Last time, you decided (by an overwhelming majority) that heals harming the undead is better than voice chat. I cannot say I'm surprised by this outcome, yet nor can I say I'm not wistful thinking about how much I now hate a feature which had brought me so much joy across the years. Ah well. Onwards! This week, I ask you to choose between a simulated cute little moment and a simulated whole new layer of reality. What's better: petting the dog, or entering cyberspace?
]]>What better way to win back your community after the rocky launch of a new game than by providing a free "upgrade" to a beloved old game? I've no way of knowing if that's what Volition thought as they followed the poor reception of the Saints Row reboot by earlier this month "upgrading all copies" of Saints Row IV to Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, a version of the outlandish 2013 action game which includes all previously released DLC.
If it was what they thought, it hasn't worked. Players report that Re-Elected isn't an upgrade at all, but that it has broken their save games, their mods, and introduced new launch and crash bugs to the nine-year-old game.
]]>What do you suppose is next for the 3rd Street Saints? Volition's unapologetically bombasic action series Saints Row is about to give us the lowdown. We've known for a while now that another proper Saints game was in the works, but the developers are now teasing a reveal of some kind for the next game alongside the not so cryptic message "rebooting". We're slated to find out more next Wednesday at the Gamescom kickoff, but here's what we know right now.
]]>Utomik! Sounds like a stiff drink, but no. Utomik is a subscription-based games service that launched yesterday, angling to be ‘Netflix for games’ (sound familiar?) It’s currently offering a library of approximately 750 games for either $7 or $10 per month, depending on whether you want to share the account with your little sister or not. I signed up and took a stroll through its library, fingering a few tomes here and there. And while it was fast and performed well, there wasn’t a lot I wanted to play. It’s less Netflix for games and more “Spotify for older games you already own or don’t want”.
]]>We've already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin' and a-shakin' in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding pre-release expectations and most head-messing-with. Vintage cartoon-themed reflex-tester Cuphead leads the charge with two gongs, but ol' Plunkbat and The Witcher series also do rather well - as do a host of other games from 2017's great and good.
Full winners and runners-up below, with links to our previous coverage of each game if you're so-minded. Plus: I reveal which game I'd have gone for in each category.
]]>Saints Row and Agents of Mayhem studio Volition has laid off about 15% of its employees this week, according to a Kotaku report citing three unnamed sources. While layoffs after a big game launches aren't uncommonas studios become far less busy (Agents of Mayhem came out last month), reportedly Volition general manager Dan Cermak was among those let go - and that is a touch more rare. Or so the reports say. Supposedly parent company Deep Silver was unhappy with sales of Agents. That's not surprising, as it hasn't made much of an impact and our John's Agents of Mayhem review just didn't like it that much.
]]>A friend of mine started the Saints Row [official site] series with the fourth one. She loved having superpowers and trashing a virtual city, but she did wonder what the deal was with Johnny Gat. Even though he's not in half the game – spoilers for the third and fourth Saints Rows, but Johnny Gat dies and then comes back to life – his absence is felt. Characters talk about how his loss changed them. The dude with the sunglasses and neck tattoos who seems like a generic video game badass is treated like he matters.
Gat's a mascot for Saints Row, whether cameoing in games outside the series or within them. You start Saints Row: The Third with every member of the gang wearing an oversized Gat mask during a bank robbery – even Gat himself has one, pointless as that makes the disguise. Everybody wants to be Johnny Gat. To understand why he has that reputation, why fans love him while outsiders roll their eyes, we have to go back to Saints Row 2.
]]>Agents of Mayhem [official site], the explosion-laden singleplayer shooter from the creators of Saints Row, is shaping up rather nicely by all accounts. And by 'all accounts' I mean the accounts of both Holly and Adam, who enjoyed the over-the-top action of separate preview builds.
It's just got a new trailer showing a man punching a car into lots of others cars, which all go boom, and a woman dancing on massive gun while screaming "I call this the Chicago deep dish". Erm...okay. Oh, and there's a Magnum PI cosplay from returning Saints Row favourite Johnny Gat. Because why not.
]]>It's Saints Row a go-go round GOG today as the store celebrates more of Volition's wacky open-world crime 'em ups arriving DRM-free on its virtual shelves. Some Saints games have been on GOG for ages but now the lineup is complete with the addition of Saints Row 4 (the one where you're the President of the USA) and Gat out of Hell (the one in Hell). To mark this Saint-o-rama, Saints Row 2 (possibly still my favourite Saints Row) is free for 48 hours. And folks who own Saints Row games on Steam can add them to their GOG account to get DRM-free versions. GOG are holding a sale too.
