Got some great ideas for Achievement or Trophy on Volition Inc's Red Faction: Guerilla (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC)? Then here's your chance. The "Create an Achievement" Contest is here, and it starts right now. Details after the jump.

Last February, we caught THQ's announcement about the third title in the sci-fi shooter series, dubbed Red Faction: Guerrilla and learned that it's set to hit PCs, Xbox 360s, and PlayStation 3s everywhere before the first quarter of next year is done. In today's update, we've got screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Check out the screenshots at the full article.

Saints Row has barely hit the shelves, but developer Volition is already hard at work creating more games in what's possibly the most promising genre for next-gen consoles - "Open World" (a.k.a. non-linear) games.

In an interview, producer Jacques Hennequet said, "We have some pretty exciting stuff planned for open world. No one's going to be able to say it's a clone this time". According to Hennequet, two of these games are already in early development, with the third one following up after a short break.

It's pretty likely that one of those games will again carry the Saints Row name, but what about the other ones? Looking at Volition's history, it's easy to forget some of their earlier games - Descent: Freespace, Summoner, and their respective sequels.

Freespace has been regarded as a cult classic by gamers ever since its release, and while full-blown space operas are anything but popular right now, a third Freespace game would suit the "Open World" theme perfectly - and make many fans waiting for a sequel happy. The same goes for Summoner, an action RPG released for the PC and PS2 in 2000. Resurrecting older franchises with the power of the next-gen era could be a great way to attract the gamers of today, as well as the old fans. But let's not hope for an avalanche of sequels. When Hennequet says that "No one's going to be able to say it's a clone this time", he's hopefully talking about a completely new IP, something next-gen consoles are still lacking on.

Of course, we'll keep you updated as new details are revealed about Volition's upcoming games.

According to RoninJinn on our forums, they have. Saints Row, the urban action game that reminds people a lot of GTA, was supposed to be released Wednesday, but it seems Target released it two days early. His forum post reads,

Target's across America had released the game early. I had heard rumor's on Xbox.com forums, and then finally someone with it in their gamertag said they picked up theirs from Target. After about an hour or two, there were more than a couple people saying they picked up copies at their local Target. After thinking about it, I finally decided to take a trip to my local Target, and whadayaknow, Saint's Row.

It's pretty much only just a day early now, and not all Targets released it early, if we follow the people on the thread, and there doesn't seem to be much use going online with it either, as it won't register points for you until the whole system goes live.

Still, it'd be worth it just to beat the rush, and to get some practice in before the big day.

Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

Last time, we wrote about the gangs in the neighborhood, now we'll be talking about the people and environment around them. We've been following the dev's diary of Volition's designer and writer - Steve Jaros - regarding Saints Row and found that they've been focusing on balancing the real and unreal. For instance, the dialogue scripting has been given quite a lot of thought. The main characters speak like stereotypes of real people, yet the random and activity characters are wacky versions of the real world.

Another example of real vs. wacky - the radio content in the game. They've employed the help of some real-life DJs like David Lawrence to make the radio stations as authentic as possible by making the DJs appropriately respond to the tracks and call-in requests from the denizens of the town. The commercials, however, could be described as "more fitting for a late-night sketch comedy show."

Even with all the computer graphics and physics involved, the team at Volition have tried to actively keep the balance. Let's hope that this makes the game even better.

Under threat from rival gangs and corrupt officials, the 3rd Street Saints must conquer the city of Stilwater or face destruction in THQ's Saints Row. From the spectacular opening battle to regain control of the local hood, Saints Row offers the freedom to explore StilWater, a living, breathing city. Players are free to engage in the multitude of different activates at their leisure, all while building up respect in a gameplay-rich world. Build enough respect and the 3rd Street Saint's lieutenants will trust the player with more dangerous missions.

The highly anticipated GTA-style game Saints Row has finally put up a demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace for everyone to enjoy. As always the demo can be downloaded free of charge, and this time it is available in all Xbox Live regions except Germany and Mexico. This demo weighs in at a hefty 904.96MB, so you can expect Microsoft's servers to be taking a hit for the next couple of hours. Furthermore, this demo only features single player gameplay, but you can rest assured knowing that the full version will contain some multiplayer mayhem unlike no other.

