Strong Homefront Sales May Save Kaos Studio

[Azaraxzealot]

I don't know why but I feel like THQ generally pumps out lower quality games than other mega-publishers. Everything I play by them leaves me disappointed. From Darksiders to Red Faction, I don't know why, but I never really love their games. They're all "meh". Also not sure about Homefront yet. The concept intrigues me but there are just SO many shooters and the whole tirade is getting old. I want to play a different kind of game. Swords. Make more sword games.

THQ is not a mega-publisher. they consider "good sales" to be anything about 1 million to 2 million as opposed to EA or Activision which consider "good sales" to be around 6 or 7 million.

of course their games are "lower quality" they're more akin to Valve (let's face it, source games aren't beautiful) than they are to Activision.

The difference being that Valve's games are almost all great, at least in my opinion. I don't really know what it is about THQ but they just don't do it for me.

valve pretty much just makes FPS games. Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter Strike... all FPS games, and only two of them is story-driven and meant to be a deep experience.

with the only exception being Alien Swarm, but it's still just another shooter.

until Valve moves beyond shooting and the first person perspective i'm going to say they're good at what they currently do, but they don't do enough to really compare to a company like THQ or Activision (which make tons of different games.

 

[snowman6251]

I don't know why but I feel like THQ generally pumps out lower quality games than other mega-publishers. Everything I play by them leaves me disappointed. From Darksiders to Red Faction, I don't know why, but I never really love their games. They're all "meh". Also not sure about Homefront yet. The concept intrigues me but there are just SO many shooters and the whole tirade is getting old. I want to play a different kind of game. Swords. Make more sword games.

THQ is not a mega-publisher. they consider "good sales" to be anything about 1 million to 2 million as opposed to EA or Activision which consider "good sales" to be around 6 or 7 million.

of course their games are "lower quality" they're more akin to Valve (let's face it, source games aren't beautiful) than they are to Activision.

The difference being that Valve's games are almost all great, at least in my opinion. I don't really know what it is about THQ but they just don't do it for me.

valve pretty much just makes FPS games. Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter Strike... all FPS games, and only two of them is story-driven and meant to be a deep experience.

with the only exception being Alien Swarm, but it's still just another shooter.

until Valve moves beyond shooting and the first person perspective i'm going to say they're good at what they currently do, but they don't do enough to really compare to a company like THQ or Activision (which make tons of different games.

Which is why I initially compared THQ to publishers like EA and Activision. Yes, THQ is smaller, and they do have lower standards for success, but they operate more like the a less mega mega publisher.

 

[octafish]

The difference between Homefront and most other modern FPSs?

Firstly Homefront seems to be more colourful, look at the screen shots, it's not all dust and brown skies, ok it's going for a gritty realism but it has blue skies and a sprinkling of colour.

Secondly it seems like a Single-Player game with the addition of Multi-Player, and approach I thoroughly approve of. The devs are always saying they took a lot of inspiration from HL2's story telling, for me that could indicate a really good single-player experience.

Thirdly a dedicated PC dev team, which guarantees a close look from me.

The Multi-Player doesn't excite me much with Battlefield 3 and Red Orchestra 2 on the horizon. I'm sure other MPFPSs will adopt the bounty/wanted mechanic of highlighting the best players on opposing teams, that seems like a fun idea.

 

[The Random One]

Man, I'm interested in Homefront, but I don't want to be responsible for doing the worst deed man can do to fellow men: stop them from moving to Canada.

until Valve moves beyond shooting and the first person perspective i'm going to say they're good at what they currently do, but they don't do enough to really compare to a company like THQ or Activision (which make tons of different games.

Strictly speaking, THQ and Activision don't make any games. They're publishers, they just publish them.

That said, I rather like THQ's game. Even the worst ones have some sort of cool thing about them. As I said on a news thread some time ago, if Activision were to buy Take-Two as rumours said, THQ would take its place as the 'cool' publisher.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Is this press release just marketing folly, THQ? Are you trying to make us buy the game out of sympathy for Kaos? ...I'm skeptical.

their games are "lower quality" they're more akin to Valve (let's face it, source games aren't beautiful)

Graphics fidelity is not akin to game quality.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Man, I'm interested in Homefront, but I don't want to be responsible for doing the worst deed man can do to fellow men: stop them from moving to Canada.

until Valve moves beyond shooting and the first person perspective i'm going to say they're good at what they currently do, but they don't do enough to really compare to a company like THQ or Activision (which make tons of different games.

Strictly speaking, THQ and Activision don't make any games. They're publishers, they just publish them.

That said, I rather like THQ's game. Even the worst ones have some sort of cool thing about them. As I said on a news thread some time ago, if Activision were to buy Take-Two as rumours said, THQ would take its place as the 'cool' publisher.

no, but they have yet to break free of their "FPS game... WITH A TWIST!" streak what with the billion Half Life mods, Left 4 Deads, Portals, Day of Defeats, Team Fortresses and pretty much all their other games (except Alien Swarm and DOTA 2, but then again, one's a shooter and the other was another mod)

i have yet to see them make something like an open-world game like Grand Theft Auto or a platformer like Super Mario, or an RTS like Starcraft.

not saying their games are bad... just that they need to diversify