute. Giant. Purple. Dildo…bats. Now here’s the fun part, rumor is that 25 of the bats have went missing.

The bats are modeled after a weapon called the Penetrator and were first reported missing by Inside Gamer PC. Reportedly, the bats, which were being sent to game reviewers were lost somewhere between England and France. THQ denies the report.

Really want to see what a giant purple dildo bat looks like? The link for the picture is below. But beware, it’s NSFW.

Here. Here’s a giant purple dildo.

Crytek, the development team behind Crysis and Far Cry have announced that they will be teaming with THQ for the next installment of the Far Cry series.

“We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ,” said Cevat Yerli, Founder, CEO and President of Crytek. “We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game. It’s really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way.”

The original Crytek launched earlier this year and was developed by  Kaos Studios, which was shut down shortly after the game’s release. The as of yet unnamed sequel is due out within the next two years.

A while back, I wrote about how to make an Avengers game not suck, and it looks like THQ may have been listening — it’s just too bad you’ll never play it. Though they didn’t hit all of my points, THQ’s canceled Avengers game seems like it would have been a fun time.

Anyone who has ever played Warhammer 40,000 has dreamed of strapping on the Space Marine Armor and digging into a horde of Orks. To command a squad into battle, to rev up the chainsaw sword. THQ and Relic understand this and thus created Warhammer: 40,000: Space Marine; the most intimate and gritty look at the longstanding universe.  Space Marines isn’t perfect or innovative, but it is a fun and deeply satisfying new way to look at world that so many have been in for so long.

You are Captain Titus, leader of the Ultra Marines; a squad featuring the best of the best of the Space Marines. You and your small contingent are sent to eliminate an overwhelming presence or Orks from a hostile planet. It’s not the most interesting or original story, but it does feature enough twists and turns to keep even those unfamiliar with the universe interested throughout. What it does do however is give one of the most intimate and gritty looks at the franchise yet. Warhammer has always been more of a passive experience – you command your  table-top troops from a distance above, in Space Marines however, you are the Commander, and you’re right in the mix of the battle with your fellow soldiers – and it’s just as satisfying as you would imagine.

You and the Space Marines are armed with a few weapons at the outset of your quest, and chief among them is your chainsword. The first time you equip it and walk right into a swarm of Ork soldiers, sword swinging, the weapons feel extremely weighted and satisfying. Space Marines is a bloody and violent game, and it’s not afraid to show it; it’s a regular occurrence to be up against a ton of enemies one minute, only to be lost in a sea of blood the next.  As you progress through the game you’ll unlock new weapons and abilities to tailor the commander to your play style.

The gameplay in Space Marines isn’t anything revolutionary, but it is built on strong gameplay elements that make Warhammer entertaining throughout.  The majority of the game is a mix of melee combat and gunplay, and to be successful you’re going to have to switch between the two pretty regularly.  The game has frequent supply drop boxes where you can switch out weapons, spread throughout the game, a nice tough given the fact that you’ll often go into a battle unknowingly with the wrong weapons for the job.  These supply boxes allow you to try again – from a different route.

For all that it does right; Space Marines has a nasty habit of stopping its own momentum. The game’s story isn’t anything to write home about, but Relic seems intent on making it work via a series of incredibly intrusive cut scenes. It’s often that you’ll clear one section, trigger a cut scene and then walk five feet to trigger another one. These cut scenes take you out of the game in a major way. There’s also an issue with Relic being obsessed with its own game’s beauty, as there are a number of sections where you’ll be walking down long corridors without any enemies to fight, and it seems like it always happens when the game’s environments are at their best.

Warhammer’s campaign isn’t obtrusively long, but it’s not incredibly short either. That being said, the game’s legacy will be made through its online suite. The game modes aren’t that surprising,  but adding in real players to the game’s frantic mix does wonders for the formula. In the week since the game’s release, the servers have been very busy and with any hope a solid community will spring up around the game.

The Blast Factor: Space Marine could have been a mess of a genre transition, but Relic and THQ have done a great job in giving you a different and much more intimate look at a long established franchise. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but Warhammer is a game that’s built on solid mechanics and thought out progression. Perhaps the most important aspect, it feels like the start of a brand new franchise.

THQ confirmed to Blast today that the publisher has closed Homefront and Frontlines: Fuel of War developer Kaos Studios. THQ’s UK-based studio, THQ Digital Warrington, has also been closed.

The publisher gave no specific reason for the closures besides citing “strategic realignment within its internal studio structure,” it’s been rumored that Kaos Studios employees have expected the closure for some time now.

THQ has also confirmed that all future Homefront development has been moved to the Montreal Studios.

THQ has finally confirmed Metro: Last Night, the direct sequel to the under-appreciated 4A game’s shooter Metro 33 with the above announcement trailer.

Red Faction Armageddon has some pretty cool weapons; the magnet gun, the black hole gun, but if one million people download the game’s demo available on Xbox Live (and I assume PSN if it ever comes back up), we’ll get the ultimate gun — a unicorn that shits out rainbows of death. Check out the trailer below and go do your part and download the demo.

This time it’s personal. This time they took out Hooters.

Welcome to Homefront, the latest shooter from Kaos Studios, the development team behind 2008’s Front Lines: Fuel of War. Oh, but don’t be confused, this isn’t your average military shooter, Homefront brings the conflict to the shores of America, and it does so fantastically thanks to sturdy mechanics, a phenomenally character driven story and an impressive online multiplayer suite.

It’s the year 2027, and out of nowhere your apartment door is kicked in and you’re dragged out and onto what used to be a school bus on the way to a detention center. In a surprising move, the Greater Korean Republic has invaded the United States; taking Hawaii first, and then moving on to San Francisco. As you progress through the city streets, watching the Koreans carry out horrible attacks and shocked and helpless American citizens, you’re suddenly broken out and the real fight begins.

Homefront succeeds wildly because it touches on a true American fear.  We live in a society where the idea of another growing nation attacking is never out of reach, and Kaos studios has done a remarkable job creating this ominous world. The incorporation of actual businesses and staples of the United States like previously mentioned Hooters, White Castle and of course the Golden Gate Bridge make things feel all too real, helping Homefront reach a level of emotional attachment that few shooters achieve. You’re not chasing some terrorist in a river in some foreign country, you’re trying to survive in actual US cities, and perhaps more than ever, you feel like you’ve got a reason to fight.

Yes, you’re going to want to take down the Korean Army for every atrocity they take out on innocent civilians, and you’ll do so set against a number of wondrous set pieces and incredibly detailed backdrops. One of the game’s slickest moments lies in the game is when you’re doing battle on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It’s awe inspiring, but admittedly a bit unnerving to dodge rockets on the landmark as the city looms in flames on the horizon.  Homefront’s impressive production values are made that much better by its haunting audio, be it the last remaining radio waves broadcasting messages of hope or the screams of American citizens as they flee in terror.

