#war
If war flares again on the Korean peninsula as it threatened to today, there will be far more dire things to worry about than a video game, but the upcoming Homefront will nevertheless feel different. More »
Homefront is a game that demands your attention. While the concept requires a little suspension of disbelief, Kaos Studios has crafted an incredibly believable, gripping and horrifyingly graphic world where -- not unlike real war -- ordinary people are caught in the crossfire.
Played from the perspective of a civilian resistance fighter, Homefront offers uneasy answers to the uneasy questions that those of us who experience war from afar aren't necessarily forced to ask: What would you do if your country was being overrun by an occupational force? How would you fight back?
The world of Homefront is utterly riveting. The game, however, is not.
THQ's Homefront, the game that might anger some Americans, will come to PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on March 8, 2011 in the U.S., according to the game's official Twitter account. Australia gets it March 10, Europe one day later. More »
In the world of fictitious military takeovers, the unassuming hours of March 8, 2011 will probably live on in infamy. According to an update on THQ's Facebook page, that's the day U.S. store shelves will find themselves the subjects of a hostile occupation from new FPS Homefront. That imperialistic empire will spread its control to the peaceful island of Australia on March 10, then -- making excellent time, we might add -- it will drop into Europe on March 11.
What can we possibly do to prevent this coup? We ... don't know. We're not sure our local GameStop will let us put sandbags over their doors. At least, not before the holiday shopping season kicks off. Maybe they'll acquiesce in a few months or so.
An upcoming novel will follow a tabloid reporter in L.A. during the first moments of the North Korean attack on the US. It's the first salvo in THQ's "transmedia" strategy for Homefront, which is about "building worlds first," then having "different media access that world in interesting ways," Danny Bilson said during his keynote speech at IGDA Leadership Forum 2010. THQ is hoping also to do a miniseries for the game following the contents of the book -- it'd be on SyFy, we imagine -- but even more interesting are Bilson's comments regarding the next game.
"The sequel has new features and doesn't even deal with the same characters," Bilson revealed. "It takes place on the other side of the Mississippi -- nobody knows what's going on over there because the North Koreans have irradiated the Mississippi with radioactive iodine and nobody can cross it without a hazmat suit. It's very interesting stuff."
Bilson says the book will be available for purchase a month before the game launches. HomeFront is currently slated for March 2011.
#preview
I have little animosity for the virtual people I shoot in video games. They are cardboard targets. The worst they can do is kill the virtual me. My "death" lasts a few seconds. I can't hate them for that. More »
#thq
THQ's grim view of the future, in which North Korea somehow has the wherewithal to invade the United States, is being ported to books. Homefront is getting a novelization from people who know how to make game stories readable. More »
The Homefront novel, which was passively mentioned last week during THQ's Montreal Studio presser, has officially been announced, with an "early 2011" publishing date. Written by John Milius (Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now) and Raymond Benson (Metal Gear Solid and James Bond novels), the novel is designed to flesh out the world of Homefront, which finds United States citizens dealing with a North Korean occupation.
The novel is part of the "vast transmedia strategy" for the franchise -- according to THQ's Danny Bilson -- so expect the standard graphic novels and coloring books to follow. Okay, maybe not the latter, unless it's bundled with a big red crayon for all the blood.
Although no further transmedia projects have been announced, let's be clear about how ambitious THQ can get in these situations: Red Faction is getting a TV movie on SyFy that could potentially turn into a full series.
THQ's EVP of Core Games Danny Bilson deftly diffused a potentially explosive question regarding Homefront's cultural sensitivity toward militaristic North Korea today during THQ Montreal's press event, by emphasizing that the game is "speculative fiction." Bilson noted that, thanks to North Korea scaring the international community over the past couple years through its nuclear testing and sinking of a South Korean ship, that "they've been really cooperative" in selling the game's world. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, he said, "And we really appreciate the regime in North Korea for supporting Homefront the way they have."
Bilson explains that when THQ made the decision to go with North Korea as the antagonist in the game, that it consulted with East Asia experts in Washington D.C. to sell the premise. He notes that the timeline trailer released during E3 shows the result of that "speculative fiction that comes out of paranoid theory." The company will also release a Homefront novel early next year that follows a reporter in 2027 and explains the world even deeper.
