THQ Thanks Korea for Helping to Sell Homefront

[El_Teodoro]

I love it that they had to carefully engineer a scenario where the U.S. is the scrappy underdog for once, instead of using one of the multitudes and multitudes of real countries-resisting-a-foreign-oppressor-through-guerrilla-warfare stories.

 

[Mysnomer]

The only thing that would sell this plot is an airport bookstore. Heading off the inevitable comparison, I think MW2 was written as an over the top parody, whereas Homefront demands to be taken seriously, while being even more far-fetched.

Funny, I always thought that, if anything, it was the other way around. That, or that they both want to be taken seriously.

Of course, being serious isn't always a good thing...

I look at it this way, examine the differences between Modern Warfare and it's sequel. MW featured one player character death, and it was meaningful. The plot was well within suspension of disbelief. On the otherhand, MW2 kills the player several times, involves crazy action sequences and a convoluted plot that ultimately resolves little. If you look behind the scenes, Infinity Ward did not want to make a sequel to Modern Warfare, were pressured into it by Activision, and had a whole bunch of BS going on during development. Thus, I think the ridiculous plot and design was an act of sabotage, and that we aren't supposed to take it seriously.

On the other hand, Homefront promotes itself with live action footage trying to hammer home the point, "This could happen" or "This is realistic". And here this guy is, talking about how the ineffectual regime of North Korea has helped sell the game? I don't know, maybe he's never tuned in to the news, and only knows about North Korea from the alarmist rantings of some crazy far-right blogger (the kind that give normal Republicans a bad name).

 

[Tom Phoenix]

I hate to disappoint Bilson, but the DPRK's image isn't going to help sell Homefront.

The reason why the Soviets make for such compelling antagonists in various media, besides their strongly characterised iconography and ideology, is beacuse they were a powerful force and a plausible threat in real life as well. In comparison, DPRK just comes off as an old henchman of a now gone popular kid in school, throwing a tantrum in an attempt to seem important even though everyone realises he is completely powerless and irrelevant now.

Overall, I just don't think North Koreans as antagonists will resonate as well as THQ hopes. While the Chinese would be a more cliché choice, I think they would fill the role much better.

 

[The Critic]

The only thing that would sell this plot is an airport bookstore. Heading off the inevitable comparison, I think MW2 was written as an over the top parody, whereas Homefront demands to be taken seriously, while being even more far-fetched.

Funny, I always thought that, if anything, it was the other way around. That, or that they both want to be taken seriously.

Of course, being serious isn't always a good thing...

I look at it this way, examine the differences between Modern Warfare and it's sequel. MW featured one player character death, and it was meaningful. The plot was well within suspension of disbelief. On the otherhand, MW2 kills the player several times, involves crazy action sequences and a convoluted plot that ultimately resolves little. If you look behind the scenes, Infinity Ward did not want to make a sequel to Modern Warfare, were pressured into it by Activision, and had a whole bunch of BS going on during development. Thus, I think the ridiculous plot and design was an act of sabotage, and that we aren't supposed to take it seriously.

On the other hand, Homefront promotes itself with live action footage trying to hammer home the point, "This could happen" or "This is realistic". And here this guy is, talking about how the ineffectual regime of North Korea has helped sell the game? I don't know, maybe he's never tuned in to the news, and only knows about North Korea from the alarmist rantings of some crazy far-right blogger (the kind that give normal Republicans a bad name).

Interesting Insight.

I always had it figured that MW2's plot was the logical extreme of where IW wanted to take their series. The first Modern Warfare had a much faster pace than previous CoD games, while still maintaining the clear plotline that comes with a single-focus narrative, and the character death was a great shocker to cap it off. MW2's plot simply took these concepts (if you'll pardon the Spinal Tap reference) "Up To Eleven", so to speak. It was an even bigger shot of adrenaline than the first game, the plot and set pieces moved even faster, and there was more and more effort going towards trying to shock the player (in the form of multiple character deaths and the infamous "No Russian" mission). The way I see it, the distinction of being an "Over-the-top Parody" and being just plain old "Over-the-top" is a blurry one, with probable overlap between the two groups.Just my view.

I agree that Homefront's plot does seem a little bit absurd, but I'll hold off on judging it untill I see more info, or untill I play (read: rent) it myself.

 

[Tsaba]

"Current events makes this speculative plot seem possible, perhaps even plausible..."

wait what? how can a country that is completely broke even take over South Korea, let alone the US. Even if we are broke, there's still the logistics of invading the US across the Pacific. i presume the premise of the game is based off the invasion of Alaska and Canada first.

In one of the trailers N Korea absorbs S Korea japan and several other island nations and becomes quite a strong military nation.
but yes, I am most certainly interested in this game. Having a writer such as John Milius will hopefully make the game more entertaining/thrilling/whatever.
EDIT: for those who haven't seen it, here you go,

 

[Loonerinoes]

As someone else noted, for the same reason as Freedom Fighters I am for once genuinely intrigued by this premise. Though the ultimate revelation would have to be something like the Chinese standing behind North Korea's sudden expansion and technological leaps and bounds, otherwise heh...my suspension of disbelief is broken quite quickly.

