228w ago - Red Faction: Guerrilla is one of the marquee releases of early 2009 and easily one of The 60 Hottest Games of 2009. We caught up with producer Rick White to talk about life, the universe and well... everything Red Faction.

Gameplayer: How important is Red Faction in general, and particularly Red Faction: Guerrilla, to Volition?

Rick White: I think for me personally it extends a brand that a lot of Volition is known about, and so for us it's been important to kinda go back to that root, of where Volition came from, and bring that IP back to life in a big way. I think strategically at THQ it's as important as any other project, but I think it's of more personal importance to the team at Volition.

Gameplayer: You've left one competitive genre to enter another, going from a linear first-person shooter to an open-world third-person shooter - how has the team responded to this challenge?

Rick White: I think early on they responded, to be honest, in shock. I was the new kid on the block and once I started seeing the destruction engine and seeing how you were taking damage from this physics-based system I was getting frustrated. We'd bring in testers from the local college and they were getting frustrated because they were getting knocked down by...

237w ago - Red Faction: Guerilla's Associate Producer Sean Kennedy has admitted extra help was needed to bring the PlayStation 3 version up to speed with the Xbox 360 version.

Speaking to OXM, Kennedy stressed how hard Red Faction: Guerilla is pushing the current-gen technology and then says that the lack of memory on PlayStation 3 caused an additional headache.

"I mean, to be honest, we are pushing the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to the limits," he says. "I mean, not only has it been a balancing act making destruction work with the gameplay and making it all come together in a cohesive way that's fun but it's been a balancing act getting the game to run on the systems."

One little change and you're out of memory. When it comes to PlayStation 3, there's less memory to work with. We actually ended up hiring some from Sony to help us make our PS3 version.

Fortunately, they are the same. We've been able to make sure that PC, 360 and PS3 versions are the same."

258w ago - THQ has confirmed that Saints Row 2 has been pushed back from August 26 to October 14. According to Reuters, 'a senior THQ executive' has stated that this delay is 'due to product quality and marketing considerations.'

Vivendi (soon to be a part of Activision Blizzard) has delayed PROTOTYPE until 2009. And now word has leaked out that Sony has cancelled The Getaway for the PS3.

What do these three stories have in common? Panic. Game company executives around the world have witnessed the success of Grand Theft Auto IV and have wet themselves in terror. Figuratively. As far as we know.

The thing is, they may have acted too soon. For all of GTA IV's stellar sales and ground-breaking gameplay, consumer interest in the game has plummeted. Presumably, once the single-player game is completed, there is little left to hold their attention. Its position at the top of the online charts has slipped, too, with Halo 3 and CoD 4 reclaiming their rightful places.

However fiery the public interest, GTA IV Fever was never going to last forever. People will certainly crave new novelties by the end of winter, and nothing is more novel than a new open world violence sim to explore.

Barring any surprise announcements (GTA on the Wii, anyone?), this spring will be in the clutches...