Red Faction: Armageddon Product Details

Released on 09/06/2011

• Red Faction headed for TV?

  According to Joystiq - reported via Eurogamer - the US TV channel Syfy has signed with videogame publisher THQ to create a two-hour TV movie based on Red Faction.

  As well as providing plenty of hammer-wielding fun in its own right, the movie would serve as a pilot for a potential TV series - meaning that Syfy viewers could find themselves heading to Mars every week if the movie's any good.

  THQ has also revealed that the next game in the Red Faction series will be produced in conjunction with Syfy, so the publisher clearly likes working with the channel. Syfy's Alan Seiffert described the two as a "great fit".

  The new Red Faction game is due out before April next year, but that's just about all we know about it at the moment. Expect lots of destructible environments, however, and a ton of mad weaponry. We should learn a lot more at E3, however.

  In the meantime, Red Faction: Guerilla, the most recent game in the series, is an absolute cracker should you be feeling the need to give the red planet a good shoeing.

• Red Faction: Armageddon takes the battle underground

  Red Faction: Armageddon takes the battle underground

  THQ has finally spilled the beans on Red Faction: Armageddon, the sequel to last year's brilliant open-world destruction-fest Red Faction: Guerrilla, and the game looks to be a worthy follow-up in every way.

  The story picks up years after the events of the previous game, with mankind forced beneath the surface of Mars and into its ancient mines, as the vital terraforming technology gives out.

  Playing as Darius Mason - the grandson of Alec Mason and Samanya from Guerrilla - you'll have to save your fellow colonists from the awakened Martians, who have been angered by humanity's trespassing in the mines. Alongside being generally heroic, you'll have to help reclaim territory, sort out the alien menace, and create extra-terrestrial weaponry from artefacts you find lying around.

  This being Red Faction, that will involve blowing up the scenery in a delightfully freeform manner - something that simply never got old in Guerrilla, and looks to be just as entertaining here. In terms of multiplayer, the developer is also promising a new Horde-styled mode called Exterimination.

  Red Faction: Armageddon is due out in March 2011, and will be available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

• No more Red Faction, says THQ

  It's a sad day for gamers who like smashing up Martian buildings, as the only gaming franchise to scratch that particular itch has been reduced to rubble with one swipe of THQ's business sledgehammer. In a call with investors last night, THQ CEO Brian Farrell declared that the company will not be continuing the Red Faction brand n any meaningful way

  Red Faction began in 2001 as a first-person PS2 shooter with occasionally destructible scenery. It was followed by a sequel the following year, notable for offering an early bit of voice work for one Jason Statham, who loaned his gravelly tones to the character of Shrike.

  The series then reappeared in 2009 on the current console generation, where it switched to a third-person openworld adventure Total Recall crossed with GTA and finally delivered the sort of demolition fans wanted, thanks to an excellent physics engine.

  This year's Red Faction: Armageddon changed style once again, taking the series underground as a third-person alien-splatting corridor shooter. The launch was supported by a live action movie, shown on the Syfy Channel.

  But now there will be no more, which is a shame since there was still a lot of untapped potential in both the Mars setting and the impressive demolition gameplay. Armageddon will be the series epitaph, so if you haven't played it already why not give it a try and pour out a 40oz on the corner for your martian homies?

• Darksiders reborn?

   

  When publisher THQ collapsed earlier this year, most of its games were snapped up by other companies. Saints Row 4 and Metro: Last Light both ended up with Dead Island publisher Deep Silver, for example.

  Some titles remained unsold however, resulting in a second auction. Now Nordic Games has splashed out and picked up the rights to series such as Red Faction and Darksiders. It's the latter title that has gamers buzzing at the moment, after word that original developer Vigil Games - now part of Crytek - still wanted to work on a new game in the apocalyptic saga.

  It seems that Nordic Games agrees, and while owner Lars Wingefors won't confirm who he's been talking to, it seems clear that Darksiders 3 is something he's definitely interested in.

  "We are not a developer," Wingefors said in a Eurogamer interview. "We should not create a sequel. We need to find the best creative team to look into a sequel.

  Does that mean he'll be tapping the former Vigil team to continue the series? "Without saying we have been in contact with Crytek USA, I'd love to do something with them if we can find the right set-up," he said. "I have a great respect for those guys. They made very good games. But I'm sure they have a full agenda. Making games takes time."

  The previous two Darksiders games are among the most underrated of this console generation, so here's hoping this is more than business chatter.
  

  Published: 24/04/2013

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