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.

A new trailer highlighting the latest DLC pack for Red Faction: Guerrilla has shown us everything we have to look forward to. With 8 new maps and several new game modes provided by this pack, it will change the way you play Red Faction. Attached is the trailer, let us know what you think in the comment section!

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.

We’ve played and previewed the hell out of Red Faction: Guerrilla from Volition Studios, but if our words aren’t proof enough for you, a multiplayer demo for the Red Planet third person shooter hit Xbox Live and the Playstation Network in the wee hours of this May 21.

If this game isn’t on your radar, it really should be.‚  As our hands-on previews have shown, Volition is up to the task of taking the fight to the next level, and this title has all the bells and whistles any hard-hitting shooter need contain.

Game mode of choice for the demo is Damage Control, and yes, there will be a whole lot of damage.‚  Two teams vie for control over three targets. Destroy enemy targets and then rebuild them with your Reconstructor to score points.‚  Simple enough.‚  But also 9 futuristic weapons and powerful backpacks will be at your disposal to wreak havoc on the sandy surface of Mars.

The name of the game in Red Faction in destruction.‚  Damn campers hiding out in a nearby bunker?‚  No biggie, simply bust down the wall and fill his head with heavy lead.‚  Ouch.

The download is a modest 627 MB and can be started right here, right now via the handy Xbox Live web marketplace (even if you’re at work or school)

Start your download here for Xbox Live users and send me a friend request @ eddie not eddy and we’ll raise some hell together!

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.

Gamers everywhere can now take to the Red planet with guns drawn and hopes high because the Red Faction: Guerrilla demo hit Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network today.

Sadly the demo is not multiplayer enabled, which we assure you is an excellent part of the title, nevertheless the single player campaign mission in the trial will indeed whet your appetite for all things destruction.

In case you’re a virgin to the planet Mars and its precarious environments, in Guerrilla you play as Alec Mason, a man who arrived on the distant planet hungry for a new life.‚  Oh, how clichƒ©, but obviously you don’t get nearly what you asked for.‚  The Earth Defense Force, or EDF, is the controlling body on the planet, and were once protectors of the newly migrated Martian colonists.‚  However, the EDF power-tripped hand of control becomes relentlessly tiring to civilians and an underground movement, the Red Faction, with Mason in the ranks, take up arms to bring down, in a destructive manner, the oppressive EDF Forces all set about the planet.

Marc got his hands on the build at New York Comic Con in February, and you’d do well to consider his opinions, as his gaming IQ is through the roof.

The demo is available exclusively on Xbox Live to Gold members only and to all on PS3‚  and takes up 770.50 MB of precious HDD space.‚  At work or school reading this?‚  Head on over to the Xbox Live Web Marketplace and begin your download right now and play when you get home!

Of all the April Fools video game related hijinks found on the internets last week, the hilarious Ostrich Hammer weapon reveal and developer video diary for the upcoming Red Faction: Guerrilla title was by far the most amusing.‚  But it was just a prank, right?

Wrong.‚  Volition, developers of the Mars shooter have announced the Ostrich Hammer will make the final build of the game as an unlockable weapon when it releases this summer.‚  Killing enemies with powerful space age weaponry is fun and all but I am sure “ostrichizing” foes will be oh so much more compelling.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is continuing to look like a first rate shooter experience.‚  Total destructibility of environments, a plethora of dynamic and unique weapons, and what will be a truly addicting online multiplayer experience all contribute to the essence of the game.‚  Still not convinced?‚  Marc made the trek to the New York Comic Con this year and spent some time with Guerilla, read his hands-on impressions here.

Enjoy the famed Ostrich video here and check out in-game screens of the avian weapon in the gallery.

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.

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.