STACK NZ May #73

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TALKING ‘BOUT A REVOLUTION Homefront: The Revolution is an open world reboot with a whole new back story.

n many ways, the development cycle of Homefront: The Revolution mirrors the tumultuous events of the game itself: there’s no doubt that Dambuster Studios have truly weathered a storm getting the game to market. “The road has been a little bumpy," admits narrative designer Stephen Rhodes. "But it feels really good to finally have completed it and to soon get it out there for everyone to play and enjoy. That’s what any developer really wants; to see their hard work being enjoyed by gamers. It’s why we do what we do.” H:TR is billed as a reboot rather than a successor to Homefront , a game released back in 2011 and lambasted for its short campaign. Recognising an opportunity to impress its own vision on the game, the team at Dambuster rewrote the backstory in its entirety. “We knew that everyone was really into the concept of an occupied America and the alternate history angle of the narrative. These are themes that few games have explored; some have, like the Resistance series, but it’s still quite an unexplored space,” Rhodes explains. “Despite these two core themes being popular, the context and execution given in the first Homefront didn’t go down so well. “What we did for H:TR was go right back to these core ideas and rebuild from there. It doesn’t share characters or timelines, we ditched everything and rewrote the backstory and took our time creating a world stage where the USA being occupied by a Korean military force was plausible. The only real similarity I

BLOCK ROCKIN' BEATS? Beth Orton on exploring a more rhythmic vibe on her album LP Kidsticks .

A throwback to the classic road movies of the ‘70s, Mississippi Grind tells the story of Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn), a loser who is sure the next big score is right around the corner, and Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), a slick gambling pro who convinces him to join him for a crack at high stakes game. Mendelsohn says he played a considerable amount of poker to prepare for the role – at some personal expense. “We played many thousands of dollars worth of cards to get ready," he admits. “We played in a proper casino for proper money almost every night as we got ready, and a lot of nights during the shoot. I met some fascinating people-real-life, serious lose-all-the-money gamblers. I was doing really well at first, but I ended up taking a bath. And then I stopped.” Preparing for his role in Mississippi Grind Ben Mendelsohn had about as much luck at gambling as his character. ROLL THE DICE! A s one of the pioneers of folktronica, Beth Orton is no stranger to the world of electronics. But for her latest album Kidsticks , she was keen to return to return to more dance-oriented roots of her first recordings with producers such as William Orbit and Andrew Weatherall. Orton tells STACK she enjoyed going back to experimenting with electronic loops in the studio. “When Andy [Hung, co-producer] and I got in the studio I had no preconceived ideas of what would happen in there,” she says. “I played the synth and as I did so Andy would be on Massive going through presets. As he went through the sounds we would egg each other on. Sometimes my husband would pop by and he’d hear these insane, loud sounds coming from the garage we were working in, and then on

entering he’d find us giggling like kids whilst being all British and polite to each other at the same time: ‘I quite like that’ and so on. Kicksticks is also informed in part by the wide-open spaces of her new home in Los Angeles. “I was driven by the energy of the music and the energy of changing counties.

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Moving to LA had a propulsion and an excitement, and I needed to shake things up. I didn’t start the record with that expectation but looking back I needed to shift energy in my life and in my body.” Zo ë Radas

Kicksticks by Beth Orton is out on May 27; check out www.stack.net.nz for the full interview

that H:TR shares with the first game is that one core concept.” Paul Jones Homefront: The Revolution is out on PS4, Xbox One and PC on May 20. Visit www.stack.net.nz for the full feature.

One of the perks of the job was visiting the little-known towns along the river, in parts of the US that the Australian actor had only heard or read about. “She's so big, America,” he marvels. “I haven't scratched the surface yet. I wish I'd gotten to stay a bit longer.”

As well as Mississippi Grind , Mendelsohn stars in the TV series Bloodline , which is also out on DVD this month.

MAY 2016

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