Red Faction: Armageddon - Xbox 360

With its arsenal full of weapons of mass destruction, like the singularity gun that shoots black holes or the structure-eroding plasma rifle, Red Faction: Armageddon is already armed to the teeth with destructive firepower. Now it's time to put it to good use.

Enter RFA's latest reveal: Ruin mode, a fast-paced score-based challenge mode that pits players against the clock to rack up points by destroying everything in sight. At the start, you pick which of your weapons you'll bring into the map, and then you have a limited amount of time to get the high score. The more things blowing up at once, the higher the combo modifier to earn the big bucks.

Ruin mode demonstrates Red Faction: Armageddon's destructive physics engine exceptionally well. On the demo map at PAX East, highways fell from the sky onto structures and one well-placed plasma cannon shot, which will barrel through everything in its path, toppled two towers. Maps will take place in the massive cave system underground, as well as surface areas in the game, so there are plenty of ways to tear the environment up.

RFA's Ruin also offers both a free-play and competitive option, with the latter culminating in online leaderboards for bragging rights between friends. Ruin is simple, yet addictive, and I played a few times, always eager to best my score. If I didn't have to file this story, I'd still be playing, and, at the least, it's made me that much more interested in seeing how the full game turns out later in May. More to come there, lots more, as we close in on release.

Red Faction: Armageddon is coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC  on May 31.