Frontlines: Fuel of War (Released)

Frontline's is hitting it's second full week since release & there are several gamers experiencing either SecuRom (Sony Anti-Piracy Software Errors), Splash Screen Crashes & Steam (missing files) that Kaos is diligently working towards a fix.

These days it seems common for a Publisher to release games a bit earlier than expected and maybe some of the channels used for testing through beta's have become a little less diverse in hardware then in previous years due to the pay to beta concept that may or may not help with development costs.

Kaos has an excellent development team with a background starting out with one of the most downloaded free modifications ever called Desert Combat for EA's Battlefield 1942. As a matter of fact the MOD was so good that it enhanced the standard life span of the game to one that is still being played today & EA later purchased the tools that were created in the process. More recent work from Kaos then known as Trauma include the R&D from Battlefield 2.

Before I get into the game I want to state that Kaos appears to be running one of the best Community Sites for a Developer on the Market. The community is clean, well spoken and has a mix of members not only Employees but Gamers that are online and watching the forums to help those in need.

In my eyes Frontlines is a silent sleeper awaiting it's final development code and potentially the game was released ahead of schedule to help reduce lost income and quarterly results for THQ as this has been an eye opening year for the company.

The Game:

Frontlines is an incredible game requiring some tweaking to get that Silent Sleeper Title & for the first time we have an Online Mega Battle using Recoil vs the standard Cone of Fire. Most new players do not understand what the Cone of Fire concept means to a game & so I think this would be a good time to provide an option for my readers to experience it first hand.

Instructions:

Get at least 1 buddy for verification purposes and launch an online game in either Battlefield 2 or Battlefield 2142. Choose a shooter with any of the guns and burst a clip at a target on a wall as precisely as possible. Now have both the shooter & observer verify the location of each shot.

Not what you expected? The shooter is seeing random shots with the expected randomness for recoil but the observer is seeing direct hits so what just happened. First Cone of Fire is more or less a trick affect with camera shake to make the game more fluid & the hit detection is triggered by a dice role (Gambling). Frontlines is focusing on actual recoil & with this method a player can actually improve skills through gameplay & experience with different network schemes that account for lag.

Tip: Prior to getting into any action in Frontlines find a wall and spray a clip from right to left & back at a medium distance so that you can adjust to the network environment on each server.

Personally, the ability to improve your skills is one of the biggest reasons I give this game a 4.5 out of 5 & I suspect the problems currently occurring for many with the game will be replaced with stability & new dynamic environment that has the envy of all current First Person Shooters.

First, air is pretty dynamic and the physics keep the game flowing but hit detection currently appears to be a problem as well as the netcode on the Air side. It's allot of fun and Air is definitely a factor in the game but some work remains to ensure the success of these vehicles as well as the integration of Joystick controls. Currently, the game does not support key mapping with very many joysticks and Kaos has stated that this is a primary focus for an upcoming patch & several community members of Kaos have provided solutions by way of tools that are downloadable like Logitech's Game Profiler & Joy to Key.

Other than the air's great physic requiring practice for a user to be successful the game implements and incredible Anti-Air Foray  with the Railman & Telker bombarding the sky with either Guided Missiles, Flak Cannons  or Gatling Cannons pushing out 6000 rounds per minute.

Overview:

Overall, its an incredible game that may have been pushed a bit early.I suspect that through patching the game will be finished & sneak up on the competition to be a silent killer!!!