THQ’s Red Faction: Guerrilla (available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009) is one of the best and worst types of games. On one hand, it’s a sweet third person, action adventure in which you lead a band of miners (on Mars, no less) against an oppressive regime, pulverizing the environments and enemies using any means necessary. On the other, its impressive level of destruction will ruin future games that aren’t nearly as accessible.
As of right now, you control an unnamed miner that gets fed up with the Earth Defense Force pushing him around. Instead of being their favorite pet, he decides to lead a revolt. You basically explore Mars, this large open world (a la Grand Theft Auto), jumping from mission to mission, either paying close attention to the story or just going off on your own to cause mayhem. The real kicker comes from being able to obliterate almost every object in the environment. If you can’t open a door, use your sledgehammer to bust through it. And if you’d rather create your own entranceway, simply smash through the concrete. Feel the need to redecorate? Plant some charges on a building’s foundation and detonate them from a safe location, then watch the structure slowly crumble. Hell, you can plant charges on one of your rides (including tanks, jeeps, trucks and flying vehicles) and drive it into an enemy stronghold. Jump out, run away and blow that sucker up, enjoying the carnage as it unfolds. It’s one of those situations where it’s both fun to watch and to play. We didn’t even care about the missions. We just loved bashing things (and enemies) with the hammer, whipping out the automatic rifle and emptying a few clips, then switching to the rocket launcher and sending vehicles to their fiery graves.

An excellent physics system enhances the experience, as buildings fall depending on weight distribution, while vehicles sail through the air and smash through windows. Then there’s the walker, this crude looking mining vehicle (it looks like a mech) that lets you walk through things or pound them with your robotic fists. Just watch out for falling debris, as it and shrapnel can kill you.

At this point, THQ and the game’s developer, Volition, aren’t spilling too many details, aside from praising the four-year-old technology, which manages to stream this humongous Martian landscape with very few (if any) load time. In addition, the game keeps track of how many characters are in a fight, so you know if the odds are stacked against you. There’s also multiplayer, though no one would discuss it.

To our surprise, Red Faction: Guerrilla blew us away. We foresee wasting countless hours traveling off the beaten path and annihilating cities for kicks, especially when it involves taking out groups of enemy soldiers. It’s just a shame it doesn’t release until 2009, as it’s by far one of the most impressive looking games we’ve seen in a while. Let’s hope THQ uses the time to make this one of its greatest accomplishments.

Wheelman is what would happen if Grand Theft Auto knocked up Burnout. Here you have an open world video game that lets you drive a series of cars, but also step out and blast enemies with an assortment of weapons. Oh, and it stars Vin Diesel, who does an excellent job making all of GTA’s antiheroes look like pansies.

As its title suggests, you play as a wheelman, assigned to protect various people from evil. To do this, you must escort them to safety by any means necessary, whether that involves a friendly drive through of Barcelona, Spain, or furiously barreling down the city’s streets and slaughtering hundreds of evildoers. And if that isn’t intense enough, the police have a nasty habit of trying to pull you over, and you should respond accordingly by slamming into their barricades and slide-swiping them into buildings.

Even with months to go before its fall release, Wheelman is, dare we say it, fast and furious. Your muscle car flies through the city leaving destruction in its wake, and Midway’s done a cool job with vehicle combat, as you’re able to perform a move called the Cyclone that causes your car to spin around in slow motion, allowing you to take aim and blast enemies trailing you, even while you move backwards. So, it’s basically the same old slow motion, bullet time effect we’ve seen for years, but with a neat spin that makes it somewhat unique.

In addition to playing chauffeur, you can also get out of your car and roam around. Wheelman doesn’t appear to have the depth of GTA. Vin’s not going to sleep with hookers and take drugs, but it’s good to know that we can take a break from driving to shoot enemies on foot.

Midway claims to have created a living, breathing Barcelona. We’ve never visited the city, so we can’t comment on how accurate it mirrors the real thing, but traffic and pedestrians operate independently and react to your driving misadventures by swerving and running for cover. With this kind of heat on your tail, however, you should expect to run over countless innocents. It’s all in a day’s work.

The challenge for the game’s developers is to convince us that we should stop playing GTA IV and Burnout and give Wheelman a chance. Vin Diesel is a good reason, but we need compelling gameplay, the type of high-octane stuff that’ll keep us up late, trying to complete one last mission. Hopefully, Midway rolls it out at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in July, and we’ll get a better handle on what being a wheelman is all about.