]]>Decoding is a regular column about the games we love, and the tricks and traditions that make them tick.
“Oh shit, I pressed the wrong button and killed that guy.”
It happens to the best of us. You could play Watch Dogs 2 [official site] for days without firing a gun, or causing a fatal traffic accident, or beating someone to death with a billiard ball. Lead character Marcus Holloway doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd leave bodies in his wake, and the ease with which he can become a killer is jarring. Like so many of our protagonists, he walks through life with the safety off and his finger on the trigger.
Open world games, particularly those of the urban variety, have a violence problem, and it's mechanical rather than philosophical.
]]>Back in the day, to install mods we needed to trudge through the digital snow -- upcyberhill, both ways -- and we'd consider ourselves lucky if we only got caned thrice for mistyping DOS commands. The youth of today are spoiled, simply clicking a few buttons in the Steam Workshop to install and play mods. Where's the graft? I swear, some of these kids playing mods these days haven't even lost fingers to cyberfrostbite. Fine then, go on, go and play Saints Row 4 [official site] mods easily with its fancy new official Steam Workshop support, see if I care. The game's on sale now too.
]]>Agents Of Mayhem [official site] explicitly plants Saints Row in a futureworld of supervillains and interplanetary metahuman agencies. I use the word ‘explicitly’ because Saints Row IV was already at least part way there, using the grammar of a superhero comic if not the language. I played through a mission of Mayhem recently and while I immediately missed some aspects of Saints Row, as an action game, Agents is streets ahead.
]]>We already chose 13 of our favourite games in the current Summer Steam sale, but more games have been discounted since. So, based on the entirely correct hypothesis that you all have completed every single one of our first round games and are now thirsting for more, here are 18 more to throw your spare change at. Everyone on the RPS team has picked three stone-cold personal favourites, making for a grand old set of excellent PC games: here's what we chose and why.
]]>Saints Row creators Volition today announced they'll release a new open-world explode-o-rama in 2017, though it's not a new Saints Row. Not really. Agents of Mayhem [official site] will see the good-ish guys of M.A.Y.H.E.M. (the Multinational Agency for Hunting Evil Masterminds) scrapping with the dastardly L.E.G.I.O.N. (the League of Evil Gentlemen Intent on Obliterating Nations) in open-world shooty antics. Here, check out the announcement trailer:
]]>Hello there. This week, I'm writing not just as an RPG columnist, but as president of the newly formed League Of Folks Who Don't Really Play MOBAs But Are Bizarrely Hooked On All The Trappings. As far as I can tell, our membership is roughly a billion people and counting. That's what happens when the likes of Blizzard and Riot spend literally tens of dollars creating gorgeous videos to promote their worlds, yes, but it goes somewhat deeper than that. Have you ever watched a new character reveal for a game you know you're never going to play? Then the sickness might have spread.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
We were all left mystified as to how Volition would follow up Saints Row 3's epic nonsense. Few guessed it would be by Saints Row 4 [official site] having you become President of the USA, then get captured by aliens, the Earth blown up, and you and your crew trapped in a computer simulation of the previous game's city. Oh, and you get super-powers.
]]>Remember that Descent game Kickstarted by people by who didn't make Descent? Here's an unofficial Descent remakequel Kickstarted by people who did make Descent.
If Descent was on your Kickstarted comeback bingo card, then today's the day to wave your pen in the air. Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog, lead creators of the 1990s' beloved six-degrees of freedom spaceshippy FPS, have gotten the band back together for a comeback named Overload. You wanted Descent with sparkly 2016 graphics? You're gonna get it. Well, if you and your fellow retronauts can put $300k together.
]]>Alec has already told you to play XCOM this weekend if you haven't, seeing as the full game's free to try on Steam. It's "one of the best games of the last few years" says he. Aye, maybe it is, and maybe you could. However. If you fancy real-time smashing rather than turn-based tacticisicing, have a bash at the superpowered open-world antics, shenanigans, and - dare I say - bants of Saints Row IV [official site], which is also holding a free trial weekend on Steam, as is Saints Row: The Third.
SR4 is the best action game on PC, according to John.
