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Red Faction: Guerrilla opens Steamworks public beta
Red Faction: Guerrilla is the latest game to completely shed its Games for Windows Live coat, and will now begin testing full Steam support features, Nordic Games announced. The publisher invited players to participate in a public beta of the game's new Steam-based functionality, which includes matchmaking and multiplayer support via Steamworks. The game's public beta will also feature leaderboards, voice chat and achievements via Valve's PC gaming service. Those interested in participating in the beta are instructed to follow this guide, selecting Red Faction: Guerrilla in step one and using the password "nordicrfgbeta" and the beta branch "publicbeta." First launching in 2009, Red Faction: Guerrilla was part of the $4.9 million set of intellectual properties purchased by Nordic Games in THQ's liquidation auction in April 2013, seeing itself as a "middle man" for potential sequels in its new series. The publisher told Joystiq at Gamescom in August that it's "not the right time" for Red Faction: Guerrilla 2. [Image: Nordic Games]
Humble Store Nordic sale discounts Red Faction, Darksiders series and more
Up to 80 percent off is on offer at The Humble Store this week on a large collection of Nordic Games-owned franchises, including old THQ-published favorites Red Faction and Darksiders. The Red Faction Collection is available for $9.99 (down from $60) and bundles each game in the series from developer Volition Inc., including DLC for Armageddon. Darksiders 2 is available for $7.49, while the original has been reduced to $4.99 during the limited time sale. Other franchises discounted in the deal include SpellForce, Gothic, Arcana, and Titan Quest. Ten percent of sales at The Humble Store are given to charity. Humble supports multiple charities from its store, including the American Red Cross, Child's Play, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Charity: Water and World Land Trust. The Nordic Games 'Revolutionary Sale' ends early on Friday, April 18. [Image: The Humble Store]
GOG puts daily sale to a vote, discounts The Witcher games
GOG.com started its "Battle of the Games" promotion today, in which players can vote on which games they'd rather purchase at a cheaper rate. The sale offers two sets of three games every morning at 7:00 a.m. ET, accumulating votes throughout the day to determine which set receives a 75 percent discount and which is 60 percent off the next day. Currently, the digital retailer is pitting the trio of Red Faction and Red Faction 2 as well as Chaser against Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament and Unreal 2: The Awakening. To get the sale started, GOG.com is also offering discounts on six games for the day: The first three games in the Heroes of Might and Magic series for $2.49 each, Blackguards Special Edition ($22.49) and the enhanced editions of The Witcher ($1.99) and The Witcher 2 ($3.99). The Battle of the Games sale ends April 21. [Image: CD Projekt Red]
Nordic Games still working out plans for Darksiders, other THQ assets
Four months after parting with $4.9 million to pick up a number of big ex-THQ properties, Austrian-based Nordic Games is still working to finalize its transaction with the now-bankrupt company. If you were looking for announcements at Gamescom - as Nordic Games hoped to have - on the futures of Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Titan Quest, and Red Faction, you may have a fair while to wait - although not necessarily in all cases . "It takes longer than expected getting everything together because THQ, there are not a lot of people there," explained Reinhard Pollice, the man in charge of business and product development at Nordic. "There are just like five people and they're mostly financial and administration guys. So the stuff that we need is really hard to get. I've been visiting them a lot of times, trying to make sure we get everything that we actually want, or that we should get." While Pollice said he's a fan of the franchises Nordic acquired, he feels THQ at some point became too big a company to make use of the talents it had; he noted the now defunct company made a lot of bad decisions with Red Faction after Guerrilla, for example. That may explain why he places the shooter franchise lower in Nordic's priority than Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, and Titan Quest, which he sees as first, second and third. That's not to say a new Red Faction isn't coming; Pollice said Nordic is in talks with former Volition members who left the studio over the last four to five years, and that Nordic is still evaluating what to do with the franchise. Meanwhile, Darksiders remains years, rather than months, away. Pollice said Nordic's been in good discussions with some members of the original Vigil Games Team, but a "certain core" are now at Crytek US and most likely won't be available.