What makes the game Saints Row unique is that the side games also share the limelight with the main missions, and are not just merely extra features in the game. Chris Stockman from the game's developer, Volition, says that they initially wanted to make a "gang-based game." As they researched on Grand Theft Auto and other similar games, they noticed that the side games weren't being given much attention. However, people were clamoring for it, and that's what they decided to in Saints Row: showcase side games that are also pivotal in the games as missions. In Volition's creation, these side games are called "activities."

So go on a high-speed police chase with hostages, steal prostitutes from rival pimps and sell drugs. All are fun, except that these fun games also have value. Undertaking these exciting tasks succesfully gives you money and "respect" which are keys to the next mission. Missions on the other hand, give you "territory," and the more territories you have, well, the cooler you are (after all, the point of the game is to gain ALL territories).

Drug-trafficking? Check. Pimping? Check. Too much gory violence and nudity? Errrr... No. The developers made sure that they will get an "M" rating for this game, and as such, heaps of decapitated and unclothed characters won't be seen in the game. One thing prevalent in here, though, is humor.

So will humor and side games be enough to make Saints Row a hit? Guess we'll just have to find out for ourselves.

Volition's game Saints Row has been compared to the popular game Grand Theft Auto so many times now, but the developers are not really worried (unless they should be). They boast of many other features in Saints Row that the other game doesn't have.

You'll see this difference right away at the start of a new game. Creating your own character is possible in the game (and it's most effective to do so if you're playing the single-player game). You can design your character and you can manually customize his physical attributes. Tattoos, piercings and other accessories come later in the game.

And like in real life, you have to build a name for yourself (so thugs won't just jump on you) and earn respect via completing story missions and taking part in certain activities.

But you must probably know about all these if you're really interested in the game. So enough blabbering and on to the screenshots we promised.

Dive into the world of rival gangs and corrupt officials, in this third-person shooting game from THQ Inc., and Volition titled Saint's Row. Set in the fictional urban jungle of Stilwater, the 3rd Street Saints must conquer the city or face destruction. This game offers an unparalleled level of freedom to experience the seemingly alive environment as the player sees fit. Engage in a number of different activities in order to gain respect so the 3rd Street Saint's lieutenants will grant you with more dangerous missions. Combine all that and cram it into the incredible features of Xbox Live's online gaming service.

If you're already hooked and curious here's a Full FAQ from one of Volition's game developers, Stocks109. It covers all you want to know about Saint's Row like character creation, vehicles, gameplay, environment, AI and miscellaneous tidbits.

The FAQ is also a running thread so if you want to be up to date about this game just head on the forum via the read link. Meanwhile, here's an excerpt of the FAQ.

Character Creation

Is it possible to render life-like faces with character customisation?
Yes. A month or so ago we had people here at the office creating all sorts of real life celebrity lookalikes. Everything from the A-Team to Urkel.

Also, can the character's voice be customized as well?
Yes and no. Yes as in the voice matches the race. No as in the player doesn't have control over the voice.

Is it possible to render female characters using this system?
No, female creation is not supported.

Can we change the physical appearance of our characters after we start the game? If I make a fat character can I make him skinny if I choose to?
Yup, via the plastic surgeon. Oh yea, it'll also lower both police and gang notoriety. But it does cost some money though.

Vehicles

Can we fly? If so, what is available to fly?
No flying vehicles for this iteration of SR.

Was the reason you didn't include flyable vehicles or bikes/motorcycles a technical one or was it simply a design choice?
A little bit of both. Fact is even though the X360 poly / texture pushing skills have gone up by a considerable amount, DVD transfer speeds have not. Now thats not to say we can't ever do the vehicles you mentioned but for this round we wanted to learn the 360 first before attempting something as ambitious as that. Now that we have the tech down (it didn't use a licensed engine like GTA does) we can explore the options of expanding upon it, in the future.

Are there motorbikes?
No motorbikes for this iteration. But we have a ton of different vehicles you can discover in the world. If there is a sequel you can bet we'll look really hard at adding them in.

Are there any actual real cards in the game?
No real cars.

I'd like to know if visible damage from gunfire can be seen on cars, i.e. bullet holes on the chassis, shattered-glass, deflated tires, etc.
Yup. Glass breaks, bullet hole decals show up when a car gets shot, and tires can be deflated. Our vehicle deformation system is light years ahead of GTA's because we actually do real-time deformation while GTA's was purely canned deformation. This means in SR no two car collisions will produce the same damage effect.