Volition Games is shutting down. The studio behind games like Saints Row, Summoner, Red Faction, and more is being shutt?ered by parent company Embracer Gr?oup.

In a statement shared on LinkedIn, the studio announced the news. This past June, Embracer announced its restructuring plan, in which it confirmed there would be studio closure??s.

[caption id="attachment_400739" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Volition Games/LinkedIn[/caption]

"As part of that program, [Embracer] evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effec?tive immediately," r?eads Volition's statement.

Volition also confirms that it's working with the team to pr?ovide job assistance and "help smooth the transition" for Volition members. "We thank our customers and fans around the world for all the love and support over the years," the studio says. "You will always be in our hearts."

We've reached out for additional com?ment fro?m Volition and Embracer.

Thirty years of Volition

There's a lot of history in Volition Games, stretching back through the years. While Saints Row is likely their most well-known series, the studio also worked on the Red Faction series, Summoner, and the FreeSpace and Descent games.

Volition hit some rocky waters with its 2022 version of Saints Row, which garnered some mixed reception. It, like many other studios, was vacuumed up by Embracer Group. It's a disheartening thing to see, especially as the news slowly broke this morning from employees laid off and out of work amidst the studio's closure.

Embracer's restructuring is set to happen in phases ??through to March 2024, and will "include, but not be ??limited to, closing or divestments of some studios and the termination or pausing of some ongoing game development projects," Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said at the time.

For reference, the Embracer Group also has Gearbox, Crystal Dynamics, THQ Nordic, Plaion,? Asmodee, and Saber under its umbrella.

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He probably thinks he's a real cowboy...

If you remember that a new Saints Row game came out in the summer of last year, then you might be pleased to hear that the open-world adventure's first DLC expansion will finally arrive next week, nine months on from the game's initial release on PlayStation, PC, a?nd Xbox platforms.

The Heist and The Hazardous �which hits all platforms on May 9 �will see our uber-trendy gangsters on a mission of vengeance, tracking down the double-crossing Hollywood star Chris Hardy following a botched assignment. The expansion will feature new in-game events, story missions, and a wardrobe full of new clothing, weapons, and other related chicanery. The Heist and The Hazardous is the first of three paid DLC expansions p?lanned for the title in 2023.

//twitter.com/SaintsRow/status/1??6533??99037180010500?s=20

Saints Row, which launched last August after being delayed from its initial spring release date, saw the tongue-in-cheek crime franchise rebooted with an oddly elite fashion aesthetic and a cast of younger, entrepreneurial stars. While the game itself was serviceable, with high-octane action and an appetite for destruction, many critics and ?fans were non-plussed at the reboot's general vibe, complaining about a dated mission design, obnoxious and offputting dialogue, as well as a slew of technical issues.

Developer Volition has been releasing updates to correct the latter problems, which has led to this long delay between launch an?d DLC drops. Soon after release, it was a??nnounced that Volition was being transferred from Deep Silver to another Embracer Group publisher, Gearbox Entertainment.

Saints Row i?s available now on PlayStatio??n, PC, and Xbox. But not Stadia. Not anymore.

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Saints Go

Game studio Volition is about to fall under the umbrella of a new publisher, as Embracer Group has announced that the Saints Row de?veloper is to make a side-step from being a subsidiary of Deep Silver to become a subsidiary of Gearbox Entertainment.

Embracer Group, (which owns all of the above), made the announcement in a quarterly financial report.

"Going forward, Volition will transition to become part of Gearbox which has? all the tools, including an experienced management team in the United States, to create future success at Volition," declared Embracer in the report. "This is the first internal group transfer where we transfer a major studio between operative groups, but it is not necessarily the last."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvClpQdaX1Q

Elsewhere in the summary, Embracer notes that the recent Saints Row reboot "performed in line ??with management expectations in the quarter". Though the holding company also candidly notes that the hyper-trendy redesign "did not meet the full expectations and left the fanbase partially?? polarized".

With this move, it will be interesting to see if Volition continues its work on the crime sim series under Gearbox, or whether the studio will transition into making content for series such as Borderlands. The comments from Embracer do not sound like the holding company sees Saints Row as a moneymaking priority right now �given the lukewarm reception to its "Old Men Portray Gen ??Z" revival.

Founded as Parallax Software in 1993, Volition made an immediate name for itself with the esoteric space shooters Descent and Descent II. The studio founders would split into two separate developers thereafter, forming Outrage Entertainment and Volition. Today, the latter is best known for its work on the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises, as well as its gleefully violent 2005 shooter, The Punisher, and its fun gamut of company idents.

Saints Row is available now?? on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms.

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More story content is also on the way for Saints Row

The team at Volition is laying out the future of updates for Saints Row. A?s the reboot passes a significant milestone, the develo?per is also talking about its plans for fine-tuning the game post-launch.

In a new blog, Volition and publisher Deep Silver confirm the 2022 Saints Row has seen 1 million players boot it up. That's a lot of players, but Saints Row has also been dealing with a number of bugs, too.

The studio says it is prioritizing delivering improvements over new features. Part of that is the major update planned for late November, the first one Saints Row is receiving since its launch in August.

The update will see 'over 200' bug fixes and stability upgrades. There will be?? a focus on challenges, overall stability.

"We’re especially aware of issues some players have been ??having with co-op and we’re sorry these fixes have taken longer than expected while we apply and test them thoroughly," said Volition in the update.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgjzDJA1o1E

What's in store the reboot

Quality-of-life improvement??s are also in store for the autumn update. A few specified changes include reducing repetition in some activities, improving management of vehicles, and ma??king challenges more rewarding.

Though newer content is "less of a priority" for the Saints Row team now, the crew is still planning for the future. Volition and Deep Silver say they plan to support Saints Row for the long-term.

Saints Row is due to receive all-new story content in 2023, included in the Expansion Pass or purchasable as a separate piece. Free ne gameplay experiences and city areas are also in development. Cosmetic DLC is also expected to arrive this week for all Saints Row owners, with more on the way this year. ?Expansion Pass owners will get a few additiona??l cosmetic packs, too.

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Another lease on life

Volition was kind of between a rock and a hard place with Saints Row by the time Gat out of Hell came out. At that point, they had gone so far down the well of absurdity that it was impossible to climb back out. So when they revealed they were r??ebooting the series seven years later, it made perfect sense.

The decision to marry both new and old-school Saints Row concepts is a litt?le bolder. That strategy isn't going to appeal to everyone, but there's plenty of wackiness to find i?n the open world.

Saints Row (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X [reviewed])
Developer: Volition
Publisher: Deep Silver
Released: August 23, 2022
MSRP: $59.99

Although it has a mostly comedic tone (and maintains the series' signature over-the-top nature mostly by means of gameplay), the new Saints Row does attempt to ground the story foundationally. In what I would call a mix of Saints Row 2 and 3, there's a push and pull with dramatic cutscenes that ingratiate the audience to the team of heroes through hardship �and scenes where you drive a property manager around in a car in a silly fashion (and hit sick jumps) until he coughs up a deed. It runs the risk of alienating portions of both audiences, but for me, it mostly worked becau??se of the way said silliness is worked into the core of the game.

The meat of Saints Row involv??es the rags-to-riches story of the "boss" (that's you), and how the titular gang was started. Working as a henchman for a private military contractor, you quickly attempt to rise in the ranks and meet an abrupt end at the company. From there a mini-mystery is concocted for the boss,?? but the focus mostly zips into you and your gang's personal struggle and humble origins.

Compared to you??r fully customizable boss with multiple voice options, the core crew is static each run, and can often sink into the background. There are clear roles for each of them, and they'll mostly work within the conf??ines of that archetype. Like a situational comedy, you're going to like some characters more than others, but "background noise" is how I'd classify some of them at worst.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvClpQdaX1Q

That classic Saints Row absurdity is present nearly everywhere, including bits of the campaign (though I wish those portions we??re presented in a less "on-rails" fashion). Fighting droves of enemies by yourself does still feel fun, as do the [returning] ragdoll bonus games that involve insurance fraud. It's still possible to shoot a rocket launcher at a car and watch it fly 100 feet into the air, or use a piece of construction equipment to destroy buildings. And most of this can be accomplished simply by roaming around and enjoying the open world.