Of course, none of this would matter if Homefront wasn’t such a fun first person shooter.  Generally, your controls are tight and reactive throughout the game, featuring a number of different guns and weapons to fit whatever suits your taste. These weapons all range in feeling impressively, from different weight and kickback to just how it sounds. As you don’t play a CIA or a hulking soldier as in many current first person shooters, you always get the feeling that your character isn’t used to firing the weapons – and it’s a rather interesting feeling. Because most of the game’s weapons feature a relatively small ammo capacity, you’ll often feel panicked throughout much of Homefront’s campaign, and you’ll be left scrambling to do close quarters melee kills and grab enemy soldier’s ammo. Said enemy AI is also impressive as they duck in and out of cover reminiscent to..dare I say it…Half Life 2?

Homefront isn’t without its fair share of issues though, mainly that the game doesn’t really have much of a cover system at all, and being in firefights can become quite tiresome when you’re dyeing over and over again. Also, the game features a few too many escort or follow missions that seem to point out the game’s flaws a bit too easily. Your counterparts always seem to hog what little cover the game offers, forcing you to run frantically, all while taking on a ton of bullets, to find the next best hiding spot.

Aside from the campaign, Homefront offers a remarkably stellar online suite that’s sure to please even the most diehard FPS fans.  While the obvious goal is complete domination, Homefront rewards players with Battle Points, the game’s reward system for doing everything from recon work, to successfully navigating the game’s vehicles (which you gain access to via battle points). The battles are large, fun and fast, with a ton of different options. I don’t expect Homefront to overthrow Black Ops on the Xbox Live charts, but it’s got to be a great contender.

The Blast Factor: Homefront is a stellar opening to what will hopefully become a long standing first person shooter franchise. The story is gripping, and you have a reason to fight unlike any other, and combined with an impressive online suite, and you’ll see why Homefront is such an impressive debut. It may not be perfect, but we can’t wait to see where the franchise goes next.

LOS ANGELES — THQ is releasing a new Video Game, to accompany the new DreamWorks movie “Megamind.”

There seems to be fairly limited details on the new movie, mostly based on the two trailers that have been released. The new Movie is about the Super Villain Megamind who manages to kill his opponent. He then decides he needs a new super hero, so attempts to create a new one. Unfortunately his newly created super hero actually decides he likes being a villain better, and instead of ruling the world just destroys everything. This forces Megamind to take on the role of super hero to stop him. The premise behind this movie and game is interesting, that "villains make the best heroes."

The game plays as Megamind, and his trusty side-kick Minion, trying to stop Titan and the Doom Syndicate. Megamind’s super power is cliche, his mind. The game generally follows the movie, but since games tend to be longer they had to add more enemies to fight. They didn’t just come up with random characters themselves though, they used some of the extra characters designed for the movie that were removed, because of time constraints. THQ worked with the movie team to make sure these added characters would fit with the story.

THQ also made an interesting decision on how to make the game mult-iplatform. Instead of having a game for each platform that aims at the lowest common denominator, they decided to make three different games focusing on the strengths of each platform. The HD version of the game is a single player with second player assist, similar to Super Mario Galaxy but is only available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For the Wii, though they went with a 4 player brawler, where you can unlock new characters by beating them. The DS, and the PSP are aimed at fitting their screen, and using their technology but being a different game than the HD version.

While at E3, we were able to try out the HD version. They designed it to be a good family game, approachable by all ages.

The controls are very simple, just basic movement on the D-pad, a button for shoot and another for action. They made nearly everything in the game destructible, figuring that kids like to go around destroying things.

THQ tried to make the puzzles not too simple to bore the adults. This was harder to see from the short demo of the game we saw. The game seemed to play like any 3D platformer. With super power upgrades, and bad guys to beat up along the way. The game did seem fun. We even saw a Tesla gun upgrade that let us chain hit enemies, one after another. Though like a lot of movie based games it will likely rely heavily on the success or failure of the movie.

Megamind the game is scheduled to be released with the movie in November.

LOS ANGELES — This fall, THQ will release three Wii titles based on popular television game shows — “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”

In all three games, set for a November 2 release, you will be able to use your Mii characters and change their clothing and appearance. THQ worked with the hosts of the shows and have complete voice overs from Jeff Foxworthy, Pat Sajak, Vanna White, and Charlie O’Donnell and Alex Trebek. Two of the game, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune also have an added feature of using the new Wii Speak. This will allow users to speak their answer or letter into the microphone instead of having to type out your answers.

While playing Jeopardy there will be multiple difficulty levels. If you choose the easiest level you will not need the use of the Wii speak because it uses multiple choice answers. The demonstrator also informed me that you will not say "what is" because the computer already will recognize it, just speak the answer. There will be thousands of questions and categories and the program will use "sophisticated randomization" to make sure you don’t get the same questions and categories, you may see a question or category twice, but it is rare.

Playing with Wheel of Fortune was fun, there are two options, you can speak the letters and speak to solve the puzzle or point and click the letters. Spinning the wheel is great, hold the back button and flick your remote as if you were spinning the wheel. They have added multiple sets classic, Vegas, Hawaii, New York and a few others. The game runs in the same format as the show, with tossup puzzles, regular puzzles and who can forget the bonus round.

Well I know that I am not smarter than a fifth grader after playing with the demo of this fun game. This version is slightly different from the TV show, you play all the questions and each grade level is worth a different amount of money and you are trying to see how much money you can collect by finishing your questions, but you still have the same three options to save, copy and cheat. Added to the game is also a multiplayer level. This is a speed round and a race to the finish line. In this game you can do things to throw off your completion like cover your opponent’s questions and or answers, slow down your opponent by speeding up the allotted amount of time to answer questions or slow down yours. If you miss a question you go down a level while your opponent may go up by getting a question correct. This multiplayer option is a great spin on a single player game. All three of these games are sure to be fun when they come out in November!

Up and coming publisher THQ has a $40 million Project Natal game up its sleeve but won’t make it until Microsoft’s motion control market grows and proves itself worthy of that kind of substantial investment.

THQ’s core games VP, Danny Bilso, spoke with CVG about the mysterious project and largely said nothing outside of the possibility.

“I have some concepts and some ideas that use Natal in a core game in a really, really cool way.

“But to your other question I don’t think the experience with the technology is there, I don’t think the install base is there because the game I’m thinking about is a $30m/$40m Natal game and the install base isn’t there yet to support that. The concept I have uses every corner of that tech and maybe in a couple of years we’ll do it.”

“So there’s core potential there but on the creative side I’m absolutely focused on core… so an idea I have for that, aside for the one that we have, is a big core game.

“I think we have to wait a little bit just for the install base to justify spending a ton of money. Because my idea is a really expensive idea.”

