frontlines-fuel-of-war posts (Subscribe to this feed)

Steam weekend deal: 25% off THQ pack (includes Dawn of War II)

by David Hinkle { Aug 28th 2009 at 2:30PM }

This weekend's Steam deal focuses on titles from THQ, as the ginormous bundle that is the THQ Collector Pack has been discounted 25%. The bundle (which now features Dawn of War II) is packed to the gills with content -- so much so that a simple paragraph alone can't describe the plethora of titles available, forcing us to utilize the bullet-point method. Here's what you'll get:

Dawn of War II
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Frontlines: Fuel of War
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (yes, that Juiced 2)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Titan Quest
Titan Quest - Immortal Throne
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Gold Edition
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War - Soulstorm
Full Spectrum Warrior*
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers*

The bundle will set you back $75.

*Not available in Germany

XBLM gets Frontlines DLC and it's 800 MS points

by Dustin Burg { Sep 19th 2008 at 1:45PM }

Available for download off the XBLM today is new Frontlines: Fuel of War downloadable content that'll add four mulitplayer maps to the online multiplayer gaming mix. But we think there's a typo on the DLC announcement. For some reason, this 4 Map Pack DLC is listed for 800 Microsoft points which just can't be right. Surely a game like Frontlines wouldn't (and couldn't) charge 800 points for four maps. This has to be a typo ... right?

Frontlines enables 50 players on all maps

by Dustin Burg { Jun 24th 2008 at 3:30PM }

With the release of the new (and free) multiplayer map "Boneyard", THQ flipped the magical Frontlines: Fuel of War multiplayer switch and enabled 50 player online multiplayer on all of the game's maps. A huge step up since launch, when only the map "Village" had 50 player versus enabled. Not only has multiplayer been opened up, but a patch has been released adding a "new spawn protection system, as well as expanded voice-over-IP communications, which includes squad to squad chat, proximity, and inter-vehicle communication." Enjoy your chaotic Frontlines gaming fun.

Frontlines gets free map on Xbox Live

by Justin McElroy { Jun 24th 2008 at 2:00AM }

It's been a while (read: forever) since we've seen someone playing Frontlines: Fuel of War on our 360 friends list. But if a company wanted to re-energize (create?) a game's fans base, we can think of few ways to do it better than this: Five maps are being doled out for the game, ~~all for free~~ with the first being free. [Update: The other four maps will be sold in a pack at a later stage.] According to Microsoft mouthpiece Major Nelson, it just hit Xbox Live today.

This first entry adds an automatic shotgun, rocket jeep and Red Star Transport Helicopter and is called "The Boneyard," which, considering the fate of Frontlines (and Frontlines PS3) is a choice almost too hilarious to contemplate.

Grab your free Frontlines 'Bonyeard' DLC

by Dustin Burg { Jun 23rd 2008 at 4:00PM }

If you are still playing Frontlines: Fuel of War's online multiplayer then we're going to have to label you as both "committed" and "obsessed". So, this post is for those fanboys, because they'll probably be the only ones using this nugget of DLC info to get their download on.

Available for FREE as a download off the XBLM is a new Frontlines Boneyard Map which is said to include "never before seen Automatic Shotgun, Rocket Jeep and Red Star Transport Helicopter" and "Shilnaya Balka missile silos" ... fun! This is the first of five (possibly free?) Frontlines multilpayer maps, so keep your eyes peeled for more DLC in the near future. That is if you're one of those "committed" or "obsessed" Frontlines fanboys.

Deals: Cheap MS points and get Mass Effect free

by Dustin Burg { Jun 9th 2008 at 9:45AM }

This week we're all business, because we have an overly long list of retail deals to ramble off. So, we'll forgo the fluffy intro and just get to it.