As a shooter, Saints Row plays it safe, and it pays off. On Xbox Series X aiming felt smooth, and the tried-and-true weapon wheel mechanic hasn't failed me yet. You won't really think about the cracks during open-world combat (which is a plus), but some of the mission layouts, coupled with the lack of weapon variety, can lead to some low-impact shootouts. There's still a good amo??unt of "endless goons spawn through door" scenes, alongside the classic "multi-level-shootout" arenas.

Extra unlockable abilities (like smoke bombs) and more weapons lead down the path of customizable builds and options. Through c??hallenge complet?ion �which is usually attainable stuff like "[X] near misses" while driving �you'll earn more perks, or buy more perk slots with cash. Money can be earned over time through missions or the in-game Cash App, which provides a flow of income based on progression. It's a cascade of upgrading, but it comes swiftly and easily.

The open world is where I spent most of my time with Saints Row, because Volition clearly put a lot of work into it. Even seemingly random locations can have backstories by way of the in-game lore tidbits, and every major zone (which includes shades of rural, town, and city areas) has something unique to offer. The way the open world naturally progresses is nice, too. Instead of being bombarded with icons, you'll discover some through doing activities on the map. It eases you into collecting pins on a map without forcing you into it. I wasn't able to test out co-op, but the idea of it involving drop-in and drop-ou?t play makes returning to these open-world sprees more enticing.

The free-roaming portion of Saints Row is where it'll speak to a lot of its audience. At one point when going from mission to mission, I noticed a vehicle signature ability unlock pop up on screen. From there I started finishing out challenges, earning abilities (powers of sorts that each vehicle has), and customizing my current garage of available rides. A few hours had passed, and I was basically just driving around testing out new cars and motorcycles. The driving mechanics won't gel with everyone, especially with a small early stable of vehicles, but like most things Saints Row, they get the job done. I didn't have much trouble finessin?g through traffic like I was Nic Cage on an Xbox Series X controller,?? and sensitivity options are available.

While doing that, I found some points of interest, all with their own lore. Then I started becoming more invested in seeing them again, and picked up on how to get around without using a map. Where it really hit me was in the history segments. When finishing up an early mission, I noticed a bit of history conveyed through a poster on a wall about how the region was founded. It's a tertiary sort of story, where you can completely pass it by, or ignore it. But a few hours later I stumbled upon an old fort, and was introduced to the history submissions. Similar to the Assassin's Creed discovery tours (but less strictly educational), ??they're key activities that ask players to investigate historical monuments through plaques or information boards. Those, just like the more arcadey side stories, reward XP and? cash.

An open world that lets you waste time in it for fun feels like a lost art, especially in a post-GTAV world mostly barren of games like GTA. I didn't really know how I felt about Saints Row until I hit the open-world segment, and this current team showed me what it is capable of. The campaign likely isn't g??oing to strike a chord with a lot of people, but the muck-about nature of the world map kept me playing longer than I expected. A sequel that le??ads into its biggest strengths has a lot of potential.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Yes, it has a wingsuit

When the new 2022 Saints Row game was announced, I was legitimately surprised. A full reboot feels like the best direction to take a series that once brought us to hell and tangoed with aliens and superheroes, and we recently had the chance to put this to the test with a Saints Row hands-on session.

So what's the verdict? Well after playing the first few story missions and four full hours of the open world (via a later save file), I can safely say that it feels like a comfortable mix of the seriousness of Saints Row 2, and the silliness of Saints Row 3.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgjzDJA1o1E

Our story begins with the "boss," our plucky protagonist (who is fully developed with a highly customizable character creator) who joins up with the PMC Marshall Defense Industries [MDI]. It's here that the tutorial picks up and you start to see the aforementioned silliness in action. While the monetary plight of the boss is at the forefront, the MD?I commercial also showcases how the organization is "serving the community" by saving an old lady from getting hit by a car by...blowing up said car with weaponry right on the street. It's a tone-??setter!

Speaking of the character creator, it's also another neon sign of how weird Saints Row can get. I had the chance to flip through the boss creator social channel in-game, which included a dev creation of Shrek, fully decked out in Shrek garb (which you can click on as a loadout if you have the in-game cash to buy said outfit). Another writer next to me was making Thanos, complete with purple skin. So far, so good.

Whatever you end up deciding on looks-wise, the tutorial has the boss try and track down a notorious and elusive villain, disobeying orders in the process (which sets up a chain of events that leads to said boss creating their own empire with their own crew of preset story characters). Said tutorial also teaches you the basics of running and gunning, as we?ll as the responsive dodge button and jumping mechanics. Immediately I noticed the snappiness of aiming and locomotion, a tightness that will come in handy after spending 30+ hours in thi?s world. It also has a weapon wheel and a takedown system, as well as abilities like smoke bombs and proximity mines, on top of a leveling system and passives.

It's functional and fast, which is how you want an open-world game centered around action and gunplay to be. There's a familiar "retro" air to it too (as in, a GTA 3 retro, feel old yet?), with the proper amount of snap to the controls. On normal mode I acclimated very quickly to the game's various tricks, and found myself able to mow down droves of enemies, even at a higher "heat level" after causing a ruckus. With ?adjustable difficulty, having that higher ceiling and air of accomplishment is a goo??d thing on paper; if it keeps that feeling going through the finish line.

Like the tone of the story, it's all a careful balance. There's just enough RPG elements to get that dopamine flowing when you level up in Saints Row, but not an overwhelming amount to the point where progression feels pointless. And it's easy to progress, too, because there are a lot of little things to do beyond the main story. It's still fun to stop and take a picture of a "Keep Santo Ileso Weird" mural (taking pictures of key/set locations also can unlock fast travel), or go dumpster diving (which is the Saints Row equivalent of a hidden package) after seeing an icon ?light up on the in-game radar. The map of Santo ?Ileso is massive, but it isn't overwhelming to the point where it feels like an empty canvas full of soulless pins.

I had the chance to speak to Danielle Benthien, an associate artist at Volition, on how the team achieved this goal, and how the reboot is more of a mix of southwest Americana than it is based on one particular region: "Making the [map] bigger is always important, but more color, more vivaciousness, making things alive...we have the technology to do that now. Our team traveled to places like Las Vegas, to places here in the southwest, to see what it's really like out here, and all those things we brought back to make Santo Ileso what it was. We wanted to make it bigger than Stilwater, bigger than Steelport. You have Mercado, which is very much like the Las Vegas strip, and you go out to the desert and it looks like the dry areas of Arizona, and then you go to the lush area with flora and fauna, and then there's the factory district that's very much the Breaking Bad [New Mexico] style."

Saints Row is also bringing back the cell phone interface, and it thankfully serves as an easy way to get in and out of several in-game functions (like mission selection). Benthien recalls the "tried and true" system was used in past entries, calling it a "no brainer" in terms of its return. But with the proliferation of cell phones being used more and more in the modern era, it makes even more sense in 2022 than it did in prior entries. As far as the identity of the game goes, I brought up the polarized reception reboots and sequels can often have from a tonal perspective. Take Diablo 3 for instance: so many people loathed that it completely changed the aesthetic and vibe of D2, but a lot of people embraced the newness. Saints Row has been? so many different things, and I don't envy the position V??olition is in when it comes to bringing it back.

Benthien responded in stride, noting: "So the decision to reboot the series wasn't an easy decision to make, but it felt right. We felt like the original Saints had their stories told to completion, and there wasn't much we could add to their story. So we had to strike a balance between people loving the seriousness, and while [Saints Row: The Third] was the more mainstream more popular one people were familiar with, we wanted to be sure ?we were respectful of both titles. So it's a little more?? grounded...but with those bombastic elements."

As far as an "elevator pitch" in terms of what the Saints Row reboot offers that past games don't have, Benthien says that the story is the aspect she feels the most strongly about: "it has a modern energy. So the Saints Row games are old at this point, and writing and gameplay can feel dated. It has the modern action system that never fe??els too sl??ow, and this has some really serious elements and serious moments that really ground the characters...and show the whole spectrum of emotions of people trying to make it in this crazy world."

In terms of the technical aspects of Saints Row 2022, we played a PC build with a controller, and I had very few complaints. There are heaps of accessibility options, the game ran very smoothly, and load times were super short, as we've come to expect this generation. The chance to change your appearance at any time and five difficulty options were also a nice touch. One of the only issues I ran into had to deal with animations, especially when it came to takedowns, but it was minor. The main thing is that the actual takedown would follow through, and everything would actually happen, but the character models wouldn't always line up exactly. This is the s?ort of thing that could be shored up quickly as we head into launch.

