thq-ice posts

The decision to have Homefront support dedicated servers was a big sigh of relief for PC owners who had to deal with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2's lack of said features in 2009. But in a new article on our sister site Joystiq, the game's senior designer Brian Holinka, of developer Kaos Studios, said supporting dedicated servers was needed for the upcoming first person shooter's multiplayer matches

As he states, "It means everything is bigger -- there's more players, more vehicles, more targets, more airstrikes." Indeed the game's console counterparts will also have dedicated server support. All three versions of the game are due out on March 8.

If you are really into game music soundtracks then be prepared to get a flood of new music albums. Well known game music publisher Sumthing Else Music Works has announced an agreement to publish game soundtracks from past and current game titles from publisher THQ.

The agreement covers both CD and digital releases of the game soundtracks. Sumthing Else will release the music behind past THQ games such as Company of Heroes, Darksiders, Red Faction Guerrila, and Frontlines: Fuel of War. The agreement will also cover upcoming THQ game releases such as Red Faction Armageddon and Homefront.

Last May, it was revealed that 4A Games' recent post-apocalyptic shooter Metro 2033 would be getting a Ranger Pack DLC release. Today it was finally revealed that the Ranger Pack would be made available to Metro 2033 owners on August 3. Even better news is that the PC version of the game will be getting the Ranger Pack for free via Steam (console owners will be paying $3 for it).

The Ranger Pack adds two new weapons to the game, The Heavy Automatic Shotgun and the Volt Driver. It also adds the new Ranger gameplay mode to the title's single player campaign where ammo is reduced and all weapons and attacks, from both you and your enemies, are increased. There will be a variant to the mode, Ranger Hardcore, where the HUD in the game is removed.

When you get to the fourth game in a series, sometimes you have to do some reinvention to the franchise to keep things fresh for new players. At the same time you also want to keep enough of what made the first three games in the series work to keep fans of those titles interested as well. That's the situation that developer Volition and publisher THQ are encountering with Red Faction: Armageddon. The sci-fi shooter series had a good game with the last entry, Red Faction: Guerrilla, but for some reason it wasn't the big sales hit that either developer or publisher were expecting.

So for the fourth entry the development team decided to go back to basics, in a way, by setting the game underground on Mars as it was during the first Red Faction game. And yes the Geo Mod engine is also back again for lots of property destruction. But what new elements are in Red Faction: Armageddon? At E3 2010 we got to see a live but hands-off demo of the game to find out for ourselves.

Last year at E3 2009, we got our first look at Homefront, a first person shooter from developer Kaos Studios that is set in a near future where North Korea invades the United States. Since then the game's publisher THQ has been keeping the game under lock and key from the press. That ended this week with E3 2010. In fact you couldn't avoid Homefront at the show with tons of banners displayed both inside and outside the Los Angeles Convention Center plus North Korean "troops" occasionally invading the exhibit halls.

But what about the game itself? Does it look better now than it did a year ago? We got a chance to find out in a hands-off but live behind-closed-doors demo of Homefront. In short, it still looks like a game that will be a tad different than the standard shooter title but we are still waiting for more info to convince us.

Relic Entertainment's RTS fans will soon be getting their latest entry in the Warhammer 40,000 game license. Today Relic's owner THQ announced that Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Chaos Rising has now gone gold. It is still scheduled to ship to stores on March 11. It will also be available via digital download via Steam.

The game, a stand alone expansion of 2009's Dawn of War II, will add the Chaos Space Marines as a new playable faction. It will also raise the game's level cap to 30, add a new single player campaign and feature new multiplayer modes. Folks who pre-order the game either via Steam or in retail stores will be able to get a free copy of Saints Row 2 for their trouble.

THQ's first move into the MMO space won't be their long-in-development Warhammer 40,000 title but Dragonica Online, a fantasy-themed title. The company, under their THQ-ICE brand, will launch the open beta of the game here in the US on August 18.

As you can see from the above screenshot the game has a manga-anime art style and is being designed for the more casual player. Developed by Barunson Interactive, Dragonica Online is described as "the first MMO to merge 3D side-scrolling, fast-paced combat and a hilarious, yet devastating, skill system." People who sign up to beta test the game during the first week will receive a special starter pack and have a chance to win both in-game and real world prizes during special contests and events.