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Medal of Honor™
- Released
- Oct 12, 2010
- Platforms
- Last updated
Updates & announcements
- Announcement
- PC Gamer
Humble Origin Bundle earns nearly $10.5 million for charity before ending
The Humble Origin Bundle is over. The Electronic Arts-sponsored sale concluded yesterday with a grand total of $10.5 million in sales according to the Humble Bundle Twitter account. More than 2.1 million bundles were sold, with almost all of the proceeds (tips to the Humble Bundl
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The Humble Origin Bundle is over. The Electronic Arts-sponsored sale concluded yesterday with a grand total of $10.5 million in sales according to the Humble Bundle Twitter account.
More than 2.1 million bundles were sold, with almost all of the proceeds (tips to the Humble Bundle organizers are the only exclusion) going toward charities such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Watsi, the Human Rights Campaign, the American Red Cross, and the American Cancer Society.
The bundle, which launched on August 14, offered redeemable keys for Dead Space, Dead Space 3, Burnout Paradise, Mirror’s Edge, Crysis 2, and Medal of Honor under the standard Humble Bundle “name your price” deal, with Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 added if your price beat the average. EA and Humble also added two games—Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Uprising and Populous—on August 22, for those who paid more than the average price.
The Origin bundle was easily the most successful sale Humble Bundle has offered, crossing $7 million in sales in just five days. While most companies participating in Humble Bundle promotions can receive a cut, EA donated all of its proceeds to charities. Good on you, EA! - PC Gamer
EA’s Humble Origin Bundle raises nearly $8.5 million, adds Red Alert 3: Uprising and Populous
EA getting a Humble Bundle sounds like a thing that should raise eyebrows, but considering how much money is being raised for charity right now - and how many normally-quite-expensive games can be had for pocket money - I'm finding that my cynicism chip is just not activating. Th
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EA getting a Humble Bundle sounds like a thing that should raise eyebrows, but considering how much money is being raised for charity right now - and how many normally-quite-expensive games can be had for pocket money - I'm finding that my cynicism chip is just not activating. The explosion-studded bundle has raised nearly $8.5 million already, with EA's entire share going to charities the Human Rights Campaign, watsi, the American Cancer Society, the American Red Cross, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. In addition to the likes of Dead Space 3, Mirror's Edge and Battlefield 3, you can now get C&C: Red Alert 3 - Uprising and Populous if you pay over the average of $4.84.
Here's the full list. Pay what you want to get Dead Space, Dead Space 3, Burnout Paradise Ultimate, Crysis 2, Mirror's Edge and Medal of Honor, or pay over the average to get C&C: Red Alert 3 Uprising, Populous, Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 thrown in too. You'll get Steam keys for some of the games, plus the soundtracks to BF3 and The Sims 3. It's quite a good deal, and it's quite a good deal that ends in five days. - PC Gamer
Humble Origin Bundle worth more than $200, all of EA’s share goes to charity
The Humble Origin Bundle is live, allowing you to pay what you want for Dead Space, Dead Space 3, Burnout Paradise, Crysis 2, Mirror's Edge, and Medal of Honor. Paying more than the average (roughly $5 at the time of this post) unlocks Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 with some DLC.A
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The Humble Origin Bundle is live, allowing you to pay what you want for Dead Space, Dead Space 3, Burnout Paradise, Crysis 2, Mirror's Edge, and Medal of Honor. Paying more than the average (roughly $5 at the time of this post) unlocks Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 with some DLC.And all of EA's share goes to charity.
I know, right?
The offer runs for two weeks, and benefits the Human Rights Campaign, watsi, the American Cancer Society, the American Red Cross, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Bought separately, the bundle would cost over $200 U.S. While Origin keys are provided for all of the games, you'll also get Steam keys for each of the games that are available on Valve's platform. Origin is also throwing in the soundtracks for Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3.
Check out the whole bundle at HumbleBundle.com. It's a heck of a deal. - PC Gamer
Medal of Honor developer Danger Close is no more
DICE may be developing every single game at Electronic Arts that doesn’t involve dribbling or scoring touchdowns, but where does that leave Danger Close, the developer known for making the recent Medal of Honor games? EA took the franchise out of rotation back in January, and it
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DICE may be developing every single game at Electronic Arts that doesn’t involve dribbling or scoring touchdowns, but where does that leave Danger Close, the developer known for making the recent Medal of Honor games? EA took the franchise out of rotation back in January, and it appears the developers have received the same treatment as well.