Set to debut in August, the Saints Row reboot doesn't feel like it's stuck in time at all �but rather, it's coming at the perfect time. Right now the landscape of open-world games has shifted a bit, and old-school "GTA" style titles aren't nearly as prevalent as they once were. In fact, the whole GTA situation has cooled down a bit, and a lot of folks are done with GTA Online. Plus, it's been seven years since the last proper mainline Saints Row project??, and nearly a de??cade if you don't count expansions. Timing is on Volition's side, it just needs to deliver. As of now, it seems like it's going to manage that.

_{[Disclaimer: Travel was provided by the publisher to this event in Las Vegas.]}

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Be the boss of your dreams, or nightmares

The new Saints Row isn't out until August, but you can perfect your look a little early. Deep Silver and Volition have launched a Saints Row character creator dubbed the "Boss Factory," and? it's out now for free on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series ??X.

The Boss Factory will let you craft all kinds of looks for your avatar, the Boss, and I really mean all kinds. Today's trailer showed everything from giant body-builder types to wild costumes, and even a ?Nosferatu-looking Boss. Final??ly, I can live out my crime-vampire dreams.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHHgTmdjyl0

Big Boss energy

Saints Row has always been known for its more out-there vibes. But it's also nice to see some options that really open up character creation, whether that's making someone that feels more representative of you in the world, or just becoming the nocturnal ghoul you've always hoped to be. The creator advertises thousands of options, from teeth and make-up to muscles, tattoos, and skin tints. Heck, even the veins are customizable in the Saints Row Boss Factory. It's a sli?der I never even thought to consider.

This character creator will let you get everything set, so your perfect Boss is ready by Aug. 23 when Saints Row launches on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. And in the meantime, you can live out your wildest Nightmare Factory dreams. Find the Saints Row Boss Factory at Epic here, the PlayStation Store here, and the Xbox store here.

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Dressed for Excess

Once you get past the dildo bats, space rockets, and tiger Cadillacs, one thing that the Saints Row franchise is renown for is its wild wardrobe of ker-azy customization. While Volition's 2022 Saints Row reboot will be tethering its action a?? little closer to reali?ty, it is no less in love with funky fashion.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVhu1iz4AvM

Publisher Deep Silver hosted a full 23-minute showcase of the new title's dress-up mode, which will allow the player to style out "The Boss" in whatever clothing? they see fit. While the hip young cast of the next entry look, frankly, obnoxious as all fuck, we will at least be able to break the smothering Hot Topic aesthetic by kitting o?ut our own hero with the worst, most clownish fashions this side of 1992.

The Boss ca?n be fine-tuned from the ground up, with full customization opportunities for body type, skin tone, hair, facial details, muscular cuttage, and even their voice. Make The Boss as perfectly toned as Bruce Lee, or as chubby as yer boy Moyse. You can give them a nose as cute as Emma Stone's, or as bulbous as... yer boy Moyse... Fucking 'ell. Anyway, once you have created your perfect person, then you can go all out on clothing, footwear, hats, masks, makeup, jewelry, accessories, and much, much more.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tzVN-p9bQw

But it's not only about the shoes you wear. Saints Row will also feature deep customization of the player's vehicles and weapons, offering a massive range of decals, colors, patterns, and special effects. From baseball bats to rocket launchers, mopeds to muscle cars, each and every item can be meticulously designed with near-endless precision to not only feature you??r gang's particular "brand," but even to perform to your liking, from turning circles and horsepower, to explosive effects and ammo types.

And, as your crew continues to conquer the American Midwest, even your cathedral-based hideout will receive a full makeover, with renovations, decorations, statues, slick lighting, and all manner of exterior bling designed to make it kno??wn to your rivals, your city, and t?he entire world that The Saints are, most definitely, back in business.

Saints Row launches Au??gust 23 on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox ?platforms.

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Cue '80s 'getting ready' montage

The upcoming Saints Row reboot might star a posse of Hot Topic-supporting wankers, but that doesn't mean we can't all have a little fun dressing them all up in some suitably silly Saints Row style.

Despite the incoming reboot's questionable Fashionista direction, Volition's return to Saints Row will see the franchise's penchant for customization back and ready to rock. In fact, publisher Deep Silver has announced that it will be holding a live stream presentation on April 20 specifically focused on the new title's Customization Suite, which will allow for an array of crazy, sexy, cool clothing and outrageous accessories. The stream will be viewable via Saints Row's official Twitch and YouTube channels.

//twitter.com/SaintsRow??/status/1514605160151937038?s=20&t=eO57E1GMZ7UjpaAuyPbGzA

"Within the showcase itself, longtime fans and newcomers alike will be delighted to see a brand new trailer fully focused on customization across all aspects of player choice in the game, that will get gamers excited about all the incredible ways you can Be Your Own Boss in Saints Row," remarked Deep Silver. "It will truly show off the breadth and depth of the customizati??on features Volition have packed into the title."

In addition to the Customization Suite, the stream, (hosted by Saints Row actor Mica Burton), will also include a brand new trailer, developer interviews, and fresh new footage. Saints Row, originally scheduled to launch in the spring of 2022, was pushed back to the summer, perhaps wisely dodging the incendiary launch period that brought us Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, Sifu, The King of Fighters XV, and more.

Saints Row will launch August 23 on PlaySta?tion, PC, and Xbox platforms.

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Needs to be 250% more Hot Topic

Well, it appears that at least one title will not be joining us for February 2022's nightmarish review week. Publisher Deep Silver and developer Volition have announced that the upcoming reboot of crime sim series Saints Row will no longer meet its originally ??scheduled?? February release date, and will instead be running amok come August 2022.

"Our priority is to create the best Saints Row game yet and, if we released on the original date, it wouldn’t be up to the standards we’ve set ourselves, and that you’re expecting and deserve," said Volition CCO Jim Boone in an offici??al statement. "The team just need more time to do our vision justice; we’re doing some fine tuning and there ??won’t be much change in the game outside of overall quality and polish.

"In all honesty, we underestimated the impact COVID would have on our schedule, although everyone adapted very quickly to the working from home arrangement and continued to be incredibly productive. However, due to the size and scope of our new Saints Row, ?it’s become apparent that to create the best game possible, we need to give?? our team longer to perfect their craft [...] Rest assured, there will not be any changes to the story or the characters or anything that we’ve lovingly imagined over the last few years and already shared with you."

Frankly, the delay can only help the developer, as well as the title itself. February 2022 is already chock-a-block with major, highly anticipated releases, including Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, and Dying Light 2. No disrespect intended, but I can easily see Saints Row's open-world crime sim dynamic drowning among those he??fty releases. These extra six months will give the reboot some breathing room, lighten the load for the team, and offer an opportunity for polish, allowing the painfully trendy kids of the Saints to slide in with style under the hot summer sun. As it should be.

Saints Row will now launch August 23 on PlayStation, Xbox, and ?PC (via Epic ?Games Store)

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None of these were available at my local Job Fair

Deep Silver, in association with developer Volition, has released an explosive new trailer highlighting criminal ventures its upcoming reboot of open-world crime sim Saints Row, which is currently in development for ?PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms.

The Saints Row Criminal Ventures trailer offers a sneak peek at some of the shady enterprises our gang of cookie-cutter Hot Topic trendsetters can embark upon in order to build up capital for their fledgling crime empire. Mastery of these side schemes will help our protagonists to get their feet on the rungs of Santa Ileso's dangerous underworld �while also giving players the opportunity to take some time out from all the running 'n' gunning of Saints Row's central story campaign.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcQjAkxY2xg

Criminal Ventures sees the player purchase, build, and invest in a series of businesses, each of which is a front for a specific crime arm of The Saints. The Bright Futures Industry rewards the gang for the illegal dumping of toxic waste, while the Let's Pretend toy story is a base for The Saints to plan and carry out high-stakes bank heists. Already familiar to Saints Row fans will be the Shady Oaks Medical Center, which activates the amusing and very s?illy "Insurance" scams, tasking players with throwing themselves into oncoming traffi?c, with top dollar paid for major highway pile-ups.

