Can I vent a pet peeve that will double as a mild humble brag?
As someone who can read Cyrillic, it drives me insane when people use kitschy "Russian font" for English. It's like a phonetic minefield of having to stop and start the word over.
As long as I've hankered for a Marvel Ultimate Alliance re-release, this last week of news has been a real roller coaster. If they fix the game (and the price), I'd be all over that like white on ricerICEman (r)ice(man)r-ice(man)(r)ice, man something that's white, and referential.
Came for the LEGOs and the Star Wars, stayed for... the disdain for LEGO games and Star Wars.
I'm not following Brad's TFA criticism, but I fully agree that LEGO tie-ins were much more stylish when there was no dialogue. The humor was much more on-point then. Ironically, it felt like they gave up their voice when they added dialogue.
@agentoharah: Thank you, bless you. This was bothering the hell out of me, and has been simmering in my subconscious for years. Clone Wars, Skyrim, and a bunch I didn't even notice like Ultimate Alliance 2. The dude stays busy.
That voice at 1:37! I don't know who that "Sgt. Hawk" voice guy is, but he has been in a hundred thousand animated things & games forever. Anybody else recognize it?
I think it's interesting that there are so many responses here that are hung up on this game's basic conceit. As an American, I don't feel threatened by a video game setting that asks "What if America were no longer a superpower?"
It's a "what if" scenario--and a thought-provoking one--that warrants the same suspension of disbelief as fast-running hedgehogs and machine guns with chainsaws on them. As @simkas mentioned, if the writers tried to bridge that gap with a little alternate-history/near-future fiction, good on them for doing their job.
If we can't even tolerate a far-fetched speculative fiction, that is a problem.
The fact that it's so crazily far-fetched is what bothers me, though, and I doubt I'm alone. Using North Korea is gutless, and this whole silly scenario where you basically end up fighting American collaborators is doubly gutless. Even when America's on its knees, Americans are running things and you're still shooting white dudes. This is the most milquetoast outcome we could expect from such a scenario. Seems like whomever wrote Homefront's story is the one who is threatened by the possibilities of a believable takedown of America.
Can you expand on "gutless"? If you mean that it's tasteless to write North Koreans into the role of "the other" and "fodder enemies in a shooting game," then I agree 100%, but I don't want to put words in your mouth. In fact, it's probably better that I don't assume any further details.
Let's be clear: This setting exists because someone believed there is an opportunity in the FPS market to make the average player feel justified and motivated in a new and exciting way--liberating a homeland, becoming a revolutionary--something that will differentiate it from all its modern shooter competitors in a market that's well past critical mass. (Hell, even COD is going to space to stand out.) I have a hard time believing there's some scary cabal of writers with an anti-American agenda behind this, but admittedly I don't know much about the game.
I think it's interesting that there are so many responses here that are hung up on this game's basic conceit. As an American, I don't feel threatened by a video game setting that asks "What if America were no longer a superpower?"
It's a "what if" scenario--and a thought-provoking one--that warrants the same suspension of disbelief as fast-running hedgehogs and machine guns with chainsaws on them. As @simkas mentioned, if the writers tried to bridge that gap with a little alternate-history/near-future fiction, good on them for doing their job.
If we can't even tolerate a far-fetched speculative fiction, that is a problem.
I had a different experience: I really liked it back then and had been itching to return to it for years. I recently revisited it and was just struck by how poorly it had aged visually and control-wise. Maybe the remaster will hook me. It's much nicer looking for sure.
@existence: I was just excited to see those words on this website! I'm the only descriptivist party-pooper I know so I'm always glad to see this stuff in the wild. Cheers. :)
@existence: Are you referring to the "it's not 8-bit" conversation going on here?
Language is neither, descriptivism and prescriptivism are both valuable approaches to language study. If what you're saying is that we shouldn't fight the "8-bit" terminology, I agree, but it's a bitter pill to swallow. For me, it's the term "third person" as opposed to "over the shoulder" or whatever. Even as a dyed-in-the-wool descriptivist (with the degree to prove it!) saying a specifically third person view isn't third person drives me batty.
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