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THQ Press Day 2008 April 09, 2008 John JCal Callaham |
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Summary: Publisher THQ has several AAA titles on tap for 2008 including Saints Row 2 and Red Faction Guerrilla. Join us as JCal takes a look at what games you should be on the lookout for!
 THQ Press Day 2008 | Page:: ( 1 / 7 ) |
With E3 now pushed back to mid-July, game publishers are no longer waiting for the annual media event to announce and show off their major game releases for the next year. More and more publishers are holding major press events during April and May to showcase their upcoming titles. THQ is first out of the gate as they held their 2008 press event in San Fransisco last week as they showed off and talked about their major releases they have planned for the next 12 months. FiringSquad was invited and we got hands-on with early builds of a number of games slated for release by the publisher, which has a healthy mix of family and casual games with a number of hardcore gamer titles.
One game that was announced but not shown in playable form was Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 2. The first true sequel to Relic's best selling sci-fi RTS game (after a whopping three standalone expansions to the first game) will have an advanced version of the graphics engine first used by Relic for their 2006 WWII RTS game release Company of Heroes. We got to see a very brief pre-rendered trailer showing off a one-on-one battle between a space marine and a giant Ork, but that's pretty much all we saw and heard about the game at this stage. We will have a lot more info on the game in the months to come before its spring 2009 release.
We got to talk briefly with THQ CEO Brian Farrell at the event because we wanted to get any update at all on the previously announced Warhammer 40,000 MMO that the publisher announced well over a year ago. Farrell said the game is still in development at the publisher's Vigil Studios in Austin, but that he and THQ weren't ready to talk about the specifics of the title yet. He stated that THQ was deliberately taking their time on the title and didn't want to reveal anything until they were ready to show off something substantial to the press. “Tell your readers we want to do it right,” Farrell told us.
With that out of the way, we went to the event's many playable kiosks to check out some early builds of THQ's game lineup. Read on for our initial impressions of the games shown at the event.
| Red Faction Guerrilla | Page:: ( 2 / 7 ) |
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By a mile the game we most wanted to learn more about and play at THQ's event was Red Faction Guerrilla, the next game in the sci-fi shooter series from developer Volition. The first two Red Faction titles emphasized destructible environments with the game's GeoMod engine. Even though its been a few years since the release of Red Faction 2, few games released since have offered the type of options for just pure player created mayhem that Volition's titles have had. For the third game in the series, Volition decided to take a bit of a risk. Instead of a first person shooter, Red Faction Guerrilla will be a third person action game a la Gears of War. Like the first two games the third title is set on Mars, now terraformed with a breathable atmosphere. However, your character is once again going after the oppressive corporation that seeks to do more than just make some profits.
The playable level we got to check out showcased the game's destructible content in a huge way. Your default weapon in the game isn't some wimpy pistol; it's a sledgehammer and you can use it immediately to strike against the many structures that you can take out in the game. The sledgehammer deals some surprising amount of damage; you can quickly make a lot of holes in the game's buildings (concrete is easily damaged; metal structures take a little longer to take out). Of course you have other weapons at your disposal from rocket launchers, to machine guns, to energy weapons. You don't have to take out buildings in the game directly. There will likely be items near structures like electrical stations and gas tanks that will blow up quite nicely with one or two shots from a machine gun.
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The actual destructible effects are certainly a cut or two above what we have seen in the first two Red Faction titles. There's a lot more random pieces and particles thrown out when you destroy items in Red Faction Guerrilla, and if you destroy just enough in just the right spots you can bring the rest of the building down without having to blow up every single piece. You don't want to be near the building when this happens, however; objects have real weight in this game and a falling roof can damage or even kill you.
The game's mission structure is handled via radio broadcasts that you receive from fellow rebel factions. They may order you to go rescue some hostages, or take out a convoy of armored vehicles. Yes, there are a number of drivable vehicles in the game from simple jeeps, to transport trucks, to APCs. However you will most certainly enjoy operating one vehicle in particular in the game. The one-man mech like loader is not only fun to drive around, but its two arms are perfect for pretty much wrecking havoc anywhere in the loader's path. From bulldozing down buildings, to flipping vehicles several feet in the air, to just flicking those annoying human enemies to the ground with their peashooters, it's going to be a pleasure to find that loader in the full game.