Still...fair nuff alternate history I guess. Or paranoid vision of the future by right-wing extremists too I suppose.

 

[Nouw]

Awesome!

A game about attacking North Korea!
Even if North Korea took over a large part of Asia in a way that could never happen period I will follow this game.

Now the title is misleading, in future could you please write North Korea? After all, there are two...

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Gee, really? This game just got a LOT more credible. I always thought the premise was interesting(What MW2 should have been) but...The monologue in Jaws? Apocalypse Now? That's some pretty serious shit.

 

[Mysnomer]

Interesting Insight.

I always had it figured that MW2's plot was the logical extreme of where IW wanted to take their series. The first Modern Warfare had a much faster pace than previous CoD games, while still maintaining the clear plotline that comes with a single-focus narrative, and the character death was a great shocker to cap it off. MW2's plot simply took these concepts (if you'll pardon the Spinal Tap reference) "Up To Eleven", so to speak. It was an even bigger shot of adrenaline than the first game, the plot and set pieces moved even faster, and there was more and more effort going towards trying to shock the player (in the form of multiple character deaths and the infamous "No Russian" mission). The way I see it, the distinction of being an "Over-the-top Parody" and being just plain old "Over-the-top" is a blurry one, with probable overlap between the two groups.Just my view.

I agree that Homefront's plot does seem a little bit absurd, but I'll hold off on judging it untill I see more info, or untill I play (read: rent) it myself.

Well, I could just be over-analyzing and coming up with something meaningful when what they did is say "Activision wants another Modern Warfare, but we don't want to make one. So we'll just recycle everything about the original and make it more spectacular." Essentially making a by-the-numbers sequel guaranteed to sell to get Activision off their backs.

And I'd like to clarify that I am not making any judgments about game itself, but I think the marketing is greatly flawed by trying to convince people that this is a realistic premise, as if this could be the future we're heading for.

Personally, I think they set out to make Red Dawn: the Game, but then MW2 and Bad Company 2 came out and they were like, "Oh snaps! Russians are soooo 1960's. Quick! We need a new antagonist." So they got one of those Russian fur caps (for what better hat to draw the names of communist/fascist/not-America-ist countries from?) and drew out North Korea. And they ran with it.

 

[The Critic]

Interesting Insight.

I always had it figured that MW2's plot was the logical extreme of where IW wanted to take their series. The first Modern Warfare had a much faster pace than previous CoD games, while still maintaining the clear plotline that comes with a single-focus narrative, and the character death was a great shocker to cap it off. MW2's plot simply took these concepts (if you'll pardon the Spinal Tap reference) "Up To Eleven", so to speak. It was an even bigger shot of adrenaline than the first game, the plot and set pieces moved even faster, and there was more and more effort going towards trying to shock the player (in the form of multiple character deaths and the infamous "No Russian" mission). The way I see it, the distinction of being an "Over-the-top Parody" and being just plain old "Over-the-top" is a blurry one, with probable overlap between the two groups.Just my view.

I agree that Homefront's plot does seem a little bit absurd, but I'll hold off on judging it untill I see more info, or untill I play (read: rent) it myself.

Well, I could just be over-analyzing and coming up with something meaningful when what they did is say "Activision wants another Modern Warfare, but we don't want to make one. So we'll just recycle everything about the original and make it more spectacular." Essentially making a by-the-numbers sequel guaranteed to sell to get Activision off their backs.

And I'd like to clarify that I am not making any judgments about game itself, but I think the marketing is greatly flawed by trying to convince people that this is a realistic premise, as if this could be the future we're heading for.

Personally, I think they set out to make Red Dawn: the Game, but then MW2 and Bad Company 2 came out and they were like, "Oh snaps! Russians are soooo 1960's. Quick! We need a new antagonist." So they got one of those Russian fur caps (for what better hat to draw the names of communist/fascist/not-America-ist countries from?) and drew out North Korea. And they ran with it.

You're probably right on all counts, MW2 being a recycled product, the plot of Homefront being pretty out-there, and that original antagonist was probably someone else (I personally think that they were originally planning on using China, but then decided to chose a country that would be safer, with respect to business, to antagonize). Of course, this being Red Dawn: The Game wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, at least as far as action and gameplay would be concerned.

By the way, just out of curiosity, didn't MW2 have an achievment or two that referenced Red Dawn?

 

[Mysnomer]

You're probably right on all counts, MW2 being a recycled product, the plot of Homefront being pretty out-there, and that original antagonist was probably someone else (I personally think that they were originally planning on using China, but then decided to chose a country that would be safer, with respect to business, to antagonize). Of course, this being Red Dawn: The Game wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, at least as far as action and gameplay would be concerned.

By the way, just out of curiosity, didn't MW2 have an achievment or two that referenced Red Dawn?

Actually, I remember two references to Red Dawn off the top of my head. The name of your ranger squad is the Wolverines, and there's an achievement named Red Dawn. I think there may have been a few more, but those are the ones that stand out in my mind. I forgot to add this earlier, but it was another point of reasoning towards thinking MW2 is parody.