Nordic Games explains who the f they are, plans for THQ assets
Nordic Games spent $4.9 million to acquire THQ's back catalog in April, but has yet to reveal any concrete plans for the intellectual properties, although it certainly knows what you'd like to see. And, with any luck, will announce some plans by Gamescom. "We want to carefully select which franchises are up for getting a sequel or new installment. We closely monitor the communities on that," said Reinhard Pollice, who handles Nordic's business and product development. He mentioned the games receiving the most feedback are Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction and Titan Quest. Personally, Pollice would also like a new Deadly Creatures, but there are other challenges. Nordic has described itself as a "middle man," since the company doesn't have internal studios or the capital to make the AAA sequels that fans of these games would expect. This is particularly true in the case of Darksiders, which Nordic would need to seek another publishing partner to help out. "Darksiders is really big. We know we need a partner for that. An established development team that can pull out such a big action adventure. We obviously talked to former team members and, if they are free, we want to somehow involve them. If they are allowed to because, you know, some of them found other jobs or are with Crytek now," said Pollice. He expressed that Darksiders is the franchise Nordic wants to do right by, to continue the story that's already been established. As a fan, Pollice doesn't want to mess up Darksiders and he wants to make sure that nobody else ruins what's been started in the first two games. Although, with the road ahead, he said, "I would not look for a Darksiders 3 before two years from now."
Nordic Games involved with THQ since January, is talking sequels
Nordic Games picked up most of the IPs in THQ's back catalog auction, dishing out $4.9 million for Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, Titan Quest and a slew of unannounced games from THQ's long list of for-sale properties. Nordic was a surprise to some, especially next to Gearbox, which picked up the Homeworld franchise, and 505 Games, which snagged Drawn to Life and its sequel. But Nordic isn't new."We've been in conversation with THQ since January," Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors told Game Informer. "We signed all the NDAs in January."Wingefors has been in the gaming industry for 20 years, he said, and has handled "a lot" of THQ products during that time. In November 2011, Nordic acquired publisher JoWood, in charge of Painkiller and Torchlight, and also ended up with Canadian publisher Dreamcatcher, spawning Nordic's publishing focus.Nordic took part in the first THQ auction as well, which sold off properties such as Saints Row and some development studios for upwards of $20 million. That sale was too rich for Wingefors: "Saints Row went for $22 million and Koch bought that development studio with that burn rate on a daily basis. Even though I do have financial resources, I don't have those kind of resources."Wingefors didn't want a studio. Nordic is a "middle man" looking for the right team to make some new sequels; there's already been plenty of interest in Darksiders, he said."We have to be very honest," Wingefors said. "I am a business man within the games industry. We are not the creative, talented developer that brings out new versions in house. I understand the potential of the IPs. I respect the original creators and the creative people who are able to create sequels. In the past 24 hours, we have been contacted and there have been a few discussions (but I can't confirm names)."Nordic took home more than 50 former THQ games, but has yet to release the full list."As we still have some open points with regards to a couple of titles we will not publish a comprehensive list at this stage," a Nordic Games representative told Joystiq yesterday. "However, once everything is fixed and the ink is dry – around mid-May – we will go out with a comprehensive list of titles which we have acquired in the process."Nordic will hold talks this summer with different developers, during E3 especially. Don't expect any sequels too soon, though."You won't see a new Darksiders this year," Wingefors said. "I don't believe in bringing out a shitty sequel."
THQ auction results: Nordic Games takes Darksiders, Red Faction; 505 Games is Drawn to Life
The THQ back catalog auction results are in, with Nordic Games riding away with the intellectual property (IP) rights to Darksiders, Red Faction and MX vs. ATV for $4.9 million. The company picked up nearly all the assets in the auction, including Titan Quest, Supreme Commander, Frontlines, Stuntman, Juiced, Full Spectrum Warrior, Destroy All Humans and much more. "First and foremost we are very happy about this deal which also turns over a new leaf for the entire Nordic Games Group. In the long term, we either want to cooperate with the original creators or best possible developers in order to work on sequels or additional content for these titles," said Nordic Games CEO Lars Wingefors. "A very important point for us is not to dash into several self-financed multi-million dollar projects right away, but rather to continue our in-depth analysis of all titles and carefully selecting different financing models for developing new instalments of acquired IPs." The other reveal is 505 Games grabbed the rights to Drawn to Life and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter for $300K. The news follows this afternoon's unexpected acquisition of the Homeworld franchise by Gearbox Software. We now know the price tag for Gearbox to re-release the original games on digital distribution networks and take a swing at its own spin on the real-time strategy franchise was $1.35 million. We've listed the winning bids in greater detail after the break.