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Red Faction Guerrilla met and even exceeded our high expectations even with this early build. It looks like Volition will give us the pure destructible experience that we have been expecting from this sequel. The game will be out for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in the fall of 2008 and we will have more info on the game in the months ahead.
| Saint's Row 2 | Page:: ( 3 / 7 ) |
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Volition is one busy developer right now as they are also working on Saint's Row 2 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. The original Saint's Row was the first true open world action game for a next-gen console; it debuted on the Xbox 360 in September 2006 (a planned PS3 version was canceled, making Saint's Row an unintentional Xbox 360 exclusive). The sequel looks to expand on the features that made the original memorable; namely the tons of customizations you can do for your character.
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Saint's Row 2 will allow players to create pretty much any characte they want. For the first time you can create either a male or female playable character in the game, and sliders can determine its visuals; how tall or short, how fat or skinny, and even how young or how old your character is can all be handled in the character generation menu. Your can even customize your character's living quarters. Depending on how much money you have while playing the game, you can put in items like a bar, a pool table, or a stripper pole. You can even give your pad an overall makeover; would you like a drap and dreary hangout, an ultra-modern look, or a hip-hop artist crib?
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As far as playing the game, one of the big innovations is being able to play the single player missions and campaign in a full two player co-op mode. Your online pal can come on board at any time and join you while you shoot up a drug lab, destroy a trailer park and more (other online modes are being kept secret for now). We got to see players grab NPCs and used them as human shields during fire fights and then throw the body through glass windows and walls. We got to also see sticky bombs that you can throw and attach to cars, buildings, and even people. One move is to attach some sticky bombs to the hood of a car and drive through a building and blowing it up (of course you can throw yourself out of a car before this happens).
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Saint's Row 2 won't lack for vehicles to operate in the game. In addition to ground-based vehicles like cars, truck and motorcycles, there will also be boats and jet skis to use on the water and biplanes and helicopter to use in the air. One cool thing we got to see demo’ed at the press event is having you and your co-op friend in a mission where one steers the helicopter and the other shoots its on-board rockets. You have to protect a colleague who is driving on the streets of the city and is being attacked by both enemy cars and planes. Visually the Xbox 360 version of Saint's Row 2 has a lot more detail than the original game, with more refined character models and better textures for the city's structures.
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While Saint's Row 2 looks like a promising game, the big question is how will it compare to Grand Theft Auto IV? Rockstar's first true next-gen open world game is set for release less than a month from now, and we have to wonder if fans of the genre will want to pick up Saint's Row 2 once GTA IV is out in the marketplace, and how it really will compare with Rockstar's latest entry in their own series. We will hopefully learn more about the game in the months before its scheduled August 26 release date.
| Darksiders: Wrath of War | Page:: ( 4 / 7 ) |
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THQ announced Darksiders at E3 last July, and showed an early build of the game at the event at that time. At this week's press event we got to see a more refined build of the game (sadly we were not allowed to go hands-on) which got us even more excited about the prospects for this fantasy action-adventure title from developer Vigil Studios (the same folks behind the Warhammer 40K MMO).
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Basically the game takes place on an modern day Earth that has been ravaged by a battle between angels and demons. We got to see three levels of the game in our demo; the first takes place on a war ravaged human city where demons are after pretty much anything, including your character War, one of the fabled Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You’ll have a mixture of both magical and human weaponry at your disposal; everything from a huge fantasy sword to the game's version of a mini-gun. Like the God of War series you’ll battle all sorts of creatures from pesky demons to massive enemies like monsters with big heads and even bigger tusks for hands to sandworms that will rise up and eat you from below.
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Darksiders's art style comes from famed X-Men artist Joe Madureira (currently handling the artwork for Marvel's Ultimates 3 mini-series) and it shows in the character designs and levels for pretty much every aspect of the game's visuals look. While the style is somewhat cartoony, Darksiders definitely has a mix of American comic books mixed with a bit of Japanese manga and anime styles. One interesting aspect of the game is that it takes place in a kind of open world. As you progress through the game you can go back to any point in the city to check out other areas. There are also separate dungeon levels underneath the city that you have to explore as well.