In an interview with Eurogamer, EA Games executive Patrick Söderlund verified that the developer had been disbanded and that many of the employees who worked there had been transferred to different areas at EA.
"Danger Close as it was doesn't exist anymore," Söderlund said. "There are people who left LA, people who work with DICE LA, and there are some who work in other parts of EA, as always when something gets dismantled."
We didn’t care for the last two Medal of Honor games, but it’s always a bummer to see a developer close its doors. We hope everyone who didn't find a job at EA lands on their feet, and that everyone finds more success in the future. - PC Gamer
Layoffs hit EA studios in LA and Montreal
EA has confirmed that an unspecified number of layoffs took place in Los Angeles and Montreal today, citing the transition to new hardware—namely the PlayStation 4—as the catalyst. The scope of the layoffs remains unclear, but sources such as Ubisoft designer Stephanie Harvey are
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EA has confirmed that an unspecified number of layoffs took place in Los Angeles and Montreal today, citing the transition to new hardware—namely the PlayStation 4—as the catalyst. The scope of the layoffs remains unclear, but sources such as Ubisoft designer Stephanie Harvey are claiming that Army of Two developer Visceral Montreal has closed entirely.
EA Senior Director of Corporate Communications John Reseburg tells PC Gamer that EA is "not disclosing headcount impact on individual teams or studios," but added that "EA Montreal is a key development studio where our long-term plan is to sharpen our teams' focus on console and mobile games."
On the layoffs in general, EA President Frank Gibeau wrote in a blog post that these changes were expected as the company transitions to next-gen consoles and mobile games.
"Thousands of our existing employees have been retrained and redeployed to work on the new platforms and initiatives," wrote Gibeau. "But when it is not possible to redeploy a team, we soften the tough decisions with assistance. This week we let some people go in Los Angeles, Montreal as well as in some smaller locations. These are good people and we have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease their transition to a new job."
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel is currently a console exclusive, but whether or not EA's total layoffs will affect the PC gaming scene is yet to be determined. LA is the home of Victory Games, which is developing Command & Conquer, as well as Medal of Honor developer Danger Close.
After Medal of Honor: Warfighter's poor reception, the series is currently "out of the rotation" according to a statement made last month by EA COO Peter Moore. Meanwhile, Gibeau pointed out the "huge ovation" Battlefield 4 received when it was shown to 500 GameStop store managers earlier this week.
On a broader note, we may see more corporations adjust as they shift focus to next-gen consoles, and we'll be watching closely as the console market's gravity pulls on the tides of PC gaming. - PC Gamer
No more Medal of Honor: EA pulls from rotation due to poor reception
The critical response to Medal of Honor: Warfighter was pretty unforgiving, and so was its performance at retail. We didn't pull any punches, calling it "a boring, unoriginal, morally bankrupt, ethically dubious glorification of war, that's not worth your time or money." Nothing
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The critical response to Medal of Honor: Warfighter was pretty unforgiving, and so was its performance at retail. We didn't pull any punches, calling it "a boring, unoriginal, morally bankrupt, ethically dubious glorification of war, that's not worth your time or money." Nothing ambiguous about that! In short, you could probably call it "a bomb". As a result, EA has announced during its third quarter financial call that the Medal of Honor franchise has been taken "out of rotation".
The news comes straight from the mouth of EA COO Peter Moore, who believes the game was good, despite everything. "The game was solid, but the focus on combat authenticity did not resonate with consumers, he said. "Critics were polarised and gave the game scores which were frankly lower than deserved. This one is behind us now. We are taking Medal of Honor out of rotation and have to bring year-over-year continuity to our shooter offerings."
Labels president Frank Gibeau also put in his two cents, saying that "we're a hit-driven business where it's about what you can build in a certain period of time and really deliver for the marketplace, and frankly we missed on Medal of Honor. And we take responsibility for that."
But what of that other major EA property, Battlefield? Things are looking pretty rosy over there: Battlefield 3 Premium has accrued nearly 3 million subscribers since it launched in May. No surprises where EA's shooter focus will be going forward, then. - PC Gamer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ map pack out next week
Not to be confused with Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming film, of which this is sort of a tie-in to, it's been revealed that Medal of Honor: Warfighter's 'Zero Dark Thirty' map pack is due out on December 17th. As the name suggests, it's tastefully set in the region of Pakistan in whic
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Not to be confused with Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming film, of which this is sort of a tie-in to, it's been revealed that Medal of Honor: Warfighter's 'Zero Dark Thirty' map pack is due out on December 17th. As the name suggests, it's tastefully set in the region of Pakistan in which Osama Bin Laden was tracked down and killed. If killing each other on a plot of land vaguely related to a recent military event isn't exciting enough for you, there will also be new weapon camos and attachments. If you pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe version or bought the Limited Edition of MoH: Warfighter, you'll be getting this for free; the rest of us will have to stump up $9.99.
