My Day with EA - Medal of Honor Preview.

Mr E

The words “Medal of Honor” give me nightmarish flashbacks to the Sniper’s Last Stand level in the original Allied Assault game. That mission had you creeping around a small town in Brittany, trying to find and secure a King Tiger tank located somewhere in the town. Tension is amplified by snipers positioned all round the town. Fast forward over 8 years, and I’m getting similar feelings watching a playthrough of a level from the new Medal of Honor game.

I was invited to London this week to a special EA presentation of their upcoming Medal of Honor game. It was held in the atmospheric basement of an abandoned building. Concrete floor, cold bricks, random pipework and a prison cell (complete with manacles) set the scene for what was to come. Even the recent controversy over the multi-player game did little to dampen the energy in the venue.

We were ushered into a briefing room with a huge screen for the presentation. EA’s Peter O’Reilly kicked off proceedings and informed us that he’d be playing through 2 sections of the game. After that, we’d get some hands-on time to try it out for ourselves. The lights dimmed and the game started.

In this section, you are one member in a team of four “Tier 1” operators. This is a scalpel mission - a precision operation where stealth and co-ordination are key. When the level starts, you are on a mountainside in Afghanistan, face to face with a goat. As he strolls off the screen, a lone shepherd is keeping watch. One of your team incapacitates him, and one by one, the other members stand up from their camouflaged positions. As “Rabbit”, you follow “Mother”, “Preacher” and “Voodoo” up the mountain. There is constant chatter from your AI team mates, and it’s very authentic. They instruct each other, there is banter between them, and there is a genuine sense of camaraderie and dependency. Slowly working your way up the mountain, you encounter pockets of insurgents. With co-ordinated manoeuvres, everyone takes aim at an enemy. One of your team mates counts down, and everyone takes a shot at the same time. There is no spraying and praying here – it’s all very precise.

As you work your way higher, a convoy of trucks blocks your ascent. You try calling for air support, but an anti-aircraft cannon is taking pot-shots at anything that comes close. With more teamwork, you get a chance to plant some explosives and destroy the cannon. To deal with the vehicles, you use a scope to mark them - seconds later missiles stream in from the left and obliterate them.

The demonstration ends after you take out a small enemy encampment. A team mate takes a plank of wood to create a makeshift ramp. As you make your way forward, you are ambushed by an insurgent and pushed to the ground. A gun is waved in your face and the guy starts shouting at you. Several seconds (and one bullet) later he is dead, and you’re being helped to your feet. Your team mate wastes no time in telling you that he saved your ass, and that’s where the first demo ends.

The second level we saw was something completely different. You are manning the weapons of an Apache helicopter, flying side by side with another. The weapons are explained to you by means of some target practice. Suddenly you’re looking at the side of the mountain in a grainy black and white view, as if on CCTV. The transition was jarring, but again the great audio chatter draws you in. The scene you see is outside a cave. Militia are taking boxes into a cave, and one of them starts loading a mortar. You’re instructed to take them out. You have to find 3 mortar positions, and you pan the camera around the side of the mountain like a warfare version of “Where’s Wally”. Once they’re taken care of, you’re back in the helicopter, heading towards a hillside town. The whole section is on rails. Target anything that moves and kill without prejudice. You have to prioritise the guys taking pot-shots at your chopper with rockets, or you'll see the mission failed screen when they shoot you out of the sky. The demonstration ends with you flying away from the town - the other chopper is incapacitated but still airborne.

The time to watch was over. It was time to get some hands on time with the game. We were directed towards a door off the main corridor. The entrance was flanked with ammo boxes and bricks, leading into a dark cavernous room with about 30 PS3s all running the game. Most of them were networked in a 12 vs. 12 game in the centre of the room, while 8 machines along the wall gave you a chance to play the apache helicopter level from the earlier demonstration.

I tried the single player game first. The helicopter section wasn’t very challenging, but it was good fun to play. After I’d finished that, one of the EA guys started me off on the scalpel demo that we’d seen earlier. I got about 60 seconds into it before some other EA guys told me I wasn’t allowed to play that level. Ah well, it was 60 seconds more than anyone else!

Time for some multiplayer. It was surprisingly fast paced, and pretty damn hard. It only takes a couple of shots to bring someone down, and that tended to happen a lot at the start. Once I got into a rhythm and got familiar with the level, it got easier. One team had to protect the wreckage of a helicopter from the other team, but it was really just a massive team death match. It was great fun, and I just wanted to keep playing.

I had a chance to chat with Craig Auld, UK Marketing Manager for EA after my hands-on experience, and it was tough getting information out of the guy! Questions about the number of maps, other game play types, DLC - all shot down! I did find out that the single player campaign is between 8 and 12 hours long (depending on ability). He is obviously very excited about the game, and he has a very busy couple of months ahead.