]]>Civilization: Beyond Earth does have a demo, but it's limited to 100 turns - not many to feel how a Civ game ticks. Given lukewarm responses to it, you might want to see more. Here's your chance: the full game is free for everyone to play on Steam until Sunday evening. Saints Row IV is also running a free trial weekend but surely you already know whether you'd like to be a superpowered scamp flying around cyberspace and punching aliens. Both are on sale too.
]]>Demonstrating an impressive refusal to stop being absolutely ridiculous, Saints Row 4's about to offer up a standalone expansion named Gat Out Of Hell, in which the gang come to bust you out of Satan's pile. This much we already knew, but getting to witness the heights of its divine (or quite the opposite) madness first-hand is something else.
GTA V might have had a fancy-pants high-def remake, but Saints Row 4 has a full-length musical number. Pretty sure I know which one's got my vote. Ready yourself for this: they've not done this thing by halves.
]]>I've gone retro with my gaming for this weekend, but what era am I revisiting? The low-bit arcade stylings of the late 80s? The JRPG heyday of the PlayStation years? Ten years ago, when Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines all came out within a week of one another? No! I've been travelling the mysterious, mystical land of, uh, 2013. A frightening time.
But what are you playing?
]]>Say, you wouldn't fancy seeing Johnny Gat blast away with a locust gun, fly on burning wings, blow up demons in a rocket-launching motorised armchair, summon imps, mow down lost souls, and pick a fight with an archduke of Hell, would you? See, I try not to post too many trailers, but I saw this trailer showing five minutes of gameplay from the upcoming expandalone Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell and it seemed like something you might like. I'll just leave it here, shall I?
]]>If you're some how bored of the massive collection of mostly ludicrous weapons in Saints Row 4, you've come to the right news post. Over on the Saints Row Mods forum, the first part of the SDK for the raddest of last year's open world games has been released. SR4 already had a modding scene, you see, mostly for skin creation and modifying existing assets to look a little nicer or tweaking the game in mechanical ways. This first release contains tutorials, templates and tools for weapon model modification, using stuff from the newly-announced Gat Out of Hell expandalone as an example.
]]>Volition have announced a new entry in the Saints Row franchise, the curiously in-joke entitled, expandalone, Gat Out Of Hell.
After the most ugly of starts, Saints Row has gone on to be one of the series most worthy of excitement in recent years. Saints Row: The Third saw the franchise free itself of its genuinely unpleasant origins, and realise itself as a joy-filled, if somewhat problematic, alternative to GTA, rather than a clumsy clone. Last year's Saints Row IV somehow survived both the collapse of THQ, and the conversion from add-on pack to complete sequel, to become one of the funniest, funnest games ever. So it's with justified happy expectation that we receive the news that there's to be a standalone expansion to part VI, Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell.
]]>The weekend's just over the horizon and I couldn't be happier. Well... except for one thing. I'm terribly afraid, actually, that my Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are going to be too tonally consistent. No wild mood swings. No spine-separating ups and downs. What a drag, right? So thank goodness that both Company of Heroes 2 and Saints Row IV will be free all weekend on Steam. The silliest game of 2013 and the most brutal front of the most serious war, er, possibly ever. I can't wait to cross all of my emotional wires - to giggle out world-weary tears and give stirring, morale-boosting war speeches laden with dick jokes.
]]>Every great pop culture entity needs a Christmas special. I mean, who doesn't love seeing their favorite characters shoehorned into an emotionally hollow, often obligatory plot that ends with a Very Valuable Lesson about family or selflessness or time travel ghosts or something? It's a tradition nearly as old as Walmart itself. But OK, in fairness, some Christmas specials aren't entirely terrible, and if anyone can elbow drop the cliche in the groin until it slithers back into the bowels of its holly, jolly dungeon of soulless commercialism, it's Saints Row. Saints Row IV's next DLC episode, How The Saints Save Christmas, will almost certainly bash the very concept of Christmas specials' head against the fourth wall until both are naught but jagged shards. Dash through the snow below for details.
]]>Deep Silver have had quite the couple of years. They've gone from a European publisher of quietly successful strategy games and RPGs (the X games, Gothic, others), to finding mainstream success with Dead Island, to picking up where THQ left off with Metro: Last Light and Saints Row 4.
In an interview with Deep Silver's CEO, The Penny Arcade Report mention that Saints Row IV has sold triple that of Saints Row 3 on PC over the same time period, and that Metro: Last Light sold more across all platforms in a single week than the original did in three months.