Darksiders, Homeworld, Red Faction and other IPs next on THQ auction
THQ has announced that it will be auctioning off the intellectual property rights for a large portion of its back catalogue, including Darksiders, Red Faction and Homeworld. The full list of properties up for sale, broken into six lots and posted in full after the break, also includes games like Destroy All Humans! and numerous licensed products.Once interested bidders have gone through the proper channels, initial bids must be submitted by April 1, 2013, with final bids due on April 15. Once all bids have been submitted, THQ will talk the situation over with the various entities it owes money to and will then designate a primary and back-up bid for each lot. Once all that has been completed, the sales will be presented to the court for final approval, expected to take place in May.
Red Faction: Armageddon PC demo hits OnLive exclusively (for now)
You may have already noticed, but cloud gaming service OnLive and publisher THQ have developed quite the relationship. First the two began offering free games and hardware as pre-order bonuses, and now they're offering an exclusive demo for Red Faction: Armageddon. While it's already available to Xbox 360 owners via Xbox Live, the only way that PC (and Mac) users are going to play the demo in the immediate future is through OnLive. The service calls this an "industry milestone," saying that the demo will remain its exclusive until Armageddon's retail release on June 6. An OnLive account (free) is required to play the trial, which concludes with an offer to pre-purchase the full game from a retailer or the streaming service. Doing the latter will also net buyers instant access to Red Faction: Guerilla and a free MicroConsole system, in a promotion originally launched earlier this month.
Red Faction: Armageddon trailer breaks the seal, lets out the bad
You've seen the aliens Darius Mason is tasked with squashing in Red Faction: Armageddon, but do you know how they became a threat to all of the humans on Mars?
Armageddon a free OnLive MicroConsole with Red Faction pre-order
A few months ago, THQ and OnLive partnered to give away free MicroConsole devices with pre-orders of Homefront. OnLive is launching another THQ promotion, and this one is arguably a better deal, because it doesn't include a copy of Homefront. From now through June 6, if you buy a "Full PlayPass" for Red Faction: Armageddon through OnLive, you'll get a free MicroConsole, allowing you to play streaming OnLive games on your TV -- and a free copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla. Eventually, you're going to end up with a pile of these MicroConsoles!
Red Faction production stills look very, very surly
The SyFy press site recently added a handful of production stills for its upcoming original film adaptation of the Red Faction franchise, posted in the gallery below. Did you know that, in addition to being composed of red rocks, Mars is also made out of frowns?
THQ calls Red Faction: Battlegrounds reception a 'disappointment'
During an event today promoting SyFy's Red Faction: Origins tie-in movie, THQ's creative / biz dev director Lenny Brown shared with Joystiq his thoughts on the reception of the recent download-only release in the franchise, Red Faction: Battlegrounds. "I think it's a little bit of a disappointment," he told us bluntly, with the bulk of that letdown caused by the game's Metacritic score, currently sitting at 49 out of 100. "I think what's most disappointing for me," Brown said, "is how sometimes the prose of the reviews don't match the final score. Someone will say something not necessarily glowing, but you think you're tracking along a 7, and then you get a 4." Our own review gave the game two out of five stars. "That's not talking about the fairness of the score of this game in particular," he clarified. "It's not the best game in the world, but it's not a 5. It's a satisfactory experience that leads into the bigger game. And I think just because of what we're trying to do, that's innovative, and I think that alone deserves a 7."
Red Faction Battlegrounds review: Get your half-ass to Mars
Man, is there anything more pretentious than a game reviewer? Just look at him, stirring his whole leaf Darjeeling tea with a gold-rimmed monocle, sneering at any game that doesn't aspire to turn Roger Ebert into a weepy Gamestop customer. Why can't he just enjoy a four-player vehicular combat game for its simple pleasures and stimulating explosions? I tried, between sips. Despite ticking some appealing boxes and crates of TNT, Red Faction Battlegrounds is a tepid pursuit of the bare minimum, resistant to the creative nudge that could have made it feel like something worthwhile. Everything works, it does what it says on the tin, but there's not a spark of personality in there. Even the ties to Red Faction are superficial -- the tanks, armored cars and bipedal mechs could have been from any game and any planet.%Gallery-120476%
Hour-long documentary goes behind the scenes at Volition
Game Informer's story on Saints Row: The Third started with just a few screenshots, but apparently the magazine had some extra video footage around, so it decided to turn it into a nearly one hour long documentary on the entire Volition studio, from its PC beginnings with Descent: Freespace, up into the big console series Red Faction and Saints Row. There's a lot of fascinating behind-the-scenes stuff here for old-school Volition fans, including a lot of thinking on why Volition has made the games it has, how the company has built up its growing legacy piece by piece, and even why some developers on the staff didn't want anything to do with Saints Row in the first place. The last 18 years of Volition's work makes for some excellent weekend watching.
