Red-Faction-Armageddon
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Xbox 360 deals: Black Ops 2, Garden Warfare, Oblivion
The third day of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Ultimate Games Sale features discounts on five games through Xbox Live. Activision's 2012 first-person shooter Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 is half-off today ($29.99 / £24.99 / €34.99), as is today's lone XBLA deal, Assassin's Creed Liberation ($9.99 £7.99 / €9.99). Three other digital Games on Demand titles are on sale through the end of the day, starting with Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare at 33 percent off ($20.09 / £16.74 / €20.09). Bethesda's 2006 RPG The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is 75 percent off today ($3.74 / £2.99 / €3.74) as well, and wrapping the day's deals is Red Faction: Armageddon at 77 percent off ($6.89 / £4.59 / €14.94). Microsoft is also sporting a number of deals that extend further into the month, such as Titanfall at $20 off and 40 percent off the Call of Duty: Ghosts season pass, both for Xbox One and discounted through July 14. [Image: EA 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]
Humble Weekly Bundle serves up Darksiders 2, also Android bundle
Darksiders 1 & 2 and Red Faction: Guerrilla & Armageddon comprise the second batch of weekly offerings from Humble Indie Bundle, with all four PC games currently on offer at ridicucheap prices. Pay up $1 and you'll pick up Darksiders and RF: Armageddon, with the soundtracks to both included along with the 'Path to War' DLC for Armageddon.However, if you're willing to pony up more than the average paying price, you'll also get Darksiders 2 (plus soundtrack) and RF: Guerrilla. At the time of writing, the pair can be yours for around the very, very silly $7.50 mark.Meanwhile on Android, there's another Humble Bundle for the platform called the Mobile Bundle. Featuring in the latest charitable collection are Contre Jour, Anomaly Korea, Plants vs. Zombies, and Bladeslinger. As ever you can pay what you want, but an average-cough up (around $5.50 at the mo) lets you unlock the secrets of The Room, and generally shoot up stuff in Metal Slug 3. The soundtracks to all, except Contre Jour, are also included.
Amazon THQ sale: Metro 2033, Red Faction Guerrilla, more for 91% off
The Tantalizing THQ Medley on Amazon includes downloads of Metro 2033, Homefront, Red Faction Armageddon, Red Faction Guerrilla, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, all for $12. Regularly priced, this bundle comes out to $118, so that's a savings of 91 percent. Buying all six games is cheaper than getting one by itself, so if you're in the market for any of these, it's your lucky day.Actually, it's your lucky days: The Tantalizing THQ Medley will be on sale through January 20 as Amazon's Deal of the Week.
Volition staffer: Red Faction: Armageddon's problem was 'consistency'
Those in the UK with a strong stomach may want to pick up the new issue of Play Magazine which features Volition team members testifying on the death of the now-defunct Red Faction series. Specifically, staffers like environmental artist Wayne Adams detail where series swan song Red Faction: Armageddon went wrong. "In the end hard decisions had to be made and what could have been was restructured into what the team could do with the amount of time they had," Adams told the magazine. "I can't say whether or not the original ideas would have been better but I think consistency was lost in all of the turmoil of change." We're sure the full article is equally interesting/depressing and, after all, if Halloween isn't the day to visit the scene of the grisly murder of a franchise, what is?
Red Faction: Armageddon 'Path to War' DLC now available on PS3 and 360
We may have finished Red Faction: Armageddon without the desire to play any more of it, but perhaps you're different. Maybe reading about THQ's decision to abandon the franchise after Armageddon, saying it won't continue "in any meaningful way," is prompting a sympathetic interest in "Path to War," the just released DLC pack for Armageddon. You'll get to "relive the battle for the Terraformer through four incredible new surface missions" and be assisted on those missions by two new weapons. Whether that's worth $7 to you on either PS3 or Xbox 360, well ... that's between you and your maker.
