THQ Unveils Saint's Row, The Outfit, and Titan Quest in Santa Monica

We also learn more about Dawn of War: Winter Assault and WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw 2006.

Saint's Row
Saint's Row just keeps looking better and better. If you're a Grand Theft Auto diehard, Saint's Row is simply going to blow your mind. The build on display harnessed a newly-updated code base and the latest Xbox 360 dev kits, so there was tons of new eye candy and a significantly smoother framerate. We checked out the latest shader model 3.0 effects, and they looked great: nearly every object seemed to showed off subtle surface details like reflection, glossiness, or speckled dirt and corrosion. They also showed off a new day-and-night cycle that actually renders the sun and moon as they move across the sky. The game looked shockingly good, and was constantly surrounded by industry insiders hoping to sneak a peak.

For an in-depth look at why Saint's Row totally kicks our ass, as well as an interview with Senior Producer Jacques Hennequet, check out our GamePro.com feature.

For an in-depth look at the latest playable version of Saint's Row, check out our Saint's Row cover story in the November issue of GamePro.

The Outfit
Outside of Saint's Row, the most pleasant surprise we saw was Relic's The Outfit, an Xbox 360 game that in its earliest days was intended to be a sort of Xbox 360 counterpart to the PC RTS Company of Heroes. When we last saw the game at E3, it had looked promising but suffered from a somewhat confused design. Was it a strategy game? An action game? Some sort of weird hybrid? The good news is that Relic has listened to the feedback and is prepared to give gamers what they really wanted: a balls-to-the-wall action title with just a tantalizing tinge of strategy. THQ and Relic have confirmed that the game has been pushed back until early 2006, but judging by what we saw, the game should be worth the wait.

Set in a G.I. Joe-styled version of World War II, players can choose between three larger-than-life heroes: Deuce Williams, an anti-vehicle specialist; Tommy Mac, a close-quarters champion; and JD Tyler, an expert at long-rage warfare. Each character has unique strengths and weaknesses, and if you die, you can instantly respawn as another character without losing any of your progress. So much for quick-saving! Another key gameplay aspect is the concept of "field units," which are a form of currency that can be traded in to buy tanks, turrets, and devastating air strikes.

The Outfit's high-definition environments radiated exquisite details. We saw a dense, cluttered German town adorned with massive structures. When a player orders an air strike, the resulting explosions can topple any background structure: we saw a church collapse in upon itself under a barrage of bombs, and the resulting destruction was completely dynamic, not a pre-canned animation. Other tiny details--like the twisting, spiraling trajectory of a rocket in flight--also caught the eye.

The big remaining question marks hover around the elusive multiplayer mode, which is rumored to be a major draw. We'll have more news on that front as The Outfit charges towards it Winter release.

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