How Homefront, MAG And Battlefield Are Changing The Face Of The FPS Genre

GamingUnion.net:

Every developer likes to sit down and toot their own horn, informing gamers about how their game will immediately change the shape of things to come. However, the fact of the matter remains that very few games manage to do this. Change within the gaming industry rarely occurs with a single title. Once a trend has been established, every other developer out there naturally jumps on the bandwagon and it becomes difficult to veer away from the newly imposed norm.

A fantastic example of this is Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, two first person shooter franchises that have been at each other's throats for longer than most care to remember. They were the first to set the stage for an epic single player experience before moving on to define what core FPS gameplay can be like on consoles. We, as gamers, have a lot to thank - or perhaps blame - these two series for. Yet, while Activison and EA use these flagship titles to duke it out, other developers have been trying to change the shooting genre in their own way. Slowly, but surely, they are making online a lot more interesting and forcing these two titanic development teams to rethink their game plan...

[mephman]

Each of them brought (or will bring) something new to the genre, and you can't really ask much more than that. Nobody likes carbon copies.

[Wenis]

Its funny though how Homefront and MAG probably wouldn't even exist if it weren't for Battlefield. But anything that is different from COD in my opinion is a good thing for the genre.

[StanLee]

Great alternatives but they're not Call of Duty competitors. These games barely have sustainable communities while Modern Warfare 2 still has over 100,000 unique users online each day and Black Ops at near 250,000. The reality is, they're fun alternatives but Call of Duty is still the largest and most sustainable community.

[HolyOrangeCows]

From what I've seen of HomeFront (Essentially all of the campaign - http://www.youtube.com/view... ), I'm not sure I believe that Homefront is bringing anything new to the genre.

This is the author's argument:
"Homefront where players who do particularly well are not only given bonuses during a game, but are also flagged by the enemy team for their performance"
-
THAT "changes the face of the FPS genre"?

The multiplayer looks pretty much just like Bad Company 2. http://www.youtube.com/watc...
And I think I'll just stick to BC2.

[Biggest]

I think that is an awesome idea. King of the Hill was an awesome game as a kid. Having a version of it in a team based game is awesome. Awesome.

[Tony-Red-Grave]

I LIKE HOW mag PUSHED FOR COMPLETE TEAMWORK WITH A MIX OF RUN AND GUN AS WELL AS THE 256 IDEA -sorry cap locs im not about to erase and rewrite lol- as well as the MMO aspect and continued support their only mistake was the crowd they aimed for was to small hopefuly MAG makes an impact on future MMOFPS games.

[fozzness]

Homefront is already causing a stir on YouTube with its ads and such. I really hope it can live up to the hype. But yea, I'm getting almost as tired of the CoD series as I was with the Guitar Hero series.. and that's pretty darn tired.

[ShawnCollier]

From the reviews so far it looks like it will.

[JDouglasGU]

i'm definitely curious about homefront, although the premise is ridiculous - americans have these strange invasion fantasies.

[Hardedge]

Ironic, since they're still in Iraq.

[Tony-Red-Grave]

guitar hero was canned remember no more of that anymore

[hellzsupernova]

yeah MAG YEAH! lol. but seriously MAG was great ufn after you get use to its damn frustrating at first. Cannot wait to give homefront a blast

[-Alpha]

What made MAG frustrating?

[oddexarcadia]

From a long time MAG player with a limited FPS background there are a couple things, off the top of my head, that were frustrating about it.

The #1 thing would be players that are expecting a CoD experience. These types of players tend not to listen to plans, run alone, and generally make it harder on their teammates to make an effective offense/defense.

The #2 most frustrating thing about MAG is the learning curve. It is not an easy game by any means. Not only are you expected to work as a tight knit team, you must do so on maps that border on the size of MMO worlds. Combine this with the pure chaos of 256 players on one map, mortar and air strikes, objectives, moving spawn points, etc.