It all looks fun... kinda. Nothing about the Saints Row reboot has me excited. The open-world crime sim scene has gotten exceptionally dry, and even this video only really features slightly tweaked takes on side-quests we have already seen played out ad nauseum in franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row itself. I have no doubt the game will be a smash success �it certainly doesn't need my dollar �but I can't help but feel that the "Run around a contemporary city and blow shit up" genre has become really played o?ut. I'm un?sure as to how evolutionary the ninth gen can make it.

Saints Row is in development for PlayStation, PC, and Xbox? platforms. It is sched?uled to launch February 25.

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A fresh start for the off-the-rails series

The recent tease for a new Saints Row game from Volition honed in on it being a reboot, and it's true. The next game, simply titled Saints Row, is taking a step back from the off-the-rails power fantasies of Saints Row IV and Gat Out of Hell with a more grounded �but still larger-t?h?an-life �take on open-world gang hijinks. That's probably for the best.

Even if you don't consider Saints Row 2 to be the series' high point, or at least the one you clicked with the best, I think most of us will agree that the Saints Row IV storyline was becoming bonkers in an unsustainable way. I like every game for different reasons, and there's fun to be had with superhero-esque abilities,?? but diminishing returns creep in.

As studio development director Jim Boone put it during a recent Saints Row hands-off preview event, there "isn't a whole lot of runway" to go past the madness of tak??ing over the White House, feuding with aliens, and facing of??f against Satan. How do you top that?

Volition's answer has been to return to the "criminal roots" of the series with a new crew of characters, led by a new player-made Boss avatar, in a new setting: Santo Ileso.

Apart from the Gamescom reveal trailer, Volition showed off some pre-recorded gameplay. While it was a brief preview, gut reaction, I'd say this was much closer to Saints Row 2 or 3 than anything on IV's level. That's immediately where my mind went.

It's another criminal-empire-building playground, this time with a more "contemporary" crew by your side: Kevin, an eternally shirtless DJ; Eli, an entrepreneur; and Neenah, a mechanic with an art degree. They?'ll break their ties with the city's current powerhouses to form their own gang, the Saints, and establish a foothold across nine districts "inspired by the weird, wild American Southwest," as creative director Brian Traficante puts it.

Three established factions stand in the way �Los Panteros, The Idols, and Marshall �and as you whittle them down, you'll build out "criminal ventures" in vacant lots, which are essentially fronts that open up new bits of gameplay. You could have fast-food drug running, arms dealing, a protection racket, or a toxic waste dump in the financial district. That last idea seems extra on-brand for the Saints. And before you ask, Boone joked that "I don't think we can ship a Saints Row game without insurance fraud." In this case, in the 2022 game, you'd just need to build a sketchy medical?? clinic to open up that side activity.

A few other notes: Volition didn't go in-depth with the character progression system, other than to say it's XP-based, with skills and perks to unlock. I'm curious about the driving, too �it sounds like it's been overhauled in terms of handling and combat. Any vehicle can be upgraded to go off-road-ready in the desert, and the developers also teased a side hustle base?d on wingsuiting and "some licensed [music] tracks."

As far as returning characters and nods, there will be some Easter eggs �and the team will "always leave a certain percentage of weapons aside to be the crazy ones" �but "by and large," expect to see new faces in Santo Ileso. Combat will be run-and-gun, not cover-centric, and they've spent?? "a lot of time" on weapon precision and the way guns feel.

It's worth stressing that one of the best parts of Saints Row, co-op, is back �it'll be drop-in,?? drop-out, and it's "untethered." Volition also teased some kind of "pranking."

It's too early to make bold predictions about the story, and again, we haven't gone hands-on yet. That said, I like the setup so far �more so the snippet of gameplay than the CG trailer with the emoji helmet, which seems so overdone in 2021. It feels like the right time for another Saints Row (while GTA Online chugs on), and I'm hopeful Volition can t?hread the needle here for fans of the older games and those who prefer the bonkers latter entries.

Launch is set for February 25, 202??2, across PC (Epic Games Store), PlayStation 4,? PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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The writing's on the wall �literally!

Right before gamescom 2021, Deep Silver and Volition have begun teasing something new for the Saints Row series, which has been quietly percolating since 2015's Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. Is i??t getting to be that time for a?? new game? It sure seems so!

Alongside the usual social-media blitz, including a tweet from Geoff Keighley promoting gamescom's news-filled Opening Night Live stream on August 25, the official Saints Row website was updated with a new image, as shown at the top of this article. It's a tagged brick wall with?? graffiti that says "Rebooting" next to the Saints' familiar fleur-de-lis.

On its own, that's enough to get people thinking about possible directions for the series, but Volition and Deep Silve??r also filled in some gaps in replies to fans' tweets.

The developer has been "quite busy with a whole new game," and it's "not a remaster or remake," so that really starts to whittle down what this soon-to-be-revealed game could be. Separately, the team noted that a remaster of Saints Row 2 is "not in our plans."

Given how increasingly not-grounded Saints Row's world of over-the-top gangsters became with each new game, to the point where quite literally anything seemed to be on the table, you have to wonder what's next. Whatever it is, I'm down for more Saints.

Where do you fall on the Saints Row 2 / Saints Row IV spectrum? How much is too much?

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Enhanced visuals and dynamic 4K at 60FPS on May 25

Shortly after the Steam and GOG release of Saints Row: The Third Remastered on May 22, Deep Silver will be rolling out t?he PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S ver??sions of the remaster. I know, I know — this (surely) isn't your favorite entry. But what if I told you the new console editions are a free upgrade?

Saints Row: The Third Remastered will be available directly on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S starting May 25, and it's a free upgrade from PS4 and Xbox One. Always nice to see. Apart from new lighting and texture work compared to?? the original game, there's a performance boost — expect t??o hit dynamic 4K at 60FPS, and in the case of Series S, your choice of either 1080p at 60FPS or 4K at 30FPS.

The developers are calling this "equival??ent to the PC edition at high settings."

On the PlayStation 5 front, there's Activities support. That might sound minor if you haven't used the PS5 cards before, but they're great time-savers when they're implemented with care. Also, the DualSense controller will glow purple while you play The Third Remastered because of course it will.

I liked the game well enough in 2011 (which is to say "less than Saints Row 2"), and I don't know ??if ?I'll ever go back. I'm looking forward to the future and whatever bonkers direction this series takes, though.

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What a great anniversary gift

Saints Row 2 isn't up to snu?ff on PC, but Volition ??has plans to fix the game.

During an 11th anniversary Saints Row 2 live stream, the developers announced that they've located the long-lost source code for the PC port after a re?cent "last-ditch effort" finally paid off.

Volition is busy working on the next mainline Saints Row game, so fixing Saints Row 2 will be an "outside office hours" project, but changes are coming: performance improvements, more stability, integrating Steam networking for co-op and mult?iplayer, and adding the previously console-only DLC.

Senior community developer Mike Watson ??called the PC port initia?tive a "labor of love."

"Being able to now have the means to go in there and fix a lot of the problems with the game is kind of a dream come true," he said. "It's been my mission for the longest time." As for timing: "It's one of those things where it'll be ready when it's ready. We want this port to just be beautiful on al??l levels."

Modders have gone to great lengths to smooth out Saints Row 2 on Steam, but this is sorely needed.

Saints Row Dev Chat [Twitch via ResetEra]

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Grab your tiger and your octopus gun

As part of its latest financial report, THQ Nordic has noted that a brand new title the brain-bending Saints Row fran?chise is already in the works over at its stalwart studio Volition.

The new entry in the over-the-top, open-world, crime sim series is already noted as been "deep in development" and will be the first fully-fledged sequel since the super-power themed Saints Row IV, which hit the shelves back in 2013.

While no further details were forthcoming, one can probably expect the rampant violence, bizarre humour and shades of purple. All of which have been a series trademark since Saints Row The Third's tonal shift, which reinvented the series as an overblown, chaotic, "anything goes" alternative to games such as Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto.

The untitled Saints Row game is currently in development at Volit??ion for future release.

THQ Nordic Interim report Q1 April-June 2019 [THQ]

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When keepin it real goes wrong

Deep Silver has finally shown off some footage of Saints Row: The Third running on Switch and it looks like Saints Row on the Switch. I'm not really sure what else to say about it, because it doesn't seem to sport any kind of v??isual upgrades over the PS3 or 360 versions. I had played it on both 360 and PC and this is leaning more towards the lower resolution console version than the PC one.

