THQ Finished: Assets Grabbed
According to MCV, Sega, Koch Media, Crytek, Take-Two and Ubisoft have moved in to buy up THQ’s assets at auction.
Homefront Multiplayer
I’ve played a few hours on Homefront’s multiplayer tonight, using the Ground Control playlist. Ground Control is about taking control of three areas on the map and holding onto them.. after a short while the fight moves along the map with another three spots to fight over.
As none of my friends own the game, this meant playing with randoms.. and well.. there really wasn’t much team-work to be found. Many players seemed to either find themselves a nice camping spot or just run straight into trouble, ignoring enemy drones which really need to be taken out if they’re not going to be used to mark up the whole team.
After some unsuccessful runs with the basic Assault loadout, I switched to the Sniper.
When playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with friends a while ago, I found sniping to be fairly successful on larger maps.. and Homefront’s maps are all a decent size. The risk of sniping, of course, is that you get accused of camping if you sit around for longer than a few kills.. add that to my general impatience for sitting still, and I found myself best off taking a few kills and creeping forward.. hoping the enemy weren’t able to just run around the back of me.
My favourite map is possibly Suburbs, as there are plenty of buildings to hide in, although it does mean plenty of routes for the enemy to sneak along too. I just wish I had friends in the game, so we could do more damage! After this weekend I suspect I won’t be returning to Homefront, instead going to Battlefield because my friends are there.
i-42
Where i-40 was cold and windy, especially in the temporary structure we were seated in, i-42 was sunny and hot almost the whole way through.. 😀
I drove half the way down, with a death-grip on the steering wheel (I’ve not done very much motorway driving), past a ridiculous number of lorries and one place where an accident on the other side of the road caused our side to slow to around 10mph. Tim took the last part of the driving.. we were hoping to catch up with another friend at this point, as text messages had shown we were only 5 minutes behind, but with a stop-off at Sainsbury’s we were never going to make it. 😀
Check-in was again nice and quick thanks to arriving early, and instead of waiting around to take our PCs in at 6, we headed to the pub for food and drinks first.
All in all this was far better than the cold and wet start to i40 last year.. we hadn’t been able to go into the site as the internet hadn’t been set up for our temporary structure! Our group were seated in B1 this time, away from the loud and annoying people who think roaring for every reload is ‘atmosphere’. Although it was still hot, there was a balcony to escape to, and it was a lot quieter and nothing was being thrown around.. definitely going to be pushing for this spot next event.
One of the first games I played here was the awesome Portal 2, which I had started earlier but lacked the time to finish. Plenty of other people were playing, with some on co-op, so I had to get a move on to avoid being spoiled..
I loved GlaDOS’ malicious comments in the earlier part of the game, though I wondered how I was going to end up making a break for it as she seemed happy to test me endlessly. Wheatley was quite funny up until his change, which I think I should have spotted.. but I was rather gleeful when he turned GLaDOS into a potato even if he did still have me trapped.
The different coloured gels were a lot of fun. On my first encounter with the white goop though, I wasn’t entirely sure what to do and ended up covering as many surfaces as I could in frustration, before spotting the little ledge I was meant to go to. I loved evil Wheatley, especially when he tried to kill me in stupidly obvious ways.. 🙂
The second day of LAN involved a barbeque with the rest of our group.. we had the weather for it this time at least. I’m not sure if we’re technically allowed to have BBQs on-site, but no security turned up, so no matter 😉
We also took a look through the exhibition hall, where we tried out a few games on the Nintendo 3DS, including Dead or Alive: Dimensions, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and a Zelda game which made me feel quite ill trying to focus on the screen while moving it around to aim the catapult. While I love the idea, I’m going to be staying away from the 3DS.. if I feel bad after a few minutes use, it’s just not for me.
Aside from this, the only other real point of interest for me was the Demon stand, where they had an amazing car simulator running DIRT 2. The fastest lap was to be rewarded with a year’s free internet, and of course I came nowhere near the quickest time though I loved the experience. The seat, pedals and wheel come to some crazy price.. I think £24,000 was mentioned..
Elsewhere in the hall it was surprisingly quiet.. no freebies, and very little attempts by staff to draw people in to the various stands either. There were people playing on what might have been some kind of tournament, but with no real interaction, we wandered through and back out again.
There are usually a number of flyers on the desks, and this time there was a 50% discount for the EA Store. After trying out Bulletstorm on a friend’s PC, I bought both that and Crysis 2.. so much for not buying any more games.. 🙂
I made a start on Crysis 2.. but there were too many distractions to concentrate on it during the day and I was playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent when it got late. There were a few changes to the sections I’d seen in the demo, with a bit more puzzle in the form of the chemicals I needed to find and mix. The part where I had to avoid an invisible enemy in the water made me just as jumpy as when I’d originally seen it, which was probably amusing for those near me in our row.
Other games which saw some action were Beat Hazard on a friend’s computer while he played GRID on mine, some Killing Floor, an attempt at League of Legends (seriously out of practise) and a round or two of Unreal Tournament 3. I had also brought along my Xbox 360, so there was a quick look at Stacking, and a bit of the co-op Zombie Mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops, as well as an all-too-brief look at Homefront for a friend who hadn’t seen it yet. Maybe next time!
