thq posts

Homefront shipped to stores about a month ago via publisher THQ but it looks like the company has some big plans for the first person shooter. IGN chatted with THQ VP Danny Bilson who stated that while he could not comment on sequel plans, "... we have a lot of plans for the future of Homefront that we'll be rolling out over the next few months." He added that will include multiplayer downloadable content and that the plans are "pretty interesting and unique."

Bilson also talked about, oddly enough, a competitor's game; EA's upcoming shooter Battlefield 3. He said, "If you asked me what game I'm most excited about to play in the next year, it's Battlefield 3. As a gamer, I am." He admits that THQ will have to compete with the level that Battlefield 3 is raising in the first person shooter field, saying, " ... we need to do some careful thinking on the production side because the competition looks amazing. "

The Warhammer 40,000 franchise has been made into many pC and console games before but none have been quite like what developer Relic and publisher THQ are trying to with the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine.

The first video developers diary for the third person action game has been released and shows off a lot of very bloody gameplay as the Space Marine that you will get to control pretty much shoots, kicks, and slices his way through a sea of different kinds of Orks. Team members from Relic also talk about the game's storyline, the different types of Orks the player will encounter and much more. The game itself is due for release this August.

Download the Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine "Be a Space Marine" dev diary video at Big Download

THQ is looking to expand its original game properties and today the game publisher revealed that it is teaming up with book publisher Random House to do just that. A press release today announced that the two companies will create a joint group that will "to create and develop original intellectual properties ("IP") for publication across multiple mediums."

THQ has already worked with Random House on a prose novel based on the recent first person shooter Homefront. THQ will also work with the company "in the creation of world bibles for prospective THQ properties." Random House previously had an similar agreement with Stardock on helping to develop storylines based on the Elemental game universe.

Game Informer's preview coverage of Saints Row The Third included video interviews with team members at Volition. As it turned out the video coverage went well over just covering the open world action game to talk about the entire history of the developer's 18 year history.

The result is a multi-part video documentary that totals nearly an hour of footage where Volition team members talk about forming the company (as Parallax Software) to make the first two Descent first person shooter games for Interplay. Those games were huge hits (as you can see above, Will Smith was a fan) and it resulted in Parallax splitting in two with one of the teams being renamed Volition. That team created the cult hit Freespace space combat games. The videos also reveal plans for canceled games such as Tube Racer, a title that looked like a Speed Racer-inspired title. Another game that got canceled was Underground, a game about being a thief that was set in London. The entire documentary is worth a look.

In this trailer, somebody gets punched in the balls. Truly we have reached the pinnacle of ball-punching technology.

Download Saint's Row: The Third 'Gameplay' Trailer
Check out all Saint's Row: The Third downloads

March ends with a bang with a ton of major gaming news today; some good, some bad. Tomorrow we will get hit with a bunch of non-news thanks to April Fool's Day. We will post some of it on this site but we will be very careful to label them as April Fool's jokes (in fact it looks like a couple of web sites have started already; no names).

BTW, should be be scared that Steam hasn't held a big mid week or weekend PC game sale like it usually does? Just saying.

• Steam has a small automatic update for Shattered Horizon.
• The soon-to-be-owned-by-GameStop Impulse has posted its weekend PC game sales deals.
• Strategy First will donate 20 percent of proceeds from its online store to the Red Cross from now until April 11.
• Ubisoft is trying to stop THQ from poaching its game developers from its Montreal offices.
• Finally let's remember that Company of Heroes Online will be shut down for good in a few hours.

There's unfortunately more word about layoffs at game developers today, this time at two of THQ's internal development studios. Gamasutra reports via a THQ rep that New York City based Kaos Studios let go of 17 people out of its 100 team members today. Kaos just shipped the first person shooter Homefront a couple of weeks ago. There's no word yet on what the team is working on next although if Homefront sells well enough a sequel is likely.

Gamasutra also reports via a THQ rep that 16 team members at Illinois-based Volition have also been laid off. That studio has over 200 team members and currently has three announced games in the works. The shooter Red Faction Armageddon is due out on May 31 while Saints Row The Third is due for release sometime this fall. The horror-themed game Insane is due for release in 2013.

Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution will be getting its first paid downloadable mini-expansion on April 6. The recent sci-fi RTS game from developer Relic Entertainment will provide players on that day with the Dark Angels DLC pack for $7.50.

The Dark Angels pack will add eight new models to the Space Marines side along with new color set-ups for the rest. For example, the Force Commander will be in the DLC pack by a Dark Angels Company Master. That's him above with the feathery wing head gear. All of the Space Marine vehicles will be getting some new custom emblems and designs.

April 6 will also see the release of a free DLC pack for the game that will add 12 new Steam Achievements that also correspond to 12 new wargear parts for the game's Last Stand mode.

Homefront, the recently released first person shooter from publisher THQ, is set to get its first major PC patch sometime this week. The game's official web site has the first details on the patch which will include a new DemoURL feature.

This feature will allow players to indicate the location of stored demo files in a server playlist. Not only can server admins store demos for players, it can also be used to pinpoint evidence of cheating and hacking in online game. The patch will also have a number of other bug fixes, changes and improvements including enabling DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 via the system setting menu.

With Red Faction Armageddon now set for release on May 31, the sci-fi shooter's publisher THQ has sent out word on some pre-order bonuses that are being given out by various retailers. Ordering the game ahead of time at GameStop will net the player the Commando Pack that adds the exclusive Commando uniform and two unique weapons, the Plasma Thrower and dual Laser Pistols.

Over at Best Buy, pre-orders for the game get the Recon Pack (you can see it after the jump) with the Recon uniform and two more exclusive weapons; the Arc Welder and the "XNG-5000, which launches devastating Nanite-filled projectiles that seek out targets and dissolve them." Finally Walmart gives pre-orders a Red Faction comic book and a mini-strategy guide for their money.

[Via email press release]