How is this news you might say? Some guy, rambling about what he “might” do. We agree, but he isn’t just “some guy,” he’s a higherup at a major publisher and if he’s willing to invest that kind of capital into a motion-based game, then  maybe that should tell us Project Natal is something mightier than what we’ve been led to believe.

Source: CVG

Ever wonder what would happen if the apocalypse just happened to start early? Well, pick up Darksiders for your Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 and you can start finding out. Vigil Games and THQs Darksiders is an excellent addition to any gaming library, and starts gaming in 2010 with a whole lot of blood and gore. And for those of you who just enjoy slapping around a dragon while you hold him down with your sword through his claw, Darksiders is sure to bring a pleasant experience.

For those who have played SCE Studios God of War, Darksiders will definitely have an air of familiarity to it. Combining button-combo, action style game play with classic ‘Legend-of-Zelda’-ish platforming, Darksiders is an impressive homage to gaming past and present. You start the game as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The stage of the game is Earth, where mankind live unaware of the ancient battle between Heaven and Hell that has been raging for centuries. The Horsemen are charged as keepers of the balance of the three worlds. In present day, Armageddon begins and angels and demons descend upon Earth to wage battle once more. Armed with your sword, Chaoseater and a badass attitude, you dive headfirst into the action, destroying both angel and demon alike.

The only setback is… well, the apocalypse wasn’t supposed to happen quite yet.  War is brought before the Charred Council to accept his punishment for supposedly starting the apocalypse. Instead, the Council agrees to let War attempt to seek his revenge on the real parties responsible. To make sure War keeps his end of the bargain, they assign to him The Watcher (voiced by none other than Mark Hamill!), a demon who has the ability to destroy War if he happens to be lead astray. Thus begins your quest to seek the Destroyer, main bad dude extraordinaire. Upon War’s return to Earth, he discovers that 100 years have now passed, and with the help of some unlikely allies, he begins his march on the Black Tower.

Not shown: Phil LaMarr exclamining, "My manwich!"

War is made for fighting, and has an arsenal of weapons to prove it. Along with your blade, you receive several amazing weapons throughout the course of the game, and as if that wasn’t enough, there are plenty more to be had at the store, run by a demon named Vugrim. Vulgrim also provides War with special abilities, new attacks, and general items that can level up his health, wrath meter, and his already obtained attacks. The combat system is fairly simple, and definitely easily learned. Button-combos and timing control turn War into a slashing, demon/angel-killing machine. After lowering enemies health to a certain point, a finisher attack becomes available, all of which are unique to the type of enemy you happen to be fighting.

Along with your normal attacks, War also has special attacks, and a Chaos form which turns him into an invincible god-like entity for a short time. War can even pick up objects in the environment and throw them at his enemies, causing major damage. Your reward for killing monsters are three types of orbs: health orbs, wrath orbs, and soul orbs. Wrath is the meter for War’s special attacks, soul orbs are bargaining chips at the local shop, and health orbs restore any damage that War takes during battle. If by some random chance War is killed in battle, Darksiders incorporates a check-point system that allows players to return to the game without too much of a hassle or back-tracking.

Get used to facing massive demon bosses

There is much to be discovered as you work your way through the game. Treasure chests are plentiful, most containing health, wrath, or soul orbs, but there are also other artifacts and weapons to be found. The level design creates a challenging puzzle to work though, mostly involving tools that War receives along the way, including a grappling tool, the ability to slow time, and even the creation of portals to get from one place to another. The levels go from being fairly easy to maneuver to a time-consuming challenge. The variety of ways War gets around is fairly impressive as well; you could be climbing up a wall and clinging to pipes and suddenly be underwater and swimming through underground tunnels. Sometimes, the level design gets to be a bit overwhelming, and in the later parts of the game, it is easy to get turned around. Fortunately, there is normally a way to get back to where you started, even if it may take a little while to find it.

Character design in this game is one of its best focus points. War himself is almost bland compared to some monsters that you will meet in this game, including an extremely devilish, huge winged demon, Samael. Visually appealing, the graphics are smooth and colorful creating some of the most interesting backgrounds to a game that have been seen in the next-gen console lineup. Monster design is diverse, and the game is rampant with zombies, demons, angels, and giant boss battles that put other bosses to shame. Darksiders is a violent, beat-em-up, bloody game that will delight gamers, treating them to a feast of gore.

Blast Factor: As a whole, Darksiders uses a lot of tried-and-true elements that we have seen before to create a new experience for gamers. Although nothing revolutionary happens mechanically in this game, it stands tall as a beautiful demonstration of great game play combined with gorgeous graphics and a likeable story. Unless you spend hours and hours gaining souls to use at the shop, your first-playthrough will probably not be enough to unlock everything the game has to offer, making Darksiders a fine example of a game with replay value. Although sadly the actual story doesn’t quite pop out during the game, the voice-acting, level design, and polished combat system make Darksiders a good show and definitely worth taking a closer look at.

Darksiders is available on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and retails for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Smackdown vs. Raw is never a bad game; it always serves its purpose as a piece of WWE entertainment outside of the shows themselves, but it was in need of some new features in order to keep things interesting and improve on the ground that’s been treaded over and over again by the series. There’s always more you can do–more modes, more characters, more costumes, more features–and thankfully, Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 adds plenty to the series while building on its strong foundation.

There are a few new gameplay improvements that bear mentioning. For one, the animations have improved, so things look a bit more realistic now than they used to. Wrestlers react to being struck in specific areas more, and you can use things like the ropes to great effect in order to take your opponent out. Strong grapple transitions are now manually performed, which means you can switch from one grapple position to another without having to let go of the grapple first–considering that THQ wrestling games from 10 years ago made you do this, it’s about time this change came about. There are also new positions to attack from and grapple from, which gives you even more options per Superstar when it comes to your move set.

Reversals have received a makeover too–now you have to press the right trigger to reverse everything, but it is timing based, so you can’t just spam the button and hope you reverse it. The window for reversals is pretty small, but with some practice it works effectively. Of course, if you aren’t able to reverse, you’ll take a beating; the good news is that now you will be able to see that beating’s effects on you and your opponent’s body. Give someone a hard chop to the chest? You’ll see their chest redden, which is a cool damage effect that mirrors real life. There’s also a lot of blood in this year’s edition–while the cuts start out small, the blood keeps on coming if you beat them down, so things will get messy.

The bulk of the Smackdown vs. Raw experience is the same as previous editions, but there have been some cool additions that make this much more than a roster update with a fresh coat of paint. The Road to Wrestlemania mode features multiple storylines that have been developed with the mindset of replicating a WWE experience. Copyright logos show up at the same time they would during the actual Raw or Smackdown shows, you go to the backrooms to talk to other wrestlers and view cutscenes, and there’s much more going on than just fight, fight, fight. They also do a very good job of harnessing these Superstar’s personalities–Edge is the kind of guy you’re going to love or hate, just like in real life, as he tries to take over Smackdown in his scenario. He’s presented as a twisted, sick-minded (but talented) wrestler who should not be given the reins to Smackdown, and even the announcers get in on that kind of information as they call his matches. These scenarios are well done and feel very much like a WWE experience.