Tim made some use of his 30 day trial of WoW, though it was hard to tell if he was enjoying it or putting up with it for the sake of saying he’d had a go. I also managed to get a little bit of time in WoW, and started off collecting bits for the Noblegarden Easter Event.. there were plenty of bunnies hopping around, including a pet.. 😉
I also pestered a friend to show me where to get the rather interesting Venomhide mount.. a pet which turns into a mount!
Unlike my Warrior friend, I had no trouble in being poisoned the required number of times.. he had to take off all his gear and use the most useless weapon he could find, whereas I just hit the Ravasaur with the basket I was collecting eggs in 😉
Eventually I had been poisoned enough and I was given my own Hatchling to take care of..
Our last night of LAN included some non-gaming hijinks as one friend started falling asleep in his chair.. this meant he got plastic cups balanced on his head :>
There was no chance of an all-nighter this time either.. all too tired, maybe from the heat, and we headed back to the tents at around 4.30am.
The last day didn’t include the usual CFMN vs inv TF2 match; instead we had a big game of L4d2 versus.. for which I had to switch to Tim’s PC as my copy of L4d2 had managed to corrupt itself. Awesome game.. will have to make sure that we get more of this played from home too 🙂
Left 4 Dead 2 – Cold Stream
Cold Stream is a new campaign created by modder Matthew Lourdelet, who previously created the 2 Evil Eyes campaign.
Having received some well-deserved support from Valve, this became available for players to beta test last night.
I got round to playing it this morning. We first spawned in the stream itself.. I thought this was a very pretty location with the rushing water and trees..
We decided this first part of the map could maybe have done with a few more pointers on direction, as once you’ve headed into the trees it’s fairly easy to lose your sense of direction..
We also wandered in and out of a small building before realising we were supposed to jump out of the first floor window to carry on.. maybe if this window had been broken it would have given us a clue, but as it was it looked like a recipe for fall damage. Minor points, though.. and they didn’t hold us up for long 🙂
In the second map, we emerged in a tunnel full of rushing water. A minor complaint here was the lack of sound for the water.. noticeable in the tunnel where you’d expect to really hear it. I think it was around here that we started talking about how cool it would be if the water were to push you along, as it certainly looked fast-flowing..
I think the foggy lighting here would be great cover when playing as the Infected.. 🙂
Towards the end of this level we were nearly wiped out by a sneak-attacking tank, who incapacitated most of the team with a massive rock which came crashing down onto the group. We hadn’t even picked up the bots by the time he got to us, and after I threw the bile on him, he sent me flying past the still-incapped Ellis..
The bile brought enough zombies to kill him off, and we carried on through a building and back into a tunnel full of water.
This time, there was a push behind the water! Straight ahead there appeared to be a drop to the death, but we headed right and down a set of stairs with more water flowing down them. I was rather pleased with this bit 😉
On the third level we were surprised with an explosion, sending cars and trucks flying and leaving a large hole on the bridge we were crossing!
I liked how this changed the map right before us, but wonder how this feels in Versus mode.. whether the infected get trapped here, or whether it allows insta-kills over the edge. I need more friends who still want to play this game 😉
We had noticed a witch crying, and before the explosion I had been looking for her, hoping to beat The Undoer to the kill 😉
She turned out to be standing on a surface below the bridge, with no way up. I noticed that this bug has been mentioned on the Steam forum dedicated to Cold Stream, along with the bug we got at the beginning of the Finale level..
That’s me, spawned on the outside of the safe room.. oops.
Using the radio in the safe room starts a cutscene with what we assumed was a rescue helicopter that crashes down into the trees.. all which needs some kind of voice acting as it just feels a bit strange. After this, we were free to run out to look for the helicopter, or an alternative rescue..
A little further along, I thought the game had crashed when everything seemed to stick.. then we realised it was just a slow-motion effect. At the time this seemed rather impressive, but I’m now thinking it should maybe have been left out. In games like Homefront and Call of Duty, slow-motion is used to allow you to respond quickly to a threat.. here, it just seems to be used to add to the explosion, and after the second play-through I think this would be more of an annoying delay than something to be impressed by.
For the rescue, again, hindsight comes in..
Presumably attracted by the fire and smoke from the wreckage of the first helicopter, a second helicopter was waiting to rescue us. I think this should have been the other way round, with us having to wait and hold out against a horde.. this would have been more challenging. Instead, we almost discovered the ladder by chance, and with the common infected piling on Ellis and Rochelle, we were free to run up the ladder to safety.
Having run through this campaign though, I realised quite how much I miss playing the game.. the adrenaline rush, the need for really close co-operation.. the awesome feeling when you and your friends survive despite the AI director being harsh.. 🙁
Homefront
Homefront is a first person shooter by Kaos Studios, set in an occupied and rather run-down America. This follows a speculative future history of rising oil prices, the collapse of the financial system, war, and the rise to power of a unified Korea and a very sneaky EMP blast which renders the US helpless to the invasion that follows.
