Korean Occupation and Rebooting GLaDOS

You know one thing I’ve had repeated trouble with when writing blogs is writing introductions. Back in my Gamespot days, when I was still working out how to create blog content that might be considered vaguely enjoyable to anyone, it was often a struggle for me, but even now I find giving my writing a suitable opening without sounding like a complete jackass quite a feat. If it’s a blog about a specific subject like writing in games or how to design games then writing the introduction is a very straightforward affair, but when writing blogs casually discussing what I’ve been playing recently I feel like there are only so many different ways I can say “Yo, here’s some stuff about video games”. This week I didn’t know what to write for my introduction, so I wrote an introduction about introductions. Now here’s some stuff about video games

Homefront

 Oh you crazy Koreans and your white phosphorous attacks.

It’s hard to really work out what happened with Homefront. With the success of the Call of Duty franchise it’s not surprising that many developers and publishers would want to create more first-person shooters in that vein, but when you’re following as closely in the footsteps of a very well-crafted game as Homefront is you need a hook, something new, something original, something to tell the player “We have everything that other game has, but also this thing you’ll be sad you ever played without before”. It’s tricky to tell what Homefront’s hook was ever meant to be. The visuals, audio, gameplay, and narrative all seem to fall somewhat short of what CoD presents us with but even if it had managed to deliver all of these aspects at the height of quality, it would still be just another CoD-like FPS. I’m beginning to think that perhaps the writing of Jonathon Milius really was meant to be the hook. I find it a little hard to believe that in today’s multiplayer-centric world, they thought the single-player story was the thing that was going to make Homefront a hit, and yet it was clearly the one thing they consistently raved about from the moment they first showed the game. This only makes it all the more disappointing that Homefront falls flat on its face story-wise.

As Mr. Navarro said either Milius’ contribution to Homefront was greatly exaggerated or for some reason the guy just turned out some really poor quality writing. Internment camps, mass graves of U.S. civilians, half-destroyed American suburbs, these are all ideas oozing with potential for emotional impact and yet I felt so unaffected by the game I started to wonder whether there was something wrong with me. The main characters really don’t help the situation either; despite all their dialogue they never display an ounce of personality. You’re essentially accompanied by generic strong male, generic strong female, and a third guy that it becomes clear is good with machines at one point. There are a number of character deaths in the game and yet you just don’t care when they happen, this wouldn’t be a big problem if the game didn’t try to push its story so hard but unfortunately it does.

 You shoot things, they explode, it's kinda fun sometimes.

Story is just one piece of the puzzle though, so what of the rest? The menu graphics leave a little to be desired and textures aren’t always of the best quality but in general the environments are good, the basic gameplay is what you know from pretty much every FPS of recent years but it still works pretty well, although the audio leaves a bit to be desired with mismatched sound levels and gratuitous use of the Wilhelm scream. All in all, with the disappointing experience of the campaign I was pleasantly surprised to see a multiplayer mode actually worth playing. I’m not the biggest fan of FPS multiplayer that relies on twitch reflexes, but the Homefront multiplayer certainly provides something worth dabbling with. The multiplayer did make me wish I was just playing Modern Warfare at times but earning and spending battle points in-game was a refreshing new mechanic, using the vehicles is very empowering, and because it’s that tried and tested 21st century FPS gameplay at its core without any of the rubbish that the single-player mode crowbars in, it provides a good deal of fun at its core. Sadly Homefront is rather advertising heavy in both the single player and multiplayer modes so if, like me, you find poorly placed advertising just kind of offensive I'm sure you won't enjoy the gunfights set in locations such as Hooters, White Castle, or that Tiger Direct Store. Oh well, you can't have everything.

Portal 2... Kind Of

 We need more of these.

I don’t know how many of you have been keeping up with the recent Portal 2 ARG but it’s been very exciting stuff. The previous Portal ARG had me glued to my computer for at least a solid week, soaking in every little exciting twist and turn as it unfolded. With the morse code, the hidden images, and the BBS server it was an amazingly thought-out venture on Valve’s part. This time round they’ve managed to again, do something I never thought they’d do in a million years and some of the players have proved themselves to be freaky geniuses too. Unfortunately much like the last ARG this one has ground to a bit of a halt in its final moments as we’re now fighting a war of attrition as opposed to dealing with the heady stimulation of deciphering clues. Still, the idea that our efforts in the game are actually going to affect the Portal 2 release time is a bit of a mind-blowing one. I think it’s great that Valve have been able to simultaneously please their fans, market Portal 2, and support some great indie games.

Duder, It’s Over

That was a thing about video games, thank you for reading it. Good luck, have science.

-Gamer_152