Homefront Message Board older than one year ago

Major Nelson has released the Xbox Live activity numbers for the week of March 14, and things are looking good for THQ's Homefront. After less than a week on the shelves, Homefront debuted at number six on the charts. While a far cry from the top spot (unsurprisingly occupied by Black Ops), it's still impressive for a brand new property, especially in its first week. Then again, given Homefront's sales figures, a strong showing on Xbox Live isn't too shocking.

On the Xbox Live Arcade front, newcomer Full House Poker took the top spot, with Runic's Torchlight coming in second. The XBLA version of Battle: Los Angeles, despite a complete lack of marketing, landed in third. Oh, you hadn't heard? Yes, there totally is a Battle: Los Angeles game on XBLA.

THQ has shined its best bugle to announce that Homefront is a success: today, the publisher revealed the game has managed to infiltrate one million homes in North America, Europe and Asia. Last week, the game was the top seller on UK Chart Track.

Additionally, THQ reveals that 2.4 million copies have been shipped. "We are very pleased with strong worldwide shipments and sell-through for Homefront, and we continue to fulfill new retail orders for the game across the globe," concluded THQ president and CEO, Brian Farrell, in the announcement.

THQ continues to tout amazing Homefront sales. The publisher said today it has sold an estimated 1 million copies across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific markets. It has also shipped 2.4 million units to retail since launch...

Homefront has had an interesting ride so far. Touted as THQ's most pre-ordered game in company history, it debuted to middling reviews (ours included), which seemingly triggered a massive decline in THQ's stock price. Still, despite reviews, THQ announced over 375,000 units in first day sales. It's also worth noting that both Amazon and Walmart knocked $20 off Homefront the day after it released, which probably aided sales as well.

Whether or not Homefront proves profitable for THQ, well, that's where analysts come in! Speaking to Benzinga, Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter noted that THQ would need to move two million units to break even. In light of the need to move in excess of two million to yield a profit, Pachter called day one sales "a disappointing start," adding that poor reviews could lead to stagnating sales moving forward. That said, Pachter does expect the title to at least break even.

Bradley Safalow of PAA Research pins Homefront's low review scores on its short single-player campaign. Had the campaign been two to three hours longer, said Safalow, "then it could have achieved a Metacritic of 80." Safalow believes Homefront could bring in a "modest profit" for THQ, though he has much higher hopes for Saints Row: The Third.

Finally, Wall Street Strategies' Brian Sozzi expects Homefront to meet THQ's overall sales goals with the help of downloadable content. Like Safalow, Sozzi's firm is also "optimistic" regarding Saints Row: The Third and Red Faction: Armageddon.

THQ's near-future shooter did the business over the weekend as it saw off Dragon Age II and Pokemon to top the UK charts. A lukewarm response has done little to cool enthusiasm for the game, and having shifted over 300,000 units on its first day on sale in North America it has seen the success r...

Homefront was finally released in the UK yesterday after a pointless three day delay. Unfortunately a wayward postie failed to deliver our copy in time for a day one review. Day two it is then, because wow, this isn’t very long. But is it concentrated glory, still worth your time? Read on to find out Wot I Think.

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Will Homefront compel you to fight or to just stay home? Find out in our official Homefront review!

Kaos Studios responded to reports of "freezing" issues and other bugs in Homefront by pushing out a patch for the PS3 version of the game last night at approximately 8PM ET. In its announcement, the developer claimed that "far fewer issues" had been reported for the Xbox 360 version, though a title update was in the works nonetheless. Additionally, a "small hotfix" was released for the PC version yesterday, to be followed by "a patch with full change-list in the near future."

Following the update's release via PlayStation Network, a few worrisome comments began to appear below the announcement post. "I thik [sic] they broke the game," observed one commenter complaining of lag. "I hadn't had any lock up problems till this update, now all it does is lock up making the game unplayable for me," posted another.

"I too have lost my rank (PS3)," reads a more alarming comment, "I was rank 24 and i played a game and noticed i was back to 2." This issue of reset player ranks and XP appears not to be an unintended side effect of the patch, but rather an ongoing issue since the game's launch earlier this week, acknowledged by Kaos yesterday afternoon. "We are aware of the buggy leader boards and stat tracking issues and it is being addressed in an upcoming patch," promised Kaos' Dan Matlack in response to one of the many, many forum threads on the issue.