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Darksiders is still a ways away from release; THQ stated that it's slated for a first quarter 2009 ship date. Even though we didn't get to play the game ourselves, the live demo was extremely impressive with the game exhibiting a rather unique visual style combined with lots of action. There will also be puzzles and adventure elements in this single player only game but those features were not shown to us this week. We are glad that Vigil still has some time to make sure the game is as good as it already looks.
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| Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon | Page:: ( 5 / 7 ) |
THQ has already released one Destroy All Humans game this year with the Wii title Big Willie Unleashed. In September the series makes its first Xbox 360-PS3 entry with Path of the Furon which takes the B-movie inspired sci-fi action title into the 1970's. The early build we saw and played at THQ's press event looks like it will be very groovy, man. Sandblast Games takes over from Pandemic (who created the first two games in the series) for this new title.
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The game once again has the grey alien Crypto up to no good as he abducts, mind-wipes and generally causes chaos in the fictional Southern California like open world city that Path of the Furon takes place in. As with previous games in the Destory All Humans series, you will have the ability to shoot and destroy the human populace through a variety of means in the new game. On foot you can throw them with your beam weapon, bounce them around with a rainbow like bouncing ball effect, make them be eaten by a giant Venus Flytrap plant (“Feed Me”), or you can use your mental abilities to take over a human to hide from others, make other humans forget where you are, or even make a crowd disco dance to your will. You can freeze time for a few seconds to position, say, a car to come down on top of a human. And then there's the Black Hole Gun that sucks in everything in the weapon's immediate area and blows them apart.
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As with previous games in the series, you also can command your own personal flying saucer in Path of the Furon. You can use it to simply destroy buildings with your laser, take out attacking helicopters, or sweep down and suck up scores of pedestrians off the roads for use in your own nefarious deeds. The game's visual style remains the same as in the other titles, namely a fun comic book and B-movie poster look. However being on the PS3 and Xbox 360 allows the game to have lots more physics and visual effects that were not possible in the previous games in the series.
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If you just like playing and causing lots and and lots of mayhem and don't care for a deep storyline, Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon is looking like it may be for you. Look for the game on the Xbox 360 and PS3 later in September.
| BAJA/Deadly Creatures | Page:: ( 6 / 7 ) |
BAJA
THQ already has a successful off-road racing franchise in its MX vs ATV series. However, the publisher has decided to add yet another game in the genre for release later this year for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. The game is being developed by the new 2XL Games company, formed by former members of THQ's Rainbow Studios team. BAJA's main theme is being able to play in a simulated 300 plus mile off-road Baja race, something that hasn't really been done in this kind of game before.
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We got to play a small portion of the Baja portion of the game, and it's a very different kind of racing experience than just driving a circuit race full of left and right turns. You will have to not only out-race opponents but also your own fatigue as you operate your vehicle through long stretches of desert terrain. If you want to take a break, an AI driver can drive a portion of the full race while you (as just one example) head to the bathroom.
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There's other race modes in BAJA as well, including more traditional circuit races as well as the cool hill climb, which is also a bit of a different tack on racing. You operate your vehicle up and down a sand hill and not only do you have to keep up with other racers, but you also have to make sure your car isn't damaged too much from all that going up and down; you get penalties if your ride is too badly hurt after all that activity.
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Graphically BAJA looks terrific with some great looking car racing models (it's all four wheel off-road vehicles here; no motorcycles or other kinds of rides like in the MX Vs ATV series) and some very impressive looking outdoor environments. A couple of THQ's 2007 vehicle-based games, Juiced 2 and Stuntman: Ignition, didn't sell well and got mediocre reviews but we think this new take on the off-road racing genre will be a welcome addition to the publisher's line-up. BAJA is due for release in August.
Deadly Creatures
Rainbow Studios has decided to take a break from its MX vs ATV games (letting 2XL Games take over with BAJA this year). It's new effort, the Wii exclusive title Deadly Creatures, is certainly unique. It's an action-adventure game where you play as a scorpion or tarantula; yes, you experience the game from a bug's point of view. The game isn't a cartoony style title, either. Deadly Creatures is deadly serious as the bugs and the environments they operate in have a realistic art style.
