Red Faction: Armageddon arrives May 31

Publisher THQ and developer Volition brought the acclaimed Red Faction: Guerrilla to high-definition consoles and the PC in 2009. The title moved more than 1 million units, and in June 2010, THQ formally announced a sequel, Red Faction: Armageddon. Now, the game has a firm release date.

Red Faction: Armageddon will debut on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on May 31. The title was originally slated to debut in March but last year was pushed back to May.

As for the game, where Guerrilla focused on Alec Mason's rebellion against the oppressive Earth Defense Force, Armageddon shifts the focus and ups the stakes. The game picks up roughly 50 years later and focuses on Darius Mason, Alec's grandson. When the younger Mason accidentally unleashes a planet-threatening evil on Mars, it's up to Darius and his grandfather's old rebel group, the Red Faction, to clean up the mess.

As in previous Red Faction games, cleaning up a big mess will require making an even bigger mess, thanks to a focus on physics-based destruction. Armageddon will provide players some new surroundings to explosively customize, from ice caves to lava flows.

In support of Armageddon, THQ will release a downloadable series entry, Red Faction: Battlegrounds for Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, as well as Red Faction: Origins, a television movie created in partnership with the SyFy Channel.

For more on the new game, check out GameSpot's most recent hands-on preview of Red Faction: Armageddon.