While the stats reset bug was not addressed in last night's update, Kaos' patch notes did highlight the introduction of "several fixes for reported freezes." In the main "PS3 'Freezing' Issues" thread, posters have reported mostly failed results. In the "Multiplayer Status Update" thread, similar complaints about freezing have appeared following the patch's release, in addition to reported server connection and party system failures.

Still, some forum-goers remain optimistic: "great patch, the only problem im still having is my ps3 is freezes usually after every other game," posted a cheery St0rMiN_X_NoRMaN.

[Thanks, Gwynne]

There is definitely a war going on in Homefront, especially in the game's review scores. We weren't exactly keen on the game, but hardly anybody seems to be. The general consensus has the game taking significant lambasting by outlets over the short, mediocre single-player campaign, tempered by what the title has going on in multiplayer:

• GamePro (4/5): "Homefront does a whole lot right, delivering powerful imagery and actions on the single-player side, as well as interesting multiplayer alterations, but neither end feels fully realized. ... Should Kaos expand on this promising start with meaningful and memorable additions in a sequel, Homefront may prove a potent franchise in no time at all."
• Game Informer (70/100): "Thanks to some well-crafted maps and a unique in-game economy, the multiplayer fares better than the campaign. Rather than give each team a set number of vehicles at the start of the match, Homefront rewards you with Battle Points for each kill, assist, or flag capture."
• IGN (70/100): "[Homefront] controls and feels like a typical shooter, looks like a game that's several years old, and most importantly, has an inexcusably brief campaign. Multiplayer is Homefront's redeeming quality, and those gamers out there who are like me and swoon for alternate/future history settings should certainly look into it. "
• 1UP (B-): "Kaos Studios has made a competent shooter to accompany an engrossing story, one I'm more than willing to finish (assuming a sequel will be made). Multiplayer is where the game's real value lies, and it's certainly more than competent. There's a polish to the online mode that speaks to the developer's true talent."
• Giant Bomb (3/5): "Whether or not you decide to pick up Homefront should rely entirely on how much you want to play its multiplayer. It's not quite exciting or remarkable enough to trump the current giants of online dude-shooting, but it's a solidly crafted mode made comparatively impressive by just how tremendously mediocre the game's single-player campaign proves to be."

This spoileriffic cinematic sets the scene for Homefront's story.

Homefront developer Kaos Studios notes on its forums that it's currently investigating reports of the game "freezing" on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. The company asks for patience, as it "will need a bit of time" to figure out what the problem is. Of course, if they do figure it out, then comes the console certification process (fun times).

THQ and Kaos Studios can't seem to catch a break during the high-profile Homefront's launch week. Despite solid initial sales of 375,000 units of the game, bad review scores have punched THQ's stock price and yesterday's pricing "race to the bottom" by Amazon and Walmart didn't help perception. For its part, THQ issued the following comment on the price drops:
Amazon and Wal-Mart.com have raised the prices back up and it was a one day play to gain market share on the biggest title in the industry right now. THQ did not support this in any way, shape, or form.

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. - THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced that first day sales of Homefront, its thrilling first person shooter with outstanding multiplayer, approximated 375,000 units in North America. The game is scheduled to ship in Europe and Asia Pacific throughout this week...

The real headline here is that Homefront has sold 375,000 copies on its first day of release. In the US. Where it has been released. Unlike the rest of the world. And honestly, I’ve had enough of this nonsense. So you know what – I’m going to get it changed. I pledge that by this time next year, games will be released on the same day in the UK as they are in the US. The rest of the world, you can organise your own campaigns. I’m only one man, with one powerful website behind him. Watching Homefront preload, even though the internet contains no oceans.

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Despite some rough reviews for Homefront (including our own) and a nasty dip in stock price (it's still down), things aren't all frowny face in THQ Land. Homefront already had the distinction of being the most pre-ordered title in THQ history and now, just one day after launch, THQ is trumpeting "robust" first day North American sales of approximately 375,000 units.

Of course, nothing says "successful multiplayer game" like a server boost, and THQ core games veep Danny Bilson is happy to note as much. "Due to the strong and growing demand for Homefront's multiplayer, we continue to add dedicated server capacity," Bilson said in a press release. Bilson's boss, CEO Brian Farrell, added, "We are delighted with first day sales for Homefront and are already fulfilling re-orders for the game from multiple retailers." $20 says that two of those retailers are Walmart and Amazon.