There are some bits where the framerate slows down, the textures look suitably last generation??, and even the effects on the explosion distort the screen a bit. It doesn't seem terrible, running smoother than I remember it on Microsoft's old console, but I can't help bu??t feel like something else could have been done here. I guess I just expected a little too much out of this.

Still, we do know that the Switch version will have local wireless co-op, so it? gets a lot of brownie points for that. You'll alway??s be able to play with your friend on the Switch version long after the servers are shut down for the other ports. That's worth a lot more than upgraded visuals.

Saints Row: The Third Memorable Moments - When Good Heists Go Bad ??(Official) [Saints Row via YouTube]

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Smash, Crash, Repeat

As far as games worthy of a remaster go, Red Faction: Guerilla is a prime candidate. The game didn’t sell abysmally, but it never got the attention it so rightfully deserved in 2009. Released at a time where hype for upcoming sequels was at a fever pitch, Guerrilla was brushed aside by the gaming masses for bearing the name of a decent-ish series. That was a crying shame because Guerrilla was one of the best open-world games of t?he last generat?ion.

While this remaster gives the title a second chance at success, I wish I could say the port was up to snuff. Sadly, Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-Mars-tered is a pretty sub-standard re-release.

Red Faction Guerrilla: Re-Mars-tered (PC, PS4 [reviewed on PS4 Pro], Xbox One)
Developer: Volition, KAIKO
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Release: July 3, 2018
MSRP: $29.99, Free (PC owners of original version)

The story of Red Faction: Guerrilla is set 50 years after the first game in the series. You assume the role of Alec Mason, a man traveling to Mars to reunite with his brother and start a new life. Within minutes of arriving, your brother is attacked by the Earth Defense ?Force (EDF) and killed for being a conspirator with the Red Faction. The Red Faction is a ragtag group of insurgents th??at are fighting against the EDF’s control of Mars with the hopes of one day reclaiming the planet. Since Alec is a miner and has a predilection for destroying buildings with various tools, he joins up with the Red Faction to fight the good fight and avenge his brother.

While there are nods to the first game strewn about, Guerrilla requires basically no knowledge of prior events. The one thing that truly li??nks the games together is the use of Volition’s patented “Geomod” technology. In the original, Geomod allowed you to blast through literally everything and create your own path through the environment. Due to the limitations of seventh generation consoles, Volition had to drop the ability to destroy terrain. In return, we were given some seriously hardcore destructible buildings.

I’m still in awe of how the Xbox 360 and PS3 even managed to run Guerrilla with how many pieces of debris can go flying at a moment’s notice. Take one?? swing with your hammer and dust will kick into the air, stone will crumble and pieces will collapse from the point of impact in a very realistic display of destruction. There is an unadulterated joy in just getting frustrated with trying to shoot an enemy and opting to take the whole damn building down instead.

For a decent chunk of the campaign, this destructibility is actually factored in quite well. Since the Red Faction is (essentially) a terrorist organization, you&rsqu??o;re often tasked with causing mass havoc to the EDF by destroying everything they operate with. This means taking your sledgehammer and doing your best M.C. Hammer impersonation or chucking a few remote bombs and setting them off. Missions will send you all around Mars with the goal being to destroy all the EDF’s armories, bring down fuel depots and obliterating vehicle factories.

It is in the missions that try to further develop the story where Guerrilla completely deflates itself. Sometimes the game will throw you into scenarios where you’ll have to directly confront enemies and the gunplay is just not up to snuff. The very odd control scheme can make aiming feel imprecise and the nigh on suicidal NP?C AI makes firefights frustrating. The real killer is just the overall lackluster presentation.

I can excuse the low-quality FMVs as being a product of their time, but the way the game completely freezes the world and bombards you with incessantly dry narration of your current mission is just baffling. It feels so amateurish next to the impressive technology that powers the game and feels either like a cut corner or a rushed addition. Couple that with missions that don’t have an auto-restart option for failing, bafflingly limited checkpoints and the occasional game-crashing glitches and getting through the campaign in Guerrilla can be a test of patience.

I just wish the AI wasn’t so hell-bent on destroying you. Playing on anything above “Normal” difficulty is just asking to have a bad time, but even selecting the easiest setting can sometimes have missions where th??e enemy will be on top of you from the moment you hit start. As early as the fifth mission in the game, I was driving my car to smash some EDF sensors and I could swear my vehicle was made of magnets. The AI was on top of me almost the entire way through and I would attempt to jump out and switch vehicles only to get lost in the sea of cars plowing over me.

It just keeps getting more and more frustrating, too. Later missions have enemies with pinpoint accuracy and in such overabundant numbers that you’re constantly sprinting away from everything since there isn’t a point to cover. The open-world design means foes will come from literally everywhere, so you might as well haul ass and try to finish objectives as fast as possible. It really starts to make you hate the structure of these missions and how utterly bland the plotline really is. There isn’t much reason to keep plowing through other than to witness buildings crumbling to the grou?nd.

What does work is the plethora of side content available. Not everything is a winner, mind you, but they almost all feed back into the central premise for the game and include some way to further destroy the buildings around you. My favorite has to be the small puzzle-like destruction missions that task you with toppling a particular building with specific stipulations. Trying to figure out what the game wants you to do with the tools available is a real treat and highlights exactly what Guerrilla gets so right.

The various collectibles also do this, requiring you to break propaganda signs or smash ore deposits. This then feeds back into the upgrade system, which works by having Alec collect scrap from his impromptu demolition sprees. Topple a building, grab some scrap and ??upgrade your guns. It really is a well-thought-out system with some meaningful extra content scattered throughout.

What does suck is the driving in the game. It wouldn’t be an open-world game on the 360/PS3 without some kind of driving and holy cow does Guerrilla not get this right. Maybe Mars just has radically different gravity than Earth, but each vehicle feels floaty, imprecise and utterly devoid of pep. Even the fast cars barely move and it feels like you’re almost standing still with how sorry the sound design is. I like hearing the roar of the engine and the screech of tires, but the cars in Guerrilla are pretty damn quiet.

Even with those flaws (and the hopelessly repetitive missions), Guerrilla still remains a solid title. I don’t know if it is worth it to 100% the game, but you’re bound to have a good time with Guerrilla in 2018. That is if you can play the thing without it crashing all the time. I’m very surprised at how lackluster this port is because it took me quite a few entire system restart?s to make it through the campaign mode.

During a few missions, I would encounter bugs where the game would just freeze while the audio kept going. I could circumvent this by quitting the application, but other times the game would hang during the load screens along wit?h my PS4. I did actually test out leaving it sit for 15 minutes and the game would eventually load, but other times that wasn’t the case. I would have a black screen and nothing going on, necessitating a restart. At other moments, my PS4 would throw up an error message and automatically close the game for me, causing me to lose some progress since my last auto-save.

Even if these problems weren’t as numerous as they are, the framerate issues are truly confusing. I know the 360 and PS3 couldn’t properly handle Guerrilla, but you’d figure a PS4 Pro would have no problem running this game in 1080p. Sadly, if you blow up too much stuff at once, the game will chug hard. Couple that with some weird controller lag I would occasionally encounter and I have no idea w?hat went so wrong with this remaster.

The actual graphics look pretty nice, at least. The new lighting model adds a lot of depth to each area of Mars and helps give the game a more defined look. Cars have been given some slightly better polygon counts and there are new normal maps added to each texture. The general resolution of everything has seen a nice increase, looking very sharp and clean. There are definitely some things that still feel like a last generation game, but you could mistake Re-Mars-tered for being a current-gen project.

With regards to extra content, the multiplayer mode has made the cut. Even the DLC is here, which means you’re getting the complete Red Faction: Guerrilla experience an?d that is awesome??. I still don’t understand why some developers will opt for a remaster of a hit game and then ax game modes that people enjoyed.

I just wish all the performance issues were resolved before shipping. In all good faith, I can’t recommend you rush out and grab this immediately with how sho??ddy the performance can be. It would be one thing to deal with a crummy framerate, but having the game crash as often as it did is no good. I want to destroy buildings, not sit through boring-ass?? dialogue, have my game crash and then sit through that chatter again.