The Royal Rumble has had some work done to it, as there are now different minigames for eliminating opponents. These change depending on where you try to throw an opponent out (or where you’re being tossed out). These are simple, like tap X repeatedly then tap Y repeatedly until you get back in, or sometimes they are more quick-time event oriented, but they are easy to grasp and make the Royal Rumble a more frantic and fun experience.

Maybe more interesting is the Championship Scramble though, a new match type that has five wrestlers going at it at the same time. You can put the different WWE championship belts on the line in these matches, which have an intriguing concept: two wrestlers start, and the three others enter the ring at set times. Each time someone is pinned or falls via submission hold, the wrestler responsible becomes the new champion; the twist is that there is a time limit, and the last one standing holding the belt is the champion. This becomes very difficult though, as there are five of you in there at once, meaning there are three people ready to stomp on your face every time you go for the cover. The matches are loads of fun though, especially given their difficulty–you aren’t just going to throw a few strong grapple moves around here and come away victorious if there are four others in the ring that all want to hurt you.

The create-a-wrestler mode has also seen improvements, with options for creating entrance movies using highlights that you have saved; you take these highlights, splice them together, and add sound and screen effects in order to come in to a badass theme. Taking a cue from the 2009 edition of the game, custom finishers are back, but you can now also create your own aerial finishers–those of you that love the high flying Superstars are sure to be pleased by this development. The obvious thing to do is to make everyone perform a hurricanrana, but you can string together your own preferences before the final blow. There is also a paint tool that you can use to create custom tattoos and the like for your Frankenwrestler, so you aren’t limited by what comes with the game any longer.

If you don’t want to create a new wrestler, then you still get to toy around with create-a-wrestler features, as you can now customize the Superstars that come with the game more, changing their colors. For me, that meant that John Cena had to wear girly colors, but you can mock or improve whichever wrestler you choose in the way you want to (P.S., make Cena like girly things). You also have the option of downloading other player’s created wrestlers, which means that you don’t need to struggle to create the legends of the WWE hiding in the costume designs if you don’t want to, because someone else already did.

While these modes are all well and good, with either improvements or totally new features that enhance the Smackdown vs. Raw experience, the meat of the game for many is going to be the WWE Story Designer. You don’t need to even make one yourself in order to enjoy this, which is probably its greatest strength–you can simply download other people’s scenarios over Xbox Live, which means you have a limitless supply of brand new stories to play through. While the chances that all of them are memorable experiences is slim, the fact that you will have some serious hardcore fans writing their own stories–this is basically a fan fiction generator–is great news for those who love their WWE.

You may be shocked at the breadth of options you have at your disposal in this mode. You’re basically scripting a 10-year show instead of just playing General Manager of either Smackdown or Raw, so you not only set the matches, but you get to create backstage scenes, start rivalries, create alliances, or, if you’re feeling frisky, create some Diva/Superstar relationships. You write the scripts, and you use the over 100 animations you have at your disposal to emote the lines.

You not only have the entire WWE roster at your beck and call here, but you can also use your created wrestlers, meaning there’s no shortage of talent for you. This also allows you to give your created Superstars some personality that can be played out somewhere besides your noggin. This gives you a lot to do after you’ve finished the story modes included in the game, and as stated, if creativity isn’t your thing, there is always other people’s work to play through. That shared content isn’t restricted to just created-wrestlers and the Story Designer though, as you can download pretty much everything from other people that you can create yourself.

Blast Factor: There is no shortage of things to do in Smackdown vs. Raw 2010. The game that comes packaged has loads of game modes, from the traditional career stuff to a more story-oriented Road to Wrestlemania, and let’s not forget about the enhanced Royal Rumble and the brand new Championship Scramble. Outside of that though, creation is the name of the game, from characters to entrances to your own WWE storylines–and of course, if you aren’t creative or don’t have the time, you can always download other people’s work to extended your Smackdown vs. Raw experience.

Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 is available on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Wii and Nintendo DS. A copy of the Xbox 360 game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

The first batch of downloadable content for Red Faction Guerilla has arrived, and if you were into the full game, then you will be pleased with this. There are not necessarily a lot of new ideas here, but what is available is certainly worth your time and money. Demons of the Badlands puts you into the role of Samanya, the nonplayable character from Red Faction Guerilla who has her roots with the Marauders. This is a prequel, taking place before Red Faction has even formed on Mars, but it does show you how Samanya found her way out of the Marauder camp and into a longstanding fight with her sister, the leader of the Marauders.

The main missions are a good time, and just like with the full game, you need to clear a certain number of side missions or drop the Earth Defense Force’s control of Mariner Valley enough so that the next mission becomes available. You can do this by either completing side missions or blowing everything EDF-owned on Mars to hell using rocket launchers, mines, remote charges, and of course, your trusty sledgehammer. Each time you complete a mission, be it main or side, you unlock new abilities, like carrying extra charges, holding more rockets, etc, so by the end Samanya is a walking force of destructive nature, much like Alex Mason became.

This is not a quick batch of DLC either–if you want to spend time blowing up each and every important EDF target (there’s even an achievement for doing so) and completing every side mission (ditto on that) then you will put a good 4-5 hours into Demons of the Badlands. If you want to beat the Pro times on the transporter missions, it will probably take you a bit longer than that, and there are also 75 power cells hidden throughout the world that need to be collected–considering I picked up just 25 or so during my first playthrough, you could say they are hidden well and will take time to acquire. There are 250 achievement points in all, and since the other DLC packs will focus on multiplayer and wrecking crew, this is your best shot at adding to the single-player Red Faction Guerilla experience.

There’s very little to complain about with Demons of the Badlands–even on the normal difficulty, there are loads and loads of EDF for you to take out, and they actively hunt you down just like in the full game. My one issue is that there isn’t much variety in the side missions, as most of them are Demolition ones. I will say though that these will require a lot of thought put into them, as they are set up like puzzles rather than as the kind where you just throw a bunch of explosives down and hit go.

There are a few new vehicles to try out, including a walker with flails on its hands–there’s an accompanying mission to use that in, so you will get to blow up plenty of EDF with this fancy mix of old-school and new-school weaponry. The game does load you up with tons of remote charges and a rocket launcher early on as well, meaning once you get to an area, you can stay there until you’ve blown everything in sight up or get shot down. This cuts down on the backtracking, and since you don’t need to collect scrap, also lets you do a bit more hit-and-run style guerilla warfare. You could complain that this makes things too easy, but you could also just ramp up the difficulty and see how that works for you.