THQ today announced the first day sales for Homefront in North America hit 375,000 units sold...

#review I nearly wept during the opening of Homefront. More »

Just as Homefront's citizen soldiers attempt to roll back a fictionalized North Korean invasion of our homes and chain restaurants, Walmart and Amazon have valiantly rolled back the price of the newly launched game.

Just a day after Homefront's official release date, monolithic superstore Walmart began selling the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game for $41.96, both in store and online. Online purchases also include an "exclusive Goliath Drone Avatar." (The PC edition remains $49.96.)

Seemingly in response to Walmart's discount (it's unknown whether it's temporary or permanent), Amazon has dropped its Homefront console copies to exactly the same $41.96 price. The game's approaching "White Castle takeout" prices at a rapid clip!

"If THQ can come up with a couple of franchises that sell well, that's a much clearer path to profitability and a higher stock price." -- Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets

"75" -- Metacritic score for Homefront, the most pre-ordered title in THQ's history

"This score is a bit of a disaster for THQ and the share price today is reflecting that." -- Mike Hickey of Janco Partners

It's kill or be killed on American turf in Homefront's Team Deathmatch.

The battle ensues in classic Team Deathmatch style in Homefront's multiplayer mode.

Hold your ground in this alternate gameplay mode in Homefront multiplayer.

Tyranny spreads closer to home than ever in the opening moments of Homefront's single-player campaign.

Platform: (PS3,X360)

3 out of 5

There is a moment in Homefront's single-player campaign that sums up the whole shebang in its entirety. You're walking with your fellow freedom fighters through what was once a baseball stadium, but now doubles as both an internment camp for American civilians and a dumping ground for their bodies. You stumble upon a group of Korean soldiers dutifully shoveling corpses into a mass grave. This is, of course, awful. Dramatic, sad music swells, and one of your compatriots begins to tremble angrily, and as his temper builds, he finally cracks, pulling his rifle and shooting blindly at any soldier he sees. Then all the Korean soldiers run and find cover, and you spend 20 minutes sluggishly shooting at them while your AI-controlled friends stand around, sometimes shooting, and other times blocking your path.

Homefront is a five-hour anticlimax. It is endless buildup toward horror and shock, constantly kneecapped by the developer's unwillingness to make good on its threats of emotional impact. Its "terrifyingly plausible" tale of an America overrun by a newly powerful unified Korean regime seems like the stuff of paranoid nightmare, the kind of story that certainly could make for a troubling, intense video game experience. Instead, developer Kaos Studios plays it safe, out and out refusing every opportunity to explore its own narrative and instead resting entirely on a series of dully standard shooting missions, periodically punctuated by scenes of terrible things happening to characters you've developed zero attachment to. Were that action of a more visceral and exciting quality, and not merely a generally easy, periodically frustrating, and largely uninspired copy of every other modern shooter of the era--with one particularly modern game of warfare among them--you might be able to forgive Homefront's disinterest in storytelling. Instead, excitement often eludes the game, and were it not for a small handful of genuinely interesting setpiece battles and a decent multiplayer suite, Homefront would be completely dismissible.

 At some point, this dude will refuse to get out of your way. Homefront's story puts you in the role of a faceless, voiceless protagonist named Jacobs, a former pilot who finds himself rousted from his bed and shoved onto a makeshift prison bus by cruel and murderous Korean soldiers. It's the year 2027, and the United States is little more than a shell of its former self. An opening preamble combines real life footage of Hillary Clinton discussing the South Korean military boat sunk by the North with manufactured news footage featuring the rise of Kim Jong-Un as North Korea's new great leader, his reunification of the two Koreas and outward expansion into Japan and other vulnerable Asian nations, and eventual attack on America via an EMP weapon. This leads to an invasion of America's West Coast and irradiating of the Mississippi River, to keep American forces in the east separated from the armies in the west. All of this in just 17 years, and now you're on a bus headed to God knows where, while you watch innocent civilians--parents, in front of their children, even--gunned down by faceless soldiers of an invading enemy.
 
And then you go shoot some dudes. 
 
