THQ hooks up 90 servers for Frontlines' launch

by Dustin Burg { Feb 27th 2008 at 5:00PM }

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!

Tags: frontlines, frontlines-fuel-of-war, kaos-studios, thq

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dragod @ Feb 27th 2008 5:08PM

If we start to see other companies start to do this, I hope some of the games already on the shelves get some servers, too. I'd love to have Halo 3 without getting the "Connecting..." screen popping up when someone leaves.

Not to mention Gears... Gears 2 should have dedicated servers because Gears of War's host advantage was ridiculous.

Hockle @ Feb 27th 2008 5:11PM

Good for THQ.

The game is good if you give it a chance. I think the single player also isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people are saying. With dedicated servers, though, they'd better hope that there's zero lag - not 'minor' lag otherwise no one else will adopt this.

Any computer people able to guess-ti-mate the cost of 90 dedicated servers?

Urza @ Feb 27th 2008 5:18PM

From what I've read, the reason dedicated servers aren't used more is because Microsoft has some strict rules about dedicated servers and XBL which makes it more trouble then developers are willing to go through to set them up.

Etchasketchist @ Feb 27th 2008 5:26PM

25 12 year olds jibber jabbering into my headset? Good lord that sounds awful.

LesbianHam @ Feb 27th 2008 6:22PM

That's 50.

CB @ Feb 27th 2008 6:41PM

I'm pretty sure you can only listen to your own team so it's 25.

Anticrawl @ Feb 27th 2008 7:35PM

Voice chat has to be turned via the formation of squads done by the player. Way to jump to conclusions as always.

cranium @ Feb 27th 2008 8:08PM

yes, but you are neglecting to count yourself among them, so it's actually 24.

the more you know

fulci zombi @ Feb 28th 2008 1:15AM

more like FOUR. You cannot speak to your team, only your 4 man squad, period.

fulci zombi @ Feb 27th 2008 5:36PM

The game is great in big battles when you can connect to a server, but those 90 dedicated servers are all messed up, you get error messages for 99/100 attempts to join. (yes open nat and all that, it's the servers, not anyones connection, disc, or 360)

VINCE @ Feb 27th 2008 7:01PM

been playing demo a lot and very few lag troubles. I almost always connect. Although i do pick custom and choose a good ping connection for a game

mbrguy @ Mar 17th 2008 1:00AM

You too. I got the game yesterday, and I haven't been able to play multi because of the open nat thing too. Hopefully they can fix it because it has the potential to be a great multi game

Chance Morgan @ Feb 27th 2008 5:40PM

I would pay extra for dedicated servers for H3.

JakubK666 @ Feb 27th 2008 5:45PM

Dedicated Map Pack!?

todd @ Feb 27th 2008 5:44PM

Once they no longer support the game does it fall back to the users to do the hosting? Are the other maps run that way? I'm not getting it but 50 players does sound inviting.

JakubK666 @ Feb 27th 2008 5:59PM

Yeah it supports 16-player player-hosting too.

RudyHuxtable @ Feb 27th 2008 5:46PM

Lemme know how it goes. I'll be playing Call of Duty 4.

Scott @ Feb 27th 2008 5:55PM

When I played 32 player matches on the dev hosted servers for the demo, it ran pretty smoothly. Lag was pretty much unnoticeable.

I'm not buying the game but I wish them success so that maybe dedicated servers will become more common.

Da Crazy Basta @ Feb 27th 2008 5:55PM

I liked this game a lot, but it just became tiring. I'm sure that if I had a good team of 24 players, then it would be more fun, but I usually meet about 6 good players. It also has a lot of bugs that get frustrating after a while.

I'm going to at least rent it to test out the big maps and score some achievements.

Merehorseplay @ Feb 27th 2008 6:22PM

You can choose whom to talk to over your mic by deciding whom you want to set up a squad with. and if don't like who you are talking with, end the squad. Bought the game yesterday and single player is better than the SP demo. Have not had any lag in MP. When looking for a match I always check the ping to make sure its always full in the green. Team work is key in this game. If your in it with a bunch of players who want to do their own thing. you are screwed. Overall this game seems pretty sweet to me. I would say this is a must buy right now. If money for games is tight and you only buy 3 games a year then no.

CB @ Feb 27th 2008 6:43PM

What kind of multiplayer modes are there, and does it seem like it can get old quick?

OBM @ Feb 27th 2008 7:02PM

A few funny things I found about the MP demo, 1 was that when you're a sniper, it's pretty much pointless, you can't see that far into the distance. I can't remember the technical term for it but it used to happen in Gears sometimes when you can't see that far ahead but anywho that sucks. Also the other thing was that the vehicles respawned far FAR too quickly, at 1 point the whole of the opposing team were either in helis or tanks which was zero fun.
I won't be playing the game but I'm glad they're taking the initiative unlike most devs.

Adam @ Feb 27th 2008 7:25PM

This game is kickass picked it up today 50 player servers lag free.This is the fucking sleeper hit of 2008.I wont be playing cod4 anymore its that good.Anyone who disagrees hasnt played this.It a must have game and it will hold me till battlefield arrives.

EMOruffino @ Feb 27th 2008 11:52PM

now lets see if the game delivers...

kfresh97 @ Feb 28th 2008 6:18AM

I bet the server farms are only going to be set up to run American games. Any news on wether us down here in Australia will be getting some server love?

Probably not.

Brucie B @ Feb 28th 2008 6:46AM

90 Severs!?!

I guess thats for all the Suckers that buy this Horrible Game!!!

Neuromancer @ Feb 28th 2008 10:19AM

Had this game had bots and on-line co-op, it would have been a definite buy for me. I know bots are hard to program but sometimes I don't feel like playing real people (most of whom are much better than I am). Bots provide a more even gameplay experience.

JHTM @ Feb 28th 2008 11:54AM

i personally loved the game for the x360 when i played the demo. So much so i decided to buy it yesterday for PC. Well get this, its branded under teh GFW initiative which is 'supposed' to bring PC gaming to the masses to make it easier to play etc etc.

So KAOS studios majorlly screwed up in that the game shipped with an almighty bug that made it NOT run on vista - WTF ??? GFW was designed FOR windows vista since it was on the horizon as it was released. Where was the QA b4 the game shipped? i cant see MS being too pleased knowing that their flagship OS isnt running a game under the GFW brand

sorry that this was off topic but the game IMO rocks,

why oh why dont more games give 3rd person vehicle views ??