Woah, what happened in the subject line, there? I must look like a bright one, eh?
 
Kind of spoilers, I guess, but nothing very important, and certainly nothing the game should be proud of.
 
All right, so I'm about halfway through Homefront on the PC and it's sort of really, really terrible. It pains me to say it, cause while I wasn't expecting it to be super great or anything, I was looking forward to shooting some dudes and such. And I am about as forgiving a gamer you'll meet (I loved Alpha Protocol and Bionic Commando, for example, in spite of their glaring faults). But, I mean, WOW. This game is super rough. 
 
Luckily, though, there is a ton of in-game advertising and pretty much all of it makes me laugh.  It's, what, 2027 in the game? I sort of like how there is some brand name stuff here and there cause, well, that's America! I don't mind that in games so much. But I find it really hysterical in this context. Everything is super serious around you. Mass graves, parents killed in front of children, and whatnot. You know, edgy stuff. But then you're walking around and you see this: 
 
(FULL-SIZED VERSIONS OF ALL THESE ARE IN THIS GALLERY, IF YOU WANT A CLOSER LOOK:  http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/drhans/homefront-in-game-ads/52-533619/)
    

They pitch the ads as being more immersive, and helping to drive home the reality of what is happening.  My feelings are mixed on whether it actually does that or if it is just a cheap ploy to get ad dollars.

eh. im okay with it. with the exception of hooters, its non interfering enough for me. theres worse things

Get inside the hooters is my motto for life.

" They pitch the ads as being more immersive, and helping to drive home the reality of what is happening.  My feelings are mixed on whether it actually does that or if it is just a cheap ploy to get ad dollars. "

I haven't noticed any of it so far.

Yeah, like I said, ads don't normally bug me. But they're super weird in this game and end up being really distracting, especially when contrasted against the tone they're going for.

"I haven't noticed any of it so far. "

It's a double edged sword. You want to have things in the game that the player will recognize so as to immerse them in the experience. To make them feel like this is really happening at home, where they live. On the other hand, how do you accomplish that if you fill the world with goofy "fake" sounding restaurants and products? Unfortunately, it loses any sense of immersion, when the "big box computer store" is called "TigerDirect"... a company that has no physical store in real life.   Worse, when their name is plastered fucking EVERYWHERE. 
 
More, they have Whitecastle ads and a Whitecastle restaurant in the game, as it takes place in Colorado. Only problem is there aren't any Whitecastle's in Colorado. Whitecastle is an East Coast thing and they don't have any restaurants west of Kentucky.
 
I normally hate advertising in a game, unless it truly is used to produce an immersive environment. Something that would not be accomplished using fake ads or no ads at all. But when you do that, you can't just take four advertisers and plaster them ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE endlessly.

I know that since it's taking place in the US that you would expect to find ads and such around the place and you could easily make parody brands in the place of reals one, but ok fair enough you can use real ones too. What really gets my goat is just how in your face and blatant most of them are, not to mention that most in perfect condition despite being in the middle of a warzone! Seriously I think that tigerdirect store (hah!) doesn't even have a scratch on it! The vending machines look in pretty damn good shape too :P

Considering how heavily advertised everything is in the US, it's completely understandable for there to be product placement in a game about an invasion in the US.

" They pitch the ads as being more immersive, and helping to drive home the reality of what is happening.  My feelings are mixed on whether it actually does that or if it is just a cheap ploy to get ad dollars. "

Arnie voice - "Get to da Hoota-s!"

Those Koreans may take our freedom, but they'll never take our Hooters!

" @Napalm: I might write a real review when I'm finished, but know that 1. I really am super forgiving of faults and bugs and problems in video games of all kinds and 2. I'm struggling to find anything positive to say about the game at all. =(  The shooting of dudes is functional enough (though all the guns sound almost identical), but it's really as if someone set out to make a game that includes every possible obnoxious thing about bad first-person shooters in the last decade. So, if you enjoy waiting forever for someone to open every door for you, having a character that runs slower than most folks walk, enemies that spawn out of nowhere five feet in front of you, squad mates that take the best cover spots and then don't shoot anyone, invisible walls, infinitely respawning enemies, infinitely repeated lines of dialog in combat, and on and on, then this is your game.  "

" They pitch the ads as being more immersive, and helping to drive home the reality of what is happening.  My feelings are mixed on whether it actually does that or if it is just a cheap ploy to get ad dollars. "

I feel like this one matters the least out of all the inconsequential bitching people have already done about ads in games. My problem would be that they could probably use MORE brands just to hammer the point home of it being America. It was probably hard enough to get these ones, given the ideas presented in the game.@The_Laughing_Man said:

" @jdheeter said:

" They pitch the ads as being more immersive, and helping to drive home the reality of what is happening.  My feelings are mixed on whether it actually does that or if it is just a cheap ploy to get ad dollars. "

Maybe this is why their stocks dropped 21% after the game was released.  "

I honestly don't have a problem with it and found it real impressive they went to the effort to get actual companies to advertise. It's usually pretty difficult to get a real company to let you trash their restaurants or products in a piece of entertainment. Case in point no company being willing to let Dawn of the Dead use their name in the shopping mall.

Oh and I forgot. The first big billboard ad you see is for White Castle, the hamburger joint. This is in the Montrose, Colorado level. However we don't have a single White Castle in Colorado, so that was weird.