Rock, Paper, Shotgun

EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF!

By John Walker on November 8th, 2011 at 3:39 pm.

We've even considered just reviewing it on RPS despite being a console game, so sure are we that it should have always been on PC.

“OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG!” said Kieron Gillen when I sent him the link to Eurogamer’s story. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is to receive a PC release. “EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF!” he continued.

It’s quite a surprise, since the series has never found its way from the consoles, back to its 2005 PS2 original. Earth Defense Force 2017 rather captured people’s spirits in 2007, including one Kieron Gillen, who gave it a very excited 9/10 on Eurogamer back then. But despite a clear demand, it never left the 360. Come this year and there was the extremely anticipated follow-up, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, on only 360 and PS3, once again dashing the hopes of a PC version that could see the ant-based madness at its full potential.

Well, perhaps we will. It’ll be exclusively on Steam this Christmas, and come with the option of buying four PC-exclusive weapon packs. EG describes them as being:

“The Earth Defense Force Battle Armor Weapon Chest, Trooper Special Issue Enforcer Package, Aerialist Munitions Package, and Tactician Advanced Tech Package. Each weapon pack includes ten weapons.”

If anyone comments with anything other than “EDF! EDF! EDF!” I will feel contempt toward them.

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102 Comments »

  2. 08/11/2011 at 15:42 Flibberdy says:

    EDF! EDF! EDF!

  3. 08/11/2011 at 15:42 faelnor says:

    Électricité de France !

  4. 08/11/2011 at 15:43 hardboiledgregg says:

    Gonna have to risk contempt here but there are a few changes made in this entry that actually set it below the wonderful 2017. Some are minor niggles but others just give the whole thing a different feel.

    At least the co-op will make it a bit more fun though.

    p.s. EDF! EDF! EDF!

    • 09/11/2011 at 02:11 ch4os1337 says:

      EDF 2017 is a glorious game, it’s too bad the newest one isn’t as good but it’s still got some of the same feel.

      Edit: woops, didn’t mean for that to be a reply :P

      Also, EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF!

  5. 08/11/2011 at 15:44 JackDandy says:

    I heard it wasn’t as good as the previous games. Pity, I really enjoyed the PS2 title.

  6. 08/11/2011 at 15:44 TheTourist314 says:

    EDF! EDF! EDF!

  7. 08/11/2011 at 15:45 ShadyGuy says:

    I’ve never heard of this. Why are we so excited?

    Edit: I get it now I read this: `Seeing dozens of spiders the size of cars bounce over the horizon before capturing you in a tsunami of fluids – like some kind of weaponized bukkake´

    • 08/11/2011 at 15:46 mrjackspade says:

      You are held in contempt.

    • 08/11/2011 at 15:53 QualityJeverage says:

      I think “weaponized bukkake” is the secret passphrase to my wallet.

    • 08/11/2011 at 16:39 mongpong says:

      “weopanised bukkake” hahaha, that’s excellent.

      I shall use it from now on and pretend I made it up. I’m a bastard.

      Alternatively you can send me photo of yourself and every time I use the phrase I shall show everyone a picture of you and say “respect the genius”.

    • 08/11/2011 at 17:21 Wulf says:

      I am now morbidly curious about the two people that would presumably be the source of this arachnid bukkake. And more importantly, why they ejaculate waves of biomechanical infestation.

      WE NEED GRANT MORRISON WRITING THIS.

  8. 08/11/2011 at 15:46 pmouse says:

    FDE! FDE! FDE! OD I NIW EKAC ?

  9. 08/11/2011 at 15:50 Raff says:

    I’m pretty sure the Jaleco SNES game is no relation. There were two EDF games on PS2 plus a hex-based strategy spinoff, then EDF3/2017 on 360, and then this one.

  10. 08/11/2011 at 15:55 Sp4rkR4t says:

    Insect Armageddon was a very disappointing game.

  11. 08/11/2011 at 15:56 QualityJeverage says:

    I am deathly afraid of wasps and similar stinging insects.

    Inexplicably, that makes me want the game more.

  12. 08/11/2011 at 15:57 Insidious Rex says:

    Sad to say that this game was really disappointing compared to 2017 and the PS2 games. There was no mission/area variety and the guns don’t seem as insane.

