Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
The game that killed the franchise. Red Faction: Armageddon was Volition's only real failure, a sequel to the stunning Red Faction: Guerilla, but one that failed to pick up nearly enough sales. THQ ditched it, and then moments later went under, the rights passing (along with Darksiders) to Nordic Games (who will likely sit on both like ancient dragons, jealously guarding their treasures and never letting anyone else ever touch them again). But you know what? It wasn't too bad.
]]>THQ has blamed poor sales of Red Faction Armageddon - which we thought was okay, if something of a step back from Guerilla - for their recent losses. Volition have already moved onto other projects, of course, including Guillermo del Toro's "Insane" games, which begin in 2013, but it's not clear whether they'll ever have a chance to go back. Shacknews quotes Brian Farrell, THQ CEO, saying: "We do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way."
]]>Volition's Red Faction: Armageddon has been out for a few days, surprising many with the direction it's taken for its hammer/magnet based destruction. Having smashed every last thing from beginning to end, I'm now in a position to tell you Wot I Think.
]]>Red Faction: Armageddon doesn't appear to be taking itself very seriously. One of the unlockable modes in the forthcoming destruct-em-up will let things look like they're in an '80s music video. They're calling it Sketch Mode, and say it "redefines comic mischief", which seems an odd claim.
But, they say it's "more than a fun way to play." Apparently it "showcases the GeoMod 2.0 destruction technology in a whole new light, as entire colony buildings come crashing down on your enemies in black and white." So just a fun way to play, then. The game is out on the 10th June, which is quite soon. You can watch the extremely silly trailer below.
]]>I appreciate we all have an important job to do in beeing gloomy that the PC won't be getting a demo of 3rd-person destruct-'em-up Red Faction Armageddon (I personally have sipped my way through a whole cup of tea while staring furiously out of the window), but look at this trailer! I'm sure most of you out there would agree that Armageddon appearing to trade the wide-open outdoor demolition of Guerrilla for some dingy caverns was a crying shame, right? Well, now it's looking like a good chunk of the game will be outdoors after all! Come see.
]]>If it weren't for my throat being quite so epically sore, I'd be sighing long and hard enough to power a hovercraft. After all of Volition's trumpeting about finally treating the PC as an equal, no longer farming out PC versions of their games, and generally trying to sell themselves as the PC gamer's bestest friend, the same old tiresome nonsense is occurring. Want to play the demo of Red Faction: Armageddon, a month before the full game comes out? Well, get a 360 then. And if the PS3 ever claws its way out of its current embarrassing mess, they'll release the demo on that, too. But the PC? Um, cough.
]]>By "dark" I don't mean the protagonist is stumbling around with more inner turmoil than a tumble drier, or that the callous spectre of death threatens to snatch down and kill any character at any time. Not that kind of dark. No, I mean that you just can't see what on Earth is going on. Hardly ideal footage for people like me, who were disappointed to find out the next Red Faction game would be swapping out Guerrilla's open world for the caves beneath Mars, and your human opponents for aliens. Take a look for yourself and see what you think.
]]>Looking at the above screenshot, you'd think that character was from a fantasy game, no? Perhaps one called "Four Wind Journey" or "Dragonica", and she'd have a name that suggested independence like Chala or Kara or something. In truth, she's the sassy sidekick Volition have just revealed for subterranean alien-masher Red Faction Armageddon, she actually is called Kara, and you can watch her debut trailer after the jump.
]]>There's some lovely comments from Volition's studio manager, Eric Barker, over on Eurogamer. Discussing why it's always worth developing for PC when creating cross platform titles, and how Volition will no longer be using external developers for their PC versions, he drops this gem of a comment that I'll be quoting for some time to come.
"I don't think [piracy] is something at the forefront for us. First and foremost, we want to make sure we're making a game people would want to pirate. Let's make a game that's worth stealing, and then we'll worry about making sure they don't."
]]>It was not unreasonable to see the early footage of Red Faction: Armageddon and worry. After Guerilla's open-air festival of smashing stuff it seemed so counter-intuitive to be claustrophobically wedged underground. What are we supposed to smash?! And then we found out about the Magnet Gun. Well, even more recent footage shows more good news. There's still buildings down there for you to spectacularly knock down, and walls to break through like a Vic Mackey tribute band. That's what's important. Except now there's aliens to fight too. Such recent footage exists below.
]]>When the teaser trailer for Red Faction: Armageddon appeared last month it looked a bit odd. Set underground, it looked rather troublingly like a corridor shooter. And after the magnificent Red Faction: Guerilla, it would be such a shame to see the series take that turn. However, the five minutes of game footage revealed at Comic Con show something else entirely. I was still worried for the first minute or so - claustrophobic setting, and stupid crawly-creatures to laboriously kill. And then the man utters the magic words: "Magnet Gun".
]]>A new Red Faction game might be something to be excited about since Guerilla was such a laugh. This new game isn't looking much like its sandboxian prequel however, as you can see from the trailer below. There's also a preview website up here, with a stack of screenshots and smattering of information. Seems that an apocalyptic cult has risen on Mars and drive the colonists underground. For hot tunnel-shooter action? I am only guessing. The game is due March 2011.
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