Blast Factor: If you’re a fan of the full game, then you will also like Demons of the Badlands. You’re paying $10 for a condensed Red Faction Guerilla experience that takes place in an all-new area, using a character that was formerly an NPC, and you get 4-5 hours of gameplay, making this almost like a mini-expansion rather than just a new map with a few new vehicles and missions. It’s worth your time and money, so if you’ve still got the itch to blow the EDF away, get downloading.

Demons of the Badlands is available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 for 800 Microsoft Points and $10, respectively.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse will soon be in your living room, wreaking havoc on your television screen. But before we let the strangers in, we should probably get to know the muscly blokes fighting for dear life.

THQ, publisher of Darksiders, the game in question, have a great little habit they never break: releasing new screens and info on the title each and every week. Think Super Smash Bro’s Brawl DOJO, only sword smash face blood. Get it? Have a look at these indescribably beautiful renders of Earth and the Horsemen at the most bleak of times and let us know in the comments what you think of the art direction, or the game, or your favorite spreadable jam. We’re all ears.

SAN DIEGO — War has it tough. He shows up to the apocalypse like he’s supposed to–he is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse after all, the event is in his title–but it turns out he’s the lone horseman to make it to the shindig because the battle has begun prematurely. Things don’t go quite like they are supposed to because of it, and Hell defeats Heaven. Now, the forces of Heaven are angry at War, because he basically got stuck with the check by showing up when no one else did. Hell hates him because he’s not on their side, and earth probably would hate him if there was anyone left alive there. Now, 100 years after the botched apocalypse, War must return to the remnants of earth to clear his name, free trapped souls, and kick some ass.

That’s the basic setup for this game, and as cool as the concept is, the gameplay itself does well for itself too. War is stylized in a way that makes him look straight out of a comic book, which is a great contrast to the realistic looking (though stylized) real-world earth. You have war fighting these awesome looking creatures that look ripped straight from the pages of fantasy, but all on the stage of post-apocalyptic earth. While you may think from sneaking a peek at the title that it resembles God of War or the upcoming Dante’s Inferno due to its use of combos and large-scale battles against various enemies, that’s not the feeling I got from playing. This feels like a take on the Legend of Zelda formula, and if you speak to anyone working with the game, they will tell you the same thing.

Zelda was a major influence for this title, as you have a main world that you traverse and dungeons that you must enter. More of the main world opens up as you clear dungeons, complete tasks and acquire new items, and when in each dungeon you will learn new abilities or gain new items, then use that new found knowledge or power to defeat the boss protecting it. You even have a Navi type figure, although he’s much angrier and violent than that fairy ever was, and is voiced by Mark Hamill. Battles are a bit more important here than they are in Zelda, and more difficult too from the look of things, so calling it a combination of a Zelda-type game and an action-based brawler would be an accurate description.

You will get to wield giant swords and shoot guns in the game, and ride a horse called Ruin. You will unlock powers that you have lost until you become the true representation of the Horseman, War. While the build I played did not show off his true potential, I did get a chance to see how well combat worked, and what kind of enemies you would be fighting. There are basic grunt enemies, which were likened to, “The grass in Zelda” but as a source of souls rather than rupees, as souls are the game’s currency for buying new upgrades and items. You don’t want to be surrounded by too many of these guys, despite the ease with which they are defeated, because much fouler creatures are around to do serious damage to you. You can take these out either with some magic, low and high powered attacks mixed together in combos, or by picking up objects in the environment and using them to your advantage. I was running around a post-apocalyptic city with cars strewn about, so I picked them up and swung them at enemies, or threw them from a distance with the ease of tossing a football around. This makes for some varied battles, and gives you a bit of freedom as far as taking out your enemies.

The first boss fight encountered in the demo was pretty tough considering how early it was in the game, but when I found out that this “boss” was actually just a standard enemy you will encounter many times throughout the game, I got a bit excited. That might mean good things as for the difficulty and scale of battles you will be involved in while you play Darksiders.

While the game is still a ways away, the demo from Comic-Con put this game on my radar. A mature take on the Legend of Zelda formula using one of the Four Horsemen of legend is a wonderful idea, and with what I have experienced, could turn out to be a neat homage to the gameplay style while also retaining plenty of its own fun and character. We’ll have more info for you on this title as it nears release, but for now, enjoy the trailer and the screens we have for you.

Red Faction: Guerrilla, the latest offering from Volition Inc. ‚ is a hotly anticipated and overwhelmingly exciting title on paper, but does the action and total destructibility actually achieve what the studio worked so tirelessly to create?

Marc threw himself into the multiplayer mayhem at New York Comic Con in February and his eloquent conclusions can, and should be read here.‚  However, the single player campaign demo came to Xbox Live and The PlayStation Network last week allowing everyone, everywhere the chance to experience the weak gravity, heavy weaponry of the Red Planet as well as the first inklings of what looks to be a dynamic story that Volition’s writers worked so very hard on.

I played through the very short demo on Xbox 360 in less than 15 minutes, but in such a short time was treated to a very fresh, inviting, and wholly awesome experience, the summary of which is below.

First starting up the demo you’ll be treated to a glorious cut-scene briefly describing the heavy story elements of the title as well as scenes depicting the violence and destruction that lies ahead.‚  In a nutshell, when humans first migrated to Mars everyone got along.‚  Somewhere down the line however, the Earth Defense Force, once a group aimed at helping the people, turned sinister, power-tripped and forced the Red planet inhabitants into a life of submission.

You play as Alex Mason, a member of the resistance group Red Faction and your mission in the demo is to recover the mighty and destructive Walker by breaking into an EDF base and seizing it by force.

What you’ll first notice is your total ability to destroy anything, anything, and everyone in your way.‚  With the swift swing of your hammer walls will fall, creating entrances to buildings that enemies cannot account for.

The demo also introduces you to the Morale system, in which if you kill a citizen the morale level drops at a significantly higher rate than if a member of the EDF does the deed.‚  You really must watch your friendly fire.

The level design of “Dust,” the aptly named locale in which the demo is housed, is robust and shows off the true capabilities of the game.‚  The environment is expansive but yet to trudge to a “far away” building is not a trek at all and is partially facilitated by the low gravity great for long jumps, and the uber speed at which Alec can sprint. ‚ ‚ Environment design is also wonderful.‚  Buildings are numerous, cover is plentiful, and enemies are everywhere.‚  ‚ Oh, and did I mention total destruction capabilities?

Enemies in the demo come at you in packs too large to suppress with Rambo-style antics alone.‚  You truly must take advantage of the aforesaid ubiquitous cover, and also use destruction to your great advantage.‚  If the door to a room is sealed off simply make a grand entrance by busting the door in.‚  It’s just that simple.