THQ laments 'disappointing' quality in recent games
THQ's earnings release and investor call have seemed to pile on the poor Red Faction series. CEO Brian Farrell called out Armageddon's disappointing sales in the release, and announced the effective cancellation of the series in the investor call. Elsewhere in the call, he lamented the perceived quality of Armageddon and the other two most recent core games -- presumably MX vs. ATV: Alive and UFC Personal Trainer, though none are identified by name. "The last three launches we've had have been disappointing in terms of the quality," he said. "Mid-70s [in terms of Metacritic average] is not good enough, and the entire team in our core group knows that." Farrell said the core group intends to focus on putting enough time and resources into its games to ensure higher quality. He specifically referenced Saints Row: The Third, for which "We believe strongly the quality bar is there." And that's how the game's signature weapon got its new nickname, "The Quality Bar."
Red Faction franchise won't continue 'in any meaningful way'
Red Faction: Armageddon has signaled the end of not just a familiar red planet, but an entire, transmedia universe. Speaking during an investor call this evening, THQ CEO Brian Farrell described the franchise's reach as "niche," and consequently no longer worth pursuing. "Given that that title, now in two successive versions, has just found a niche, we do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way," Farrell said. He described the development team at Volition as "talented," and noted that they would be moving on to the company's Guillermo del Toro project, Insane. Though Red Faction: Guerrilla fell victim to a B-for-botched launch campaign in 2009, it was received well enough by critics and "niche" consumers to warrant further exploration. 2011 brought a sequel (Red Faction: Armageddon), a promotional spin-off (Red Faction: Battlegrounds) and a SyFy original movie called Red Faction: Origins. We'll try to get more info from THQ regarding its decision, but for now you can return to the older games (there were two before Guerrilla, by the way!) and extract some relevant lessons for the future. Bonus: If you complete Red Faction 1, you'll learn how to defuse a bomb.
THQ disappointed in Red Faction performance, thinks fiscal Q3 could be its best ever
Despite the fact that net sales were up year-over-year in THQ's fiscal Q1 (which ended June 30), from $149.4 million to $195.2 million, CEO Brian Farrell still wasn't satisfied. "We are disappointed in our first quarter financial performance," he said in the earnings release. "Sales of Red Faction: Armageddon and our licensed kids titles were below our expectations, and the late release of UFC Personal Trainer also adversely impacted the quarter." Of course, that disappointment is probably due to the fact that even with increased net sales, the company came out negative, with a net loss of $38.4 million. Most of the "losses" are from "deferred revenue" -- revenue that the company isn't counting now, because it'll go toward ongoing online services for its games. However, Farrell is looking forward to a profitable Q3 (October through December) -- so profitable, in fact, that he said THQ expects it to be "the biggest third quarter, both in revenue and earnings per share, in our company's history," thanks to Saints Row: The Third, WWE 12, and the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of the uDraw tablet, all scheduled for November releases.
PSN Euro update: Uncharted 3 beta, Sega Rally, Spelunker HD, Gex
Europe has received another sizable PSN update this week. The highlight is undoubtedly the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta. Two full retail titles were added as well, namely Red Faction: Armageddon and the aging Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. On the bite-sized downloadable front are Sega Rally Online Arcade, Spelunker HD and Alien Zombie Mega Death. Cohort Chess has also been added to PlayStation Minis, while Gex: Deep Cover Gecko joins PSOne Classics. DLC has been added for several games, including Super Street Fighter IV, Hyperdimension Neptunia, DiRT 3, Mortal Kombat and WWE All Stars. Head over to the PlayStation Blog Europe for the full rundown.
Buy one, get half off a second select Xbox 360/PS3 game at Best Buy
Before you indulge that sudden, irresistible desire to purchase two recent PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 games, allow us to pass along some helpful information. Best Buy is offering a buy one, get one half-off deal on several PS3 and Xbox 360 games including Dirt 3, Portal 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Red Faction: Armageddon, and Crysis 2. You could even double up on Duke Nukem Forever and Homefront, if that's what you're into for some reason. Regardless of the critical response to the Duke, it's pretty impressive to get a 50% off deal on a brand new game like that ... right? [Thanks, Eric!]
