THQ Nordic, publishers of the Darksiders games and recent jankfest Elex, have bought Koch Media, the companies have announced. Koch are the father-company of Deep Silver, who publish games like Saints Row, Metro, Dead Island, and Homefront: The Revolution. That means THQ Nordic now own alllll of those bad boys, among others. Due to all the combined plates this company now spins, they could now make a game where the hero of Mighty No. 9 fights jazzy paint-monster De Blob in a doomed bid for supremacy on Mars, aka, Red Faction 3. Although, they probably shouldn’t do that.
]]>The full version of Homefront: The Revolution [official site] is free to try on Steam this weekend and sure, I'll bite. Our John's review talked plenty about bugs and bad AI, but he also found a lot to like in the open-world FPS. Yup, it sounds like the sort of game I'd like to try a couple of hours. This weekend trial comes on the heels of another patch boosting performance and fixing bugs so hey, I guess freeloading latecomers like me get a better first experience that people who paid money for it at launch. Sorry, you lot.
]]>Homefront: The Revolution [official site] is awfully wonky but has some good bits at heart, is how I'd crudely summarise Wot John Thinks of Dambuster Studios' first-person shooter sequel. His problems were more along the lines of "the AI is dreadful" than poor performance, but evidently that's been an issue for some. Publishers Deep Silver have announced that they're working on patches to fix up performance, but don't have a timeline of when we might see them. Still, they're going on with plans to release wee free nuggets o' stuff, starting with a few new outfits and boosters.
]]>The hot potato of gaming, tossed from publisher to publisher, is somehow complete. Homefront: The Revolution [official site] is out today in the US, and then anachronistically, for no bloody sodding reason, delayed for Europe until Friday. (Is there still a shop that even sells PC games?) In development for five long years, can it possibly hold together? The answer for this open-world shooter is an interesting one.
]]>Homefront: The Revolution [official site] is a surprisingly sophisticated game. New developer Dambusters has assembled a thoughtful open world shooter that mixes the DNA of a Far Cry gunfight with the dented, jury-rigged science fiction of a Metro 2033. On the strength of six hours play it's streets ahead of the Kaos Studios original, despite the project's changing hands twice in two years - airlifted from THQ's collapse by Crytek, only to be torn from Crytek's flailing grasp by co-publisher Deep Silver. But it does feel rather conservative for a game about toppling the Powers That Be.
]]>Oh hey, Homefront: The Revolution [official site] has a co-operative multiplayer side too? I'd not really paid attention to that, but a media blitz today says yes, that is so. Sure, okay, cool. I'm already pretty interested in the open-world FPS because I like exploring and I like shooting faces so... sure, co-op too? Go for it!
]]>The original Homefront was an unremarkable FPS with a plot that was goofy even for a CoD 'em up (a unified Korea invades the USA), but I have been interested in its sequel, Homefront: The Revolution [official site]. An open-world FPS skulking around an occupied Philadelphia sounds a laugh! For a while I'd feared The Revolution might be crushed by the wreckage of publisher THQ collapsing, but it kept poking its head out and now has an actual release date: May 17th. Also, a new trailer! Observe:
]]>The year 2016 is slowly spinning up and retailers just can't wait to tell you when you'll be able to give them $60 for video games. Amazon France, Best Buy, Target—they care not a whit for carefully-crafted marketing plans or poorly-kept secrets.
Which is to say the release dates for Doom [official site], Homefront: The Revolution [official site], and Mafia 3 [official site] maybe (probably) leaked.
]]>"Hullo!" hollered Homefront: The Revolution [official site] yesterday, poking its head in the door and waving a cinematic trailer in its hand. "Just thought I'd remind you after I exist! After all those troubles... you do remember I was bounced from company to company, don't you? Didn't think you'd check in on me? Make sure I hadn't slipped in the shower? No, no. Anyway, hi, bye."
Today it batters down your door riding a sweet hog, looking a dapper from its knapper to its feet, with a gameplay trailer to show how the open-world FPS is looking now:
]]>Face-shooting Red Dawn fanfic Homefront: The Revolution [official site] has had a funny old time. After shutting down Homefront creator Kaos Studios, publishers THQ turned to their Montreal studio for the sequel, then looked to Crytek UK as THQ fell apart. Crytek bought the game and rights in the THQ fire sale and revealed the game at E3 2014. Less than two months later, suffering their own financial problems, Crytek sold Homefront to Deep Silver and shifted the dev team over. Strange times.
