Available for download off the XBLM today is new Frontlines: Fuel of War downloadable content that'll add four mulitplayer maps to the online multiplayer gaming mix. But we think there's a typo on the DLC announcement. For some reason, this 4 Map Pack DLC is listed for 800 Microsoft points which just can't be right. Surely a game like Frontlines wouldn't (and couldn't) charge 800 points for four maps. This has to be a typo ... right?
Posted Jun 24th 2008 3:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
With the release of the new (and free) multiplayer map "Boneyard", THQ flipped the magical Frontlines: Fuel of War multiplayer switch and enabled 50 player online multiplayer on all of the game's maps. A huge step up since launch, when only the map "Village" had 50 player versus enabled. Not only has multiplayer been opened up, but a patch has been released adding a "new spawn protection system, as well as expanded voice-over-IP communications, which includes squad to squad chat, proximity, and inter-vehicle communication." Enjoy your chaotic Frontlines gaming fun.
If you are still playing Frontlines: Fuel of War's online multiplayer then we're going to have to label you as both "committed" and "obsessed". So, this post is for those fanboys, because they'll probably be the only ones using this nugget of DLC info to get their download on.
Available for FREE as a download off the XBLM is a new Frontlines Boneyard Map which is said to include "never before seen Automatic Shotgun, Rocket Jeep and Red Star Transport Helicopter" and "Shilnaya Balka missile silos" ... fun! This is the first of five (possibly free?) Frontlines multilpayer maps, so keep your eyes peeled for more DLC in the near future. That is if you're one of those "committed" or "obsessed" Frontlines fanboys.
This week we're all business, because we have an overly long list of retail deals to ramble off. So, we'll forgo the fluffy intro and just get to it.
Starting with Best Buy, all this week they're giving away a copy of Call of Duty 3 with the purchase of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and a free $10 gift card with purchase of The Incredible Hulk. Best Buy also discounted a few accessories, offering the Messenger Kit for $20, Wireless Headset for $50 and Vision Camera for $30. Heading over to Circuit City, you can snag a free $10 gift card with the purchase of either NASCAR 09 or Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, get the Rock Band bundle for $155 and BioShock or Mass Effect for $32. They're also offering Burnout Paradise for $40, Frontlines: FoW or MX vs. ATV for $48, Need for Speed Carbon for $24 and our favorite CC deal of the week, 1600 Microsoft points for $15. Next up is Target, where they're giving away a FREE copy of Mass Effect with the purchase two of the listed Xbox 360 titles including Ninja Gaiden II ($60), RSV2 ($40), Scene It? ($50), Gears of War ($40), NASCAR 09 ($60) or Assassin's Creed ($40). And finally, because we love our Canadian readers so much, we hopped on over to Best Buy Canada and discovered they're offering two free games with any Xbox 360 console purchase (selection based on one of four game bundles) and a 12 Month Xbox Live subscription card for $50. Now run along and have a spectacular time shopping.
Videogamer.com has details on some newly announced Frontlines: Fuel of War downloadable content and, as can be expected from any first person shooter, the DLC is multiplayer focused.
Kaos Studios just confirmed that the new Fuel of War DLC has been sent to Microsoft cert and is awaiting the green light to release to the XBLM and is said to include five new multiplayer maps including Boneyard, Hindsight, Sunder, Wide Awake and Infiltration. Make the jump to read a detailed descriptions about each map.
We'd also like to say that seeing a developer support their game, no matter which game, after launch with DLC is cool in our book. Judgment free. Though, we'll reserve our developer praise until after the DLC pricing is revealed, because we're admittedly a bit touchy about things like the cost of content. Especially for games that didn't quite break into the popular Xbox Live multiplayer rotation .... just saying.
In our continuing effort to bring you fresh and interesting content, X3F presents Would You Rather ... a weekly feature that asks you the hard questions. The point? If you had to choose one or the other, which would you go for?
It's the eternal question and a mainstay in the argument during the silly console war. Which is better? Dedicated servers or peer-to-peer connection? Sounds silly to even ask but let us examine our experiences.
