Red Faction: Armageddon preorders open Battlegrounds

Here's a bit of history on Red Faction: Armageddon.

The game will carry over many elements from its predecessor, Red Faction: Guerrilla, such as the focus on fully destructible environments. Unlike its predecessor which had the player liberating settlements from the totalitarian control of the corrupt Earth Defense Force, players must now reclaim cultist fortifications on the disaster-ravaged surface of the planet and defend colonists from hostile Martian creatures in the ancient mines and chasms beneath it, cleansing infestations from all structures and freeing humans from imprisonment in alien cocoons. Guerrilla's open-world approach has been done away with, in exchange for more linear and directed gameplay, a better progression of the narrative, and a sense of suspense and tension when traversing the sometimes claustrophobic interiors in the game.

GameStop and Amazon are offering perhaps the sweetest survival kit for console gamers, as the two retailers will be offering a free copy of Red Faction: Battlegrounds. Expected to be available during the first week of April (April 10th), Battlegrounds is a multiplayer-oriented, top-down, vehicle-based arena combat game. Those who don't preorder from GameStop or Amazon can download the game through Xbox Live or the PSN for $10.

Those who prebuy the game at Best Buy will be afforded the Recon Pack. Included in this in-game add-on are the stealth uniform, the electrically charged arc welder weapon, and the XNG-5000, which fires homing missiles. Lastly, Walmart preorderers have the only bit of real-world schwag: a 24-page Red Faction comic book and strategy guide.Beyond Battlegrounds, GameStop preorderers will also receive the in-game Commando Pack, which includes an armored uniform, a plasma thrower, and laser pistols. However, Amazon prepurchasers aren't slated to receive any additional items.

I cannot wait until Red Faction: Battleground.  If anyone ever remembers the game Twisted Metal, it has that same "Mad Max" feeling of complete destruction and carnage.