Ten years ago the original Red Faction gave PlayStation 2, PC, and Mac gamers their first taste of the future of humanity on Mars. Developer Volition explains how the three games before led up to next month's Red Faction: Armageddon.

We've come a long way since Red Faction came out back in 2001, haven't we? Back then the PlayStation 2 version of the game was either the bee's knees or the shit, depending on your praise of choice. Nowadays the original doesn't hold up quite as well, but playing through it does convey a strong feeling of how we've gotten from the fledgling franchise of a decade ago to what we're getting next month.

Red Faction: Armageddon hits the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on June 7.

Get your ass to a limited portion of Mars with the Red Faction Armageddon demo, currently slated to come to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network on May 3. Sorry, PC gamers, but there won't be a demo for you. [RedFaction.com]

Syfy's live-action take on the Red Faction universe, Origins, will make its debut on June 4. If you were wondering what the thing looks like, well, wonder no more.

It's hard to make out what's going on, other than the fact there are people on Mars and some of them are wearing clothes that are just bound to need cleaning twice a day.

One thing you can clearly make out, though, is that this film stars Robert Patrick. Otherwise known as the T -"Have You Seen This Boy" 1000.

You may know Volition as the developers behind the Saints Row and Red Faction games. But its history is actually a lot longer, and more illustrious, than that.

A film crew from Game Informer has, during the course of some studio visits, got a little sidetracked and catalogued the entire history of the developer, from the present-day hits all the way back to titles like Descent (when it was still known as Parallax Software) and Freespace, names which still give PC gamers a case of the tingles.

Your mileage on these will vary depending on how much love you have for each series, but if you're like me and have enjoyed most of the stuff that's come out of Volition over the years, they're a great watch.

You can see them at the link below.

The Secret History of Volition [Game Informer]

The Red Faction movie to air on SyFi will begin shooting in January and air in May, concurrent with the release of Red Faction: Armageddon, says the publisher.

THQ's Danny Bilson, the company's president for core games publishing spread the word over his Twitter account.

The one-shot TV movie, originally scheduled to air in March, could end up as the basis for a future series.

Red Faction:Origins film to be released in May instead of March
[VG247]

THQ offered us a peek at a playable version of its downloadable Red Faction spin-off, the four-player vehicular combat action game Red Faction: Battlegrounds, at this week's Tokyo Game Show. What did we learn?

Well, not too much more beyond what was featured in the downloadable game's debut trailer. Red Faction: Battlegrounds is a frantic, competitive arcade action game, a top-down perspective take on Twisted Metal-style car combat. Vehicles, mechs, tanks and weapons lifted from the Red Faction franchise will make an appearance in the game, like the mini-black hole spawning singularity gun.

But some Red Faction standbys—and some of the series' not so common weapons—won't be making an appearance in Battlegrounds. Here's a quick rundown of what won't be available in the game's arsenal. Believe me, I asked.

1. Cars with hammers attached to them
2. A gun that shoots hammers
3. A giant ostrich mech

Fortunately, the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network game doesn't appear to suffer for those absences. The hands-off demo we saw at TGS looked like a fun arcade experience, one on par with the planned $5 to $10 USD price THQ is expecting for Red Faction: Battlegrounds. With persistent rankings, leaderboards and planned downloadable content post-launch, this spin-off title might make the wait for the next fully-fledged Red Faction game a bit easier.

The game is expected to ship "a couple months" before Red Faction: Armageddon arrives in May 2011. Battlegrounds is planned to includes tie-ins to that title that THQ is still yet to detail.