When it comes to crime simulators, the Grand Theft Auto series receives most of the attention, but don’t rule out Saints Row 2. THQ’s sequel to one of the best-selling Xbox 360 games ups the ante with tons of potentially offensive material and lots of blood-spilling action, allowing you to go over the top as you rise to ghetto fabulousness.

Saints Row 2 takes place in the city of Stilwater, where you attempt to recruit gang members and become the ultimate thug. Naturally, this comes at the expense of the innocent and your enemies. This includes running them over in a vehicle, mowing them down with an assault rifle and blowing up their trailer homes. You’ll use them as human shields, plant charges on their cars and chuck them through windows, partly to complete missions, and also because it’s fun torturing them.

Before you hit the streets, however, you’ll need to make a character, utilizing the game’s advanced character creator to build the criminal of your dreams. You can play as either a man or a woman, adjusting their weight, size and shape of their faces as well as signature taunts, such as the middle finger and our personal favorite, pretending to take a dump. The character creator is without question one of this game’s greatest features, as you’ll be able to come up with all sorts of ghastly abominations, from a fat, topless guy to a grandmother with a man’s body.

For the most part, Saints Row 2 plays similar to its predecessor, as you have the option of completing the story missions, finishing side quests or just going on a personal killing spree. With that said, you’ll be able to play through the story mode alongside a buddy in the game’s co-op mode, available via Xbox Live and the PlayStation network. Furthermore, the objects you pick up transfer back to your offline game and you’ll enjoy unique co-op missions.

In addition, the game features a ton of vehicles, such as cars, trucks, jet skis, World War II fighter planes, an attack helicopter (there’s a helicopter mission where one player flies and the other operates the chain gun) and motorcycles, all of which catch fire and explode after sustaining excessive damage.

Missions range from protecting your “homies” to ripping through a trailer park, the standard, criminal fare. You’ll accomplish your goals using a series of weapons, from shotguns and automatic rifles to demo charges and a bazooka. There will also be downloadable content, but THQ isn’t ready to discuss what that entails.

From our limited time with it, we feel Saints Row 2 will offer a fun experience that differs from Grand Theft Auto. On paper, they’re very similar, but THQ’s game is much more over the top, and we feel its character creator and off the wall dialogue will set it apart from its competitor. At the same time, it doesn’t look nearly as impressive, with jagged character models and bland looking environments that pale to the glory that is GTA IV’s Liberty City. Keep in mind, however, that Volition still has several months to polish the game.

We thoroughly enjoyed the previous Saints Row, so we’re more than willing to embrace its feature-packed sequel. At least our desire to conquer the criminal underworld as a short, emaciated old grandmother won’t go unrealized. Just refrain from throwing up your gang signs in public. Source

Next to Burnout Paradise, Sony’s MotorStorm is the most destructive racer on PlayStation 3, thrusting you into gorgeous desert environments and forcing you to maneuver a truck, ATV or bike through mud, all the while plowing opponents into rocks. It’s sequel, Pacific Rift, builds on this kick ass experience with a new location, better graphics and more rides, making it one of the fall’s most anticipated games.

As its name implies, the game takes place in a Pacific location that ditches the dusty American west in exchange for a tropical island locale full of lush greenery, churning waterfalls and towering cliffs. You’ll select from a wide assortment of vehicles, including ATVs, buggies, motorcycles and the new monster trucks, then charge through beautiful tracks full of plants, water and mud. Together, you and your fellow competitors will do a nice job tearing things apart, kicking up dirt and debris in your race to the finish line.

Similar to the previous game, you’ll be able to catch a speed boost that’ll eventually overheat your vehicle’s engine and cause it to explode. Except this time, you can cool it down by driving through water, the downside being that it slows you down. In addition, you can hit square and press left or right to give your nearest opponent a well-deserved shove, preferably into a wall or flying off a cliff, the tradeoff being the loss of boost.

Furthermore, the game features online play with 16 tracks, but now you can race offline with up to three other people. Four-player split-screen racing sounds lame and very Nintendo 64, but not everyone has the desire to compete on the Internet, and this addition should make Pacific Rift an ideal party game.

Factor in custom soundtracks and erupting volcanoes, and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift should immediately be on everyone’s wish lists. With sweeter looking visuals, explosive racing and more features, it appears that PS3 owners have a lot to look forward to. Get ready to shove your opponents into the lava this fall. Source