Hopefully, some patches bring this remaster up to par, because it would be unforgivable to have Guerrilla fail a second time due to a rushed port.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Septic Avenger

The original Saints Row was a competent enough game, but it mostly felt like a direct Grand Theft Auto clone instead of anything new. The sequel is where things started to get a bit crazy and is definitely the place where new players should begin. Now, you won't even need to dig up an Xbox 360 or PS3 to play the game, since Saints Row 2 has joined the Xbox One backward compatibili??ty list.

It is the sole game being added today, but that is fine enough. What really sold me on Saints Row 2 was the inclusion of full story co-op. Having my friend tag along was a wild ride,?? especially when we got into "Septic Avenger" and "Insurance Fraud." The combos we got going were pretty damn insane.

Major Nelson [Twitter]

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Kinzie crossover

It's no surprise that Saints Row favorite Kinzie Kensington has breached Agents of Mayhem. She's built an entire career around g??etting places she's not supposed to ?be.

Today, Agents of Mayhem ad?ded the "Safeword" DLC which sees Kinzie cross over as a playable character. The add-on runs $5 and comes with a handful of new agent missions tailored specifically to Kinzie. Developer Volition says that these missions shed more light on her backstory.

Kinzie should feel right at home as she appeared in the past few Saints Row games, and Agents is very much like a Saints Row game. She infiltrated what she knows best.

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Agents of mediocrity

Volition (Saints Row, Agents of Mayhem) has laid off over 30 people, including general manager Dan Cermak, Kotaku reports. That's about 15% of its roughly 200-person staff and comes on the heels of Agents of Mayhem's August release. 

Agents of Mayhem is set in the Saints Row world, but a separate story seemingly meant to give the latter series a break. The last Saints Row release -- and first under new publisher Deep Silver -- the standalone Gat out of Hell mostly saw just-above-middling reviews. So too did the full game, Agents of Mayhem.

Though studios often do huge layoffs after AAA releases, Deep Silver is reportedly unhappy with the game's sales; in the UK charts, it was beat out by ancient games Grand Theft Auto V and Fallout 4 upon release.

Big Layoffs Hit Agents of? Mayhem Developer Volition [Kotaku]

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Open-world action fest

It's been a long summer dry spell of new releases, but Volition's Agents of Mayhem has broken the ice with its release today. PC gamers can pick up deals as high as 26% off from various digital retailers. Console gamers? Your?? best bet is either Amazon Prime's 20% off, or Best Buy's similar Gamers Club Unlocked discount.

For the Steam copy of Agents of Mayhem, one of the best deals is at digital retailer GMG for $44.27, which is offering a 10% off discount code for titles releasing in August - which of course includes today's title published by Deep Silver. The open-world action shooter has climbed to the #3 top-seller spot on Steam with mostly positive reviews. You can also find the game available at GamesPlanet for about $43.73 after currency conversion.

August Releases

Use Coupon: AUGUST10

• 08/15: Agents of Mayhem (Steam) — $44.27  (list price $60)
• 08/16: War Tech Fighters (Steam) — $9.75  (list price $15)
• 08/22: The Escapists 2 (Steam) — $15.29  (list price $20)
• 08/29: Warriors All-Stars (Steam) — $38.24  (list price $50)
• 08/29: Dead Alliance (Steam) — $30.59  (list price $40)
• 08/31: Life Is Strange: Before The Storm (Steam) — $15.29  (list price $20)
• 08/31: Life Is Strange: Before The Storm Deluxe Edition (Steam) — $19.12  (list price $25)

Other noteworthy August titles include Life is Strange: Before the Storm along with The Escapists 2 - both of which ?are highly anticip??ated for their respective fanbase.

For those wondering, we tried the code on the August 29 release of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen and unfortunately it's a no-go. Having said that, GMG does offer the expansion for 25% off at $30 w?hich is clo?se to its lowest price since pre-orders become available earlier this year.

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Loading is half the battle

Volition took Saints Row in ??such a nuttier direction than anyone could have predicted. But after ruling Stilwater, taking out the military in Steelport, being trapped in a virtual world and fighting aliens, and literally going to Hell, surely they had reached a?? creative impasse with the series. 

In a surprising, Volition fashion, they decided to just take some of the Saints Row DNA and apply it to a different kind of parody. Instead of aping open-world crime fantasies like Grand Theft Auto, instead we have a mishmash of Overwatch, Crackdown, and '80s cartoons like G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K. 

And just like those cartoons of old, Agents of Mayhem is a kooky fun time full of incredibly noticeable faults.&nbs??p??;

Agents of Mayhem (PS4 [reviewed], Xbox One, PC)
Developer: Volition
Publisher: Deep Silver
Released: August 15, 2017
MSRP: $59.99

Branching off of one of Gat Out of Hell's endings in which Gat asks God to recreate the Saints Row universe, the evil corporation L.E.G.I.O.N. launches a surprise attack on the world (known as Devil's Night) and takes over. After a change of heart, former Legion lieutenant Persephone Brimstone forms M.A.Y.H.E.M., a group comprised of code-named agents who all have their own motivations and colorful personalities. Those colorful personalities inform Agents of Mayhem's core conceit of taking on missions with teams of three characters. Each agent has their own area of proficiency, with some being better at hacking and some who are able to break through enemy shielding faster, so it's a matter of managing the mayhe??m and figuring out which team composition works for your style of play. 

I was surprised at how much variety was at work here. While controlling the agents feels similar to the Saints Row series, as aiming and shooting tends to feel as stiff as it did in those games, each agent is refreshing. Their core movement may share similarities among each other since the diff??ering agents all come equipped with superpowered triple jumps and dashes, but there's been a great amount of attention to detail when it comes to incorporating their personality into the weapons they use, their special ability, and fi?nally, the "Mayhem Ability." 

My favorite agent Daisy, for example, is a rough and tough roller derby queen who uses a minigun. Couple that with her special ability (which is on a cooldown meter and activated using the right trigger) that cools her gun but gives her a shield which can knock back enemies when dashing into them. Toss in the ability t??o switch between agents by pressing left or right on the control pad, and there's quite a few ways to take down enemies. One of my pressing strategies was to use the snow-Russian Yeti's special ability to immobilize enemies, switch to Daisy and unload on them, and finally switch to the arrow sniper Rama and run away and pick at them from afar. But that's only one of the many possible strategies to mess around with. 

Agents of Mayhem is a parody of Saturday morning cartoon nostalgia, so it allows Volition to give their demented take on the genre to a hilarious degree. Returning to the home base between missions yields a load screen with an agent saying something banal as a G.I. Joe-esque PSA, the 2D animated cutscenes scattered throughout elevate the inherently goofy narrative, unlocking agents requires playing through their character-specific missions which start with an animated opening and title card, and the setting of futuristic Seoul, South Korea lends the open world to a clean look with a lovely pastel and neon palette. Unfortunately, Mayhem's personality can't quit??e mask the flaws beneath. 

The open world itself is a bit hollow. Driving around may feel much tighter than in Volition's past works, but the mission variety leaves much to be desired. The story and character-specific ones may be fun, but there are plenty of side-missions or even ones necessary to progress that feel like filler. Lots of them, especially the Legion lair quests, involve surviving through waves of enemies. Even some boss fights include fighting waves of enemies and it hammers in a monotony that the core mechanic of switching agents tries so hard to avoid. Even if Mayhem gave me the tools to deal with these waves in ??different ways, it didn't change the fact that I was eventually clearing out yet another wave in another room that looks exactly the same as the one before. 

This is not even factoring in some actual technical issues I came across. Agents of Mayhem isn't the best looking, even with its lovely coloring. There was a bit of pop-in with some areas of Seoul, the home base has a weird hazy filter in some especially well-lit areas, and it seemed to have trouble loading as sounds from the game would either bleed into story cutscenes or loading screens. Hopefully this won't be a common occurrence, but Mayhem did crash on me at the end of a particularly lengthy boss fight toward the end of the game. Compounding on this already annoying happenstance, this boss fight is multi-tiered (with two phases of enemy waves and one of fighting the actual boss) and is at the end of a three-phased mission which had me cle?ar out two areas of enemies before even getting to the final fight.

