Red Faction: Guerrilla Rhino Packs, Destruction and 360 Avatars

I know the video game industry seems to be perpetually going through a shooter glut. And, yes, I love shooters, so I tend to put up with it. So bear that in mind as I proceed to fawn over Volition's upcoming Red Faction sequel, Red Faction: Guerrilla.

The game will be set on a terraformed Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction game. Now the Earth Defense Force folks are in control and have turned bad. Players will take on the roll of a man caught up in the struggle against the EDF. The game will play out in third-person perspective and the entire world will be destructible.

You can, I was told, bring down an entire three-story building piece by piece. The multi-platform game's open world will also allow you to steal vehicles, swipe weapons even recruit other people to join your band of guerrillas.

While I didn't have a chance to play around with the single player campaign, Volition did give me time, lots and lots of time, to play matches of multiplayer.

The downside: It's a developer diary. The upside? It's a developer diary that actually has a ton of proper footage in it! And not just pre-rendered stuff, either, proper footage. Of your man running around Mars, blowing stuff up, hitting bad men with a giant hammer. Looks surprisingly fun, in a hitting-men-with-giant-hammers kinda way.

In Memoriam: Remembering Volition's Chris Allen

Chris "Topher" Allen, who had been a multiplayer designer on Saints Row 2 at Volition, passed away on Sunday, May 11th of natural causes. He was 35.

Mr. Allen began his game industry career as a QA tester on Summoner 2 and The Punisher, and became a designer in 2005. Prior to joining Volition, Mr. Allen was a high school English teacher in Emporia, Kansas and Ankara, Turkey. He leaves behind his wife, Lesley. He was preceded in death by his grandfather, Chauncey Griffith. Mr. Allen was one of 12 grandchildren, and had many close aunts and uncles.

"Chris was truly one of those people who, after seeing them, you'd think ‘I wish I was more like that guy’ and mean it," said Chris' colleague, James Taylor.

Many more of his teammates at Volition contributed thoughts in his memory:

Don't look so surprised. THQ have announced that they're pushing the release of Saints Row 2 back a couple of months, "due to product quality and marketing considerations". In other words, due to "oh man, that GTA IV is pretty good". Originally due to ship in August, the game is now slated for release on October 14. You may be finished with GTA IV by then. You may even care by then.

THQ delays 'Saints Row 2' by nearly two months [Reuters]

Saint's Row 2, Hijacked By Gary Busey

Give Gary Busey a green screen, some video game footage and whatever marvelous concoction of narcotics he must have on constant drip, and you get three new Saint's Row 2 trailers called Street Lessons With Uncle Gary. Sometimes funny, often scary and always Busey, these new ads will give you a slightly better glimpse of the game than the more dramatic, less footagey trailer that debuted last week.

I'm hanging out at Volition in a cozy darkened side room, waiting for their presentation on Saint's Row 2 to begin. Producer Greg Donovan (right) is with me and we sit there a bit awkwardly, waiting for the game's Lead Designer, James Tsai (left), to join us.

It's not Donovan's fault that things are weird. Someone has painstakingly setup a small table filled with various drinks and snacks that, as Donovan explains, "aren't there everyday."

Things are weird because I have an absurd headache on top of an even more absurd head cold making me a complete bitch to talk to. Donovan breaks the silence again.

Saints Row 2 Defiant In The Face GTAIV

We wouldn't be releasing this year if we didn't think we could be competitive...The only thing I know about GTA is what I've read. From what I've read it seems like they're going in a more realistic direction. For us it's more about almost a hyper-realistic quality, over-the-top, all about these memorable moments.

Developer Admits Saints Row 2 "Won't Be Bug Free"

It won't be bug free. I don't think any game is. But part of what we did was to start development early on. Our development schedule is all about getting the gameplay in and even though this (version of the game shown to press) is pre-alpha, we're all about iterating the gameplay now.

A load of new details have just dropped on Saint's Row 2 over at Gameplayer. And the sequel's updates all sound promising. First and foremost, the game will be adding a full-story co-op multiplayer experience ala Crackdown. (Do we need to mention yet again just how awesome this industry trend of co-op multiplayer is?) In addition, a boatload (literally) of new vehicles will be available, including planes, helicopters, jet-skis and speedboats (hence the pun). And yes, concerned citizens, these planes can crash into buildings.

Building interiors will also be a new focus of the game, with over 130 throughout a city that's now 45% larger than SR1. Oh, and you can be a transsexual now, too. Hmmm...I wonder what I have to do for another invite to Volition...(not just because I'm extremely interested in transsexuals or something).

Saints Row 2: A first look at GTA's competition [via n4g]

Who Likes Saints Row? Denny Crane!

Speaking of cameos, the latest episode of ABC legal drama Boston Legal featured a brief guest appearance by THQ and Volition's Saints Row. A portly William Shatner as chronic nutjob Denny Crane is seen getting his virtual hooker on, probably at the behest of some nerdy writer on the show's staff. Either that or a production assistant was tasked with getting "one of the Grand Thefts for the Nintendo PlayStation so Mr. Shatner can keep busy between takes." Surely, THQ didn't pay for this kind of product placement. I hope.

Thanks for the tip, Greg!

Yes. This again. Just because Halloween is now a full two days expired doesn't mean our tips inbox has engaged it's costume and pumpkin filter. For those keeping score, we've got Blizzard, NCSoft, Bioware, EA and Nihilistic in the running for best Western developer in Team Fortress 2 cosplay. Tired of this schtick? I can understand, but I really need some more blue teams to restore order to the Kotaku force. Plus, I'm pretty sure that's The Office's Steve Carrell as The Medic.

Thanks, Mike!

Volition Force Forms Blazing Lizard

New Red Faction is Official

Saints Row PS3 Scrapped, Sequel Due

Rumor: Saints Row Heading to PS3?