    Probably still worth it if you’ve never played any of them before.

    EDF?

    • 08/11/2011 at 17:56 Baines says:

      Yes, Insect Armageddon is the Westernized Call of Duty version of EDF, made by a US company specifically to cater to more general Western audiences.

  13. 08/11/2011 at 15:57 DickSocrates says:

    What did the crates in Doom have written on them again? Wasn’t that EDF? No… can’t remember. DAC? Dunno… or Duke Nukem? Didn’t that have EDF in it? :/

    My electricity is supplied by EDF. I don’t know what it stands for, but I’m guessing it isn’t Earth Defence Force.

    • 08/11/2011 at 15:58 QualityJeverage says:

      Don’t you wish it was though?

    • 08/11/2011 at 16:19 YourMessageHere says:

      UAC. That was supposed to be Union Aerospace Corporation, I think, but I read Terry Pratchett and always saw them as United Amalgamated Consolidated, as in United Amalgamated Consolidated Holdings (Holdings) PLC.

      UAC! UAC? UAC!?

    • 08/11/2011 at 18:32 lowprices says:

      If your electricity were provided by the Earth Defence Force, your meter would be read by a squad of hooting dickheads who would accidentally demolish your house while failing to walk around your garden fence. And it would be awesome

      EDF! EDF! EDF!.

      Insect Armageddon was rubbish compared to 2017 though. Nowhere near as funny.

    • 08/11/2011 at 19:37 noerartnoe says:

      UAC was in Doom? Why would Windows’ User Access Control be i-….actually that makes a morbid kind of sense, now that I think on it.

    • 08/11/2011 at 20:23 DickSocrates says:

      Duke Nukem 3D did have EDF in it! Part of the ill advised expansion of the fiction to include friendly military.

      http://dukenukem.wikia.com/wiki/Earth_Defense_Forces

      EDF, not to be confused with the EDL. (Right-wing dickheads in England. By SOME STRANGE COINCIDENCE, there is always violence when they are around.)

    • 08/11/2011 at 22:35 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

      Earth Defence Force were the bad guys in Red Faction. Perhaps that’s what you were thinking of?

  14. 08/11/2011 at 16:02 mike2R says:

    reply fail

  15. 08/11/2011 at 16:03 The Sombrero Kid says:

    will be good :D

  16. 08/11/2011 at 16:10 Pijama says:

    What the fuck is this about?

    EDF!

  17. 08/11/2011 at 16:12 Michael Hoss says:

    EDF! EDF! EDF!

    Although I played it already on the console (yeah, some readers of RPS own one). However the end of the game still sucks and will prbly suck on pc too. But the Game was so fucking awsome.

    EDF! EDF! EDF!

  18. 08/11/2011 at 16:13 Dominic White says:

    I rented this one. It’s the one they outsourced to an American studio. It’s definitely more polished than previous games in the series… but just nowhere near as fun, honestly.

    They cut the campaign down to a miserable 15 levels (EDF games typically have 50+), there’s no final boss (you see the alien mothership!… the end!), there’s a terrible, tedious grind to unlock the required level to use guns you’ve already found, they added INVISIBLE WALLS to a series about blowing up cities without restraint, etc etc. Enemy waves are smaller, but the game balances this out by constantly spawning them all around you, the bigger enemies barely react to being shot (none of the hilarious bouncy robot limbs of the earlier games as you smash them around) and so on and so forth.

    It’s shinier. It’s flashier. It’s slightly better written, although still in a knowingly B-movie style. It’s just kinda soulless, and I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did Zangeki No Reginliev, a Wii game by the original EDF studio that basically transplanted the gameplay into norse mythology.

    • 08/11/2011 at 18:02 Baines says:

      I don’t know how serious he was, but the CEO of Vicious Cycle once posted that they had considered releasing the mothership battle (the teased and expected end of the game) as DLC.

    • 08/11/2011 at 19:10 Dominic White says:

      If that’s true, then it’s an almighty kick in the balls for the fans, and a prime example of DLC abuse at its worst. Showing the final boss to players in the final seconds, then saying ‘Want to fight this? Pay up!’ is just dickish.

