It wasn't a secret anymore that the third game in Volition's literally ground-breaking action series would be titled Red Faction: Guerrilla, after last week's revelation, but pretty much everything else was still unknown. Until, that is, THQ made a proper announcement yesterday, clearing a few details regarding the shooter formerly known as Red Faction 3.

The most striking change is that Red Faction: Guerrilla will be a "third-person open-world action-shooter" (ok, those are actually two striking changes), and of course that it will be released for all three heavy-duty platforms - PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game will keep its signature destruction-based gameplay, and even "redefine its limits" as they say. The story will take us back to Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction (good thing there's no mention of Red Faction 2, since I couldn't be arsed to play it).

"Players will take the role of an insurgent fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Throughout their fight for freedom, players will carve their own path, wreaking havoc across the vast, open-world environment of Mars, from the desolate mining outpost of Parker to the gleaming EDF capital city of Eos. Utilizing improvised weapons, explosives and re-purposed mining equipment and vehicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to tear through fully destructible environments in an unforgiving Martian landscape swarming with EDF forces, Red Faction resistance fighters, and the downtrodden settlers caught in the cross-fire. Red Faction: Guerrilla will also feature a robust multiplayer component, including several modes focused on destruction-based gameplay."

For now, a tentative release date is set for fiscal 2009, meaning that it could come out anywhere between April 2008 and March 2009... at the earliest.

Tags:  PC, PS3, Xbox 360, action, sci-fi, shooter, THQ, Volition