Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Homefront review

THQ's first volley in the attack to create the next great shooter franchise offers up a scary what-if scenery that deftly utilizes familiar sights of Americana in a burned out war-torn landscape and a brutal enemy. It's just a shame that the single-player game is so rooted in old-school design sensibilities. The multiplayer, on the other hand, is dead on for fans of Call of Duty who want something familiar, but still a little new.
The Pros
  • Great multiplayer
  • Some intense large-scale battles
  • Excellent variety of vehicles and weapons
The Cons
  • Incredibly over-scripted
  • Reliance on cheap effects like endlessly respawning enemies
  • Incredibly short single-player campaign
Homefront Review:
THQ has been unleashing a monster of a hype machine for Homefront since the game was first announced. The company is clearly attempting to set Activision’s Call of Duty and EA’s Medal of Honor in their sights, with the game’s mix of near-future, military-themed combat and effectively scary premise of what-if the North Koreans invaded America in the 2020’s. Unfortunately, merely desiring to mix it up with the big boys doesn’t equate to success.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

HOMEFRONT - A multi-player break down on the story, weapons and vehicles.

The Story:

The year is 2027. The world as we know it is unraveling after 15 years of economic meltdown and widespread global conflict over dwindling natural resources.

A once proud America has fallen, her infrastructure shattered and military in disarray. Crippled by a devastating EMP strike, the USA is powerless to resist the ever expanding occupation of a savage, nuclear armed greater Korean Republic.

Abandoned by her former allies, the United States is a bleak landscape of walled towns and abandoned suburbs. This is a police state where high school stadiums have become detention centers, and shopping malls shelter armored attack vehicles. A once free people are now prisoners.

It is now in the second year of the occupation. Hope that government officials will extract America from her depths has all but faded. The only solution is that the solution must come from within. A stirring movement has been spreading across the nation for the past 12 months. No longer are Americans willing to sit quietly while their family members, friends and neighbors are tortured, beaten and executed. The threat of nuclear annihilation has been eclipsed by the pain of the brutal occupation. Beginning with a thousand sparks across the nation; it soon started growing into a wildfire the Koreans had no idea how to control. Sales clerks, mechanics, students, your neighbor down the street; you are all the last line of defense..This is your Homefront...

The Primary Weapons:

M4 carbine
The M4 carbine is a family of firearms tracing its lineage back to earlier carbine versions of the M16, all based on the original AR-15 designed by Eugene Stoner and made by ArmaLite. It is a shorter and lighter version of the M16A2 assault rifle, with 80% parts commonality.

M16 rifle
The M16 (more formally Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 rifle fires the 5.56x45mm cartridge and can produce massive wounding effects when the bullet impacts at high velocity and yaws in tissue leading to fragmentation and rapid transfer of energy.

M110 Sniper Rifle
The M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System is intended to replace the M24 Sniper Weapon System used by snipers, spotters, designated marksman, or squad advanced marksmen in the United States Army.

M200 Sniper Rifle
The CheyTac Intervention is an American bolt action sniper rifle manufactured by Randy Kobzeff for long range soft target interdiction. It is fed by a detachable single stack magazine, which holds 7 rounds. It fires .408 CheyTac or .375 CheyTac ammunition. CheyTac papers state that the entire system is capable of delivering sub-MOA accuracy at ranges of up to 2,500 yards (2,300 m), one of the longest ranges of all modern-day sniper rifles. It is based on the EDM Arms Windrunner.

M249 LMG
The M249 light machine gun (LMG), previously designated the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), and formally written as Light Machine Gun, 5.56 mm, M249, is an American version of the Belgian FN Minimi, a light machine gun manufactured by the Belgian company FN Herstal (FN). The M249 is manufactured in the United States and is widely used by the U.S. Armed Forces. The weapon was introduced in 1984 after being judged the most effective of a number of candidate weapons to address the lack of automatic firepower in small units. The gun provides infantry squads with the heavy volume of fire of a machine gun combined with accuracy and portability approaching that of a rifle.

Scar Assault Rifle
The Special Operations Forces (SOF) Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR, is a modular rifle made by FN Herstal (FNH) for the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to satisfy the requirements of the SCAR competition. This family of rifles consist of two main types. The SCAR-L, for light, is chambered in the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge and the SCAR-H, for heavy, fires 7.62x51mm NATO. Both are available in Long Barrel and Close Quarters Combat variants

The Vehicles:

M1151 or " Humvee"
The M1151 Enhanced Armament Carrier is an improved version of the standard High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) designed to replace the M1025A2 utilised by the United States Armed Forces as a response to United States Central Command requirements.