The news came via a post which has since been deleted for some reason, but VG24/7 and Polygon picked it up before it was removed from the net. Zero Dark Thirty comprises the maps Darra Gun Market and Chitra Compound, and - as VG24/7 report - EA is donating $1 from each sale of the map pack to military family charities and veterans. - PC Gamer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter review
Things I have learned about war from the wholly authentic Medal of Honor: Warfighter: #1: Door opening privileges are granted with seniority. #2: A soldier’s sidearm, whether a pistol or a machinegun, has infinite ammo. #3: If you run far enough ahead of your squad, you might see
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Things I have learned about war from the wholly authentic Medal of Honor: Warfighter: #1: Door opening privileges are granted with seniority. #2: A soldier’s sidearm, whether a pistol or a machinegun, has infinite ammo. #3: If you run far enough ahead of your squad, you might see the moment your enemies blink into existence. #4: Bullets won’t kill you if you’re in the middle of a melee attack animation. #5: Tier One operators are total badasses and can kill hundreds of people on their own. #6: War is super-fun, and is a passion for some people, kind of like water skiing or samba dancing. #7: It is totally justifiable to repeatedly abandon your wife and child to go fight in a war. Your wife and child should probably just learn to accept both that and your inevitable death. #8: A lot of types of beard make you look like a bell-end.
It can be unfair to criticise a videogame for failing to live up to its marketing, when developers so rarely control their own. Instead ee should criticise a game for the messages it communicates while we play. Medal of Honor: Warfighter never gets near the “authenticity” it promised pre-release, but it has plenty to say about soldiers, and about war, and all of it is hateful.
Oh hey, a turret section! Great.
The problem – aside from just generally being a bad, boring game, which I’ll get to – is that Warfighter adopts a tone of uncritical reverence for both its subjects and its subject matter. Written by Tier One operators while on active duty – which explains a lot – Warfighter’s story depicts soldiers as superheroes, not “manufactured or purchased” but “born into this life, blessed with a higher sense of purpose”.
You play as two of these superheroes, Stump and Preacher, as they investigate a terrorist operation smuggling explosives across the world, and as Preacher deals with problems at home. They do what needs to be done – gruffly mowing down bad guys in terrorism hotspots, ignoring orders when necessary, and occasionally deploying a hardy “bro”.
These are the men we want/need on walls, as Jack Nicholson described in A Few Good Men. Except A Few Good Men doesn’t deify Jack Nicholson in the way Warfighter fawns over its bland leads. It turns out to be an issue of tone.
A cargo ship sequence? I can barely container my excitement.
You can portray war like a silly, globe-trotting disaster movie, as Modern Warfare does, and you can scrape by without questioning your character’s relentless killing. But when your story is told with stony-faced seriousness, a little critical distance might be a good thing. In fact, isn’t it both dishonest and ethically abhorrent to do anything else? If your videogame is set in the real world and its characters kill hundreds of people without feels or personal injury, and then your videogame unthinkingly applauds those characters, you’ve created a multi-million dollar celebration not of heroism, but of violence and killing.
And the shooting is shit, too. Let’s move away from the moral quandaries and tonal contradictions, just for a moment. The trick to enjoying the mainstream singleplayer military shooter, which includes Modern Warfare and Battlefield, is to remove them from the broader first-person shooter genre. Instead, think of them as arcade rail shooters, and therefore solely about popping out from behind cover, popping heads, and occasionally popping a new clip into your gun. By these meagre ambitions, Modern Warfare 3 was a mildly enjoyable romp – and Warfighter is still a failure.
Slipped and died of embarrassment.
Each of these games split neatly into three elements: the guns, the setting, and the set-pieces. War of Medal: Honorfighter’s guns are the usual fare. You start each mission with what my uneducated mind thinks is a machinegun, but might be a sub-machinegun. You’re then free to pick up AKs or shotguns and myriad other machinegun/sub-machinegun variations from your fallen foes.
