Homefront Hate Sparked By Call Of Duty?

NextGN writes: "Something isn’t right. Never in my entire ten years in this industry have I witnessed such shocking behavior from both gamers and journalists. It seems that hating Homefront has become fashionable. Insults are becoming personal, and people are actually hoping that a company goes bankrupt because of this game — and why? Because the graphics are crap."

[FudgeBear]

I haven't played this game, but I will most likely pick it up early next week. MAG also got horrible reviews, people hated on that game too (though not as much as Homefront) so I almost didn't pick it up... and that would have been a disaster, because then I would have missed out on one of the greatest first person shooters of all time.

If I've learned anything is that you cannot always trust review and graphics don't mean shit.

Nuff said.

[SodoBot]

Not exactly a fan of the genre, but this and Brink are the only two shooters I am actually interested in checking out right now.

[Kitchen_Sink]

The Call of Duty franchise has tainted a lot of minds. I literally had to hide my friends copy of MW2 so that he would finally play BC2. He hasn't gone back since. Before then he was always defending MW2 like it was his mother or something.

Call of Duty brainwashes, I am pretty sure of that. A lot of people are comparing the two... and in my honest opinion... Homefront kicks CoD's butt. The campaign is a little short. Took me about 6 - 7 hours to finish. The same amount of time it took me to finish Black Ops... but the MP is a hell of a lot more fun than CoD.

[S_C]

Is this game any good ?, thinking about picking it up friday.

[ian72]

Same here, I'm thinking about getting it Friday (UK release).

[dillydadally]

Are you a multi player or single player type of guy? The single player has gotten a lot of flack and although good is short and a little lacking - more of a rent probably if you're interested. This is where most of the hate is coming from. However, if you're a multiplayer guy, the game is incredible and I highly recommend it. It's only really negative is there are only two game modes (with two variations of each mode, so kind of four modes) and it's a little lacking in weapons other than Assault Rifles. The gameplay though is very solid and fun and perfectly mixes the best aspects of many of the other games in the genre.

Conclusion - avoid it for single player, pick it up if you want the next fun multiplayer.

[S_C]

I am mostly a multiplayer person, but will also give the SP a go

[wallis]

At the heart of this process is simply the fact that a) THQ made a stupid decision and b)people love deriding those who make stupid decisions.

This is capitalism we live in and part of the process is that people lose when they don't meet the standard required of them. Homefront isn't just a failure in terms of gameplay or graphics, the reality is that it's probably a decent game. But the failure was in THQ missing the gaping trap that awaited any immediately released military shooters.

The truth is gamer's got screwed by CoD. We know it and activision know it. Everybody knows it... we're entering a time where military shooters are becoming boring and tired, where Call of Duty is beginning to fade and everyone's glad to be free of the tyrant that once dominated. Duke Nukem Forever, Bulletstorm, Painkiller redemption, serious sam HD, serious sam 3... these are just some of the games that are being touted as the new 'fun' shooter and it's because we're all tired of these boring military games.

Bad company 2 managed to pull through solely on the battlefield part of the equation. The part of it that so desperately imitated CoD failed. Flashpoint? Failed. Medal of Honor? Failed. Black ops? A commercial success, yes, but even Activision have acknowledged that they don't expect the next CoD to have half the impact of black ops. (That's why they're making two.)

THQ is a company that is built around making games aimed at the current market and the industry requires the utmost foresight to realize what's going to float and what's not. The sudden, and bizarre, realization to dive into the military shooter simply because Black Ops sold a lot is the sort of business mentality that shouts 'moron'. It's what a businessman would say is a good thing to do if they had never picked a game up in the life, had no idea about the industry in it's current form, and were asked whilst they were rushing after being late to work.

THQ marched stupidly into the biggest trap awaiting anybody in a long long time. They better count their lucky asses they're gonna be walking out of it, albeit wounded. But it was nothing short of stupid that they genuinely thought they could succeed where companies like DICE and EA had failed... numerous times.

I won't be buying homefront. It looks completely derivative in every conceivable way and in a good and decent world Black Ops would have had a similar reception.

[whydoyouask]

While you do make some good points you can't get past the point that you haven't actually played they game, therefore nothing you say hold any context to Homefront its self.

And while it's true that the Military Shooter genre is staling out, that doesn't mean that it's dead, it just means that we have to push for new ideas to push them forward. Homefront's push is, in my point of view, its story telling. Because, though all of the games faults i honestly felt actual emotion from it.

The gameplay, while far from perfect, is well balanced and actually fun. I also like the lack of CoD a-holes plugging up the soundwaves with their internet-tough guy act and crying 12 year olds with high-pitched voices.

Yes, THQ may have made a blunder going into an already over-hyped genre with lots of look-a-likes, but that isn't a reason to hate it.

Also, derivative doesn't mean what you think it means...it's a math term...

[Ducky]

^ "Derivative" is also an adjective... or at least I think it is.

Anyways, Kaos has made military shooters before, so it isn't exactly a simple case of follow-the-trend. Although THQ probably probably did try to market it since it saw the success of military shooters.

"THQ is a company that is built around making games aimed at the current market and the industry requires the utmost foresight to realize what's going to float and what's not."

Not sure what you've based that on. =/
Homefront is more or less just another Frontlines.

Also, someone slap me if I'm wrong, but isn't EA walking into the same trap with Crysis2? It seems they're applying the mousetrap mentality to it.

[wallis]

"While you do make some good points you can't get past the point that you haven't actually played they game, therefore nothing you say hold any context to Homefront its self."

I'm not trying to focus on the game so much as THQ, their business strategy and what people will perceive from looking at the game. Like I said, I've no doubt the game will in all likelihood be quite solid. My two favourite all time games are in fact 7/10's.

"Anyways, Kaos has made military shooters before, so it isn't exactly a simple case of follow-the-trend. Although THQ probably probably did try to market it since it saw the success of military shooters. "

To be fair, the CoD phenomena has been around longer than frontlines. Also THQ pushing a developer with a history of military shooters into the direction of CoD is pretty much what EA did with DICE and look at Medal of Honor :/

Also I'm not sure you got what I meant by the utmost foresight comment. Basically I was trying to say that to get an understanding of what'll work in the current market is actually quite difficult and THQ took a bit of ham fisted approach in my opinion. Which, for a company that is built around putting games out into the market, is actually kind of unforgiveable. I can certainly see why their stock dropped afterwards.

"Also, someone slap me if I'm wrong, but isn't EA walking into the same trap with Crysis2? It seems they're applying the mousetrap mentality to it."

And Good Lord man you're preaching to the choir. However I fear that it will still get 9/10's simply because of its 'dazzle' factor. I can only hope that it receives good, but not excellent reviews, in order to humble crytek who have in recent times seem to let their egos get ahold of them.

[Grimhammer00]

Except you fail....fail to realize that homefront was in production as long or longer than blops.

Nothing wring with trying to create a better success of a successful title. It's that they didn't polish it as much as a AAA titles requires. And, they didn't have the marketing of COD titles. Though they tried...another 25,000,000 would've help greatly.

[whydoyouask]

why don't you check out the comment section of this article.

http://n4g.com/news/722483/...

from the very first comment they are bitching about the graphics.