M1A3 Abrams Tank
The M1 Abrams is a third-generation main battle tank produced in the United States. It is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and Commander of US military forces in Vietnam from 1968 to 1972. The M1 is a well armed, heavily armored, and highly mobile tank designed for modern armored ground warfare. Notable features of the tank include the use of a powerful gas turbine engine (fueled with JP8 jet fuel), the adoption of sophisticated composite armor, and separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment for crew safety. With a weight of close to 68 short tons (almost 62 metric tons), it is one of the heaviest main battle tanks currently in service.

AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter
The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and tandem cockpit for a crew of two. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra. First flown on 30 September 1975, the AH-64 features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night vision systems. The Apache is armed with a 30-millimeter (1.2 in) M230 Chain Gun carried between the main landing gear, under the aircraft's forward fuselage. It has four hardpoints mounted on stub-wing pylons, typically carrying a mixture of AGM-114 Hellfire and Hydra 70 rocket pods. The AH-64 also features double- and triple-redundant aircraft systems to improve survivability for the aircraft and crew in combat, as well as improved crash survivability for the pilots.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

PS3 Version of Battlefield 3 Has a Lead Over the 360

According to Christina Ann Coffin, a frostbite engine coder at Dice, the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 has the lead at the moment.
"Not done until we ship, a bit early to make fair comparisons between the two but ps3 has a lead by offloading gpu w/ SPU"

Monday, March 7, 2011

Crysis 2 has hologram.

EA's latest trailer for Crysis 2 showcases a brilliant new weapon upgrade - the hologram decoy! So how does it work? You fire a holographic projection of yourself in to the environment. It looks so much like you it lures enemies to attack it, and then... boom! You unleash on them, whilst they shout, "Damn! Fooled again!"
If this isn't a candidate for 2011's greatest multiplayer FPS innovation we don't know what is.
Our anticipation level just creaked up another notch.
The video also confirms that if you pre-order the Limited Edition now you'll get the weapon upgrade from the get go, along with the Scar weapon skin, a platinum dog tag and a level 5 ranking.
Crysis 2 launches on PS3, 360 and PC on March 25th in North America and Europe.
Watch it now and get excited.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Bungie's next game might be an mmo!

"UPDATE: Ensuring at least another few months of annoying and tedious speculation and fake rumors, Bungie has stepped back from the comments made by David Aldridge at GDC. According to a post on Bungie's website, Aldridge was making a joke during his presentation that was misinterpreted by some journalists in the audience. HILARIOUS ZINGER, DUDE. Of course, Bungie does not exactly deny that they're making an MMO in the blog post -- they just won't confirm it yet. Thanks to Auston for the tip.
ORIGINAL STORY: After dropping hints at GDC Online and some strong rumors last month, Bungie has finally confirmed that its next game is a massively multiplayer action game.
The news comes from a Game Developers Conference panel hosted by Bungie lead network engineer David Aldridge. Aldridge also countered claims last month that supposedly originated from an anonymous ex-contractor who had worked with Bungie. This source said that the Bungie MMO was essentially "World of Warcraft in space." Aldridge said that is not the case, although he didn't provide any further details.
This mystery project will be Bungie's first under a new publishing deal with Activision, as well as its first after leaving the successful Halo franchise in the hands of Microsoft. If anyone can take the concept of an action-based MMO for consoles and make it finally work, Bungie very well could be the team.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Homefront

The Official PlayStation Magazine Italy has given THQ's new shooter, Homefront, a 9/10 score in the world's first review.


That's according to the Homefront Facebook page, which boasts about the score in a post earlier today. "The 1st Homefront Review is here - and it's a 9 / 10! Official PlayStation Magazine Italy just gave Homefront a near-perfect score, calling it 'One of the most intense, emotional experiences of 2011'. Stay tuned for more reviews as they arrive..."
Kaos Studios' exciting new first-person shooter is off to a good start thanks to record pre-order numbers for publisher THQ, with around 200,000 US punters having signed up for battle ahead of the game's March 15 release date making it THQ's most pre-ordered title ever.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Game informer reviews

This year three major games have been released cod black ops, ac brotherhood, and halo reach. Cod was rated 9/10, brotherhood was rated 9.25 out of ten and I believe halo was rated 9.75/10.