After you’ve reached the EDF base and stolen the powerful Walker your next task is to courageously make your way to the transport vehicle back where the mission started.‚  When operating the Walker you can swing the arms high and low and truly rip apart everything your way.‚  Simply walk into a building, swing your arms and the structure drops.‚  However, when ripping apart gargantuan EDF bases the frame rate does drop a bit, but really, did you truly expect it not to?

When recklessly, or strategically, destroying the EDF camps you’ll notice both a “killing spree” icon pop up as well as a monetary damage indicator.‚  Your purpose in Guerrilla is to take back the Red Planet from the EDF by way of destroying their bases and subsequently racking up a tab they cannot pay off.‚  Throughout my play-through of the demo I racked up $29.41 million in EDF damages, and no, I’ll never pay a cent back!

The brief demo ends with a rail-shooter type experience on the back of the Walker transport vehicle.‚  Here is where your classic video game instincts kick in as your only task is to destroy oncoming EDF vehicles and EDF bases on either side.‚  The demo ends at the height of a heart-racing crescendo and I was truly bummed to be finished.

The available weaponry in the demo is limited to just enough to get you through and certainly does not incorporate the famed “ostrich hammer” or any of the other dynamic weapons Volition has shown, but nevertheless is a sweet, sweet taste of what’s to come.

The third-person view is a handy one, as your sights need to lie not only directly in front, but also on either side, above and ahead.‚  The corresponding cover system is simple to learn and wholly effective, you know, until the wall your head is resting against gets blown to smithereens.

Inventory will be a large part of Red Faction: Guerrilla and from what little was available in the demo, the need was already there to strategically equip certain ammo and weaponry depending on the situation and the corresponding control set up on the Xbox 360 controller allows for the simple swapping of items.

Detriments to the experience for me truly only included the ability to have the crouch ability toggled to stay on without holding down a button, but really, that is just nit-picking.‚  In addition, sometimes the cover system and firing from cover was a bit of a testy endeavor and it is easy to become frustrated when repeatedly smacking LB doesn’t keep you behind cover.

The single player campaign in Red Faction: Guerrilla seems to be coming along quite swimmingly, but I feel multi-player will truly make this title if handled appropriately.‚  As stated earlier, Marc got his hands on the multi-player component and you should absolutely read his findings here.

Overall, Red Faction: Guerrilla looks and feels like an incredible title, one at least worthy of the time spent to download and play through the demo.‚  If you hate shooters, violence, destruction, and compelling narrative I’d stay away from this one.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is due out on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in June

Start your download for Xbox 360 here.

Red Faction: Guerilla, the third person shooter set on the distant red planet of Mars‚  finally received a release date today, as publisher THQ Games dropped the details revealing that the title will hit retail June 9^th for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

At Comic Con, Guerilla was one of the most intriguing and appreciated games by causal attendees and industry heads alike.‚  The combination of depth of weaponry, fast paced action, upgradeable equipment of all sorts, as well as the total destructibility of varying environments all melt together so well and had gamers both triumphantly yelling and face-palming with conviction all day long.

via Kotaku

Red Faction: Guerrilla, developed by Volition and storming onto consoles and PC this summer, looks to build on an already solid franchise, and from my experience at Comic Con with the multiplayer, strikes a resounding chord with total destructibility, heavy artillery, a multitude of game-play modes, and an addictive, vengeance oriented overall mentality.

Volition dropped a ton of screenshots today highlighted by weapon of the week, the sniper rifle.‚  Perfectly fit for the long lines of sight commonplace on the red planet, the sniper rifle is a dreadfully powerful weapon that will undoubtedly lead to many epic kills.

Red Faction: Guerilla is set to release June 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Until then, enjoy these glorious screenshots in the gallery and read our hands-on preview of Red Faction: Guerilla here.

THQ has published games based on everything from the silly cartoon antics of SpongeBob, to the more serious yet ultimately just as funny Drake and Josh television series. ‚ Joystiq.com calls the publisher the “unparalleled master of licensed gaming adaptations.”‚  THQ’s presence is undeniable, and their target audience is thirsty for more.

THQ aims to quench that longing with “Up,” a game in development for every imaginable gaming platform, based on the hotly anticipated Disney Pixar feature film by the same name.

Up will follow the exotic adventures of main character Carl Fredricksen and his young sidekick Wilderness Explorer Russell as they trek through the undiscovered jungles of South America. Treacherous jungle terrain, dangerous creatures and the slippery slopes of the Amazonian Tepuis await you in this latest film to game title.

Up will feature both single player and co-op game-play with an additional multiplayer component containing four player aerial combat.

Development of Up is being handled by Heavy Iron Studios, creators of the video game renditions of Ratatouille and WALL-E, the former earning a “Best Animated Video Game award” from the International Animated Film Society.

I was lucky enough to view a portion of the film at Comic Con and without giving any spoilers, I really think the varying character personalities coupled with the extravagant locations will for make a great video game if executed properly.

This spring Up will release on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Games for Windows, and Mac.

If you just cannot wait, a free playable demo is available on Up the video game’s official site here.

More information regarding Up the film can be found here.

Many Wii owners have felt starved for “core” games the past few months, as the release schedule has been light. What kept fans of the console going through this recent rough patch was the promise of a better 2009, one that matches or even potentially exceeds the lineups of its more powerful console cousins. Deadly Creatures is linked to both of these time frames, as it was meant to release during the fall of 2008 and then around Christmas time-where it would have helped to fill in the quiet holiday schedule along with another THQ title, de Blob-but has now released during February alongside a few other core-focused titles.

Let me say this right away: Deadly Creatures was worth the wait. The extra time in development that was used in order to improve the game and implement a more workable control scheme (less waggle for waggle’s sake, more intuitive use for the finished product) helps make Deadly Creatures into a must buy effort, but there are still some issues that myself and many gamers would have liked to see ironed out before the game hit retail.

Deadly Creatures has you control a tarantula and a scorpion, but they don’t have cartoonish figures or anthropomorphic looks. Instead, Rainbow Studios, who is mostly known for their entries in the racing genre, built a game that looks like it’s straight out of National Geographic. The world is realistic and chronicles the daily grind for these creatures, which is brutal and unforgiving. Either you turn the insects, arachnids, lizards and the like into dinner, or they will do the same to you.

Rainbow Studios, who are headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, spent a significant amount of time out in the desert to make sure they got this right, and you can see the results of that in the finished product; you see other creatures going about their daily lives, catching prey, fighting, or just crawling around doing the things that these insects, lizards and snakes do in the real world. This facet of Deadly Creatures adds to the ambiance, and deserves to be noticed for its success.

Rather than just a “day in the life” kind of game, there’s a story that occurs in the background. The two human characters, Wade and Struggs, who are voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper, are digging around for a map in the desert in the same area that our two heroes are searching for lunch in. You learn early on that a gas station is the focus of part of the story, and that it no longer is standing in one piece; you just don’t know why that is. The more chapters you complete, the more of the story unfolds until your paths actually cross-a little of this is unveiled in the prologue, but you’ll have to play to figure out just what’s going on in the story.