But despite these technical flaws, I still had a really fun time messing around with the agents. Enjoying Agents of Mayhem is sort of like watching a cartoon you used to love without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia or the naivete of youth. You'll get more of a kick laughing at it, rather than with, but there's a smile on your face eit?her way. 

_{[This review is based on a retail bu??ild of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Fair warning: the PC port of Saints Row 2 is sloppy

They're pitching it as the Humble Saints Row Bundle, but with extra games like Mighty No. 9 and Killer is Dead, this is really more of a Deep S??ilver dealio. Which, hey,?? it worked. They got my attention.

Pay $1 or more:

• Risen 3: Titan Lords Complete Edition
• Deadlight: Director's Cut
• Homefront
• Saints Row 2

Pay more than the average:

• Saints Row: The Third
  
• Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
• Mighty No. 9
• Killer is Dead - Nightmare Edition
• More games to come

Pay $15 or more:

• Homefront: The Revolution
• Saints Row IV: Game of the Century Edition
• Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package
• Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell - Devil's Workshop Pack

Pay $75:

• Agents of Mayhem (pre-order)

Plenty of people prefer Saints Row IV's superpower antics to The Third, but I think the latter has the edge -- it's an overall better-playing game than Saints Row 2, and while the story is unabashedly ridiculous, it doesn't go over the top to the extent that IV does. For me, it hit that exact right balance.

If you're new to the series, I'd go for the beat-the-average tier and then wait on a standalone sale for IV.

Humble Saints Row Bundle [Humble Bundle]

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That's not music! That's just noise!

Volition's Saint's Row-spinoff Agents of Mayhem is one month away. The latest in a series of trailers for the open-world ?action-adventure game introduces us to three new agents, collectively known as "The Firing Squa?d."

Scheherazade is a stealthy, arabian-themed assassin, who uses light-speed travel to get the drop on her prey. Oni is a stylish former yakuza, whose fast sharpshooting skills are second to none, and former Saint's Row punching-bag Pierce Washington returns as his wa?n?nabe-superstar alter-ego, Kingpin.

The Firing Squad join the Agents of Mayhem's team roster, alongside The Bombshells, The Franchise and the Carnage A Trois, in their explosive war to bring down ?villainous organisation L.E.G.I.O.N.

Frankly, trailers in this style do nothing for me, either I'm old and out-of-touch, or marketing agencies?? are. I'm willing to accept that it's likely the former.

Either way, be prepared to take your selected agents into battle when the game drops August 15 on PS4, Xb??ox One and PC.

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Multi-character sandbox shenanigans

Agents of Mayhem must've slipped off my radar, but it's back on?? now?. Gosh I hope this turns out well.

Today's traile??r ??better introduces three of the game's dozen playable characters: Hollywood, Fortune, and Hardtack, who you might recognize from Volition's prior marketing materials.

In the lore, these were the first three agents recruited for the evil-stopping M.A.Y.H.E.M., and in the game proper, you'll have access to a team of three characters at any given time when you're completing missions or roaming open-world Seoul. So, if you don't like the look or sound of Hollywood, for instance, you can go with someone else (and based on Steven's preview, I'll be doing just that.)

I have such a soft spot for the Saints Row franc??hise -- even the first one, which I'm sure has not aged particularly well. As much as I probably would kee??p playing direct sequels, it's wonderful to see Volition build on that ridiculous third-person shooter foundation with something a little different.

Also, they brought Pierce back under an alias. Good move.

The post Volition’s Agents of Mayhem has a lot of potential appeared first on Destructoid.

Like Overwatch for anyone who isn't a team player

"I am private property, please step away." The high-pitched voice is emitting from a speaker lodged in a saucer-eyed, cartoon squid mascot for a fast-food sushi joint in Seoul, Korea. I am playing as Daisy, a roller derby skater with rockabilly hair who lives in a storage locker and only likes "fucking and fighting." She's also blotto and demanding the plastic statue ser??ve up deep dish.

"Objective updated: Get frustrated." I oblige, bashing the squid until the cops arrive, and th?en blow them all away with her minigun, too.

Daisy is just one of the 12 playable characters from Volition's Agents of Mayhem, a third-person shooter set in the broader Saints Row universe that's coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One on August 15. I played a??s h?er and eight others during my hour or so hands-on time last week.

Not long into the brief presentation we were given before getting to play Agents of Mayhem I wrote in my notebook, somewhat sarcastically, "I love Overwatch." The art is a little less stylized and the tone more "irreverent asshole" (takes?? one to know one!), but the intent seems the same: don't just bank on one main character when you can let a broader swath of would-be players pick and choose favorites in an ensemble cast. And that's baked into the ga??meplay, which lets you choose a team of three during missions, switching between them instantly. 

With a sort of Venture Bros wink, Agents of Mayhem pits the group MAYHEM, led by Persephone Brimstone and her girl Friday, against LEGION, a group that has already killed millions and somehow disposed of all the nukes in the world, leaving nothing to stand against its dark matter-equipped shock troopers. Hence the formation of MAYHEM and the "bad versus evil" tagline -- the recent movie didn't deter a Suicide Squad mention in th?e presentation-- that explains the ragtag group of unrestrained id you'll be playing as while ??wrecking up Seoul.

The first mission I played included the first three debut characters. There's Hollywood, the self-absorbed and empty-headed reality star. There's Hardtack, the former US Navy sailor of "Ahoy, motherfuckers" fame. And there's Fortune, the Colombian sky pirate whose parrot is a drone. The tutorial has the three characters meet up, letting you get a feel for them solo. While each character has different stats (namely what range they can shoot at, how much health they have, and how strong they are), they also have different special moves and meter-built Mayhem Moves. Hardtack, for example, can harpoon an enemy with his spear and bring them right in front of him, either to be blasted away with his shotgun or whacked with a melee. The "gang leader/rap mogul" Kingpin, whose identity Saints Row fans might be able to parse, tosses out a boom box, forcing every enemy in the vicinity to dance like Ratchet and Clank's Groovitron.

When you have three characters together on a mission, you can swap between them instantly with the d-pad and the game is designed so that you "swap as much as possible." They're a??lmost guns with character; you'll almost assuredly have to swap out H?ardtack, whose shotgun range is limited, to kill someone too far off, for example. Or just when another character is about to run out of health.

The third-person shooting itself felt tight, somewhere between Uncharted's loose and flowing characters and Gears of War's steered tanks. Every character has a triple jump, too, which necessary for getting around the open-world city sections, but also useful in combat, either to close distance or just rain death from above. Certain characters, like the former-Y?akuza assassin Oni have additional wall-climbing skills, or other traversal quirks, but the characters all feel more or less the same, differentiated mainly by their weapon-type, specials, and personalities. Also, a world of props to the radiu?s indicator for explosions, which works incredibly well, even while a lot of things are exploding.

I played a bit of the open-world (surprise! It has a large map filthy with little UI markers for all kinds of open-world-type sidequests) as Daisy and it's reminiscent of the somewhat plain, functional open-world of earlier titles like Crackdown more than the dense, rich cities of Sleeping Dogs or Grand Theft Auto V. There are little quirks with futuristic mascot characters (a later mission took me to an underground lair beneath a barbecue joint topped by a gigantic cartoon pig with a cowboy hat and sheriff badge pointing two revolvers) and splashes of color, especially when vestiges of old world Korea clash with the skyscrapers and technology. Driving also feels better than past Saints Row games (Agents uses a new engine), though it feels a bi??t heavy, like I'm not quite getting a sense of s?peed.

But I didn't mess with much of the open world, which looks dutifully large and task-filled. I also didn't get to really play with the skill trees and other random upgrades (different cars, for example) that the various currencies and pick-ups (including bright green piles of cash, blueprints, scrap, intel, et al) go towards. I don't know how to buy or acquire them, but you can change the agents' default skin. The examples I caught weren't as elaborate as some of the best Overwatch skins I've seen, but Steve Zissou Hardtack is p?retty dope.&??nbsp;

You can call your main ride on demand, by the way, like Arkham Knight's Batmobile, complete with unique jumping-in animations to get you driving quickly. The triple jump animations, too, are all reflective of the individual's style -- the characters are going to be a b??ig selling point. Each has their own unlock and personal story mission so you can get one-on-one time (and a feel for how they play) before choosing whether to slot them in your three-person crew. 

