Fight aliens as the President of the United States in Saints Row 4 this August

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Saints of America — the Saints Row gang is back, but this time they rule the White House.

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Developer Volition has really amped up the crazy. Saints Row IV, due out August 20 for all current-generation consoles and PC, puts players in the role of President of the United States because … why not?

The people of the U.S. voted the leader of the heroic Third Street Saints gang to the highest office in the land, so when aliens attack Earth, the player’s responsible for saving the world. The extraterrestrials zap the members of the Saints into a computer simulation that they must escape if they want to save humanity.

It’s the craziest sounding thing, and here’s a crazier looking trailer:

For the uninitiated, Saints Row IV will closely follow the formula of its predecessors,which are open-world sandbox crime games based on the Grand Theft Auto III mold. Volition plans to shake things up in Saints Row IV by adding alien weaponry and superpowers.

Volition and its Saints Row franchise are both survivors of publisher THQ’s financial collapse. Deep Silver, which also publishes the Dead Island games, purchased the developer and its open-world action game for $23 million. The publisher also placed the winning bid of $5.8 million on Metro: Last Light.