saints-row-2 posts

Retrospective: Red Faction series

by James Murff Sep 11th 2009 @ 3:00PM

Volition has been at it for a while now. Created from the ashes of Parallax Software, the folks behind Descent, they have had a rather convoluted history, going everywhere from space combat sims to open-world gang games. However, no game series has defined them quite as much as the Red Faction series. Despite all of their fooling about with other genres, it is this series which has established a sort of miniature continuity for them. With the latest entry having been on consoles for a while and being released to PC soon, it's a good time to take a look back on the first two games and just how much they are reflected in Volition's work. This is not a review of any kind, but rather a retrospective on the life of an extraordinary series.

Continue reading Retrospective: Red Faction series

Filed under: Features, FPS, Sandbox

Direct2Drive puts several THQ PC games on sale this week

by John Callaham Jul 21st 2009 @ 6:00PM

Direct2Drive has been stepping up their sales of downloadable PC games, perhaps because of competition from other such service. This week the service has announced that five PC games from publisher THQ will be priced at 50 percent off their normal prices from now until Sunday.

Those games are the RTS title Supreme Commander Gold ($14.95), the action-RPG expansion pack Titan Quest Immortal Throne ($7.50 and requires the original Titan Quest game) the open world action game Saints Row 2 ($14.95) the post-apocalyptic shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl ($9.95) and the near-future shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War ($14.95). In addition a sixth THQ game will also be priced at 50 percent off on Direct2Drive beginning on Friday.

Filed under: Downloads, Action, FPS, RPG, RTS

Volition QA team cut to the bone by THQ

by John Callaham Mar 4th 2009 @ 12:00PM

THQ's recent announcement that they were laying off more of their workers to cut costs has lead to some big cuts at one of their high-profile internal developers. Volition, the studio behind the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises will be losing 86 of its 102 members of its quality assurance team, according to what a THQ spokesperson told Kotaku.

The total includes 39 full time and 47 temporary workers and according to THQ the layoffs are part of the previously announced cuts in THQ's employment team. Recently a financial analyst predicted there is a 50-50 chance THQ could enter bankruptcy, a prediction that THQ's CEO Brian Farrell has dismissed.

Filed under: Biz

Saints Row movie in the works?

by John Callaham Feb 25th 2009 @ 9:00AM

The ever growing list of video game-to-movie adaptations may be growing by one more if a chat this week with hip-hop artist 50 Cent is to be believed. Our sister site Joystiq reports that during a conference call with journalists to promote his (console only) action game 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, he stated, "My relationship with THQ, you'll see Saints Row. I'm optioning the rights for that right now."

That of course would be the open world crime action game franchise created by developer Volition (a PC version of Saints Row 2 was released last month). The series would seem to be a natural fit for 50 Cent's ideas and themes. You can read his entire chat with Joystiq for more info on his new game (which may actually be pretty good) and how he is thinking about creating future games that he doesn't actually appear in. Good stuff.

Filed under: Biz, Action

GoGamer.com puts some recent PC titles on sale

by John Callaham Feb 20th 2009 @ 4:00PM

Normally GoGamer.com's 48 Hour Madness weekend sales are for older PC games that have been released for a year or even more. Not this weekend, however. The online mail-order retailer has put in some more recently released PC games on the price cutting block this time.

For this weekend only GoGamer.com offers up the PC versions of Rise of the Argonauts and Lord of the Rings: Conquest for $24.90. They have also put Perimeter 2 and Saints Row 2 on sale for $19.90 and Pirates of the Burning Sea and Everquest II: Rise of Kunark can be bought for just $9.90. Again these bargains are for this weekend only.

Filed under: Culture, Action, MMO, RTS

Saints Row 2 PC patch released via Steam

by John Callaham Jan 26th 2009 @ 5:00PM

A few weeks after its release to stores, THQ has now released the first patch for the PC port of Saints Row 2. Because the game uses Valve's Steam client as its authorization tool, the patch is only available for download via Steam.

One of the big problems that reviews of the PC version have complained about is the poor performance. This patch supposedly improves the general performance by as much as 20 percent (depending on your rig's hardware specs). The game's frame rate cap of 32 FPS has been removed and a new variable frame cap has been put in along some bug fixes.

Filed under: Downloads, Patches, Action, Sandbox

Saints Row 2 trailer declares war on the city

by Steven Wong Jan 11th 2009 @ 3:00PM

This launch trailer promotes the recent release of Saints Row 2 for the PC. In addition to battling every gang in the city for territory and power, the Saints will have to take on the city government to show them who's boss. Just an average day in Stilwater. Saints Row 2 for the PC is available now on store shelves on via Steam.

Download HD Saints Row 2 PC Launch Trailer (100 HD)
Check out all Saints Row 2 downloads

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Adventure, Sandbox, Trailers

Steam gets Saints Row 2

by John Callaham Jan 7th 2009 @ 4:00PM

It looks like the technically issues that were keeping Saints Row 2 off of Steam have now been resolved and the open world action game is now available for purchase and download via Valve's download service. The relatively cheap $39.99 title from developer Volition is the first major PC game released in the US in the new year.

THQ even sent out a press release announcing the game had shipped to stores this morning (something they didn't do on Tuesday). As we reported before, Saints Row 2, both in downloadable and retail versions, uses Steam as its DRM set-up for activation purposes. The PC version will also ship in Europe on Jan. 23 and in game banning-happy Australia on Feb. 5

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Sandbox

Saints Row 2 PC ships to stores; Steam version delayed

by John Callaham Jan 6th 2009 @ 4:00PM

Publisher THQ has kept the PC release of their open world action game Saints Row 2 on the down low. The game shipped to stores today but THQ didn't even bother with its usual press release announcing that fact. However folks who wanted to purchase and download the game via Valve's Steam service are still waiting.

A post on the game's official message board has revealed that there are "some issues with the Steam client" that prevents Saints Row 2 from being made available today. The message adds, "...THQ and Valve are working on the issue and hope to have it resolved soon." However people who buy the game in stores don't need to worry. Steam will still handle the DRM activation for the game as we first reported last month. The post states, "..anyone who picks up a boxed copy today will be able to authenticate and play SR2 once installed."

[Via Shacknews]

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Sandbox

2009 (And Beyond) PC Game Preview: Action-FPS Titles Part 2

by John Callaham Dec 27th 2008 @ 1:00PM

Yesterday we started our look at the PC games of 2009 with a ton of various upcoming action and FPS titles. But there are so many of these type of games due out in the next 12 months that we had to split that preview up into two parts. This entry not only contains a number of traditional action titles but also has some fighting games and flying action game titles as well.

Check back on Monday as we will next take a look at the various strategy-RTS based games due out in the next year.

Click on the picture above to read more on the 2009 PC Game Preview: Action-FPS Titles Part 2

Gallery: 2009 PC Game Preview: Action-FPS Part 2