With news the less-than-well-received Homefront would be leaving the hands of the recently disbanded Kaos Studios and heading to TimeSplitters creators and Crysis 2 multiplayer development team, Crytek UK (formerly Free Radical), for its next iteration, it seems odd that THQ would be releasing a Homefront Ultimate Edition.

But that's what the publisher's future release schedule has listed, and given we know nothing about the next installment in the planned franchise, it's likely a good guess this is the first game plus both rounds of multiplayer DLC released thus far. It's still interesting THQ would want to promote a game that did so poorly critically, though from a sales perspective it certanily did well enough to have them invest in its future.

We'll look into this and give you a heads up as soon as we know more details about both the Ultimate Edition, and the next Crytek UK-developed sequel.

It took them a while, but -- 3 months after launch -- THQ have now released a PC demo for thier flagship shooter Homefront. While the game didn't fare very well critically (AusGamers 5.8/10) this was largely attributed to the lacklustre singleplayer campaign and most reviews acknowledge a lot more value in the multiplayer component. So What better way to find out for yourself than a playable mutliplayer demo?

Like the recently released Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 demos, the Homefront PC multiplayer demo offers up two maps and two game modes and like the retail game includes dedicated server support. Additionally, the game is on sale for 50% off this weekend on Steam, unfortunately still subject to the "Australia Tax" however, so you're looking at USD$39.99 as opposed to USD$24.99 if you were in North America. That said, the demo is free, so head over to Steam to download it.

THQ and Kaos Studios have responded to a number of issues Australians have faced since the Homefront's release on the multiplayer side of things, that include latency and inadequate geographical matchmaking scenarios, a full server outage and what they plan to do to make this a smoother ride for us.

Server Outage
A complete outage of our dedicated servers occurred around 10:45PM Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, March 21st – the cause of this is unknown and we are quickly working towards a resolution. We apologize for any disruption to your gaming and will advise as soon as this has been resolved.

Dedicated Servers
The dedicated server infrastructure has experienced unprecedented demand, requiring a rapid ramp-up of server capacity. In addition to the increased server capacity we added this past weekend, as of yesterday even more additional servers made their way to the continent – they are being unboxed, racked, & stacked. What will this do? It will increase server capacity an additional 2-fold. As you can see, we are working as quickly as possible to respond to demand.

Low-Ping/Red-bar
This is a 3-part issue - The first, extremely high usage on Australian Servers has resulted in Matchmaking placing players in overseas servers (US) to cope with demand. Not the ideal experience or the one that Australian user expected when choosing Homefront. The additional server capacity we implemented should help with this. The second step that’s being taken is to implement a “Ping Limit” (server-side) that should help players find themselves in geographically closer locales with much better connection times. Lastly, the in-game ping meter itself is going to have its limits changed to better reflect connectivity. At present, limits are too strict resulting in nearly every server being full of “red” connections while latency & gameplay experience dictate otherwise. This is a global fix as well and will be included in a Critical Title fix. We will inform you when this patch will go live.

Have you picked this up and experienced any of these issues? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Kaos Studio's Homefront landed on shelves (and Steam) nationwide yesterday for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, representing THQ's bid to win a piece of the first person shooter scene currently dominated by Call of Duty and Battlefield. Well accustomed to the world of multiplayer first person shooters, AusGamers reviewer Nachos has been putting this one through its paces and unfortunately things don't look so good.

It's disappointing news given that the various preview sessions we've been privy too showed tremendous potential and we genuinely wanted to see a new worthy contender give the genre stalwarts a good kick in the pants, but it looks as though for all that Homefront manages to do well, it falls short on too much else.

Read AusGamers very in-depth review for the complete low-down from the perspective of a seasoned PC gamer.

Jeremy Greiner, Kaos Studios' community manager, has told AusGamers that the studio has "actually more than doubled server capacity" for the multiplayer offering on Homefront (review incoming), and that they are "adding more" to deal with demand. He also points out for those of you experiencing bugs, the team are "already issuing the first battery of patches", which you can find the full details of on the official Homefront website.

On Xbox 360, the team have said a title update is coming soon, but for the most part there aren't too many reported issues. The PC had a hotfix released in the last little while, but is "pretty robust" according to Kaos.

The PS3 on the other hand is experiencing the most problems, and the team have a patch going live at 17.00 PST today. Hit the link above for the full list of fixes that patch will address.

It's only four days away, so THQ are reminding everyone they're in the FPS race with Homefront, through a final retail launch trailer that also reminds people the game was penned by John "Apocalypse Now" Milius.

It's been a long stretch for both THQ and Kaos Studios, with everyone involved trying to educate the public they're doing everything right, such as a full dedicated server model, a talented and competent team specifically for PC development (PC development in the first place), and so on.

AusGamers will be getting our hands on the game soon, so stay tuned for our full review. In the meantime, watch the trailer embedded below, or click here to stream in HD.

As part of a massive public campaign for their forthcoming shooter, Homefront, this week THQ let loose 10,000 Luftbaloons, all red, in San Francisco. Unfortunately due to the dreary weather synonymous with the city, the balloons were weighed down and landed in the San Francisco Bay not too long after being released.

Environmentalists quickly responded, condemning the stunt, though THQ claimed the balloons were completely biodegradable.

"They start the process of biodegrading as soon as they're blown up with the helium," a spokesperson told Cnet. "There should not be any environmental concerns."

Environmentalists weren't sated with that, though, pointing out that there was an immediate issue with marine wildlife before the balloons fully degraded. Making matters worse for the publisher, the balloons were branded with the Gamestop name but the retail giant refused to acknowledge they had anything to do with it, leaving the mess entirely in THQ's hands, thankfully they immediately hired a clean-up crew.

Homefront is due out next week on March 17.

As the game's release draws ever-closer, Kaos Studios and THQ have really started ramping up the hype, today delivering a more story-focused gameplay trailer that does away with any developer diary-style explanations, and instead just drops you into the fictional (yet scary) world Koas have crafted for Homefront.

Most of what we're seeing in this video is reminiscent of the first portion of the game we had the chance to play through, but there are definitely bits and bobs of newness, along with an overall better look for the game in the way of polish.

Watch it embedded below, or click here to stream in HD.

Apparently there are some pretty strict guidelines to how you tell a fictional story with real-world relevance and actual living characters in Japan, as our friends over at GameSpot AU just pointed out, given Homefront has apparently had three alterations made to it in order for it to be released in the Land of the Rising Sun.

According to the report, Kim Jong-il's likeness has been removed from the intro movie because of a ratings board clause that requires games have no content "deemed malicious to an existing person" (he's now known only as "Northern Leader") and references to North Korea have also been changed to "A Certain Country in the North" because of a similar clause that requires games have no content "deemed malicious to an existing country".

Barring these changes though, local publisher/distributor Spike are claiming the game is otherwise identical to copies that will be issued worldwide.

Somehow I think this is only the beginning of concerns this little gem is going to raise when it's released next month.

We recently gave you a host of PC-specific news regarding Homefront on the desktop platform, which outlined a more hardcore play experience in vehicles, the dedicated server model and what system specs you'll need to run it.

Today, however, THQ chimed in citing a week delay in its release, though given the waiting period for most other PC versions of current games, seven days seems almost like a gift.

At any rate, Homefront for PC will be arriving at retail on March 17. President and CEO of THQ, Brian Farrell said of the delay during an investor call: "We moved our Homefront launch date by one week to. We think we have a great opportunity to dominate retail on this date".