After a daring rescue attempt by resistance fighters, you're whisked away, handed a gun, and told to just start firing away. While that makes some sense in the beginning, Homefront never breaks from this pattern of showing you something horrible (usually from a very safe distance) and then hurrying you off into a standard bout of duck-and-shoot firefighting. There are feeble attempts at emotional resonance, but for as much time as you spend with the characters in your squad of freedom fighters and seeing innocents beaten, bludgeoned, and shot to death, shockingly little impression is made. Characters appear and disappear frequently, making one wonder if the whole resistance is made up of like five actual people and some random extras. Flirtations with infighting--including tensions involving your Korean-American team member, and a sequence where a fellow fighter botches a launch of white phosphorus that kills as many friendlies as foes--are set-up and then cast aside. Opportunities for extrapolation, exploration, real emotion are constantly tossed away in favor of rote gunplay. Other, better shooters have found ways to marry their story and their action in creative ways. In Homefront, action and drama feel completely divorced from one another.

It's a shame, given the supposed involvement of writer John Milius, who co-wrote Apocalypse Now and both wrote and directed the Cold War paranoia cult classic Red Dawn. Who better than he to plug into the fear inherent to American culture of a sadistic invading army stepping foot on US soil? Who better to flesh out these characters, or at least give them some cheesily memorable personality? Either Milius' involvement is grossly overstated, or the guy has just lost his touch. At no point do you get any sense of gravity or reality in this story, nor do you get the kind of rah-rah, everyman vs. an evil army vibe so prevalent in Red Dawn. That movie certainly lacked realism, but it's chock full of standout lines and significant characters. Milius knows how to write dialogue. This is the guy who wrote the "Indianapolis" speech from Jaws, and the "Do you feel lucky?" monologue from Dirty Harry. The most memorable lines from Homefront? A Bruce Campbell reference, a Korean barbecue crack about some burning enemy soldiers (which really feels like it should have been followed by a sad trombone for maximum impact), and the time someone on my squad shouted about enemies occupying a Hooters.

 Suffice it to say, this did not go entirely according to plan. That the action fails to pick up the story's slack is Homefront's greatest disappointment. We're used to games failing to deliver on their cinematic storytelling goals, but given the inroads made by developers in first-person shooting over the last few years, it's shocking how underwhelming much of Homefront's action truly is. Indeed, there are moments that impress. While the game is plagued by a dingy, often indistinguishable color-palette and crusty, blurry textures (which make the game's pervasively janky frame rate all the more confusing), Kaos Studios has managed to craft some appropriately decrepit and heartbreaking scenery to fight through--ruined, blood-soaked suburbs and an artillery-laden Golden Gate Bridge are particular standouts--and as you fight through them, the battlefields are rife with explosions, ambient gunfire, and a kind of controlled chaos; the kind you can trudge through without feeling like the shaky-cam and constant waves of enemies are throwing off your equilibrium.

On the flipside, few moments in Homefront feel truly dangerous. There is a constantly guided feel to the game's progression, not to mention a distinct lack of challenge. A few particularly intense firefights will lead to repeated death, but on the normal difficulty level, most missions are a breeze (the hardest level is an improvement, but not exactly gut-wrenching.) Most of this breezy feel is the result of the game's definition of "squad tactics." You're nearly always accompanied by a few other resistance fighters, and most times you're just following them around to wherever it is they decide to go. These cohorts aren't crack shots, but they're also invincible, meaning you can often just use them as temporary bullet shields, and following them will always result in you finding the best cover spots.

As much as that aids the game's ease of play, it also adds some frustration. That your AI compatriots take cover at all feels a bit like a cruel joke, since they can't get hurt. Ostensibly they're supposed to be real soldiers like you, so of course they'd want to use tactics to avoid getting shot. But then they take the best cover spots, and refuse to move out of your way while you're running around getting pelted by enemy fire. And while following your friends around makes for a bit of a brainless progression, periodic bouts of AI weirdness sometimes trap you in one spot. There are random moments where they just refuse to move for periods of time--the longest of which ended up being about half a minute--until some inexplicable trigger happens that makes them realize, "Oh, right, war is happening. Time to go!" Perhaps this is the developer's way of trying to pad out the campaign's disturbingly brief run time, which ends up being somewhere around four to five hours on the default difficulty.