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In the press event demo of Deadly Creatures, we navigated the scorpion character through its paces as it explored the underground environments and fought off spiders, lizards and other creatures. Moving the WiiMote will activate some of the game's combat moves, such as moving the controller forward to activate the scorpion's trademark stinger attack. More attacks like spinner strikes and pincer moves are available via other WiiMote movements.
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Again the graphics, even for the Wii console, look pretty solid at this point as you really get the feeling of being a bug in a realistic looking small environment where even tiny roots are gigantic from your position. It was a bit confusing, however, at times because Deadly Creatures will make its players crawl not just on the ground but move to climb walls, ceildings and roots. There will be some kind of guideposts to give you some hints as to where to go, but our experience with the demo was a little challenging as we had to figure out that we had to go up walls to proceed to the next level in the game.
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Even the story of the game isn't a joke; apparently a gas station has exploded and the game takes place a day beforehand as your bug characters experience the day's events before the explosion.
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Deadly Creatures is definitely a different style of game for the Wii console, but its use of the WiiMote to activate the bug's special moves combined with the weirdness of just playing as a realistic small entity, makes this new game one to watch when it is released later this year.
| Smackdown vs Raw and family games | Page:: ( 7 / 7 ) |
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WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009
Announced a couple of weeks ago during the build up to the WWE's Wrestlemania pay-per-view event, Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 will be THQ's latest game in their highly successful pro wrestling series.
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At THQ's press event we got to see some gameplay trailers (no actual live demos, unfortunately) and from the looks of things the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms will have the best looking graphics ever for a game of this type (you can also expect versions of the game will be released on the other console platforms as well).
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At the moment THQ isn't talking much about the game (they usually save more info for later in the year), but they did say that this entry in the series will have a special emphasis on tag team wrestling where you and a friend will be able to play in a co-op story driven campaign together. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will also be the first games in the series to have downloadable content; at the moment the publisher isn't saying exactly what will be offered in that area.
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You can expect a lot more info on Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 in the months leading to its fall 2008 release.
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Family-Casual Titles
THQ's line-up of games will also include a bunch of titles made specifically for the family and casual market and the publisher is using Nintendo's Wii console as its main focus for this market. One of these games is WALL-E, the latest title in THQ's long standing partnership with Disney's Pixar Animation Studios. WALL-E the movie will be released in late June, and THQ will have the game version on all platforms around that time as well. At the event they showed off the Xbox 360 and Wii versions, both of which were developed by Heavy Iron Studios. Both ports showed off the playable characters of the robots WALL-E and EVE as they go through the events of the upcoming film. Some levels will actually require you to control both characters at the same time (for example the flying EVE will have to hold the non-flying WALL-E as she flys him through a platform style game).
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The Xbox 360's visuals look much better than the Wii version, but the Wii will have some WiiMote exclusive levels such as a rail-shooter style mini-game. If you have kids that love all things Pixar, WALL-E is looking like a title that will be entertaining for that kind of audience.
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Yet another game for this market is de Blob (yes, that's how it's spelled) where your player character is a colored piece of goo that is determined to make a black-and-white city more colorful by “painting” the town red, blue, purple and more.
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Objectives in the game include making sure you color a portion of the city in a certain amount of time. The game isn't hardcore, but de Blob is certainly different and should appear to a more mainstream audience (which is of course what the Wii is all about). The game is due out in September.
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Other more casual games coming from THQ this year include Big Beach Sports for the Wii (a Wii Sports style arcade game with volleyball, soccer and other sports), Lock's Quest for the DS (a 2D anime-style strategy game), and Battle of the Bands for the Wii (a Guitar Hero style music game that's actually due out later this month)
Conclusion
While some publishers lean heavily towards hardcore games, while others perhaps move to a more mainstream audience, THQ's 2008-early 2009 game line-up definitely looks like it will have something for everyone with a rather eclectic mix of “M” rated titles like Saint's Row 2 and Red Faction, to the fun and goofy innovations of de Blob.