While peer-to-peer has powered the vast majority of Xbox Live titles, some games have seen dedicated love. But how are the results? EA primarily uses their own servers to power their games, but have had issues. Frontlines: Fuel of War runs off a dedicated server farm, but it's been plagued with reports of lag too. Peer-to-peer has treated us well so far, but insane situations like XBLA titles running poorly, Team Fortress 2's virtual unplayability and issues stemming from the host migration in Call of Duty 4 makes this week's WUR a tough one. So X3F Army, tell us...
Feel free to share the reasons for your vote in the comments. We'll share the results of the poll during the next edition of Would You Rather ... which hits X3F every Wednesday.
Last weeks WUR results can be find after the jump ... and stop breathing heavily into the mic!
Posted Feb 27th 2008 5:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
With Frontlines: Fuel of War's release this week, THQ has already setup over 90 dedicated servers for online play over Xbox Live. Why the need for dedicated servers other than the fact that it's a nice gesture by THQ? Well, because the game is supporting 50 player versus multiplayer, that's why. THQ confirmed that 50 player versus mayhem will only be enabled on one map ("Village") at launch with the possibility of more maps allowing 50 players in the future. We'll have to see if this crazy idea of having a server farm actually works for Frontlines and also ponder why dedicated servers can't be an industry norm. Down with lag, in with dedicated bandwidth! Hoozah!
First off, some of you will be pleased to know that this is NOT another hijacking of a weekly features (I wouldn't want to upset anyone two weeks in a row). I'm taking over Richard's "Shipping this week" duties simply because he's a busy man and I'm a kind hearted soul. So, here comes the informative bits ...
This week's Xbox 360 releases aren't plentiful or overly stellar, but they do have one grammatical thing in common. A colon. Yes sir, a colon brings all three of this week's releases together under one unified umbrella of release week unification ... of sorts. It's the punctuation binder that is what eggs are to meatloaf. Without it, this week would be a chaotic mess of randomness. So, be thankful for the colon and be thankful for this week's new Xbox 360 releases. Game on.
Posted Feb 18th 2008 9:45AM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
After releasing not one, but two separate game demos to the XBLM, Frontlines: Fuel of War hasn't really garnered a major following or any sort of hype. But the dev team at Kaos Studios have been keeping their multiplayer cards held close and with their latest feature reveal, hope to get some attention.
Confirmed via Kaos Studios' official forums, Frontlines developer deslief made it known that the game will in fact feature 50 player online multiplayer over Xbox Live. 50 players! Kaos says that they initially planned for a 32 player versus and even got up to as many as 73 players, but are settling a rather comfortable 50. Maybe that'll be the bullet point to make some pickup Frontlines, maybe not. Let's just hope multiplayer doesn't end up being a ride through lag-city.
We saw the ones for Army of Twoearlier in the week, and those seemed rather creative considering the genre and publisher. While that game has been criticized harshly in the games press and populace, Frontlines has been given just a bit more faith in the hope that it might do things a bit differently. Well, those supposed differences do not shine through at all in the Achievements. To the game's credit it does have two secret Achievements (one worth 0 points, to boot) but actual goals are rather linear (beat level one, beat level two, etc). Though they do attempt to bring in a bit of creativity by doing a set similar to the Halo 3 meta-game Achievements, in which the goal is to beat certain levels in certain time limits. There's also a set that involves beating the levels without dying.
So, if you were incredibly uber you could conceivably beat the game in one sitting and receive 21 Achievements over the course of the session just from the ones associated with the levels. Trying to create artificial replay value are they? Well, the reactions to the demos have been mixed so we'll have to see if the final gameplay can hold up to their plans for player engrossment.