Despite THQ's blitzkrieg promotion of Homefront's single-player story, the multiplayer is where it feels like most of the developmental effort went. Maybe the publisher was frightened of getting crushed by the all-absorbing multiplayer Akira monster that is Call of Duty, and perhaps with good reason. If you are a developer making a first-person shooter with a modern-ish setting and the usual slate of modes, it takes a Herculean effort to pull players away from the great time burglars of the genre. Homefront's effort isn't quite Herculean, but it's a good try.

Modes are all team-based, with a standard team deathmatch, and a ground control mode, where your team captures specific points on a given map. Battle Commander is a mode that alternates between these two match types, and also tosses in the benefit of an AI commander for both teams, which assigns special mission objectives and highlights players with particularly high kill streaks as threats. Meeting those objectives and killing off targeted players earns you bonus points.

Fighting through the suburbs is a neat idea--it just never delivers the promised impact. Battle points are the game's currency, but they're spent in an unusual way. When you choose your class at the beginning of a match or right before a respawn, you see a number of other weapons, drones and other gadgetry that your class has unique access to. These objects can be purchased on the fly during the course of a game. So, say an enemy has jumped into a humvee and is coming barreling at your heavy weapons-class soldier. Now might be a good time to spend a few points and bust out a rocket launcher. Vehicles also cost points, so if you're particularly interested in flying a helicopter or driving a tank right over some unsuspecting players, it's best to save up your points.

The feel of the multiplayer is solid. It's fast-paced without feeling too arcadey, and the vehicles are easy to use and fun to control. The variety in classes occasionally lacks definition--the difference between a sniper and a heavy weapons fighter are obvious; others less so--but nearly all are fun to play with. There aren't a ton of maps, though one can probably expect more via DLC at some juncture--an all-too-obvious Alcatraz map, perhaps? The Xbox 360 DLC store is already replete with stuff, including such Avatar-focused gems as the Kim Jong-Il suit and glasses (each sold separately). Maybe it's just me, but that feels dangerously close to the territory of downloadable Hitler mustaches and Gaddafi robes.

Whether or not you decide to pick up Homefront should rely entirely on how much you want to play its multiplayer. It's not quite exciting or remarkable enough to trump the current giants of online dude-shooting, but it's a solidly crafted mode made comparatively impressive by just how tremendously mediocre the game's single-player campaign proves to be. Kaos obviously had ideas for this game, yet seemingly couldn't bring any of those ideas to total fruition. The end result is a brief, brittle campaign bereft of impactful storytelling or creatively designed action, one that ends not with a bang, but with the build-up to a bang, followed by a title card.

Maybe I'm naive, but I honestly believe there was a point at which Homefront was destined to be something special. An FPS war game where the conflict was made intensely personal by staging it in America and waging it with real people? It's an arguably rock-solid concept.

The question then (and isn't the question always some variation on this?) is how did Kaos Studios and THQ go from that great germ of an idea to the brain-dead, dull and frankly pretty lousy final product they're releasing today?

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. - The Greater Korean Republic's Ministry of Propaganda today announced that Homefront, a thrilling first person shooter from THQ and Kaos Studios, is now available from the foundations of capitalism known as 'retailers' across the world...

First-person shooters are quickly becoming the reality show of video games. No, Jeff Probst isn't going to weasel his way into Call of Duty, but first-person shooters, like reality shows on television, are everywhere. Both are saturated categories full of a lot of uninspired, derivative entries. So when there's a new offering in an overused genre, it has to be special to get noticed...

Good morning, good morning, my frail and noble villagers of this leaky hamlet we call PC gaming. Homefront‘s out in America tomorrow and in Europe and Australia on Friday, so if you ever wanted to shoot a man with a gun then this is the week for you. All the reviews I can find online are 9/10s so far, which sounds good. The launch trailer awaits you below, packed tightly with footage of expensive military hardware blowing up. Better than any morning cup of tea, eh? (more…)

Homefront is prepared for its March 15 launch, sending out the final trailer to gather troops for battle against The Great Leader.

The invasion has begun. Will you join the resistance?

Predicting the future can be a precarious ordeal. Just ask the developers at Kaos Studios, the minds behind the upcoming first-person shooter Homefront. In Homefront, gamers are exposed to a dark, dreary world set in the late 2020s where a unified Korea has overtaken the United States. In th...