I mainly stuck with the weapon each mission gave me, as they tended to have better scopes and iron sight, and because all the guns felt rattly and weak anyway. The setting of the game changes with each mission, and varies in geography if not in detail. Over the course of the game you fight in places like Pakistan, the Philippines, Yemen, and Bosnia, but every locale is depicted without personality. Concrete crumbles, dust fills the air, and men pop up from behind cover to kill you. Even when you visit Dubai, a fascinating urban folly, you could easily mistake it for a movie studio backlot somewhere in southern California.
There’s no artistry in how the game shapes these battlefields. You slide from narrow corridors to open areas filled with crates, boxes, and burnt-out cars. Occasionally the lighting obscures where you’re meant to go, rather than being used to lead you there. Time and again areas that look passable turn out to be unreachable due to invisible barriers. You never interact with the environment in an interesting way.
Trees more indestructible than buildings.
Which brings us to set-pieces, which are normally how these games imprint themselves on your memory. They’re the moments when the game breaks the run-and-gun formula to offer you something different, and they’re a fair watermark for the varying quality of these kinds of games. For example, Modern Warfare 1 has three standout moments: the nuclear explosion, the ghillie suit stealth section, and the creepy, quiet AC-130 mission. By comparison, Battlefield 3 has only one that really stands out, in its fighter jet mission.
Honor of War: Fightermedal has none. It tries. There’s a sniper mission, where you take out enemies while accounting for bullet drop. There’s a couple of sections where you drive a remote-control robot with a machinegun attached. There’s mounted gun turret sections, on a helicopter and a boat. You get to steer the boat at one point and, in the closest the game comes to a unique experience, there are a few driving sections. The best of the latter has you dodging enemy patrols by pulling into lay-bys. It’s a nice idea.
The three previously mentioned elements – guns, setting, set-pieces – coalesce into a tidal wave of apathy, and make the experience of playing Warfighter feel like a kind of spiritual death. How many burnt-out cars have I, will I, can I crouch behind in my life? How many times can I fire a mounted gun, making sure not to hold my finger down too long to avoid overheating? It’s an oppressive, grinding slog.
Wait. Yours or mine?
As some consolation, the multiplayer at least fares slightly better. There are a few different modes, but I had the most fun in Hot Point. Each level has five bomb sites, which unlock in a random order. The attackers must blow up three of those bomb sites to win the match, while the defenders must prevent that from happening at three sites to win. This creates a lot of push-and-pull drama, last minute explosions or defusing, and rounds last long enough for new players to learn the map.
There’s also the neat idea of ‘fire teams’, which works like a small-scale version of Battlefield’s squad system. On any given server, you’ll be paired with a random buddy. You can spawn on that buddy and replenish one another’s health and ammo, and if they avenge your death, you’ll immediately respawn.
It bonds you to a stranger in a fun and immediate way.
Hot Point multiplayer is a rare highlight.
Otherwise, the multiplayer is held together by the same systems of points and medals and unlocks as established by every other game of this type. I haven’t had time before writing this review to advance very far in these systems, so we’ll revisit the multiplayer at a later date. Assuming that there’s anyone else still playing, that is; the servers are already worryingly quiet.
Here are the next two entries on my list of things communicated by the boring, soulless, not-at-all authentic Medal of Honor: Warfighter. #9: Hey, didn’t Call of Duty sell well? #10: There won’t be a new Battlefield game until next year, so I guess we should try to fill that gap.
There is no gap for a game like this. Keep playing Battlefield 3 or any of the other, better games released this year. Or, I don’t know, maybe you could take up water skiing or samba dancing.
Terrorist beard.
Expect to pay: $60/£30
Release: Out now
Developer: EA Danger Close
Publisher: EA
Multiplayer: 20-player, 4 modes, plus ‘real Ops’ hardcore modifier
Link: www.medalofhonor.com - PC Gamer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter launch trailer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter is now out in the US - sequel to the so-so reboot of the series that patriotically gunblammed its way through a homogeneous mass of life-weary Afghanis in 2010. And to celebrate the launch of the game, and its sun-eclipsingly huge day one patch, EA have
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Medal of Honor: Warfighter is now out in the US - sequel to the so-so reboot of the series that patriotically gunblammed its way through a homogeneous mass of life-weary Afghanis in 2010. And to celebrate the launch of the game, and its sun-eclipsingly huge day one patch, EA have revealed this launch trailer in which lots of things explode to the triumphant but poignant wail of electric guitars.
As one character says sagely, "We're going to take the fight to them - wherever they are, wherever they go." If you would also like to take some of this fight, possibly to a threatening but nonspecific them, check the video after the jump.
