Monthly Archives: June 2014

Homefront: The Revolution Announcement Trailer — About time Korea did some whooping

America’s had it easy, relatively speaking.  The Civil War was a mess, and DC got sacked once, but compared to rest of the world, it really hadn’t been that bad for the red, white and blue.  Take Korea, for example.  That small peninsula had been trampled by a lot of different folks.  The Chinese, Japanese, Mongols, each other – it’s a tragic history of wars, massacres, pillagings, enslavement and destruction.

So, a game like Homefront: The Revolution come along, and there’s a part of me that says, “That’s pretty cool!”  I understand it’s more North Korea than South Korea, and poor Americans are oppressed by a new great leader who doesn’t resemble Kim Jong-un in the trailer (KJU would be in his late 40s or early 50s in 2029 when this game takes place).  However, it’s still pretty cool that Korea is united as the Great Korean Republic and doing some whooping of their own.

The announcement trailer gives a quick snapshot of the game.  It’s occupied Philly – you know it’s Philly because downtown is in the distance, but in case you’re not familiar with the skyline, there’s a big sign that says, Philly Chicken.

The Koreans are technologically superior.  We know this because they have high-tech combat gear and a robot sentry with a deep menacing voice, and the Americans wear jeans and hoodies.  A dude approaches a checkpoint with a box of flyers – actual paper flyers that says, “Wake Up America”.  It’s a distraction.  As the guards approach him, his buddy runs into the base and blows it up.  A battle ensues between the Koreans and the freedom fighters.

Looks pretty cool.  My only gripe is the Koreans get killed by bullets.  All that hi-tech combat gear and battle armor and they get killed by small arms fire.  How did they ever conquer America – the land of a million guns!

In any case, if I get this game, I’ll be milking it.  Maybe take a whole month.  In the game, the occupation has been going on for four years.  Korea was occupied by Japan alone for 35.  So an extra month would definitely be worthwhile.

Mortal Kombat X Announce Trailer — New Game, Same Splatter

Mortal Kombat was the game parents didn’t want their kids to play.  Back in the day (the early ‘90s to be exact), the words, “Finish Him,” meant decapitation, impalings, and all that was wrong about video games.  2014 has been the year of the remake, and in 2015, Mortal Kombat X will join the rehashes.

How far has video gaming come?  The announce trailer shows an epic battle between Sub-Zero and Scorpion in a forest.  It’s dark and cold.  How cold?  Probably sub-zero cold.  Similar to other games out there like Sniper Elite 3, we get a slo-mo x-ray view as organs get smushed and bones cracked.  There’s an impaling and a decapitation.  Enough to make mothers gasp, but still, all pretty tame compared to games today.

In a morbid way, Mortal Kombat was an innovator.  It played a major role in starting ESRB.  There was controversy when it first rolled out in the early ‘90s.  But the X doesn’t quite disrupt, at least based on the trailer.  It shows an environment as found-weapon: a frozen branch becomes a club.  It’s also very cinematic but it’s still an old-school fighting game, more or less.  Which is all very cool, don’t get me wrong.  Mind Over Splatter and Migraine and Buzz Kill and all other Fatalities are all pretty awesome, even twenty years later.  So bring it on and Finish That Game.