EA's officially dishonorably discharged the Medal of Honor franchise. That's unfortunate for a number of reasons, but mainly because it made John sad. As he put it, "It needs new direction, not shelving until the next inevitable reboot in five years time, once Battlefield has run entirely aground." So, now it's time for another episode of Good News, Bad News, Picture of an Ostrich. First, the good: Medal of Honor's definitely not dead. Heck, it might not even be out of action for all that long. But now, the bad: based on comments to RPS by EA chief creative director Rich Hilleman, John might have hit the nail on the head. For now, Battlefield's the focus, meaning that it inherits the full weight of EA's Call-of-Duty-dethroning expectations. Here is a picture of an ostrich. More details (about Medal of Honor, not ostriches) after the break.
]]>Oh Medal of Honor. You've traveled around the world, through time, and between the hands of countless developers. You've seen some things, man. But in recent outings, you've lost your way trying to play rigid railroad conductor to ours, and Warfighter clung so tightly to the straight-and-narrow that it ended up careening right into the bargain bin. Also, there was that whole Linkin Park thing. If you want sales, it's not generally a good idea to turn every living creature with ears against you. So then, what's next for EA's creaky, slightly racist World War II vet? Retirement, says EA. And possibly a long one.
]]>Medal Of Honor: Warfighter came out around the world last week. Review code wasn't offered to us, hence no review for release. We bought a copy, and I've spent the weekend trudging through it. Despite discovering I didn't even want to start playing, I'm now ready to tell you wot I think.
]]>I almost feel sorry for 'em. Almost. Then I remember they're making a game that has the hallmarks of being designed purely to appeal to the massest market possible, dead set on keeping up with the Activision Joneses rather than doing anything adventurous, and I don't feel sorry for 'em. But poor old Danger Close/EA, in their endless fight against Activision, hurrying to make a military first-person shooter for the Christmas market but having surely nowhere near the budget - and certainly a lot less consumer love. And so it is that War of Medal: Honor Fighter, their latest game of shooting men and shooting men and shooting men and shooting men and shooting men is to require a day-one patch. Not just any old day-one patch though, oh no. A day one patch containing the best part of 100 fixes - some big, some small, some 'oof, really?'
]]>Medal Of Honor: Warfighter began in stirring controversy, and seems to wade around in it. Boasting depictions of real-world conflicts, including those that are ongoing, it seems as much an attempt to test the limits of what will be tolerated in a modern war shooter as it is an attempt to follow up on last year's dismal revival of the franchise. But perhaps this time they've gone too far. It's hard to see how this will be countenanced. They've put Linkin Park in one of their trailers.
]]>Everyone, stand back. I'm going to fire up the Conflict-O-Tron. (Note: side effects of the Conflict-O-Tron may include inability to pin down an emotional response and also a sensation that feels like you're about to sneeze, but you can't, and it'll never go away.) You see, EA's announced a DLC map pack for the still-unreleased Medal of Honor: Warfighter. It's doing the whole "free for pre-orderers and paid for everyone else" shtick, too, but that's not the central issue this time around. Instead, this one's a question of subject matter. On one hand, players will be tracing the supposedly piping hot tracks of Osama Bin Laden. Contentious! One the other, a portion of the proceeds will go to EA's Project Honor veteran fund. There will now be a brief recess. Take it away, roving chorus of "hmms" and "harumphs".
]]>One of the hoary old jokes we lazy gaming hacks like to do is dismissively refer to "ManShooter VIII" or "Gears Of Duty MCVIIXI", sneering at the homogenisation of the mainstream industry. But really, the sarcasm is going to be undetectable if games keep calling themselves Warface and Warfighter. The latter is, of course, the moniker of the second Medal Of Honor game in the rebooted series. And there's another trailer of its single player (sort of) below.
]]>Black Ops 2 may have a villain with all of the weapons and most of the beards, but that doesn't mean we can just forget about the game's real-life nemesis - who also has all of the weapons and most of the beards. I speak, of course, about Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which would also like to show you its fanciest new war-waging wares. This time, though, story's taking a backseat in favor of multiplayer, and somewhere, a koala version of Smokey Bear weeps as these nationalism-powered soldier types welcome each other to the jungle by blowing it up. Witness the environmentally-unfriendly carnage after the break.
]]>I've always found it curious that Medal of Honor Warfighter's title is singular. Well, OK, first I found it curious that anyone would name a game "Warfighter," but - based on the numbers these things do - there is an incredibly discerning customer out there somewhere who walks through GameStop treating his Homefronts and Duty Fields Of Honor like fine vintages, considering each with a seasoned palette and meticulously popped collar. Still though, why Warfighter? Why not Warfighters? Seven minutes of new footage, however, finally doused my most burning of questions. Put simply, they only need one.
]]>Here is a controversial statement: aubergines are horrible.
Here is another controversial statement: I don't think there's an upcoming videogame I'm less interested in than Danger Close's Medal of Honor: Wharf-fighter. It's not really its fault, or its developers' fault. They're taking advantage of commercial realities, and even if said commercial realities are deeply disappointing to any gamer with more than six brain cells to rub together it only makes sense for a large corporation to pander to them, I suppose. I personally am just so past caring about pretending to be a semi-contemporary soldier who repeatedly shoots men from other countries. Don't mind me being all bitter-pants over here though. Have a look at the shootybangbang shoot shoot bang bang shoot bang shoot bang bang bang shoot shoot shoot bang bang shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot bang footage that came out of E3 below, if you must.
]]>Medal Of Honor WARRRRRRFFFFFFFIIIIGHTER has its first game footage trailer. It goes BOOM! BANG! JUGGA JUGGA! SHOUT SHOUT SHOUT! BOOOOOOOM! BANGBANGBANG!
Oops, sorry, spoilers.
]]>