]]>As you didn't notice, I've been away for the last three months, to focus on helping raise the child which will one day destroy the universe. In between prising the crushed, partially-chewed remains of smaller star systems from her tiny, iron grip, I managed to play a few videogames. Some for a while, but most only for a couple of hours. Despite myself, it was difficult not to have opinions about them, and to want to write those opinions on some manner of 'web' 'site.' I bided my time. I waited. And now here I am, able to force you to listen to my single-sentence opinions on 13 recent videogames - the likes of Saints Row IV, Gone Home, The Bureau, Papers Please and even that car-stealing thing on console. For the first time on RPS, I have even included a rating for each game.
]]>Once upon a time, Saints Row IV didn't even have its own number - let alone a snazzy, posh purple Roman numeral. It was nascent, in a pre-life phase that many organisms have known at some point or another. That is to say, an expansion to Saints Row: The Third. Back then, it was known as Enter The Dominatrix - at least, until THQ (may it sue still-existent companies from beyond the grave in peace) set it on its course to sequeldom. But now Saints Row IV is getting a DLC expansion titled "Enter The Dominatrix," and it's, er, a different sort of thing. More literal, I would say. There is an actual dominatrix. From the looks of things, you will be, um, entering someone in a fashion. Yeah.
]]>There isn't much that Volition didn't cram into Saint's Row IV. The design is a tombola of ridiculous things, a churning barrel of awesome nonsense that you randomly pluck fun from, and then give a child a teddy bear. Hmm, I over-analogised that one. Not that you shouldn't give a child a teddy bear, but if you do it after every moment of fun in this open-world nonsense generator you'd better have lots of bears and lots of children. And I'm about to make that unlikely scenario even more problematic with the Saints Row IV First Person View mod. It makes it even more fun.
]]>Normally I wouldn't even bat an eyelash at some random cross-game promotional effort - let alone dedicate precious RPS Hyper Maturity Space to it - but this time is different. The reason? Two of the dumbest, most laughably enjoyable games I've played in ages are colliding, and there is now no way that last clause wasn't a euphemism for something, authorial intent be damned. Yes, it's finally happening: Saints Row The Third's infamous dildo bat is invading another game. I know, I know. It's only a matter of time before it replaces the standard-issue pistol as every game's go-to default weapon of choice, but for now Shadow Warrior's caught its purple, pulsating disease. Continue not being able to look away below.
]]>I apologise. While that title is technically correct, I will understand if you found it misleading. There are clues: the letters are in the wrong place, the image shows Saint's Row IV and not Grand Theft Auto, and there's the fact that it looks it's suggesting a game that costs a hundrety billion krugerrands is being released for free on its release day. That was never going to happen! Those were all hints. So what is this? GATV is free DLC for Saints Row IV. Like the original SR, it cheekily rides on the coat-tails of GTA, but in name only.
]]>We've long lamented the inanity of delaying EU releases. Archaic systems meant that games were once released on Tuesdays in the States, and Fridays in Europe. And before the oceans between were concreted over, most were in ignorance of the difference. But now, in our contiguous international continent, this gap has become rather problematic. From the blatantly obvious way it encourages piracy ("This game is available, your friends are enjoying it, but we're not going to let you buy it!"), via the tiresomeness of not being able to play friends via multiplayer/co-op, to the ridiculous hiding from social media, YouTube, etc half the world needs to conduct to avoid having games ruined, it's obviously a dated and anachronistic way of things. With PC gaming so dominantly sold online in the UK and US, it's time for it to end.
Now apply this all to a game that's not even getting a physical release in the UK! Europe and Asia's Saints Row IV, that you can't even find a link to pre-order on PC on its own website, is artificially delayed until the end of the week.
]]>After the fantastic Saints Row: The Third, the question from everyone went: how can Volition top this? How can they make a game that's more weird, more outlandish, more explosive? Then following the collapse of THQ, the license and studio was bought by a publisher who ignores the press when it's convenient for them, then hires pole dancers for preview events - could it survive this too? Well, the answers are in Saints Row IV, due out on the 20th. I've played it to the very last, and can tell you wub I think:
]]>In just three hours John's opinions on Saints Row IV will be unleashed on the internet. I have rarely seen him this excited, and that means something. It might be possible to uncover a few clues as to the meaning of his strange behaviour by watching the latest Volition dev diary for their insane opus, which I've gingerly placed below this post, hoping not to crease or otherwise mar its splendid attire before the big day.