    • 09/11/2011 at 04:51 Wedge says:

      Wait wait wait. This one didn’t even have a mothership battle? So glad I skipped this outsourced piece of trash. The good news is Sandlot is making a proper new EDF on their own. Though it’s fair to say there’s no chance of that one coming out on PC.

  19. 08/11/2011 at 16:14 Mark.W.OBrien says:

    OMFG!

    I thought with all the excitement that this story was going to be about episode 3 or something – and that was some sort of antlion.

    EDF!
    Episode3 Definitely Finished!

  20. 08/11/2011 at 16:21 n0s says:

    EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF!

    (What the hell is EDF?)

    • 08/11/2011 at 18:17 bsplines says:

      Earth Defense Force, the general name of the series.

      ps. EDF! EDF! EDF!

    • 08/11/2011 at 23:03 realmenhuntinpacks says:

      I may be wrong, but it seems Mr.G is taking a very light-hearted rip out of our most idiotic citizens, sometimes glimpsed chanting EDL! EDL! with a confused look in their eyes outside English provincial townhalls. I’m up for getting donkey-jacketed-up and going for an aggro-style pro-EDF march straight through Gamestation, WHO’S WITH ME?

      EDF EDF EDF EDF!

  21. 08/11/2011 at 16:21 jonfitt says:

    I heard EDF! EDF! Insect Armageddon has long levels and no checkpoints. Here’s hoping the PC version has quicksave.
    .
    I hate having to redo things and often have to pick up and put down games nowadays.

  22. 08/11/2011 at 16:22 TotalBiscuit says:

    Oh great, they’re releasing the worst EDF game on PC. Forgive me if I don’t rejoice, that game didn’t touch my console again after the first couple of hours.

    • 08/11/2011 at 16:32 Kieron Gillen says:

      All they need is something that scales the number of ants to the hardware, and it could be THE BEST GAME EVER.

      I have faith! Like a big idiot!

      KG

    • 08/11/2011 at 16:35 Dominic White says:

      If it were Sandlot in charge, I would have faith. So far, Vicious Cycle are 3 for 3 on disappointing me.

      They’d need to scale up the number of enemies. Remove the invisible walls. Allow you to destroy buildings outside of tagged, destructible structures. Remove the XP grind and let you switch classes at will… They’d have to do a lot to fix it. They won’t. They’re announcing that the PC version will launch alongside a bunch of weapon pack DLC bits.

      Edit: Oh yeah, and most of all, they need to make the game twice as long and not end the moment you see the alien mothership. EDF2 on the *PS2* had you seeing the mothership very early. You fight it around the halfway mark. It’s defeated, the city is in ruins, the earth is safe, and then the REAL mothership appears, with a small hole in its underbelly – turns out that what you killed was a scout ship. Then the game gets real.

    • 08/11/2011 at 16:41 AndrewC says:

      You are mean, Dominic White, for those sound like genuinely bad mistakes for an EDF EDF game to make, and I can’t dismiss them as whining!

  23. 08/11/2011 at 16:26 Oozo says:

    Even though it is apparently a let down compared to 2017, with added modding support, this could be THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD EVER.

  24. 08/11/2011 at 16:38 Bret says:

    They got the old man!

    Damn bugs! Go back to space!

  25. 08/11/2011 at 16:41 ShaunCG says:

    EDF EDF EDF EDF EDF

    Har de har har at everyone above complaining that the end of the game was rubbish. You just outed yourselves at only beating the game on normal. I mean, me too, and I’m working on hard, but I’m still a special flower because I figured out that the end of the normal campaign is not the game’s actual ending.

    Anyway, this is the best of news, as I love the PC, but I also love EDF. I hope people who do not own consoletoys buy this game and we see more PCDF in the future.

    EDF EDF EDF EDF EDF

    (Btw, I hate self-promoting in comment threads as it feels so crass… but still, EDF is most definitely relevant to our interests: http://www.arcadianrhythms.com/tag/earth-defence-force/ or http://www.arcadianrhythms.com/tag/earth-defense-force/ for cousins from the other side!)

