Date/time: 17 May 2010 – 18 May 2010
Location of observation: EA Los Angeles Office, California
Observation:
For two days, roughly 40 representatives from websites around the world were invited to EA’s office in Los Angeles to hear about and play portions of the upcoming franchise reboot Medal of Honor.
Official Game Introduction
Operating directly under the National Command Authority, a relatively unknown entity of handpicked warriors are selected when it is crucial that a mission must not fail. They are the Tier 1 Operators. There are over 2 million active soldiers, of these, approximately 50 thousand fall under the direct control of the Special Operations Command. The Tier 1 Operator functions on a level above and beyond even the most highly trained Special Operations Forces. Their exact numbers, while classified, hover in the low hundreds. They are living, breathing, precision instruments of war. They are experts in the application of violence. The new Medal of Honor is inspired by and developed with actual Tier 1 Operators from this elite community. Players step into the boots of these warriors and apply their unique skill sets to fight a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile conditions of present day Afghanistan.
There is a new war. There is a new warrior. He is Tier 1.
Features:
- Fight Today’s War: Elite Special Forces in the gritty combat campaign using the surgical tactics of Tier 1 Operators combined with the sledge hammer force of Army Rangers
- Unparalleled Authenticity: Intense story with incredible pacing and variety set in the rugged Afghanistan landscape, creating a shooter experience only available from the storied Medal of Honor franchise.
- Online Multiplayer Redefined: Developed by the world-class team at DICE, this fast paced combat delivers the perfect mix of tactical warfare and all-out action.
14 comments
Comment by sniper_five on 15 Jun 2010 at 16:27
Great article and thank you for taking the time to post. I am left with one lingering question after you put all the effort into trying to distance MOH from BF games. In the multiplayer, you stated 12 vs 12. Will I be able to play with 11 of my friends, or will it be similar squad based actions like BF BC where I can only physically communicate with the 3 other squad members of mine.
Looking forward to not on the online, but the single player as well. However, I think the 3 squads of 4 players will hinder a lot of peoples opinions on the mulitplayer. I truly hope I can party up with up to 11 friends and communicate with them. However, from everything you stated, it does not appear that to be the case. I hope I am wrong.
Comment by SLK on 15 Jun 2010 at 16:30
For real? no prone in MP? are u kidding me? not buying!
I bet it’s because of the consoles, since the controllers don’t have enough “space” for everything.
Comment by Osok on 15 Jun 2010 at 17:06
I am glad there is no prone.
Comment by Larr37 on 15 Jun 2010 at 19:42
Great article!!
On the comment about console controllers not having enough space for a prone button, if you have a crouch button, then you have your prone button. Just add a hold to prone or a double tap to prone.
In the end, the only reason there is no prone is that DICE doesn’t believe in it. They feel that prone is over powered and should not be in the game. Therefor the lack of prone is not because of some imagined handicap of the console, but because of DICE’s views on FPS gaming.
As much as I disagree with DICE’s thinking, they will do what they want.
Comment by Witzbold on 16 Jun 2010 at 03:06
Hey there,
Just wanted to say love your guys podcast and do appreciate the write up done for those who dont have sound at work and such.
Will be sharing this with the folks at Black Footstudios!
Comment by Rigger82 on 16 Jun 2010 at 12:48
Thanks for the comments everyone. We’re a new site but every military member knows that intel is king. You guys deserve as much information as we can write down and remember from these things and not just what sounded good to us.
Keep spreading the word, we’re here to stay.
Comment by Brokenarrow918 on 16 Jun 2010 at 18:09
will there be playabel aircraft in multiplayer? like an apache or little bird. can you also explain the points system and how it works? i can’t wait untill i buy this game.
Comment by Caemgen on 17 Jun 2010 at 05:06
Great article guys! Lots of useful (and exciting) info.
Could you guys answer these two questions for me please? It concerns the PS3 version:
For multiplayer, did they make use of cross-game invites again (like they did with BF:BC2)?
And how do you join friends? Do you join them through an in-game menu (like BF:BC2), or is it done PROPERLY this time around, through the in-game XMB’s friendlist (like in Modern Warfare 2)?
Final question: Did you get a chance to see if they incorporated ‘Presence Data’ for PS3? You know, the short texts with little bits of info below the usernames of your friends on PSN (things like ‘Playing Free for All on Map Name 7/8 etc)…
Thanks in advance!!!
Comment by bongobangn on 18 Jun 2010 at 14:24
“Kabul City Ruins: Team Assault
Roughly 4 blocks of the city is portrayed on this map”
Where is this map, the one in the beta is super small. I’ve played Quake maps bigger than this one.
The other map is small too, very disappointed with the scale of the game. You can have infantry focus on larger maps, DICE have really aimed this game at CoD and that’s not why I buy and play DICE games. I want larger open sandbox gameplay, not small box maps and not small, linear corridor ones.
The main thing that Frostbite has over Quake engine derivative games is destruction, they haven’t leveraged that at all in this game.
DICE deserve all the harsh criticism this game is going to get, and I’m not even talking about all the bugs in the game – purely from the design perspective they’ve failed completely.
I feel that all the talent that went into making Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2 have left DICE, the designers remaining are clueless as to what their fans want.
Comment by Steve Beeny on 21 Jun 2010 at 18:49
This is looking really promising. First and foremost, keeping lean in from MOH:Airborne, and restoring prone. Excellent. Those additions, along with the slide to cover will make me want to buy this alone. Secondly, hats off on the massive attention to detail going into this. EA are great in this respect, think the gun sounds in Airborne alone and you know what I mean.
One thing I am wondering about however, if during the course of their campaign, the Tier 1 team will encounter any British or other coalition forces troops, such as SAS or regular forces. Seeing Helmand Province mentioned hints they might be, and from my own perspective as UK gamer, would love to see a nod of the head in this direction. With no disrespect to US forces, the UK and Canadian forces have been fighting hard hard in Helmand for years now, and it’d be great to see that called out in this game.
Great stuff so far.
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Comment by maxwelljonesjr on 25 Jun 2010 at 15:20
i could not have said this better myself and i quote
” I feel that all the talent that went into making Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2 have left DICE, the designers remaining are clueless as to what their fans want.”
removing prone is a bad idea. and where is the question about custom controls ?? why is this so important question never asked at a dev ??? it’s 2010 and we are still left with pre configured mapped keysbuttons on our consoles.
why, what is the big secret all the game software developers share ??
Comment by Bunsen27 on 17 Jul 2010 at 12:56
Congratulations on writing one of the best preview articles to date on MoH!! You guys managed to get in many of the details that the mainstream sites often overlook or don’t even consider. This game looks to be one of the best modern era FPS’s coming out this Fall. Although the delay of 360 BETA has been a minor setback, I think DICE and EA LA will deliver a stellar product. Nice website BTW, good luck with building your community.
Comment by Rigger82 on 17 Jul 2010 at 16:42
Thanks Bunsen, your comments are very much appreciated. We hope to push to provide as much detail and commentary on all projects where we’re invited.