I can see why some, if not most, that picked this game up would be frustrated with it. Though those that stuck with it, were rewarded with a win that cannot compare to having the most kills in the "traditional" FPS.

[-Alpha]

Ah, #1 is common in every game that isn't COD lol.

Anyways, the learning curve is tough but I enjoyed it.

I don't think it was hard to learn-- the missions were confusing at first, but what I truly enjoy about MAG is that it's "Demons Soul's" In FPS form.

You start off weak and needing the shelter of your team until you progress, unlock better abilities, and become a leader.

What makes MAG tough is that when you start you are so gimped of features and abilities. You have to really EARN everything in that game. K3 is sort of the same way, but MAG was much more expansive.

IMO it created a great team dynamic-- never have I faithfully relied on my team more than I have with MAG.

Zipper executed the whole thing so well, and I think the ass-kicking I got was balanced by the loving nature of my teammates.

It could have been such a disaster-- a 256, unorganized f*ckfest. But it was genuinely well structured, flowed well, and managed to get players to play the way they are supposed to.

[oddexarcadia]

LoL I agree with you 100%.

Also, MAG is the reason I am in the clan I am now. So not only did I enjoy over 400 hours in MAG, I've become very close to most of the guys in the clan, because of the amazing team dynamics built in.

And to be fair, it was tough for me to learn because the only FPS I had played up until MAG was the Left4Dead series.

A little bit off topic here...an intelligent, engaging conversation at N4G? What's going on here?? LoL

[hellzsupernova]

it was hard to get use to at first thats all i dont hate the game or anything i dont want it to be like CoD i enjoy the teamwork adn the massive battles. i thought it was a very underated shooter and wouldve liked a bigger player base to be honest

[Hardedge]

I think BF started this a long time ago. Other than that, Call of Duty used to be awesome before it went to consoles.

[TheXonySbox]

COD is still OK, but boring.

[KotC]

MAG changing the face of games. How?

[Burning_Finger]

Homefront looks freaking generic FPS..

@KotC

Very first FPS that uses 256 online playes at the same time..

[KotC]

No it isn't. PC games have been running servers with hundreds of players as far back as 1998 with games like Delta Force and Unreal Tournament. MAG and Homefront have brought nothing new to gaming.

[evrfighter]

don't forget planetside (still alive) which I believe is 330v330 battles.

[pixelsword]

Excuse me, KotC, can you please post any links to show these FPS running hundreds of players if you have them? I'm not doubting you, I just would like to see what you are talking about (especially since I've never seen Delta Force. Is that Delta Force: Black Hawk down? If so, I haven't seen a game with hundreds of players on it on youtube, could you provide a link, if you would? Thanks in advance.

I've seen UTIII run 128 off of a mod, but it runs horribly, and I've seen a half-life mod run 128, but it rand bare-bones with just about everything turned off. I've also seen LoTR: Conquest do 50 v 50 on the PC, but that is 100, not hundreds and it's not in the first person. Any links would be helpful.

@ evrfighter:

I've seen planetside with hundreds of players play and in 1st person, so yes, that qualifies; is there a contemporary FPS that emulates these characteristics? I believe that's what burning finger is talking about, but in any case planetside alone validates what you and KotC are saying in terms of raw numbers, I just want to know if the numbers hold up using "modern" graphics.

[lve2playbball]

@KotC

Dudemanbro, I'm glad someone remembers Delta Force--those games were so amazing for the time. I remember sniping with the .50...damn that game was so fun for the time. I dono if they could make another one and make it stand out, especially with Battlefield 3 on the horizon (and BF2 of course)

[Raven_Nomad]

MAG was just awful, especially when you consider it was a full priced game with no campaign and no headset packaged with it.

PS3 isn't exactly known for people having headsets, which makes it difficult to communicate. There were snipers every and really you spent most of your time running and getting sniped, nobody talked or listened and their were very few maps, it got real old real fast.

I liked BF2MC back on the PS2 and then later on the 360, however I hated the Bad Company games, no prone and vehicles isn't my thing.