I don't have a real sense for flow its flow or for how engaging roaming its open-world will be, but so far Agents of Mayhem is a solid third-person shooter with a good hook and good sense of humor about itself, starting with the parenthetical in the first objective of the game, "Objective: Open the door (with your gun)." I think that, coupled with Volition's past Saints Row, should give you a pretty good idea of what to?? expect.

The post Agents of Mayhem tightens up the Saints Row formula with its own cast of lunat?ics appeared first on Destructoid.

Steam Workshop is in effect

Saints Row IV is a wacky game as is. Each entry in the series pushed the absurdity further, and in this one, you are a gang boss turned democratically-elected President of the United States that fends off aliens using superpowers because why the hell not? Now imagine that baseline, but with mods.

Deep Silver Volition has added Steam Workshop support to the Windows version of Saints Row IV, and also pushed the price down to a mere $3.74 in a sale that lasts until November 29, 2016.

"A handful of dedicated Volition devs worked on this in their free time to update the engine and remove memory restrictions, as well as finding a way for individual mods to interact and work correctly with each other without the need for running special tools," reads the announcement. "It was all a labor of love for our fans, and we're incredibly excited to see the crazy co??ntent you come up with!"

The Workshop page is fairly barren at the moment, but it'll come along.

Saints Row IV [Steam Workshop]

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Bundle-rific

Bundle Stars is running a pretty hot bundle with key titles from Deep Silver. Until Monday, August 1, you can grab a "Saints Row vs. Metro Bundle" for only $12.49. This comes with four games and one DLC pack. For the price of $12.49, you'll receive these five Steam keys:

• Metro 2033 Redux
• Metro: Last Light Redux
• Saints Row IV: Game of the Century Edition
• Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
• Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell Devil's Workshop Pack DLC

While we're not big fans of Saints Row IV, the standalone Gat out of Hell expansion is a nice experience. Plus the two Metro Redux titles are the real meat in this bun??dle in our opinion.

For a price comparison, the value for the Metro Redux titles are at $6 given the current price for the Metro Redux Bundle. For Saints Row IV: Game of the Century Edition, the lowest we've seen was at $4.50 (currently $5). Finally, Gat out of Hell is worth about $3.29 (currently $3.74).

This brings the total value at about? $13.79. So you're totally saving a big fat dollar here. Simply amazing. This seemed much better before we did the math. Either way, this is a good? bundle deal where you can also grab the titles piecemeal for just a tad bit more.

The post Saints Row vs. Metro Bundle: Four g?ames for cheap at Bundle Stars appeared first on Destructoid.

But it's okay. Most people are wrong about this.

Most sandbox games tre?at their open worlds like pornographic films treat story.

Despite the fact that games like Assassin’s Creed or Grand Theft Auto bill themselves as sandbox experiences, the actual open-world activities -- ??the stuff that&rsq??uo;s supposed to justify the need to schlep across dozens of city blocks to get anywhere that matters -- are usually half-hearted, obligatory affairs. Collect these feathers (for no reason). Rob a convenience store (for no benefit).

There are The Quests -- linear missions that actually had effort put into them, the stuff that you are actually there for -- and The Open World itself. Tooling around Los Santos won’t change damn near anything about your experience in the Grand Theft Auto V's story missions, and, apart from a few unnecessary weapon upgrades, farting around in a historical animus recreation has nothing to do with your plot-mandated assassination missions.

There are very, very few open-world games that actually wring meaningful gameplay out of their sandbox environments. But of those that do, Red Faction: Guerrilla is the absolute best.

Despite being a massive and lengthy nonlinear game, Red Faction: Guerrilla is beautifully focused. The main plot is about strategically blowing up buildings. The side missions are about strategically blowing up buildings (or enemies). The open world is about driving around looking for a quest, when -- oh, hey, there’s an important Evil Government building on the side of the road. I should strategically blow it up.

But why would you blow up that building on the side of the road? Well, apart from the fact that doing so will get you valuable scrap (your main currency), you need to destroy a certain number of Evil Government buildings to reduce their ??Evil Governmental Control over a location. Only once you’ve sufficiently lowered the Evil Government’s control can you access the story missions.

More than that, the Evil Government buildings are really goddamn fun to blow up. These locations can be destroyed however you want, ?and all represent their own unique, interesting gameplay scenarios. Can you blow up this building crawling with troops before they blast you to shreds? Can you detonate these gas towers without getting caught in the explosion?

Compare this to something like Grand Theft Auto V. You’re walking around on the beach, and you see a convenience store. As Grand Theft Auto is presumably an?? experience about being a criminal, you're impelled to think "Oh, I should probably go in and rob that place."

So you do. And it’s pretty dull. You get, like, twenty dollars for your troubles. And then the cops show up. They chase after you. And then you escape, which is almost fun. Then when you go to buy a gun with the stolen cash, you realize twenty bucks doesn’t get you much. So you go onto a story mission where they give you all the guns you need anyway. And, at the end, you get way more money than y?ou’d ever get doing the open-world bullshit. That allows you to buy a gun that’s a bit ni?cer, but doesn’t really change anything about how you play. So you just decide to do the stor?y missions and only fart around with open-world stuff once you get bored (because, obviously, you can’t actually explore the open world during a mission or you'll insta-fail). Your actual interaction with the open world is now limited exclusively to whatever happens as you drive from one quest marker to another. Which isn’t much.

Meanwhile, in Red Faction: Guerrilla, you’re running around, trying to destroy an enemy bunker with nothing but your sledgehammer because you’re out of remote mines that you haven’t been able to afford more of because you blew all of your scrap on a thermobaric rocket launcher, but WAIT, there’s an ammo chest over there, so you sprint toward it as an enemy takes cover behind it and unleashes a salvo of machine gun fire. When you reach the chest, you whack the fucker in the head so hard he goes flying, and you gra??b the rocket launcher ammo. Since the bunker's northwest corner looks damaged, you decide to weaken its southeast corner, so you let the rocket fly, but it blows up a couple of explosive barrels you didn’t realize were there, and the chain reaction takes out the entire bunker and you with it. So, you’re dead. But at least you took down the bunker and can now complete the next story mission.

And you’re really looking forward to this story mission, see, because it’ll either be a cute one-off action s?equence (drive this car really fast while mortar fire rains down on you!), or it’ll be something so nonlinea?r that you have the option to approach the situation however the hell you want.

That’s t?he other thing abo??ut most open-world games: they’re not really that nonlinear  when it comes to how you go about completing their main story missions. The latter-day GTA games have gotten more and more strict about what you can or can’t do before you insta-fail. Meanwhile Assassin’s Creed never really gives you t?he tools to perform anything more than a handful of? predetermined death blows.

Because of Red Faction: Guerrilla’s incredible destruction tech, however, you have a myriad of different ways to deal? with most of the missions -- my personal favorite of which tasks you with assassinating a group of Evil Government Jerkwads who are meeting on the fifth floor of a skyscraper. Now, sure, you could storm up the stairs and machine gun the bastards to death, but that’s not the most effective -- nor the most fun -- strategy.

Maybe you’ll sneak in and use your nano rifle to vaporize each successive flo?or, so the bad guys fall to their deaths while still inside the building. Maybe you’ll climb onto a nearby crane, nano-vaporize the westmost face of the building, and fire a thermo rocket into the hole so that it obliterates everything inside the meeting room. Maybe you’ll toss a ?bunch of remote mines onto your truck, then drive it into the first floor of the building and hit the detonate button, bringing the entire goddamn building down. Or, since you know the bad guys will flee to their vehicles the moment you attack, maybe you plant the remote mines on their vehicles, take a couple of pistol shots at them ?to get them good and scared, wait for them to enter their getaway vehicles, a?nd then detonate the remote mines.

Meanwhile, in GTA V, you’ll fail a missio??n for merely driving too far aw??ay from your mission objective.

There are a lot of good open-world games. Metal Gear Solid V, many of the Far Cry games, and Shadow of Mordor all come to mind. But even these games have been unable to reach the heights of Volition’s underrated, admittedly ugly Red Faction: Guerrilla. It’s an open-world game that actually uses its open world?, and allows for all manner of personal expression when it comes to how you blow up your targe??ts.

Also, it’s a really intense metaphor ??for the war?? on terror. So, there’s that.

The post Red Faction: Guerrill??a is the best open-world game ever and if you?? disagree you are wrong appeared first on Destructoid.