FFV3R In Stores Wednesday, March 9th!

The very first review of Freedom Force Vs. The 3rd Reich is up on IGN and we got a 9.0 and an Editors' Choice award to boot! Thanks to Steve Butts for his in-depth look at the game and such gems as:

"No one can do it as well as Irrational can. They broke the superhero curse with the first title and proven it wasn't a fluke by releasing a follow up that's every bit as good. The design here is just as amazing as it was in the original game and the presentation is as solid and slick as ever. The story's great and full of more comic book conventions than you can imagine... one of the best games around."

As you have probably already gathered from the first paragraph, Freedom Force Vs. The 3rd Reich went gold last week. Needless to say we are all very excited. I have been running around to various stores and surreptitiously moving pre-order boxes to eye level. I realize that it is most likely pointless but hey, it makes me feel good! I got in a bit of a spat at a local Best Buy when I noticed they didn't have the correct amount of boxes on the shelves. It was not my finest moment...In more productive endeavors, Ken has been busy chatting with the press lately. GameSpot is running an interview with him about the game. Game Guru has a brief interview and Belgian site Gamesplanet is running an (English) "Interview Met Ken Levine". The site also has a preview of the game but frankly, my Dutch ain't what it used to be...

Be sure to check out Penny Arcade's Freedom Force ad. Yes, I know it's an ad and I should not be sending people to look at ads but they drew it and it is very, very cool. You may need to refresh a few times to see it but look on the right side of the page.

IGN is running detailed profiles of the new charactersin Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich. The article is in two parts so be sure not to miss the second one . IGN also had Alexx Kay do a segment on FFV3R's Rumble Room feature.

In the non Freedom Force world, things are moving along on SWAT 4. The programmers are looking significantly less vampiric than they were a mere week ago. Some of them even have a hint of color in their faces and a glint of hope in their eyes. Seriously, it was getting kind of scary in the programming pit. These guys are working their butts off to bring you the best game possible and SWAT 4 continues to look amazing. Someone even suggested that it be in the lineup for Irrational's gaming night. As anyone who has ever worked on a game knows, that is some serious dedication.

Check out the demo on

• GameSpot DLX
• ActionTrip
• FilePlanet

For fun with screenshots check out RPG Vault and GameShark.

Another Q and A with Irrational's Joe Faulstick

And for anyone who is a hard core preview junkie, there have been tons (TONS!) of SWAT previews in the past two weeks. Here are some of my favorites:

FileFront says "Irrational Games has made a pretty sweet addition to the SWAT series".

From 10-David: "The game's AI is so advanced, it makes me wonder why no other game has been able to create a similarly intelligent AI system."

From Warcry "The level design is top-notch and the action is nerve-wracking. I, for one, can't wait for April.

And more at