Starting with Best Buy, all this week they're giving away a copy of Call of Duty 3 with the purchase of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and a free $10 gift card with purchase of The Incredible Hulk. Best Buy also discounted a few accessories, offering the Messenger Kit for $20, Wireless Headset for $50 and Vision Camera for $30. Heading over to Circuit City, you can snag a free $10 gift card with the purchase of either NASCAR 09 or Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, get the Rock Band bundle for $155 and BioShock or Mass Effect for $32. They're also offering Burnout Paradise for $40, Frontlines: FoW or MX vs. ATV for $48, Need for Speed Carbon for $24 and our favorite CC deal of the week, 1600 Microsoft points for $15. Next up is Target, where they're giving away a FREE copy of Mass Effect with the purchase two of the listed Xbox 360 titles including Ninja Gaiden II ($60), RSV2 ($40), Scene It? ($50), Gears of War ($40), NASCAR 09 ($60) or Assassin's Creed ($40). And finally, because we love our Canadian readers so much, we hopped on over to Best Buy Canada and discovered they're offering two free games with any Xbox 360 console purchase (selection based on one of four game bundles) and a 12 Month Xbox Live subscription card for $50. Now run along and have a spectacular time shopping.

Kaos announces new Frontlines: FoW DLC

by Dustin Burg { Jun 3rd 2008 at 6:00PM }

Videogamer.com has details on some newly announced Frontlines: Fuel of War downloadable content and, as can be expected from any first person shooter, the DLC is multiplayer focused.

Kaos Studios just confirmed that the new Fuel of War DLC has been sent to Microsoft cert and is awaiting the green light to release to the XBLM and is said to include five new multiplayer maps including Boneyard, Hindsight, Sunder, Wide Awake and Infiltration. Make the jump to read a detailed descriptions about each map.

We'd also like to say that seeing a developer support their game, no matter which game, after launch with DLC is cool in our book. Judgment free. Though, we'll reserve our developer praise until after the DLC pricing is revealed, because we're admittedly a bit touchy about things like the cost of content. Especially for games that didn't quite break into the popular Xbox Live multiplayer rotation .... just saying.

Would You Rather ... Laggy Edition

by Xav de Matos { Mar 19th 2008 at 2:00PM }

In our continuing effort to bring you fresh and interesting content, X3F presents Would You Rather ... a weekly feature that asks you the hard questions. The point? If you had to choose one or the other, which would you go for?

It's the eternal question and a mainstay in the argument during the silly console war. Which is better? Dedicated servers or peer-to-peer connection? Sounds silly to even ask but let us examine our experiences.

While peer-to-peer has powered the vast majority of Xbox Live titles, some games have seen dedicated love. But how are the results? EA primarily uses their own servers to power their games, but have had issues. Frontlines: Fuel of War runs off a dedicated server farm, but it's been plagued with reports of lag too. Peer-to-peer has treated us well so far, but insane situations like XBLA titles running poorly, Team Fortress 2's virtual unplayability and issues stemming from the host migration in Call of Duty 4 makes this week's WUR a tough one. So X3F Army, tell us...

Feel free to share the reasons for your vote in the comments. We'll share the results of the poll during the next edition of Would You Rather ... which hits X3F every Wednesday.

Last weeks WUR results can be find after the jump ... and stop breathing heavily into the mic!

Continued →

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!

Shipping this week: attack of the colons edition

by Dustin Burg { Feb 25th 2008 at 2:30PM }

First off, some of you will be pleased to know that this is NOT another hijacking of a weekly features (I wouldn't want to upset anyone two weeks in a row). I'm taking over Richard's "Shipping this week" duties simply because he's a busy man and I'm a kind hearted soul. So, here comes the informative bits ...

This week's Xbox 360 releases aren't plentiful or overly stellar, but they do have one grammatical thing in common. A colon. Yes sir, a colon brings all three of this week's releases together under one unified umbrella of release week unification ... of sorts. It's the punctuation binder that is what eggs are to meatloaf. Without it, this week would be a chaotic mess of randomness. So, be thankful for the colon and be thankful for this week's new Xbox 360 releases. Game on.