Do NOT watch this video is you are in any way squeamish or at work. I mean, you could, I'm just not advising it. Who am I now, your mother? I could be, for all you know. Have you called her lately?
]]>Gaming industry, you can stop releasing progressively more expensive and unnecessary collector's editions now. Saints Row 4 has won - and quite handily, at that. A single, deranged soul can now obtain a $1 million version of the utterly unhinged open-world superhero United States President sim, netting them everything from a Lamborghini and plastic surgery to a trip to outer goddamn space. Why? Because Saints Row, that's why. Does Deep Silver really need another reason?
]]>You can play a very specific portion of Saints Row 4 right now! Sadly, rolling down the streets while leaving entire city blocks in dubstep-cratered ruins is still off the table, but you now have full, unfettered access to the gloriously unhinged open-worlder's character creator. No, it's not a real taste of all the game has to offer, but the uproarious lunacy is still strong in this one. Want to make Batman villains? Horse people? Whatever this thing is? Then go ahead. Once the full game is out, you'll be able to hop right in as the first, er, female eagle monster eagle mobster pretty-much-anything-you-can-think-of President.
You just can't stop the twists and turns in the Saints Row 4 classification story. After being refused twice on different builds of the game a third and final submission has been made. This time, according to local distributor All Interactive Entertainment, it has just the right combination of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll to somehow deserve only an MA15+ rating. Jumping two brackets (skipping 18+ entirely) seems to be down to removal of both the "alien narcotics" and "Rectifier Probe" weapon. Quote from publishers Deep Silver if you're old enough to pass the break.
]]>Men (and women) have been At Work, Down Under, attempting to classify dildo-filled absurdity-fest Saints Row IV. They have finally... come.... to a conclusion. "In the Review Board’s opinion, Saints Row IV could not be accommodated within the R 18+ classification as drug use related to incentives and rewards is not permitted." You better run, you better take cover.
]]>Every time there's a new Saints Row IV trailer, that's pretty much enough reason to be interested. Even if you don't intend to buy the game, the trails are still likely to offer a good chunk of entertainment. The latest reveals the news that Saints Row regular Johnny Gat is back. And naked. And covered in gloop.
]]>If a trailer starts off with a West Wing inspired walk and talk, and ends with the American President telekinetically throwing a cosplayer through a neon sign, then by any standards it is a good trailer. This ten minute look at Saint's Row IV has that going for it, though there's a chunk of it set during an alien invasion at the White House that could probably have been cut. I know, it sets the scene of the giant alien lizard things arrival on Earth, but who cares about story and setting in an open-world game of presidential punk pummeling? I came for the superpowers.
]]>News out of IdolNinja suggests that Volition are gearing up to support modding on Saints Row The Third, with potential support for mods on the fourth game. They explain: "Jeff Thompson, the Studio Director of Programming at Volition, is putting together a package for us containing documentation, file formats, tools, and more on the Saints Row: The Third engine. Myself, Minimaul, and gibbed will be working closely with Jeff over the coming months to use this information to create a robust set of modding tools to supplement our existing ones and creating what is essentially a full sdk for the game! But, that’s not all! Saints Row: The Third is only the beginning!" I can only imagine how awesome this could end up being, especially if it really is a test bed for modding support on the fourth game.
Let's have a look at that Saints Row IV trailer again...
]]>Continuing the legacy of all trailers being called stupid things, here's Saint's Row IV's E3 trailer. E3 is next week. The trailer, meanwhile, is absolutely brills.
]]>The countless hours of discerning thought put into all those dumb, mindless "top 10 videogame gun" lists have just been rendered pointless. Wanna know why? Because DUBSTEP GUN. It is the most sublimely ridiculous thing I've seen in ages - pretty much since, er, the entirety of Saints Row: The Third. People struck by its sledgehammer-like beats fall into a state of physics-defying slow-mo undulation, equal parts stylishly modern and grotesquely unnatural. It is, in other words, a thing of the purest beauty. Oh, and it's just the focus of this Saints Row IV video's first couple minutes. A preview of the remaining five: "We decided that Saints Row needs a mech."
]]>I spent 10 minutes over at Reddit's 'MURICA page to get inspiration for this post. I think I overloaded a bit too much on the blinding sunshine of American patriotism. Every time I blink my eyes I see stars and stripes, every noise sounds like an F-16 revving up to liberate communists, every bird I see is a squawking golden Eagle of Freedom and Liberty. I think I'm ready, then, to click on the latest Saint's Row IV trailer.
