Posts Tagged ‘Saints Row’
Saints Row title coming to PSP?
While it hasn’t been talked about much (or at all) it seems that a Swedish metal band by the name of Opeth has given us word that they have been selected to feature a song in an upcoming PSP version of Saints Row.
Below is an excerpt of their post:
We may not like playing video games all that much but we do like it when our music is featured on them! Makes us a bit proud even when it’s a game as big as Saints Row for the PSP and even prouder when the nice developer people show excellent taste by picking “The Lotus Eater” for it. So if you love playing video games: the game is expected to hit the streets around March 2010.
As with any rumor, take this with a grain of salt, but Opeth did seem positive one of their songs would be featured in said game, add that to the fact that THQ hasn’t said anything at all thus far.
We’ll update you with more information as it becomes known.
Read (VG247)
Red Faction Guerilla Game Review–The Best Red Faction Game Yet
Recently, a game landed onto the Xbox 360 that left me a little cold. It was called Red Faction; Guerilla, and was yet another sequel to the first person shooter original and first sequel. And when I first laid hands on this one I sighed in the deepest resignation and dragged out my thesaurus hoping I could find a new word for “craptacular”. Seriously, I’m so very tired of first person shooters. There are so few good ones.
But then I got it in, and I’ll tell you, I was pleasantly surprised. Surprised is almost too weak a reaction, but is it really possible to be pleasantly shocked?
Anyway, you play a miner whose focus is in demolitions freshly landed on Mars a while after the earlier events of Red Faction. The Earth Defense Force, which for some reason isn’t even ON Earth any more, is acting as an occupation force on Mars, backing up pretty much ever evil move that the Ultor Corporation (THQ just loves the name Ultor, I guess) makes. This is doubly odd since, originally, the Earth Defense Force was a collection of GOOD guys who assisted Red Faction. So much for that, huh?
So now you’re on planet, and the EDF just wiped out your brother for “crimes”. No one really bothered to tell you what they were before they blasted him with what looked like a vulcan cannon, or before they came after you and discovered that you had explosives in your trailer (you’re a mining engineer with a demolitions specialty, remember?) so you, in response, joined Red Faction out of necessity and the desire to get payback for your dead brother.
The game itself plays a lot like some other titles, especially Saints Row, Grand Theft Auto, Just Cause and Mercenaries, and offers many of the same elements. You can steal cars, which look a lot more like moon rovers and have apparently enhanced suspension to handle the rocky terrain better. You’ll roam around a map with multiple zones, blowing things up, knocking things down, and shooting holy hell out of the EDF in an effort to wrest control of Mars away from them and put it back in the hands of the people.
There is a truly incredible variety of things to do in this game, make no mistake about that. Within my first few minutes I had blown up several abandoned buildings, collected scrap from said buildings to upgrade my weaponry and hardware, and shot about thirty five stormtroopers—err…EDF troops. I do enjoy a game that’s about more than walk from point A to point B and shoot whatever wanders in front of you. As a result, this may actually be my favorite Red Faction game just by the sheer fact that it actually includes something different to do.
Granted, it’s not that much different from a first person shooter—its biggest difference may well be just a matter of perspective (no pun intended), but with the addition of driving and setting explosives and collecting items, it does elevate the game slightly above its predecessors. It’s a good rental, no mistake there, but whether or not it’ll be a good buy depends on just how much you like shooter games with some solid action.
Saints Row 2 Game Review–All The Fun of the First And Then Some
If you were anything like me when you first laid hands on a copy of Saints Row, you enjoyed it, but found that it was a little bit lacking somehow. So that having been said, you’ll definitely be happy to hear that Saints Row 2 has solved that problem.
Saints Row 2 represents a massive leap forward in sequels, which by itself is somewhat amazing. It’s kept all the fun from the original, all the ease of use and all the fun drives and all the gunplay, and added a whole host of new and interesting things to do in Stilwater. Like what, you ask? Well, I’ll fill you in on that particular point in a minute…but first, the plot.
It’s five years after you blew up the yacht in Saints Row, and you’ve woken up in a prison hospital ward. Stilwater has changed a lot in five years, and you’ll discover just how much when you finally break out of prison. Yes, of COURSE your first task is to break out of prison. From there, you’ll spring former cohort Johnny Gat off Death Row, reassemble the currently defunct Third Street Saints and re-take Stilwater from the Brotherhood, the Ronin, and the Sons of Samedi as well as the shadowy Ultor Corporation.
See what I mean? Bigger. Much, MUCH, bigger—one whole faction bigger, to start with. Plus, you’ll get a panoply of new and fun activities to take part in on the side. You’ll get to pose as one of Stilwater’s finest to help the show Fuzz (clearly a parody of Cops, in case you wondered) get its episode count finished. You’ll get to take control of a septic truck and spew loads of human sewage on a collection of targets. You’ll even get to suit up in a flame suit and drive a four-wheeler through a series of challenges. They call that one “Trail Blazing”. How awesome is that?
That’s not a rhetorical question, either. I know EXACTLY how awesome it is, and it’s pretty awesome, especially since the flame suit blows up cars on contact. You get extra time for doing that. You’ll get a wide array of vehicles to drive around Stilwater, too—it’s not just cars and trucks any more. One mission requires you to handle a tow truck. You’ll get mopeds and motorcycles, and even get to spend some time in a helicopter.
And it’s not just about the new, either. The respect system is back in play, and you’ll get also get the steadily advancing hatred meters too, telling you just how much each faction currently wants you dead on the hoods of their many, many cars. Basically, just about everything you may have loved from Saints Row is back in Saints Row 2, plus a whole bunch of other stuff that you never imagined you’d get the chance to love.
Two words: Chainsaw. Flamethrower. Oh yeah…that’s plenty to love.
But it’s not all joy around here—I had some oddly buggy moments in Saints Row 2, including objectives that wouldn’t seem to be met despite the fact that I was doing them right, and one moment in which a flood of infinite enemies kept charging at me while I was trying to finish a mission. I’d been snuck up on several times, and I really don’t like blasting someone with a rocket launcher just to have the FBI drive a van into my lower back. It spoils the atavistic thrill.
But still, there’s a LOT to like about Saints Row 2, and if you’re any kind of fan of action shooters, you’ll probably like this one just as much as I did.
THQ Cuts 86 from Volition
In today’s first bit of bad news from the industry, THQ has confirmed that 86 quality assurance staffers were recently let go at Volition, the studio behind the free-roaming Saint’s Row franchise.
Forty seven temporary employees were fired at the studio’s Champaign, Illinois facility, in addition to 39 full-time staff. All those affected will be given sixty days notice and employment assistance.
"[The layoffs] will not result in any layoffs within the core development teams at Volition," noted THQ. "Volition remains a key development studio within THQ and will continue to employ 236 staff.”
50 Cent Looking To Make Saints Row Game
One of the biggest advantages of video games is how unusual and broad a range of stories can be told in greater detail and for a fraction of the cost. Many games are epic romps into fantastic worlds filled with strange creatures and unusual people. Some of these have been turned into films with mixed results. Occasionally we get a film like Max Payne, which despite its gaming nature is essentially just a normal film.
Notorious rapper 50 Cent is in talks with THQ, trying to get the rights for the Saints Row franchise in order to make a film version of the game. While it’s easy to see why the former drug dealer has a connection to the game which has players struggling with rival gangs for control of crime-riddled Stillwater, the potential for a Saints Row game to be anything other than an action/gang film seems rather limited.