The final piece of news from the event was pretty special. I’ve been given permission by EA’s reps in Ireland to reveal exclusively on Boards that Chris Ryan, SAS legend and author, has written a prequel novel to the game, introducing all of the characters that you are going to be working with in the game. It'll be a preorder bonus for Gamestop in Ireland. His involvement will be officially announced tomorrow via press release. You heard it here first!

Chris was at the event yesterday, and was genuinely excited to be working with EA on the book. When asked what he thought of the game, he said it was very realistic, and that there were a number of elements in the game - especially the little details - that gave him flashbacks to his time in active duty.

Medal of Honor has a 3 week jump on its Call of Duty competition, and is definitely one to watch when it comes out on October 15th (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC).

Overheal

Very fascinating read E, I thought for a minute you copy and pasted it from somewhere else!

Apache mission sounds interesting. As if the designers were trying to get into the mind of the wikileaks helicopter pilot and so they designed a level around the concept in which to do it. Or perhaps there was no such implication. I don't know. Thats just what it read like to me. Either way it's important that games keep going there. We as a society ought to explore these situations we only hear about in the papers. Because we can always ask ourselves hypothetically, but unless we're put in those situations - even in simulation - we can't say with any clarity.

Otacon

Thanks Mr. E, very good read. Not a huge Chris Ryan fan tbh but I may give that book a go.

Mr E

I've just been told that Gamestop have the preorder exclusive on the Medal of Honor book in Ireland. I've updated my original post.

ReacherCreature

Nice one Mr. E. Been looking forward to this for a while and it's getting pretty exciting to play as special ops guys. Good post.

cherryghost

How much were you paid to say that? :pac:









Ah no, fair play, interesting read. Have it preordered already but your article further excites me :P

Mr E

I was representing Boards at the event, so everything is on the level.

Overheal

Mr E wrote: »

I was representing Boards at the event, so everything is on the level.

SeantheMan

Good Job Mr.E

I've loved MOH:AA from back in the day, still play it in leagues....and unfortunately endured dissappointment after dissappointment with Pacific Assault/Airborne ... but hopefully this will revive the series

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get invited ?

Also...any word on Anti-Cheat ?...is it Punkbuster ??...please don't say DMW were mentioned :P :P

Mr E

SeantheMan wrote: »

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get invited ?

By PM.

Also...any word on Anti-Cheat ?...is it Punkbuster ??...please don't say DMW were mentioned :P :P

Sorry, no idea ... it never came up.

Myrddin

I can honestly say I'm not a bit jealous, honest to God. I've no interest in Medal Of Honour, I don't own all the pc variants, & I'm not looking forward to its release to uncontrollable excitement. I also think Fianna Fail & the Greens are doing a great job.

seyeM

Battlefield 3 or GTFO

Jonny7

Good read

Wonder if they would ever have the balls to put in a Taliban single player campaign..

Think of all the free press..

Mr E

Maybe that's why Craig Auld was so cagey about the DLC?

Killinator

Mr E wrote: »

I've just been told that Gamestop have the preorder exclusive on the Medal of Honor book in Ireland. I've updated my original post.

HMV have it advertised with their pre-order aswell.

Grumpypants

Im looking forward to the single player campaign but the multiplayer beta left me a bit deflated it is just Battlefield diet and Battlefield is bad enough to start with.

TheDoc

Interesting read alright.

I was involved in the beta for the game and have to say wasnt impressed that much, granted it was multiplayer beta.

We very much live in a world dominated by the Call of duty and Battlefield when it comes to first person shooters with firepower, and Medal of honour has been off the map for some time, pretty much since Call of duty was first released and became the top World War 2 shooter.

I don't see anything changing , they have waited too long in my opinion. When I saw the first promo trailer I thought to myself " ugh copying call of duty" and thats the way it reads. WW2 has been done to death and the move to modern era was obvious the next logical step. But it has been done, there is an extremely high barrier there to hit, and I fear, like most Medal of honour games, they wont hit that bar.

I'd like to be proven wrong, but I dont see anything taking me away from Battlefield bad company 2 or Arma 2 at the moment.

Kiith

TheDoc wrote: »

When I saw the first promo trailer I thought to myself " ugh copying call of duty" and thats the way it reads.

This is pretty much what everyone said about Call of Duty when it first came out though. And look at it now.

I'd probably agree with you though, and say that Medal of Honour needs to do a lot to get its top spot back. It's probably not possible with how fanatical some people are for CoD.

weiland79

Does anyone know if there will be a similar leveling up system to COD in this game.

Not that I'm looking for a COD clone but it's quite an encouraging system to come back and play.

Spear

weiland79 wrote: »

Does anyone know if there will be a similar leveling up system to COD in this game.

Not that I'm looking for a COD clone but it's quite an encouraging system to come back and play.

It does have an experience and rank system, I don't think there's full details about.