  26. 08/11/2011 at 16:44 Fastkarate says:

    Let me be another voice in the choir: don’t get too excited. It’s still kind of fun, but it’s not nearly the same level of insanity/stupidity that made the first EDF so great.

  27. 08/11/2011 at 16:46 RevStu says:

    “the series has never found its way from the consoles, right back to its 1991 SNES original”

    The SNES game is a completely different and unrelated one, you giant galoot. The first game in the proper EDF series was Global Defence Force on PS2 in 2005.

  28. 08/11/2011 at 17:00 kraken says:

    FOE! FOE! FOE!
    Wait, wrong game.

  29. 08/11/2011 at 17:18 pakoito says:

    So the game minus 40 weapons.

  30. 08/11/2011 at 17:32 Springy says:

    Curse those confounded Ravagers and their mutated creepy crawlies.

    I hear there were no giant robots in Insect Armageddon. Confirm/disconfirm?

    • 08/11/2011 at 17:33 Dominic White says:

      There are giant robots, but they aren’t nearly as fun to fight. You just pour ammo into their glowing weak-spots until they fall over. Aside from said glowing weak-spots gradually darkening, there’s no indication that you’re doing damage or even hitting them.

  31. 08/11/2011 at 17:32 tomemozok says:

    #include
    int main()
    {
    while(a=1;a!=0)
    printf(“EDF!!!”);
    a++;
    return 0;
    }

    The edf crash! :D

  32. 08/11/2011 at 17:36 tomemozok says:

    #include
    int main()
    {
    Printf(“the EDF Crash!\n”);
    While(a=1;a!=0)
    printf(“EDF!!!\n”);
    return 0;

    The edf crash! :D

  33. 08/11/2011 at 17:43 Tei says:

    WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWO!!!!!!

    EDF is about the most lovable game from the consoles. This, Red Dead Redention and Demon Souls are the niciniest console games we don’t have :P.

    But now we will get EDF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  34. 08/11/2011 at 17:53 squareking says:

    Here’s hoping they bring 2017 to PC as well.

  35. 08/11/2011 at 18:01 Obc says:

    EDF EDF EDF EDF EDF EDF EDF

    anyway: just a quick question: if RPS doesn’t care for Game Review Scores why does it mention them in the article? why is it important to point out that Gillan gave it a 9/10 ?

  36. 08/11/2011 at 18:42 RogB says:

    GDF!
    (cough)

  37. 08/11/2011 at 18:58 yourgrandma says:

    YESSS!!11 Play the first one all the time on the pcsx2 emulator freaking amazing game. However the PAL version of the game was called global defense force. so GDF GDF GDF?

  38. 08/11/2011 at 19:05 GBolt says:

    “EDF! EDF! EDF!”

  39. 08/11/2011 at 19:30 hydra9 says:

    EDF! EDF! First two games are AWESOME. Haven’t played this one. Am gonna buy it even if it’s not a shadow of its older brothers.

  40. 08/11/2011 at 20:12 Spindrift says:

    EDF was spoken of in glowing terms by that guy from Extra Credits, so even if I’ve never actually played any of these, I’m actually looking forward to this. I am, you see, very amenable to the positive reviews of funny voiced videos on the internet.

    Er, I mean, EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF!

  41. 08/11/2011 at 23:36 fishyboy says:

    if only they’d just improve the multiplayer in 2017 and release that to pc.

    if only.

    EDF! EDF!

  42. 08/11/2011 at 23:39 postmanmanman says:

    I know Insect Armageddon isn’t as popular as the rest of the series, but it’s still the most fun I’ve had with a shooter this year. I am going to (re) buy this so hard.

  43. 09/11/2011 at 00:46 BattleXer says:

    Soldner!

  44. 09/11/2011 at 01:10 Josh W says:

    Not sure which one I played, but my freind jetpacked around with a homing multi-rocket launcher, continually landing on buildings, then destroying them shooting the things that were climing up to him, while I rolled between the legs of giant spiders shooting spacecraft out of the sky while my turret gunned the spiders down with plasma.

    It felt very loose, slightly broken, and very hard to see what you were doing. But we kept wanting to continue.

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