Homefront review

So it’s been awhile for one of these I think. Maybe the last one was Mass Effect 2? I’ve played a bunch of games since then and, who knows, maybe I’ll get around to lumping most of them into one big review post when time permits but I thought that this game deserved a review because it seems to be pretty controversial as far as review scores go around the Internet.
To start, I hated this game after the first level. Of course it was kinda a tutorial level and there was so much I did not like. The visuals were (and are) pretty weak (some pretty impressive stuff near the end though). The fact that I had to wait around for my buddies to catch up to me and kick the door in (numerous times in the first level) before I could continue just sucked ass. I really didn’t want to go back to playing it after that first night. I’d heard good things about the multiplayer so I wanted to finish the solo campaign before trying it out so I forced myself to play it again. A good thing. I started to really enjoy it. The single player portion of the game is short (as most FPSs are anyway) but there was a lot of challenge (some of it I cursed as unfair (and it was) and a couple unforgivable bugs (like arriving somewhere where I needed to talk to a guard to progress, and I did, but seems I should have waited for my teammates because when they did get there they just stood around because I exhausted the talk option before they arrived or just falling through the floor and getting stuck in the environment (both were in the same section so I had to restart that part twice)). Anyway, some of the battles were excellent, well scripted and more challenging/unpredictable than other games’ in the same vein. This game kinda confirmed my feeling that I probably won’t be buying a Call of Duty game again for awhile. They are good games but they are multiplayer focused and I just don’t enjoy their brand of spastic ADD infused hair-trigger action enough (love Battlefield Bad Co. 2′s slower-paced/vehicle action) and the single player part is just as short and less inspired than something like Homefront that I don’t think I can justify buying another one again until they focus on single player or at least on-line co-op again. BRING BACK MW2′s BLACK OPS PLEASE!
I haven’t gotten into the multiplayer yet but I will this week so I might add that in here later but I enjoyed (mostly) what I’ve played of the game so far and maybe can’t recommend it at full price based on the single player only but I think the sequel could be pretty great. I plead of you THQ, make the single player a good 8-hour adventure with the same firefights of the last 5 levels of the first game and I’ll be first in line for the next installment!

Homefront review score: sequel could be amazing!

busy day

alright, so, a post.  here goes. i’ll keep it simple for the first one. probably get into more of why i’m here now instead of over at the other site at a later date.

today’s been pretty busy.  woke up at about 6am and took a short walk around the neighborhood.  after coming home, mornin (the wife) and i had breakfast and searched around for my warranty info on my electronic dictionary.  it’s been on the fritz a bit lately.  something’s funny with the display, but it’s gonna be picked up tomorrow morning.  hope all goes well with that.  after that i set about writing up a silly explanation of why the copy of modern warfare 2 that playasia.com sent me doesn’t work, and why i’m sending it back.  then headed to the post office in my old ‘hood (yukigaya) and hit up tsutaya.  recently i learned that my favorite japanese band of all time (19 (ジューク))’s lead singer has been fronting a j-punk band called 3b lab*s.  i went to HMV the other day and picked up an album but they only had the greatest hits stuff so i rented their 5 albums at tsutaya.  also picked up a couple games: New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Way of the Samurai 3.  we also rented a movie called yes man staring Jim Carrey.  never seen it, not even sure that i’ve heard of it, but oh well.  it’s a blue ray, never watched one of those before.  i guess it’s probably be a better idea to get a crazy FX or action movie for the first blue ray title but i don’t really care too much.  we’ll see if i can see the difference… went grocery shopping and had some Nepalese curry for lunch and most of the rest of the day i spent my time working on the wife’s new year’s card (年賀状).  it’s turning out pretty well and i’ll post the final version up here when i decide what that is.  also watched Jurassic Park.  pretty busy day but pretty boring re-cap.  i’ll do better next time!