We've only just got our review code through (which usually indicates that the game's publisher considers it critic-proof or the very opposite of that), but we will get our impressions of the game to you as soon as possible. - PC Gamer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter day one patch contains essential fixes
Day one patches are sometimes used to circumvent disk deadlines, giving developers the opportunity to keep fixing things right up to launch day. If a game has to be shipped but isn't entirely polished yet, a day one fix can do the trick. Medal of Honor's birthday update is partic
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Day one patches are sometimes used to circumvent disk deadlines, giving developers the opportunity to keep fixing things right up to launch day. If a game has to be shipped but isn't entirely polished yet, a day one fix can do the trick. Medal of Honor's birthday update is particularly essential. It adds "new features" like to the ability to "add friends and join parties while in-game." It also fixes weapon bugs like a classic "very exploitable" no-scope bug and changes the VOIP team channel so that it "no longer includes players from the other team." Hmmm.
The patch also fixes "an issue where the default difficulty was set to Easy instead of Normal" and fixes instances in which "controls would become unresponsive under certain conditions." It also removes "progression stoppers" in the single player campaign. Unsurprisingly, EA "heartily encourages all Medal of Honor Warfighter players to download and install the patch as soon as they are able." You can find the full patch notes over on the EA site. Right click on Medal of Honor in your Origin library and select "check for updates" to get your copy fixed up. - PC Gamer
EA stop selling real Medal Of Honor weapons
EA have backed down from the Project Honor charity, which was raising money for soldiers' families through the sale of real weapons featured in Medal Of Honor: Warfighter. The press' negative response to EA's sale of real tomahawks and other weapons in order to "benefit the famil
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EA have backed down from the Project Honor charity, which was raising money for soldiers' families through the sale of real weapons featured in Medal Of Honor: Warfighter. The press' negative response to EA's sale of real tomahawks and other weapons in order to "benefit the families of fallen Special Operations Warriors" has caused them to abandon the project.
Greg Goodrich, executive producer at EA, spoke to Eurogamer at Gamescom, saying that due to the the negative publicity "the Voodoo Tomahawk has since been removed from our website."
He went on to defend the project: "That was an effort to raise a lot of money for charity, and we were well on our way to raising a lot of money with that tomahawk, but I don't know what will happen with that now...That whole effort, we've been working with those partners because we wanted to be authentic, and we wanted to give back to the communities. Every one of those partners, none of them paid a dime for product placement - all the money generated went to Project Honor."
There seem to be some genuine good intentions behind the charity sale, but it's surprising that the organisers didn't pick up on how weird and scary it is for an entertainment company to sell dangerous weapons. What are they going to do with all those Tomahawks? They could get into some convincing Assassin's Creed 3 cosplay, or craft a huge iron throne for John Riccitiello. As reported last week, EA could be looking for a buyer, so if you're running low on deadly axes, you might want to consider putting together a bid. - PC Gamer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter preview
Don’t ask how many people they’ve killed. They hate that,” EA’s representative tells me. “And please stay away from politics.” That’s right, readers. It’s time to find out just how authentic and respectful this year’s other military shooter is. So sit back and get ready to discov
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Don’t ask how many people they’ve killed. They hate that,” EA’s representative tells me. “And please stay away from politics.” That’s right, readers. It’s time to find out just how authentic and respectful this year’s other military shooter is. So sit back and get ready to discover just what gun accoutrements are ‘in’ this season.
My cynicism doesn’t last. Once ‘Nate’ and ‘Kevin’ stroll into the room (no surnames given, no interviews allowed) and I hear the tale of how Medal of Honor: Warfighter came into being, it’s hard to keep joking. Likewise I can cock my head to the left so far that it’s practically horizontal, yet I still feel a quiet awe for any one who can look me in the eye and say, “My mind is my weapon. My guns are an extension of my will.”
Warfighter started out separately from Medal of Honor, as a franchise all its own, its origins a ‘vent book’ that Nate and Kevin wrote over a bottle of vodka during a spell in an undisclosed volatile region, frustrated by the dithering politicians back home. In time this became ‘Faceless’ - a document with the juiciest parts removed and a narrative locked in place, which in turn found its way to the desk of (then Vivendi) executive producer Greg Goodrich.
“It was very different in the beginning, that manuscript,” explains Goodrich, now at EA Danger Close. “That story; it had a lot of teeth, it was very aggressive. Very dark in places.” It was pitched to EA, and had been in production for six months before board-level machinations saw the team merged with that of the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot. As such the Warfighter project was hustled beneath Medal of Honor’s camo-coloured umbrella late in the last game’s development, and slated as material for a sequel. “We lifted Mother and Preacher out of their story and dropped them into the last game,” says Goodrich, a man with a rich PC past in both Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Kingpin. “We intentionally kept Preacher very quiet, as we knew his story was something special.”