Duke Nukem Forever is all outta bubblegum for UK charts
After 14 years, it'd be sad if Duke Nukem Forever didn't enter Chart-Track's UK All Formats chart in the top spot. So, hail to the king, baby. L.A. Noire graciously slipped only one spot into second, despite a 54 percent drop in sales. We knew Rockstar's crime drama had a massive premiere, becoming the UK's fastest-selling new IP, but those debut numbers must have been massive to survive several large double-digit percentage sales declines the past few weeks and yet maintain such a high ranking. Rounding out the top three: Zumba Fitness, which only saw a 2 percent decline. Two other premieres made it into the top ten last week, with inFamous 2 and Red Faction: Armageddon heroically taking spots four and eight, respectively. Check out the full UK top ten after the break.
Red Faction: Armageddon review: Enemy mine
Genius playwright Anton Chekov was famously aghast with some of the earliest productions of his play Three Sisters, which he, according to director Constantin Stanislavsky, considered to be a "happy comedy." It was staged then, as it is most often staged now, as a fairly gloomy drama, though a brilliant one. Now Stanislavsky was probably exaggerating a tad, as much of Three Sisters is far too heartbreaking for anyone to mistake it as a gigglefest, but it illustrates an important point: Often the creator of something isn't the best judge of what makes it work. In Red Faction: Armageddon, developer Volition has run from everything that made Red Faction: Guerrilla great, and is left with a drab, heartless lump of competence for its efforts. %Gallery-122556%
Red Faction: Armageddon demo downloaded a million times, Mr. Toots unlocked
Since the Red Faction: Armageddon demo was downloaded over a million times, Mr. Toots, the rainbow-farting unicorn originally dangled in front of us as a prize by Volition, will be in the final game. He'll be rewarded to players after they complete the single-player campaign. It's all well and good -- we certainly enjoy magical unicorns who can fire bursts of deadly color from their orifices, of course -- but we were kinda hoping for a return of the ostrich hammer. Hit the jump for the latest Mr. Toots trailer.%Gallery-124894%
A-ha! Red Faction: Armageddon's 'Sketch Mode'
Take on Red Faction: Armageddon. Take bugs on using the game's "Sketch Mode," showcased in a recently released trailer featuring A-ha's trademark song. It's almost as good as a rainbow farting unicorn ... almost.
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?
Red Faction: Armageddon motion capture looks dangerous
Most of us are familiar with the heavily destructible environments of Red Faction: Armageddon, but you may not know about its nearly indestructible motion capture actors. The video after the break features them doing any number of inadvisable physical activities. Someone could stub a toe!
Red Faction: Armageddon soundtrack coming from Sumthing Else
Video game music peddler Sumthing Else has announced plans to release the soundtrack to THQ's Red Faction: Armageddon. The soundtrack was composed by Brian Reitzell, whose portfolio also includes film soundtracks for 30 Days of Night and Stranger Than Fiction. The soundtrack will be available via iTunes, Amazon MP3, retail and the Sumthing Digital website starting May 31. Amazon currently has the CD available for pre-order at just under $15. Red Faction: Armageddon itself will hit shelves on June 7.
Saints Row: The Third character creator available early with Red Faction pre-order
Spore's "Creature Creator" let you build your own freak in advance of the release of the actual game. THQ is taking a page from Maxis' book, allowing you to design your own, well, freak for Saints Row: The Third. The "Initiation Station" app for PS3, PC and Xbox 360 will allow you to design a character, share it via the official community site, and even download other users' characters to import into the game. There's a catch. Early access to the build-a-scumbag app is tied to pre-orders of Red Faction: Armageddon. "Early purchasers" of Volition and THQ's other upcoming game get a one-week head start in the Initiation Station. The app will be available for all some time before the "holiday" release of Saints Row: The Third.