As for the actual gameplay, you have two characters with different strengths. The tarantula is the more agile of the two characters, with quick thrusting attacks, jumping and pouncing blows, web shots, and other things that allow it to dance around enemies until they fall. The scorpion is the tank, as it walks around essentially in a suit of armor (exoskeletons come in handy), has the ability to block, and is more about stringing together short, powerful combos to defeat its enemies than it is about running circles around them or using agility to its advantage. In addition, the scorpion also has finishing moves; whereas the tarantula just beats its enemies until they stop moving, the scorpion brutally rips them to pieces or stabs them through with this tail, which is very satisfying.

Some of these finishers are very visceral and real-if this were people instead of insects and the like, the title would probably be rated higher than T. For example, the finishing move for the Tarantula Hawk, shown in the screenshots in our gallery, has the scorpion grab the flying bug in its pincers, whip it around some, then grab its wings and yank them right off while simultaneously stabbing it through the chest with its tail. Dismemberment and impaling, all in the blink of an eye, and it’s a joy to watch as it unfolds.

It’s easy to do too, as finishing moves are initiated with a press of the C button and carried out through Quick Time Events. You will want to turn the sensitivity up in order to perform these QTE’s effectively, but no worries, they do work effectively. If you do happen to fail too, you will get a second shot as long as your adversary is still dazed. All of the controls are simple, actually: press A for a basic attack, string together presses of the A button and certain movements for more powerful attacks (a tail whip for the scorpion is performed with a sideways wave of the Wii Remote, for instance). There is also a move list that you can peruse, which is good because the more you kill, the more moves and techniques you unlock for both characters.

There are also different ways to travel as the scorpion and tarantula. Eventually, the tarantula unlocks the ability to web jump from place to place, as long as there is another web waiting for you on the other side. The scorpion can dig in places the tarantula cannot, so both have little shortcuts and paths to take, even if you are traversing the same areas. This keeps the levels feeling fresh, even when you know you were just there a little earlier with the other character. Combine this with the different fighting styles for the two, and you can see why the gameplay doesn’t go stale.

Red Faction was a franchise that I was not too familiar with before heading to Comic Con, and after getting a taste of the latest entry in the series, Guerilla, I’m starting to wonder why I haven’t noticed it before. The display itself was hard to miss, as THQ had eight consoles running the game (six multiplayer, two with the single-player demo), and because of it there were lines of people waiting to get their hands on it all weekend.

It took me until Sunday, the last day of the convention, but I finally got a chance to test out what the game had to offer. This preview is for the multiplayer portions of the game, as I could not get anywhere near the single-player mode due to the traffic around it.

For those of you who are not familiar with Red Faction, let me give you a bit of background info. The series takes place in the future, and deals with wars on both Mars and Earth. This third entry marks the return to Mars, and with it comes an open-world, third-person shooter affair. The hallmark of the series has been the elements of environmental destruction, and with the power of the high-definition consoles running the show this time around, the ante has been increased significantly. Cover explodes, buildings topple down, and the game even encourages this kind of behavior through the use of specific suits.

These suits are another Red Faction trademark, as they bestow special powers on the wearer. There’s a stealth suit for invisibility when not firing, a suit that makes your character run faster, one that allows your character to hover above the ground and fire down at targets below, as well as one that will allow you to knock a building down and crush all within the walls, including you.

These suits are available in multiplayer, which gives the game a unique angle with which to build from. The controls are tight and easy to pick up on if you’ve ever played a third-person shooter, so it’s simple enough to learn how to use the suits to your advantage without any clumsy adjustment time. Trust me, you will want to learn how to use them. All it took was one guy popping out of stealth mode in front of me to melee attack my character before I realized just how key those suits are to your survival in multiplayer.

Experimenting with the suits is a lot of fun. Stealth mode has obvious benefits, but using a jetpack to shoot yourself onto a rooftop or above a foe stuck on the ground has its merits as well. Knocking down a building is satisfying, as is using the aptly named Rhino suit to charge through enemies in your path. It gives the multiplayer a reason to exist besides simple running and gunning, and you can already tell, based on my own experience with the title and those of the fans new and old at Comic Con this weekend, that developer Volition has nailed the multiplayer experience in a way that will tear people away from their established shooter franchises.

Let’s not forget that Red Faction: Guerilla is a sight to behold as well. Even though the map I was playing in looked like a desert-this is the surface of Mars, after all-the browns and reds were vibrantly colored, and were, in a word, gorgeous. The character models are richly detailed as well, with excellent animation for running, shooting and the use of all of the suits. The tremors caused by one of the suits has to be experienced, because it’s quite the sight to see your entire screen start to shake and warp out of control at the press of a button. This is a game that looks incredible in motion, far better than the accompanying screens for this piece lead you to believe. It may have been the best looking game on one of the high-def consoles at the entire event; if not the best, then certainly up there alongside it.

This game was nowhere near my radar when I came to New York Friday, but it has shot its way up the ranks just from the short time I spent with it. If you’re a fan of the series, it’s time to get excited, and if you’re new to the franchise like me, then strap in just the same, because this game looks like it’s worthy of your attention. Red Faction: Guerilla will release this summer on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Saints Row 2 shipped for Windows PC Tuesday, THQ announced.

Play control will be the essential difference in the PC gaming experience with the game looking and sounding nearly the same on the PC as it does on consoles, a THQ spokesperson said. The difference would be using a keyboard and mouse instead of a console controller.

Some gamers prefer using their PC to a console, said Craig Mitchell, a spokesman for THQ. “We want to reach gamers where they play.”

Offering these types of advanced games on the PC sometimes proves to be problematic. Different PC gamers use different hardware depending on the machine they use. Some gamers could simply run the game on a home computer. Other gamers might run Saints Row 2 on a machine custom made for gaming. Such machines could give a crisp look to the graphics, Mitchell said.

Saints Row 2 allows players to roam free in a city environment. The main character in the game is in a street gang called the Saints. The title references the street where the gang lives. Players can interact with this environment as they choose.

“Saints Row 2 is the first title to offer PC gamers an open-world experience,” Mike Kulas, vice president, product development and general manager of Volition Inc., said in a THQ press release. “We’ve spent a great deal of time optimizing system specs for Windows PC to ensure gamers the same high quality experience no matter what system they choose.”

Volition Inc. internally developed the game, for THQ, to include an open-world action environment similar to the original Saints Row, with a few improvements. The sequel features customizable character design, but ads customization options to the gang and your crib, or place of residence.

Gameplay centers on the actions of shooting, fighting and driving. Some of these elements were designed in the same way as the original Saints Row. Others have changed.

Shooting works in the standard third person style. Weapons have been added, but this element is essentially the same as the first game.