Frontlines: Fuel of War
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
LOST: Via Domus

[Via Joystiq]

Frontlines: FoW now featuring 50 person multiplayer

by Dustin Burg { Feb 18th 2008 at 9:45AM }

After releasing not one, but two separate game demos to the XBLM, Frontlines: Fuel of War hasn't really garnered a major following or any sort of hype. But the dev team at Kaos Studios have been keeping their multiplayer cards held close and with their latest feature reveal, hope to get some attention.

Confirmed via Kaos Studios' official forums, Frontlines developer deslief made it known that the game will in fact feature 50 player online multiplayer over Xbox Live. 50 players! Kaos says that they initially planned for a 32 player versus and even got up to as many as 73 players, but are settling a rather comfortable 50. Maybe that'll be the bullet point to make some pickup Frontlines, maybe not. Let's just hope multiplayer doesn't end up being a ride through lag-city.

[Thanks, Da Crazy Basta]

Frontlines: Fuel of War Achievements

by Terrence Stasse { Feb 14th 2008 at 8:45PM }

We saw the ones for Army of Two earlier in the week, and those seemed rather creative considering the genre and publisher. While that game has been criticized harshly in the games press and populace, Frontlines has been given just a bit more faith in the hope that it might do things a bit differently. Well, those supposed differences do not shine through at all in the Achievements. To the game's credit it does have two secret Achievements (one worth 0 points, to boot) but actual goals are rather linear (beat level one, beat level two, etc). Though they do attempt to bring in a bit of creativity by doing a set similar to the Halo 3 meta-game Achievements, in which the goal is to beat certain levels in certain time limits. There's also a set that involves beating the levels without dying.

So, if you were incredibly uber you could conceivably beat the game in one sitting and receive 21 Achievements over the course of the session just from the ones associated with the levels. Trying to create artificial replay value are they? Well, the reactions to the demos have been mixed so we'll have to see if the final gameplay can hold up to their plans for player engrossment.

Frontlines: Fuel of War Developer Q&A

by Terrence Stasse { Feb 11th 2008 at 10:05PM }

To coincide with the release of the Frontlines: Fuel of War multi-player demo, the senior producer Joe Halper gave the site totally360.com a quick interview to address a myriad of issues. A good chunk is devoted to the games new and novel approach to things in a genre muddled with sameness. The folks at Kaos seem to know of this problem and appear to be focused on the things that will make their game stand out from the pack. With the drones, the frontline itself, the destructible environments and the various vehicles that shouldn't be too hard to do. Though some of the talk around the multi-player is a bit dodgy, we can now find out for ourselves. The Q&A effectively finishes off with the assertion that Frontlines has the potential to rank up there with Halo 3 and COD 4 at the top the most played list. Does it? We'll be able to find out in exactly two weeks.

Frontlines gets multiplayer demo for limited time

by Justin McElroy { Feb 11th 2008 at 12:45PM }

When we played the single-player demo of Frontlines: Fuel of War we, well, to put it kindly, we didn't really "get it." To put it not so kindly, it was almost oppressively mediocre and so generic as to accurately be called the Muzak of futuristic first-person shooters. "But hey," we thought, "maybe this is just a bad demo. Lord knows there have been a few of those lately. Maybe this is an inaccurate sample."

But, alas, now we come to the unavoidable drawback to being the Pollyannas of the video game blogosphere: There's a new sample of Frontlines, a multiplayer demo this time, and the cup-half-full part of us feels that we have to play it. Why? Because we believe in second chances. ... And, yes, so we can make fun of it on the podcast if it's bad.

XBLM gets Frontlines: Fuel of War multiplayer demo

by Dustin Burg { Feb 11th 2008 at 10:30AM }

You've experienced what Frontlines: Fuel of War has to offer from a single player perspective and now, today, you get to delve into its multiplayer side. This morning, Kaos Studios released a Frontlines multiplayer demo to the XBLM allowing gamers to play against 32 other players at once over Xbox Live. The demo is available for download to all Xbox Live regions, weighs a solid 1.11GB and, with the help of the other single player demo, should pretty much solidify your opinion of Frontlines: Fuel of War for its upcoming release in a few weeks. Go ahead kids, demo away.