To coincide with the release of the Frontlines: Fuel of Warmulti-player demo, the senior producer Joe Halper gave the site totally360.com a quick interview to address a myriad of issues. A good chunk is devoted to the games new and novel approach to things in a genre muddled with sameness. The folks at Kaos seem to know of this problem and appear to be focused on the things that will make their game stand out from the pack. With the drones, the frontline itself, the destructible environments and the various vehicles that shouldn't be too hard to do. Though some of the talk around the multi-player is a bit dodgy, we can now find out for ourselves. The Q&A effectively finishes off with the assertion that Frontlines has the potential to rank up there with Halo 3 and COD 4 at the top the most played list. Does it? We'll be able to find out in exactly two weeks.
You've experienced what Frontlines: Fuel of War has to offer from a single player perspective and now, today, you get to delve into its multiplayer side. This morning, Kaos Studios released a Frontlines multiplayer demo to the XBLM allowing gamers to play against 32 other players at once over Xbox Live. The demo is available for download to all Xbox Live regions, weighs a solid 1.11GB and, with the help of the other single player demo, should pretty much solidify your opinion of Frontlines: Fuel of War for its upcoming release in a few weeks. Go ahead kids, demo away.
Posted Jan 18th 2008 4:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
We never thought it to be, but it's true. Asia-Pacific gamers get all the collector's edition fun as THQ just revealed the Asia-Pacific Frontlines: Fuel of War Collector's Edition. This ever so special CE comes packed with the game, a poster, an art book, a bonus disc including behind the scenes video as well as a soundtrack and a "Drone to Kill" tshirt. All for an Asia-Pacific price of $99.95. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! On second thought, maybe we'll let our friends in the Asia-Pacific territories have this CE and we'll stick with our plain, dusty and clearance priced copy of Frontlines a few months after it releases. Cheap gaming FTW!
The prophets were correct future war shooter fans, there's a brand new Frontlines: Fuel of War demo on the Marketplace and it's calling your name. The massively bloated 1.7GB Frontlines demo should (key word here, "should") be available to most Xbox Live regions for download and is said to feature a pretty good taste of what Frontlines will bring when it releases early next year. We have yet to give this demo a whirl, so if you're interested you'll have to go in blindfolded, because we aren't sure if the Unreal Engine 3 graphics or Kaos Studios' development blends to create a satisfying FPS experience. But that's what demos were created for, so demo away.
With information gathered from a recent THQ press event, TeamXbox is reporting that they've confirmed with the developers that a Frontlines: Fuel of War demo will be released to the XBLM this December. General manager of Kaos Studios Frank DeLise confirmed the XBLM demo's December release following a press demonstration of the game. Funny thing is that DeLise didn't confirm an actual release date for the game, probably due to the fact that neither he or his studio are sure of one. Then again, if you use some basic analytics, if a demo is being released to the Marketplace this December then one could make the assumption that the game's retail release wouldn't be too far behind. We say look for Frontlines to hit store shelves early 2008.
With the release of the new (and free) multiplayer map "Boneyard", THQ flipped the magical Frontlines: Fuel of War multiplayer switch and enabled 50 player online multiplayer on all of the game's maps. A huge step up since launch, when only the map "Village" had 50 player versus enabled. Not only has multiplayer been opened up, but a patch has been released adding a "new spawn protection system, as well as expanded voice-over-IP communications, which includes squad to squad chat, proximity, and inter-vehicle communication." Enjoy your chaotic Frontlines gaming fun.
After releasing not one, but two separate game demos to the XBLM, Frontlines: Fuel of War hasn't really garnered a major following or any sort of hype. But the dev team at Kaos Studios have been keeping their multiplayer cards held close and with their latest feature reveal, hope to get some attention.
We saw the ones for Army of Two earlier in the week, and those seemed rather creative considering the genre and publisher. While that game has been criticized harshly in the games press and populace, Frontlines has been given just a bit more faith in the hope that it might do things a bit differently. Well, those supposed differences do not shine through at all in the Achievements. To the game's credit it does have two secret Achievements (one worth 0 points, to boot) but actual goals are rather linear (beat level one, beat level two, etc). Though they do attempt to bring in a bit of creativity by doing a set similar to the Halo 3 meta-game Achievements, in which the goal is to beat certain levels in certain time limits. There's also a set that involves beating the levels without dying.