Fighting has become a combo system with four distinct styles. The player starts with a brawler style. Depending on which gangs the player interacts wit the fighting style evolves to include a grappling style, a Kung Fu style, or a Caribbean style.

Driving changed in Saints Row 2, because of the addition of new vehicles including motorcycles, boats, helicopters and planes.

The story centers on the Saints taking back the city from a corrupt corporation. The corporation is attempting to gentrify the city and eliminate the gangs, including the Saints. “They have their own private security force to fight you, particularly when you go on company property,” Mitchell said.

Boston retailers should have the game on shelves this week. It will retail for around $40.

THQ Wireless has released Star Wars Sound Board, a Lucasfilm-licensed application that allows users to replay sound bites from the Star Wars series, they announced recently.

Quotes from characters such as Darth Vader, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and C-3PO are included, as well as sound effects including the Lightsaber, R2-D2′s beeps, Chewbacca’s growls, and TIE Fighters flying.

Star Wars Sound Board is available now from the App Store for $1.

Playboy Games: Pool Party has launched for mobile phones.

Your mind is now that much dirtier.

This game’s launch marks the first part of a multi-year, multi-title agreement between Playboy and THQ for developing non-nude but “Playboy lifestyle-themed” games that are stacked with mini-games and pseudo wholesome challenges like frisbee throwing, bucking-bronco rides, water balloon fights, and jumping in the pool.

Players can customize their own low-resolution babe with bikinis, hairstyles, shoes, stockings, and accessories.

Get all that for $6.99. Just don’t let anyone see you playing it, or they’ll think you’re a douchebag.

This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1998 when there was no real professional wrestling monopoly.

WCW/NWO is one of the best wrestling sims THQ has come out with. Featuring up to date rosters and an excellent array of moves, Revenge is a welcome addition to your N64 game library.

Control in Revenge is easy once you get the hang of it. The game is very similar to THQ’s last wrestling game, WCW vs. NWO: World Tour, with some updates. It’s the type of game that just doesn’t get boring — especially on multiplayer.

There are several modes of play including championship belt competitions, exhibition matches, handicap matches, battle royals and tag team contests. There are also six Pay-Per-View arenas including Bash at the Beach, WCW Starcade, Super Brawl and WCW Monday Nitro.

Another nice little feature in Revenge is that many wrestlers come out with their corresponding girls/managers. For example, Macho Man Randy Savage comes into the ring with Elizabeth, and DDP comes out with Kimberly. And of course, who could forget The Mouth of The South Jimmy Hart who comes out with Meng and Barbarian. The wrestlers come out with music and strut into the ring where they show off their stuff before the match.

The various organizations of the time are also included in WCW/NWO revenge including NWO Red and White, Raven’s Flock and the DAW and EWF wrestling organizations. All this adds to the nice amount of realism that is in this game.

There is also a very nice arsenal of available weapons that you might find if you exit the ring and walk up to one of the guardrails and press C-UP. These weapons include Sting’s Black bat, a metal bat, a trashcan, stop sign, briefcase and a large wooden plank. Get the opponent out of the ring and beat him senseless with a weapon. Try using the more popular wrestlers also, because less popular ones tend to not find weapons as easily.

Overall I seriously liked Revenge. It is enjoyable and addicting to play with a nice array of wrestlers, weapons, bells, whistles, and all kinds of other things. (Make sure you watch the intro video at the beginning, it is probably the best I’ve ever seen!)

Ups

• Lots of wrestlers
• Several addicting play modes to choose from
• Stunning moves, great graphics, and high caliber sound

Downs

• Computer AI wrestlers are way too easy to defeat

Quick hits:

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Asmik Ace Ent.
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: Wrestling/Sports
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1998

Blast has learned that THQ will announce brand new details regarding this year’s edition of their perennial Smackdown VS  Raw series as part of this weekend’s Wrestlemania festivities in Orlando, Fla.

Like last year’s title, 2009 will be available on most platforms, including Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP and DS, each with more than its fair share of new features and content.

Heavily touted for this year’s PS3 and Xbox 360 edition is the new focus on tag teams.  Players will now be able to team up in the new “Road to Wrestlemania” career mode — a first for the series and wrestling games in general.  New tag-centric finishers, momentum systems and storylines have all been teased.

Also announced is the new create-a-finisher mode. Long on the “wanted” list for years, the new mode will allow players to choose between more than 500 animations to create their dream finishing move.

Expected to tie in to this mode is the newly announced downloadable content, another first for the series.

Smackdown VS Raw 2009 will be the series second go-round on the Wii, and this year THQ plans to learn from last year’s lowly rated game and take full advantage of the systems capabilities. Promising more match types and the debut of online play, the Wii will feature a slimmed-down version of the aforementioned “Road to Wrestlemania” mode along with exclusive features including interactive entrances and victory celebrations.

Gamers looking to take their grappling skills on the road will be proud to know that the series will be returning to the PSP and Nintendo DS. The same team behind last year’s Dragon Quest Heroes is developing the DS version: Rocket Slime and is said to feature a RPG like season mode, and feature a new create-a-wrestler mode.

“The ambitious cross-platform launch of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 last year yielded tremendous growth for the franchise, as we delivered multiple gameplay experiences across seven platforms and greatly expanded our audience of WWE videogame fans,” said Bob Aniello, senior vice president for worldwide marketing at THQ in a report by IGN. “With dynamic new features and the extension of our gameplay experience through downloadable content, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 will bring more console, handheld and wireless gamers together to enjoy the virtual world of WWE.”

WWE fans can expect all of their favorite grapplers, from HHH and John Cena to Chris Jericho and Batista to be included as well as the now standard WWE legends. Stay with Blast until the game’s release this fall for continued coverage!

THQ and Playboy announced Monday the development of Playboy Games: Pool Party set to launch on mobile phones this summer. Pool Party will be the first of several games planned under an exclusive deal signed between the two companes recently.

“Given the extensive appeal and popularity of the Playboy brand, mobile games based on this license are sure to provide a fun and entertaining experience,” said Adam Comiskey, international vice president of THQ Wireless in a statement Monday. “THQ Wireless is ideally positioned to provide engaging games with the hallmark of the Playboy lifestyle.”

Playboy Games: Pool Party will be a collection of mini-games depicting animated, bikini-clad Playmates at the Playboy Mansion engaged in “pool party sports” like water balloon fights, waterslide slaloms and aquatic mechanical bull riding.

“The number of Playboy fans around the world has never been greater and that popularity is reflected in the growing sales of Playboy-branded products and services,” said Ed Lang, senior vice president of mobile, Playboy Media Group. “We’re excited to join THQ Wireless in offering this next-generation form of entertainment to consumers.”

Pool Party is being developed by THQ studio Universomo and is based on actual events held at the Playboy Mansion and shown recently in the DVD release, Playmate Playoffs, hosted by Chuck Woolery.