For the Tier 1 operators providing the authenticity (and by extension, the marketing) this was anything but a smooth transition – to the extent that during the development of Medal of Honor, Goodrich penned two resignation letters to help get their views across to the EA brass. Now though, with the warriors themselves penning the Warfighter storyline and a legion of their ‘brother’ consultants given final edit, Warfighter is finally going to get its time in the sun. Quite the process for a game about crouching behind stuff, in order to shoot the heads of terrorists who are also hiding behind stuff.
In terms of Medal of Honor itself, Warfighter’s biggest departures are that of geography and history. Like Call of Duty, the game is now dispensing with real world battles and frolicking in fiction – chasing the manufacture and distribution of PETN explosives through a global network of locations such as Somalia and the Philippines.
“We’re not jumping around the world just for the sake of jumping around the world,” says Goodrich, a man whose every other sentence is liberally doused in words like ‘honour’ and ‘respect’. “Everything in this game – every mission, every event, every location that we go to – has a dotted line to something that has happened. When gamers Google these locations, they’re going to find a host of bad things that happened to good people.”
To illustrate his point, Goodrich turns to the screen behind him and conjures an example. The mission is a raid on the flooded Capital Building of a typhoon-struck Isabela City, in the Philippines. Now powered by the same engine as Battlefield 3, this is a game destined to make your graphics card sing. Murky water sloshes around your feet beautifully, grenades leave a pleasant fizz in the air and chandeliers swing violently as they catch the blast. It’s a slice of game that screams military shooter, although I’m promised the long-range head pops and stealth of the previous game are still a priority.
“If there’s a gunfight in a confined space with wood panelling and lattice, and it’s half-flooded, what’s that going to look like?” asks Goodrich, as we watch a gunfight set in a half-flooded, confined space with wood panelling being splintered. “It’s going to be messy, it’s going to be dirty, it’s going to be gritty. We tried to get this wonderful ballet between water shooting up, wood coming down and stuff just coming at you at all times.” As the player character Preacher climbs the stairs towards the room where the hostages are, a gentle haze of spent cordite hangs in the air – although you’ll barely have a second to notice it before a PETN charge hurls him backwards, his arms and legs flailing in front of the screen.
For developer Danger Close it’s all about nailing the feeling of personal, situational combat, which engenders their concentration on the microdestruction around you: the splintered banisters and the sheaves of paper hurled upwards and outwards to flutter back down to the water. “You look at the competition and you say, ‘I’m not going too stylised or too Hollywood’. The groove makes itself,” says Chris Salazar, an art director recently purloined from Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops team. “We’re not making it feel like you’re a camera with a lens in front of you, where we throw grape jelly at you when you’ve been shot.”
In reality, the game’s burly Tier 1 writers patiently explain, they probably wouldn’t go through a door if they suspected there were five Abu Sayyaf militants aiming AK47s at it at head height. This being a game, however, you get a SWAT 4/Ghost Recon-esque choice of breaching manoeuvres (frag grenade, flashbang, or old-fashioned kick) and a splendid slow-motion sequence of bodies being perforated. Note that the buzzword here is ‘authenticity’ rather than ‘realism’, providing a comfortable safehouse for these small moments of magic.
As the rescue mission proceeds, Preacher is presented with a linear ‘big gun on a vehicle’ session, as the player grabs the minigun on the bow of an escape boat. But wait, take back at least half of that sigh – because this is genuinely a high watermark of the ‘big gun on a vehicle’ form. The storm continues to batter Isabela City and the dinghy is caught in unpredictable currents and eddies as water surges through the streets. At one point, two rows of floating houses close in on it, the sides of the boat scratching porches, and I find myself mentally urging it forwards to freedom.
It’s a type of destruction previously unseen in videogames, with power lines collapsing and petrol stations exploding into the murk, and there’s an odd beauty in its chaos. It has to be noted that the foolhardy terrorists aiming rocket launchers at you also look great when they’re bent double in mid-air after your shots connect.
The best thing in the Medal of Honor reboot wasn’t any of its tough guys, but Afghanistan itself: its strange, beautiful landscapes made it a fascinating place to fight. There’s a chance that Warfighter will lose that vital sense of location, but otherwise all signs point towards it being a superior game. There are the technological advances, of course, but there’s also more cohesion in its development – both between the staff and its consultants, and between the teams working on its various constituent parts.