Lastly, I know people hype up the larger number of players on the field, but to me it clusters everything and there are too many people, I prefer 6v6 tactical type of games, at the most 9v9 but 12 v 12 and especially 128v128 just way too much going on there.

Hopefully Battlefield 3 and Homefront are real contenders, cant wait to pick up my copy of Homefront this week.

[paradiselost93]

Mag wasn't awful, you were probably too shit to coordinate with a proper group.

[Dayngls]

yeah MAG got old fast cause its team/tactics based...you cant run and gun with over the top perks...MAG is a great game

[lve2playbball]

Still, I'd rather play Battlefield 2 than MAG.

[-Alpha]

MAG does not need a forced single player

Perhaps they can do one for MAG 2, but really, it was built as a MP-only game and that's how it should be judged.

And I love smaller MP games too, but MAG is supposed to be different, and that's not a bad thing. I never found it to be much of a clusterf*ck and thought they managed it very well.

[Raven_Nomad]

For $60 on a game with no campaign, we should have got a headset, 75% of people on PS3 lack a means to communicate.

[Dayngls]

@Raven_Nomad

there is a communication system built into the game for people who dont have headsets.

[-Alpha]

@Raven

The most important roles are given out, not at random, but by a system that calculates, among other things, who has a mic.

If you have a mic, you are more likely to play the role of a leader (like Richard said)

And even though the game would have done well to support a mic (I know SOCOM did it), a lot of users do have mics.

[ThanatosDMC]

Another MAG troll... smh

[jimbone79]

God I want to punch your avatar in the face. Nothing against you, I'm not trying to troll you I don’t disagree with your comment or anything, but every time I see this guy it just makes me want to assault him....bad.

[ThanatosDMC]

Hahaha!

[Raven_Nomad]

I've played matches a ton of times on PS3 and there is a shocking number of people without headsets. Nobody can deny it, it's one of the many reasons I don't use PSN anymore.

Having a cheesy command system will never taker the place of being able to actually talk and or communicate, which is a huge reason I hated Bad Company so much, you had 12 men in your team but could only talk to 3 of them...WTF?

Also, I bet the same people who are saying "MAG rules!" are the same ones who complain about the short campaign on other games, games like Warhawk, Socom Confrontation and MAG were the real ripoff's, no campaign, no nothing. There is no way to learn the game properly.

I always do a games campaign before I try the online, and I know I'm not the only one who does this.

I was excited for MAG, bought it, played it...really tried to like it, but I just couldn't, there was amazingly a lack of players most of the time and the lack of quality maps and number of maps made the game depressing and it just couldn't compete with other online FPS games that I had at the time.

[Dayngls]

i was with him on MAG and battlefield..not so much homefront..i watched alot of videos and most of it is the same as cod...super easy, dumb ai, and sneaking for about 5 minutes until the level ultimately turns into a huge fire fight.

[OSIRUSSS]

Dead wrong!! HAZE changed the face of FPS.

[Veneno]

There was no SP in MAG but to me the game was more of an experiment than a full out endeavor to be the next big online FPS. I think Sony was feeling out the online audience to see how they would react to a huge number like 256 in one game, so people like that can look past the full retail price and not have a story campaign.

I think the experiment was a success. And we definitely have not seen the last of the 256 genre. Whatever game Sony, or maybe a 3rd party dev, comes up with next will no doubt bring the pain with a full fleshed out story mode and a more unique setting and art design.

Sony want to make the ultimate hardcore shooter experience. They are not looking to get the Wii/Casual/ Call of Duty crowd.

[SLEDGE]

I just love a good war with lots of players in it :)
So much uncalculated Chaos :D
BF3 is my #1 most wanted list of 2011 :3
Hoepfully BF3 will not have maps that turn choke points into Greneade spam fest xD
But seeing how "good" they where with the limited nades in BC2, I'm guessing they have that shorted out.