Red Faction's Battlegrounds open up in Europe this April
THQ's downloadable game about Mars cars, Red Faction: Battlegrounds, will launch in Europe in the first week of April, according to a statement from THQ to Eurogamer. No North American date has been announced, but the overwhelming majority of PSN and XBLA releases arrive here the same week as they do in Europe. It's therefore safe to assume you'll be blasting the surface of Mars in walking mechs, rovers and other vehicles for a good month and a half before Armageddon hits. We're checking with THQ ourselves to make sure.
Red Faction: Battlegrounds beta extended to Oct. 26
If you were one of those lucky few PlayStation Plus members selected for the Red Factions: Battlegrounds beta, you'll have an extra week to zoom around and blow junk up. Word comes via the PlayStation Blog, where Volition community manager J Goldberg also announced that 1,000 more PlayStation Plus members will be invited into the beta. Red Faction: Battlegrounds is a twin-stick shooter in which up to four players engage in vehicular-based combat both online and off. It's expected to launch on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in early 2011.
THQ partners with Joyent for 'rapid prototyping and deployment' of social games
THQ and its core games VP Danny Bilson have been touting the publisher's dedication to making properties flexible across multiple mediums ("transmedia") -- for instance, Red Faction is getting a movie, a downloadable game, and a retail game (we're unceremoniously awaiting the inevitable book or comic tie-in). One area the publisher has yet to tap into with its core games IPs is social gaming, though that may no longer be the case. This morning, THQ announced a partnership with digital infrastructure company Joyent for the "rapid prototyping and deployment of online games." We spoke with VP of online publishing and operations Mike Hogan just late last week about the partnership and what it means for THQ. Will we see Red FactionVille anytime soon on Facebook? "We have a pretty strong online strategy right now -- next week we're launching Company of Heroes Online, it's been in open beta for some time now and we've had great results on that," he told us. "If you take a look at the social applications, it is a part of what we do but it's certainly not all of it. As far as the actual games, I really can't tell you specifically what we have in development, but if you take a look at our license -- THQ has a great portfolio of licenses -- it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think that some of those are involved."
THQ wants Red Faction: Battlegrounds to be free, or at least cheap
There is likely to be a low barrier of entry for THQ's downloadable Red Faction spinoff, Red Faction: Battlegrounds. At Gamescom, a THQ representative told Joystiq that the company may opt to give the game away as a pre-order bonus for Red Faction: Armageddon. "No price yet," the rep said. "They are talking about possible pre-order specials. It's possible, hasn't been finalized yet, that if you pre-order Armageddon you may be able to toss this in as well. They obviously want to keep it as low as possible." Barring that, he said, THQ hopes to sell it for 400-800 Microsoft Points ($5-10). The freebie strategy fits with THQ core games VP Danny Bilson's strategy to use downloadable games to extend its brands. In addition, the representative offered additional details on the downloadable title's planned DLC. "Two downloadable packs," he said, "one ties into the [Red Faction: Origins] miniseries ... it also has a Armageddon DLC pack."
THQ registers 'Red Faction Battlegrounds' domain
THQ has a lot of Red Faction transmedia projects going on, so let's add another to the mix: RedFactionBattlegrounds.com. The RF: Battlegrounds domain registration, noticed by Superannuation, is either another non-gaming project or is more likely the name of THQ's Red Faction downloadable title for XBLA and PSN, which is supposed to come out before Red Faction: Armageddon's launch in March. The publisher also currently has Red Faction: Origins, its SyFy original movie (which could turn into a television series), set to premiere next March. At this rate, it'll be fitting if THQ announces Red Faction: Overload for April -- but we doubt it.