Bilson does believe Homefront is a "global game" because it's not important that it takes place in America; the story is about a country being occupied, and it draws its inspiration from other countries being occupied throughout history. Bilson concluded, "There is a reality to [Homefront], but it's by filtering history through a future fiction that gives some sense of gravity to a fantasy."
During THQ's Montreal event, core games EVP Danny Bilson categorized its FPS Homefront as a primarily multiplayer experience, though "the single-player is extraordinary," he said (of course).
"The emphasis is on multiplayer," Bilson explained, "but with an awesome movie to play through on the other side." The reason one even has to be emphasized over the other is, of course, budget. "To get to the old things we used to play, like the 20 hours of single-player," he said, "you'd have to sacrifice, perhaps, the depth of the multiplayer, or have a five-year schedule and unlimited budget." The two portions of the game take place in different settings and involve very different gameplay, with the single-player game involving guerrilla warfare and the multiplayer involving all-out army vs. army combat.
Bilson estimated that the single-player portion of the game -- the "awesome movie" -- will run between six and ten hours, which makes it more of an awesome miniseries. The multiplayer is "hopefully in the hundred-hour range." That means it's going to be really heartbreaking if the game is changed at the last minute to be about an invasion from the North Opposing Force.
Kaos Studios' Homefront envisions a hypothetical future in 2027, when the US is in the grips of an invasion by a unified Korea. The multiplayer component takes place during the first days of the conflict, two years earlier, in 2025. Unlike the single-player campaign's guerrilla-based combat, the multiplayer represents large-scale war. There are helicopters, tanks, drones and plenty of other expensive futuristic technology to play with.
Been there, done that. But Kaos has something extra up its sleeve: Battle Points. It's in-game currency that allows players to call in vehicles, resupply themselves with ammunition and deploy special attack and reconnaissance drones -- and it's entirely score-based, so you don't have to be The Terminator to actually affect what's going on in a given match.
#impressions
I crouched on my belly and inched forward. Looking through my scope, I could see several Greater Korean Republic troops making their way down a ridge. They were totally exposed. I fired. Pop, pop. Time to buy a drone. More »
THQ is showing off the PC version of Homefront for the first time at Gamescom this week, thanks to the efforts of Digital Extremes. The publisher announced that Digital Extremes, best known for Pariah, Dark Sector and for assisting on BioShock 2, is developing the PC release. According to THQ executive producer Frank De Lise, DI won't simply be dropping Kaos Studios' North Korean invasion-themed FPS onto PC.
"We're building on the great game that Kaos Studios is making and enhancing it with specific PC relevant features," De Lise said, listing dedicated servers and clan support specifically. "We believe the core PC first-person-shooter fan will really appreciate these features, which are becoming increasingly rare." Who could that statement be directed at?
#thq
At E3, Homefront was offhandedly mentioned to me as inspired by Resistance, just without the aliens, naturally. As if to drive that point home, the man in charge of THQ's core games portfolio already has designs on London. More »
#advertising
In a heavy-hitter's roundtable with an industry advertising blog, the man in charge of marketing Homefront doubts that television advertising does much for many video games, and would rather advertise on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live than CBS and NBC. More »
THQ wasn't just promoting its upcoming shooter Homefront with a fake North Korean platoon at E3, you know. The company also released the title's first gameplay trailer, which you'll find posted after the jump. It's actually a troubling minute-long vignette of our dudes getting wrecked by their dudes, but hey -- at least the music is pretty.
In order to promote its upcoming shooter Homefront, THQ enlisted a group of struggling actors totally real soldiers. The group marched throughout the streets of Figueroa near the Staples Center before stopping into the ESPN Zone bar to watch North Korea take on Brazil in the first-round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Renting out an entire parking lot across from the Los Angeles Lakers' home base, THQ set up barricades plastered with dozens of flags proclaiming the land was the property of the North Korean Federation. For citizens unaware of the E3 2010 event, it was quite a confusing spectacle. Video of the march after the break.