Now Homefront: The Revolution has resurfaced at Gamescom, with a new cinematic trailer showing how happy everyone in Philadelphia is living under Korean rule:
]]>In June this year, rumours began to circulate that developer and publisher Crytek were in trouble. Anonymous sources told Kotaku and GameStar [article behind paywall] stories of wages being late, staff going two months without pay, and a lack of communication from the company's management. Crytek initially denied everything. Then last week Crytek made staff redundant at their Austin office, and sold their UK office and the Homefront IP to Koch Media.
Which brings us to today, upon which Eurogamer have run an interview with Crytek co-founder Cevat Yerli. The interview is long and wide-ranging, and covers the current financial situation at the company, why wage payments got "delayed", and where the company is now headed.
]]>Ironically for a game about reclaiming a homeland, Homefront is now moving on again. After a month of downplaying reports of financial strife, Crytek have confirmed they're selling the Homefront property and all its assets to Deep Silver. The team working on open-world FPS sequel Homefront: The Revolution--which was only announced in June--at Crytek UK will transfer over to a new Deep Silver studio to finish the game. Crytek had itself bought Homefront, which was created at Kaos Studios, last year in the collapse of THQ.
Crytek's co-op shooter Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age is also moving, going to the Frankfurt headquarters as the Austin studio making it is cut down to offering CryEngine licensee support.
]]>Crytek are doing great. They're walking on sunshine, turning invisible, sneaking up behind the sunshine, and using their nano-powered cybersuit to fling the sunshine 30 feet in the air. Also they're making a surprisingly decent-looking Homefront sequel, co-op monster mash Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, and fairytale MOBA Arena of Fate. All of that would seem to bode well, except that goings-on behind-the-scenes are - according to a series of rumors - not so rosy. Crytek have categorically denied them, but questions still remain.
]]>Let's move on from the "huh? But why?" issues around Crytek making a sequel to the THQ-dooming COD rival Homefront, and indeed on from "North Korea successfully invades the US, seriously?" and spend our time instead asking "OK, so what's it like?"
Going on this footage from straight outta E3, clearly it's working the occupied city line hard, as well as fun with improvised future-tech. The 'uprising' system is intriguing too - potentially moving the game away from Broman Saves The World and into something that's about co-ordinating a massed resistance movement. Also there's a scene where a guy has a wee in public while swearing his head off, then promptly gets beaten up for it, which very much reminds me of living in Camden.
]]>I'm not sure how a Homefront sequel that I didn't really care about became a Crysis game that I really want to play, but that's what I saw the other day. Homefront: The Revolution is Crysis. Hilariously Crysis. So very very Crysis. And yet it's a Crysis game that Crytek haven't even managed to make, despite having all the component parts.
Now they are, and it's a Homefront game. I am confused.
]]>The sequel to Homefront that you probably weren't eagerly anticipating has been announced in the form of a trailer that you can see below. There's no in-game footage but we sent roving reporter Craig 'Craig Pearson' Pearson to get some first-hand impressions and he managed to enage my interest with one phrase: "It's basically a sandbox City 17." Maybe eager anticipation should begin right about now? We'll have a full feature tomorrow with more on that but for now I'm left with a trailer that shows terrorists freedom fighters striking back at an oppressive military occupation. Drones, explosions and urban gunfights below the break.
THQ is dead. Long live... er, not THQ. But its motionless remains haven't gone undisturbed. A number of major publishers descended, vulture-like, to make off with the choicest cuts money could buy. And also Homefront. Yesterday, however, we had no idea what exactly was next for the likes of Metro, Saints Row, Company of Heroes, Darksiders, and South Park. Sure, they've found new homes, but will they fit in? Or will they be forced to live in the cramped cupboards of neglect, with nary a wizarding school in sight? Well, it's still a bit early to say for sure, but - based on comments from each publisher - things are at least looking up.
]]>If you climb to the top of Mt Videogameland, you'll see that Crysis 3 is just over the thoroughly tessellated, HDR-lit horizon. That, however, is hardly the only thing that's got Crytek's tear-powered mega-lair whirring along at maximum efficiency. There's also Homefront 2, Warface, Ryse, an entire F2P social platform, piracy concerns, and a brand new Crysis - which is totally not Crysis 4, but also kind of is. I spoke with Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli about all of this things and also asked him the question that's almost certainly been devouring your every idle thought for far too many months: why's it called "Warface"?
]]>Having closed down Homefront developers, Kaos Studios, earlier this year, THQ have had to look elsewhere to create a sequel for the massively disappointing shooter. They seem to be going straight to the top. It has just been announced that the publishers are partnering with Crysis creators, Crytek, for the project. The company, currently rumoured to be working on Timesplitters 4, and certainly developing a 360 exclusive, Ryse, for Microsoft, is certainly diverging away from its previous EA-only development. And with multiple studios and presumably Crysis 3 a good way off, it makes sense for them to be picking up work like this.
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