Last time around, DICE built Medal of Honor’s multiplayer – a different team on a different continent building an online rendition in a different engine. This time, enough map designers and network coders have been shepherded into the Danger Close pen to create their own online wares, with the same engine and mission statement as the rest of the game. Details are light, but the focus will be on letting gamers fight under their country’s flag.
That, then, is one dance partner in 2012’s military shooter tango. Medal of Honor is ready to plant a rose stem between Call of Duty’s teeth and do some aggressive twirling. We’ve all seen its moves before – we go through these motions every year – but for many the appeal will never die. And it’s strong praise indeed to underline that Warfighter is as confident, engaging and authentic as it is entirely familiar. - PC Gamer
The frustrating reality of Medal of Honor: Warfighter
There’s a mounted gun bit in the demo for Medal of Honor that was on display at GDC last night. It’s a spectacular piece of entertainment, a real showcase of what the tech they’re using to make the game can do. You’re driving along on a dingy as waves lash a flooded Thai city. Yo
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There’s a mounted gun bit in the demo for Medal of Honor that was on display at GDC last night. It’s a spectacular piece of entertainment, a real showcase of what the tech they’re using to make the game can do. You’re driving along on a dingy as waves lash a flooded Thai city. You’re ferrying rescued aid workers to an extraction point where you’re met by two transport helicopters. They hover, and, in a cutscene, your character attaches ropes to the base of the choppers and you’re lifted away into the sunset.
Throughout the presentation, Greg Goodrich, the creative mind behind the Medal of Honor revival earnestly explains just how important it is to respect the community of special forces operatives that have helped craft the game. They’ve got “an unprecedented group of two dozen” special forces operatives working as technical advisors, and full-time staff. The game itself is based on a book written as a way for two former operatives to “vent” on how they’d fight the war on terror. The game hops around high and low profile special forces missions from the real world: “every relevant mission from the past 30 years,” explains Greg, “including the capture of Noriega.”
The other section shown is a blast through a building. Terrorists hide behind tables, stalk round stairs, and die with graceful ragdolls. The player plants the ironsights over their faces, and they fall over.
The presentation is earnest and respectful.
But it’s still a mounted gun bit. And it’s still a corridor shooter bit.
Medal of Honor is immensely frustrating to me. Here’s the problem: I want to believe the hype. I want to see a publisher with the financial might of EA push to create a game that pushes the boundaries of what games with guns in do. I love Battlefield, but it’s better in hardcore mode. I’m happy with playing CoD, but I’d much prefer to be in ArmA.
Any reader of PC Gamer knows exactly what they’re going to get with Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The demo last night did nothing but tick boxes. But the presentation and the discussion made me pine for a game that offered so much more than the corridor shooter they displayed.
It’s out on October 23rd. - PC Gamer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter announced, built with Frostbite 2
Warfighter is an advanced follow-up to 2010's Medal of Honor reboot. It's being built with Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine and developed by Danger Close. DICE handled Medal of Honor's multiplayer mode, but GI mention that Warfighter's singleplayer and muiltiplayer will be buil
Original post
Warfighter is an advanced follow-up to 2010's Medal of Honor reboot. It's being built with Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine and developed by Danger Close. DICE handled Medal of Honor's multiplayer mode, but GI mention that Warfighter's singleplayer and muiltiplayer will be built by Danger Close this time round. EA have shared "a visual inspiration and representation" (man with gun pic) of Warfighter on the Medal of Honor site. There will be "more details to come in the next few weeks," they say. We'll have plenty more info for you in the next issue of PC Gamer UK.
There's no release date yet but if it's out this year it'll likely be going head to head with the next Call of Duty, which is rumoured to be Black Ops 2. Can it compete? For more of an idea of what they're working with, check out our Medal of Honor review. - Eurogamer
Medal of Honor: Warfighter out this October - report
UPDATE: The official Medal of Honor site has confirmed the game's existence and posted a piece of concept art. Take a look below. ORIGINAL STORY: The next game in EA's Medal of Honor series is subtitled Warfighter and arrives in stores this October, so says a GameInformer report.
Original postUPDATE: The official Medal of Honor site has confirmed the game's existence and posted a piece of concept art. Take a look below.
ORIGINAL STORY: The next game in EA's Medal of Honor series is subtitled Warfighter and arrives in stores this October, so says a GameInformer report.
