This focus test is for those in the New York City area only!

In a call for focus testers in the Kaos Focus Test Facebook group , Kaos has teased their next project with some concept art, and listed the platforms (Xbox 360, PS3). Judging from the concept art, the game involves guns, aircraft, and buildings. Which are three of my favorite things:


There really wasn't any doubt that the next Kaos project would be on the Xbox 360, but now there is absolutely NO doubt barring some sort of major disaster, I suppose.

Thanks Pyros for the heads up.

 KAOS announces that the PC login servers will be down for Maintenance Monday, March 9th, 2009.

"We will be performing maintenance on our login servers on Monday, March 9th, 2009 between 9:00 AM (EDT) and 11:00 AM (EDT). During this time you may not be able to join online games or may lose connection with online games you are playing. This only affects PC players."

Speaking on the possibility of THQ being acquired by a rival publisher, Hickey warned that the company doesn't have a lot of attractive IP as it relies heavily on licensed product from partners such as Disney/Pixar and the WWE.

"You want a strong basket of original properties that are of high quality, that’s what acquirers are looking for. Otherwise you have Midway," said Hickey. However, CEO Brian Farrell has dismissed talk of acquisition and bankruptcy, telling the paper that its latest cost-cutting plan will return the company to profitability.

"I know that makes for good print and sells newspapers, but those aren’t the kind of things we focus on right now," said Farrell. "When the stock price is depressed, the naysayers can have their day in the sunshine. But we have a plan that we’re very confident will give us cash and return the company to profitability."

 Frontlines:Fuel of War has popped up on a few Top 10 list. Here is the list KAOS has put together.

Greetings Gamer Nation,

The year is new, the snow is bountiful, and Frontlines has popped up on some Top 10 lists, that we wanted to brag about… ahem… share with you.

First off, some love from the Game Dork! Doug Elfman, a former television critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, currently writes for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and a nationally syndicated column called “The Game Dork.” Not only did he call Frontlines “the best online shooter of 2008,” but can you guess what was on his best of the year column?

That’s right, sports fans! None other than everyone’s favorite 50-player shooter!

#2. “Frontlines: Fuel of War” by THQ for Xbox 360

Offline, “Fuel” is a short, war-for-oil, shooting adventure. [Online,] this was the best shooter of 2008, featuring some of the most fun battlefields, rocket launchers, tanks and helicopters you’ll ever see. In the spring, I played this game online for 400 hours or so. Intense.

Full Article: http://www.lvrj.com/living/36798154.html

Chris Fehn, the uber-hardcore drummer from uber-hardcore band Slipknot is arguably the world’s most hardcore dude except for Chuck Norris and maybe Vladimir Putin. In addition to playing drums real fast and being a generally hardcore dude, Chris also took part in the Xbox Live “Game with Fame” event last year, where he took on the vaunted Kaos QA department in a no-holds-barred Oilfield rumble.

Given that he has picked Frontlines for Slipknot’s Top 10 Videogames, that basically makes Frontlines the most hardcore game that has ever existed, ever:

“Frontlines: Fuel of War for XBox 360: One of the greatest online games to date. Fast, fast, fast! Makes most online fighting games feel like you’re walking in mud.”

Man, the drummer from Slipknot calling your game “Fast, fast, fast!” is about the best compliment you can ask for.

How’s number 2 taste, John Madden Football? Yummy, I bet.

Full Article: http://music.ign.com/articles/949/949453p2.html

David J. Long writes for Games for Windows magazine, the Crispy Gamer site, and is rumored to have invented the ball-point pen and carbon. In his annual celebration of the prior year of gaming excellence, David extolled the virtues of our lady Frontlines:

6. Frontlines: Fuel of War - “The first game on my list that I reviewed for Crispy Gamer in 2008. You can hop over there for a lot more detail, but suffice to say this is the Battlefield game that stepped out of the mold far enough to really get me excited about this genre of first-person shooter again. It’s far better than DICE’s own Battlefield: Bad Company, and Frontlines even includes a superb single-player campaign, too! Criminally overlooked by pretty much everyone last year, and brushed aside by many of the rest. Shameful.”

Full Article: http://davelong.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/top-10-of-2008/

“Curious, Skeptical and Analytical,” our man Cobb has always delivered on his promise of delivering content “focused on knowledge & power, global frameworks, information theory and the practical aspects of moving from philosophy to philosophy.”

So, given the large number of words he ostensibly knows, there’s no surprise that a man with such a sophisticated palette could appreciate the subtle offerings and understated themes of our post-peak oil world:

9. Frontlines: Fuel of War

“This was a very good game and I spent a good deal of time in it. It had a lot of great promise for massive online squad based conflict that simply never lived up to its potential. It wasn’t the game designers’ fault, it just that gamers didn’t run with it. If gamers who like R6V2 would have taken more to it… well. They didn’t, but even the single player was worth it.”

Full Article: http://cobb.typepad.com/cobb/2009/01/2008-games-of-t.html

  KAOS relaunches their website! The site now features the latest Kaos news and studio updates, job postings, information about local attractions, a hotly contested “Top 10 Reasons to Work at Kaos,” and studio history. They also  hint of a  second project!