Serious Sam goes to the Vatican and jacks the Popemobile in a new trailer

One of the things I've always enjoyed about the Serious Sam games is how fantastically deranged the whole thing is. Case in point, the new Serious Sam 4 trailer revealed during today's Future Games Show.

Sam, for some reason, needs to get to the Vatican, so after slaughtering hordes of Mental's forces he asks a local woman on a balcony for directions. In response, she directs him toward the famous Popemobile, because it'll get him where he wants to go more quickly.

Sam is doubtful, but the woman is not. "Silly boy. It is the new Popemobile."

The new Popemobile, it turns out, is a massive combat mech, standing maybe ten meters high and armed with dual chain guns and rocket launchers. It even has a suitably Papal bootup message: "All systems ready. Let God sort them out."

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It proceeds about as you'd expect from there, although I have to admit that I didn't see the Cthulhu-esque horror coming, I'm pretty sure that's new. The underlying gameplay clearly is not, but that's what we're paying for anyway, and for me the real joy here is the sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing. Croteam's embrace of the absurd has turned Serious Sam into the Duke Nukem we should've got: Gruff, macho, not too bright, but handy in certain, very specific ways. I am 100 percent here for that.

Serious Sam 4 comes out on September 24. You can find out more (although what more do you need, really?) on Steam or at croteam.com.