*Salutes*
]]>Remember when Deep Silver's Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait Edition” torso statue came out and we were mostly all like, okay weird gross statue of a bikinied lady who has been brutally dismembered, but honestly, where is my dismembered bloody man crotch in Calvin Kleins? Oh that was only me then. (It is odd being a woman in this industry sometimes.) Well, I guess Deep Silver were slightly burnt by the expressions of disgust we all had. Now they are giving us the chance to vote for a whole host of weird Saints Row IV Collector's Edition stuff.
]]>Deep Silver put out a trailer announcing Saints Row IV (that's FOUR to you people who can't read Roman) yesterday! It launches on 20th August 2013 in the US and 23rd August 2013 in the boring parts of the world. Me and Ye Olde Man Gillen had a look at it with a cynical eye, KG's cat gently humping him on the leg throughout.
]]>This kinda seems to be happening a bit too soon - don't open world games take years and years and years to make? - but I suppose Volition wouldn't want to sit on their hands after their recent dice with death. And heck, this is probably Saints Row: The Third with bits on (EDIT - oh, yeah, I forgot, it is one-time SR3 DLC expanded into a full game. That makes sense), but when those bits include making the player a superhero I'm not complaining. Offering godlike, reality-bending powers is an entirely logical outcome for a series which started life snipping at GTA's unconcerned heels then increasingly (d)evolved into out and out AAAARGH WOOOO YEAH WHATEVS ANYTHING EVERYTHING LOOK AT MEEEE POO BUM WILLY HAHAHAHAAHHA happy-madness.
Part IV goes further still, and is somehow out in August. Take a look below.
]]>Vote with your wallet. We constantly preach it as an approach that actually Makes Important Things Happen, but does it? Does it really? It's such an easy be-all, end-all argument to toss out, but things are rarely that simple. The recent death of THQ and potential failure of Gas Powered Games' Wildman represent very tangible examples of how "vote with your wallet" can screech and shatter like so many piggy banks being hurled into a craggy abyss. But there's hope, too, if you know where to look for it. The industry's changing. Here's why that makes us - its most vocal, diehard fans - equal parts more and less powerful than ever.
]]>THQ is dead. Long live... er, not THQ. But its motionless remains haven't gone undisturbed. A number of major publishers descended, vulture-like, to make off with the choicest cuts money could buy. And also Homefront. Yesterday, however, we had no idea what exactly was next for the likes of Metro, Saints Row, Company of Heroes, Darksiders, and South Park. Sure, they've found new homes, but will they fit in? Or will they be forced to live in the cramped cupboards of neglect, with nary a wizarding school in sight? Well, it's still a bit early to say for sure, but - based on comments from each publisher - things are at least looking up.
]]>OK, hold onto the floppier parts of your brain, because this is about to get a bit complicated. So remember how THQ went bankrupt and fell into bed with "stalking horse bidder" Clearlake Capital? Well, the primary intent of all that was to keep THQ in one piece while dealing with that nasty little "having basically no money" thing, but - at the 11th hour - there was a twist. Creditors decided THQ's all-or-nothing sales approach wasn't fair to them (it'd probably pull in less money, after all), and a US bankruptcy court judge agreed. So now THQ's gone from monolithic one-gulp meal to easily chopped up buffet, and rumor has it that a number of major players are interested in various series, games, and franchises.
]]>Oh boy. Remember how things haven't been going so hot for THQ lately? If you've somehow forgotten, do you remember your name or any key facts about yourself? Have you hit your head or recently traveled forward to this time period? Are you an amnesiac, infant, or ghost? AT ANY RATE, we've finally reached the expected conclusion of this rather depressing series of events, but - as ever - there's a twist. In spite of how the word "bankrupt" - which is derived from the root "bank account ruptured and screamed in agony as warm monetary lifeblood erupted from its depleted tubules" - often connotates, THQ isn't doomed yet. Instead, it's merely employed some tricksy business maneuvers to dodge an avalanche of debt. For now, though, your favorite game series are safe.
]]>Times are hard at THQ, despite their releasing a ton of good games of late. The publisher is strapped for cash, and it just keeps getting worse, most recently its shareholders launching a class action suit over the disaster of their U-Draw flop. Whether that's a factor in today's announcement, that Saints Row: The Third stand alone expansion 'Enter The Dominatrix' is now to be integrated into the fourth game, we've no idea. But that's what's happening, according to THQ boss, Jason Rubin.
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