Citing the new issue of Official Xbox Magazine's cover story, it claimed that the game will be developed in its entirety by Danger Close.
DICE developed the multiplayer for the 2010 series reboot but the Swedish studio apparently has no involvement this time around. However, the game will be built on its Frostbite 2.0 engine.
A full reveal is expected at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco early next month.
Its predecessor launched 18 months ago to considerable fanfare but mixed critical response.
"It certainly does little to advance the theory that videogames are responsible enough to tell stories within sensitive contexts - it's compelling and enjoyable to play on a visceral level, but it's a shame it lacks the creative bravery to match the courage of the heroes it so reveres," read Eurogamer's Medal of Honor review.
- Shacknews
Report: Medal of Honor Warfighter coming October
We've known for a while now that Danger Close has been working on a follow-up to its Medal of Honor reboot since its release in 2010. The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine finally outs the sequel, titled Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The FPS sequel is expected to arrive in Oct
Original postWe've known for a while now that Danger Close has been working on a follow-up to its Medal of Honor reboot since its release in 2010. The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine finally outs the sequel, titled Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The FPS sequel is expected to arrive in October.
Although much of the game's reveal is set for Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco next month, the magazine (via Game Informer) spills the beans on a few details.
Unlike the previous Medal of Honor game, Warfighter will run on the Frostbite engine, the same engine that powered Battlefield 3. (Medal of Honor's campaign used Unreal Engine, while the multiplayer used Frostbite.) In addition, the game is being wholly developed by Danger Close, with multiplayer duties no longer being passed onto DICE.
Expect to hear much more next month.
- Eurogamer
GTA5, COD to account for quarter of all year's game sales - report
Two video games, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Call of Duty, will account for around a quarter of all video game sales in the coming financial year, a report suggests. A third of all money made from video games in the next year will also come from just those two titles, US financial ana
Original postTwo video games, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Call of Duty, will account for around a quarter of all video game sales in the coming financial year, a report suggests.
A third of all money made from video games in the next year will also come from just those two titles, US financial analyst Baird Equity Research states (reported by Gamasutra).
Release dates for Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 and Activision's next Call of Duty game have yet to be announced, although it's a fair bet that both will launch before April 2013.
Originally designed to predict Electronic Arts' prospects, the report is less optimistic about EA's chances against the forthcoming financial year's twin gaming juggernauts.
Baird Equity analyst Sebastian Colin said the firm was "sceptical that EA will be able to show growth in its console segment".
Although not confirmed, EA is expected to launch a new Medal of Honor sequel later this year.
"Significantly" increased pressure from mobile gaming rival Zynga, plus uncertainties over EA's Wii U offering could also spell trouble for EA, Colin suggested.
- Announcement
Daily Deal - Medal of Honor, 75% off!
Today's Deal: Save 75% off Medal of Honor Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
Today's Deal: Save 75% off Medal of Honor
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! - Eurogamer
GAME outs new Medal of Honor, Need for Speed 13
Retailer GAME has let slip the contents of a confidential EA meeting on Twitter. Notably, mentions of a new Medal of Honor game and Need for Speed 13. And both, it sounds like, for release this year. "EA presentation was great," Game tweeted , autonomously, as if it were a real b
Original postRetailer GAME has let slip the contents of a confidential EA meeting on Twitter.
Notably, mentions of a new Medal of Honor game and Need for Speed 13. And both, it sounds like, for release this year.
"EA presentation was great," Game tweeted, autonomously, as if it were a real boy. "Had mentions of a new Medal of Honour [sic] and Need for Speed 13! EA have an exciting year ahead."
The tweet has now been removed. We're waiting to for official word back from EA.
Earlier in the day, GAME tweeted about its trip to see EA.
"This morning we're at an EA presentation, where we hope to see some pretty cool games! Don't know what we can say yet but stay tuned!"
So we did.
Neither of the games come as a surprise - they're expected but unannounced.
Last year's rubbish Need for Speed: The Run game was made by EA Black Box. Given EA's alternating Need for Speed development pattern - ensuring a game can be released each year - that means this year's NFS should be made by acclaimed Hot Pursuit team Criterion.
The last we heard of Criterion was that the UK studio was hiring staff to make an open world racer - much like the team's own Burnout Paradise was.
We already know Medal of Honor developer Danger Close to be working on a new MOH game. EA even teased the project via a leaflet found within the box of Battlefield 3.
Medal of Honor 2 would be an ideal way for EA to plug the autumn war-shooter hole left by Battlefield 3.