The game begins with you being beaten and dragged out of your home by Korean soldiers and forced onto a bus, which takes you through the streets where soldiers are beating and killing civilians.. setting the scene, really. I know from all the reviews what I’m going to see, but it still hits.. especially the little boy who sees his parents shot down by soldiers who then just casually wandered away. The little boy howled, horrible, terrified cries, and ran to his dead parents.. and I wanted to blast those soldiers to hell.
However, I’m unable to move until a truck slams into our bus, and I’m rescued by the freedom fighters. I’m given a gun, but I don’t get to go on a murderous rampage.. instead I have to run away through some buildings, accompanied by my new ‘friends’. My friends quickly begin to annoy me as they keep on yelling at me whenever I step away from the immediate objective, or don’t move fast enough. The lack of a sprint button also annoys me at times, as the collectible scraps of newspaper are everywhere.. I can go and get them but if they’re not yelling at me to do something, my friends just carry on walking, and then I have to hope that they’re scripted to stop somewhere, because I just can not run to catch them up.
Mass graves.. After a mission in a concentration camp went wrong, we escaped and came across the mass graves. We took out all the soldiers around the field, as well as the turrets, but then had to hide in amongst the bodies when a helicopter showed up. I could have done without the xbox key prompt here.. as could some of the gaming press, who highlight the “Press X to jump in mass grave” as an example of what’s wrong with the game. I’d rather have had a cutscene, though I guess it was done this way to give the illusion of choice.
Later on in the game we headed towards a survivalist camp. I was set free to make my way to the top of a church to provide cover, having to pick off guards who blocked the way or were close to discovering my friends. After the tightly controlled earlier parts of the game I wished I’d been able to take out more of the guards this way, but an RPG destroyed my tower and I had to fight my way back to my friends and the helicopter. Uh-oh..
I shouldn’t have worried about the helicopter, because it wasn’t too hard to fly, and I got used to it very quickly..
Guarding the hijacked fuel tankers was one of my favourite parts of the game.. powerful rockets and plenty of targets to pick off.
Next up was the assault on the Golden Gate Bridge.. this time looking after a gun rather than flying. I also loved this part.. picking off enemies while in the helicopter, and then making our way along the bridge with less hand-holding.
Something blew up, and I ended up underneath the bridge.. I think this whole section was inspired by Half Life 2, as not only were there broken girders and walkways, but also enemy troops and a helicopter to contend with! No headcrabs, though 😉
There was even more destruction when I got back on the deck as I got to take out a helicopter and an armoured truck!
All this massive destruction let the game end on a high, despite early irritation with the too-short leash around my neck.
Are Games Too Short?
The subject of game length has come up again at work this week, with complaints about Homefront’s short single player campaign of four to five hours. I got rather annoyed with the double-standards of some people whining about Homefront but being perfectly happy with the length of the single-player campaigns in the Call of Duty series.. they’re all about the same length!
Personally, I think five hours isn’t enough if that’s the entire game.. I really wasn’t happy when I completed Half Life 2: Episode 2 in just a few hours.
However, in most games there are extra modes, and for Homefront and the Call of Duty series, there is a lot of playability in the multiplayer part of the games.. though if you are only interested in single-player, that’s no consolation.
A short game with great action and really memorable sections should be considered far superior to a longer but less fun game.. but it seems that some people dismiss a short game as being poor value for money regardless. I wonder where this leaves us for the future.. I hope it doesn’t lead to devs padding games with boring travel sections or pointless dialogue..
While talking about Call of Duty 4, we all agreed that the single-player was rather short, but overall the game was fantastic.. even months after playing, we remembered parts of the game we enjoyed.. such as the One Shot, One Kill mission, which stood out as a real highlight.
Another game I look at favourably is Half Life 2, which was a lot longer, but was also paced nicely so that you could stop and look around between the more action-based parts if you wanted to.. and when devs have gone to the effort of creating a good game environment, I’d feel I was wasting that to speed through as fast as possible.
As for pacing.. I recently had early access to a game with rather annoying, nagging NPCs which made me push on all the time and I found myself getting angry with it, especially since I knew the game was fairly short. Sure, I could have ignored the NPCs, but their constant barked orders were irritating.. this just spoiled my enjoyment in looking around and made me want to get things over and done with just to shut them up.
That’s not the feeling I want in a game, if I’m honest.. so short and rushed rates badly in my books.
I saw an argument last year for games being too long.. since many gamers have unfinished games in their collection, they must be getting bored before finishing them: therefore games are too long. Now, I have a horrible record for completion, but this is nothing to do with the length of the games in question. The reasons I don’t complete my games are a lack of time after the grind of work, lots of cheap games (I’m looking at you, Steam sales!) leading to there being more in my collection, and the fact that when I do have time, my friends are around to play as well.. and I’m hardly going to tell them to sling it while I get on with a single-player campaign. Recently I would also blame WoW, as it’s rather too easy to just pop on for half an hour, which turns into a few hours that could have been used to advance the story in another game.