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Also, the embargo period has been lifted for a Medal of Honor press event held back in May. Off Duty Gamers, whom MyIS plays host to, had a very special honor of attending the event and getting a first hand look at the game. The veil has been lifted and the report by Rigger82 and BaTs can be read in full at Off Duty Gamers or with select snippets below. Happy reading!
Storyline, Overview and Gameplay
This new 'reboot' of the franchise leaves the 60+ year old history of WWII in honored reverence after a long Medal of Honor run and brings us up to 21st century Afghanistan just after the events of September 11th when US forces moved to oust the Taliban from power in an effort to hunt down those responsible for the worst terrorist attack on the United States in history.
<!--more-->This new 'reboot' of the franchise leaves the 60+ year old history of WWII in honored reverence after a long Medal of Honor run and brings us up to 21st century Afghanistan just after the events of September 11th when US forces moved to oust the Taliban from power in an effort to hunt down those responsible for the worst terrorist attack on the United States in history.
As Greg opens up for a few questions from the panel he knocks down the notion that the game may be ‘politically correct’ and shows us that they mean business on reality.
* The enemy is CLEARLY named as Al Qaeda & Taliban insurgents both Afghan fighters and Chechen fighters.
* The development team went so far as to have all three enemy factions speaking the proper and native tongue. Al Qaeda speaks Gulf Arabic, Taliban speaks Pashto and Chechen insurgents speak Chechen
There are some ties to the history of the Medal of Honor franchise and Greg points out that during the last trailer ‘Leave a Message’ some fans may have picked up on the name Jimmy Patterson who was featured in previous Medal of Honor titles. His grandson is part of the story and while it will be subtle, you’ll get a sense of continuity.
As we work our way through the information the question comes up about EA’s decision to utilize two game engines for a single title. Greg explains it like this, “We are celebrating and embracing the two engines differences versus trying to fool the customer [into thinking it’s a single engine]”. The teams decision allowed the EALA development team to build the Single player on the Unreal 3 engine while DICE moved forward with its Frostbite 1.7.x for multiplayer. The two teams have worked together to match the tone, visuals sounds and more on both platforms so it’s a unique MOH experience but we’ll hear more about that later.
Someone pipes up…. “Is Steam going to be supported?” but “that is currently unknown” is the reply.(...)
Notes:
* The single player has local destruction but not full destruction. Hang around cover too long and you’ll find out how local the destruction can be but you won’t be mowing down everything and anything you see. It was a natural feel and balance.
* The hit box isn’t one big block, you can shoot through an enemy’s legs and miss or under an extended arm
* Bullet mass is impressive, you can measure your shot groupings by watching the enemy AI take hits and move accordingly where they limp away, fall and continue to shoot or simply take a round in the shoulder and get pushed around taking their own shots off target.
* Bullet mass is also evident in the rounds striking the ground, buildings or cover and kicking up debris and dust
* I asked the question, does the suns position impact the AI accuracy and enemy detection and was pleasantly answered ‘yes it does’. This means tactical players can work to keep the sun at their back to improve odds of success in mission. When I asked this question I was also told that while bright light will impair detection and accuracy, dark does as well. AI in a dark room startled by fire will ‘blind fire’ in fear
* Get ammo from a friend system allows you to see who has ammo in your squad and you can go get it from them during the mission but of course it’s not ‘infinity ammo’ so you’ll have to borrow wisely.(...)
Multiplayer
* Multiplayer is 24 players per map
* There will be dedicated servers
* This is an enhanced Frostbite engine (enhanced to do what MOH needed)
* Platforms are Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
* Featuring a SPECTATOR mode to assist tournament play and observation (but still takes up a player slot in game)
* Improved hit box (arms and body are separate) and while sprinting the head IS in the hit box (aka skeletal hit box)
* Faster bullets (muzzle velocity is more real world accurate)
* Accuracy is increased due to line of sight acquisition and lack of bullet physics to impact ballistic performance (put the sight on the target and thats where the round is going)
* The enemy is CLEARLY named as Al Qaeda & Taliban insurgents both Afghan fighters and Chechen fighters.
* The development team went so far as to have all three enemy factions speaking the proper and native tongue. Al Qaeda speaks Gulf Arabic, Taliban speaks Pashto and Chechen insurgents speak Chechen
There are some ties to the history of the Medal of Honor franchise and Greg points out that during the last trailer ‘Leave a Message’ some fans may have picked up on the name Jimmy Patterson who was featured in previous Medal of Honor titles. His grandson is part of the story and while it will be subtle, you’ll get a sense of continuity.
As we work our way through the information the question comes up about EA’s decision to utilize two game engines for a single title. Greg explains it like this, “We are celebrating and embracing the two engines differences versus trying to fool the customer [into thinking it’s a single engine]”. The teams decision allowed the EALA development team to build the Single player on the Unreal 3 engine while DICE moved forward with its Frostbite 1.7.x for multiplayer. The two teams have worked together to match the tone, visuals sounds and more on both platforms so it’s a unique MOH experience but we’ll hear more about that later.
Someone pipes up…. “Is Steam going to be supported?” but “that is currently unknown” is the reply.(...)
Notes:
* The single player has local destruction but not full destruction. Hang around cover too long and you’ll find out how local the destruction can be but you won’t be mowing down everything and anything you see. It was a natural feel and balance.
* The hit box isn’t one big block, you can shoot through an enemy’s legs and miss or under an extended arm
* Bullet mass is impressive, you can measure your shot groupings by watching the enemy AI take hits and move accordingly where they limp away, fall and continue to shoot or simply take a round in the shoulder and get pushed around taking their own shots off target.
* Bullet mass is also evident in the rounds striking the ground, buildings or cover and kicking up debris and dust
* I asked the question, does the suns position impact the AI accuracy and enemy detection and was pleasantly answered ‘yes it does’. This means tactical players can work to keep the sun at their back to improve odds of success in mission. When I asked this question I was also told that while bright light will impair detection and accuracy, dark does as well. AI in a dark room startled by fire will ‘blind fire’ in fear
* Get ammo from a friend system allows you to see who has ammo in your squad and you can go get it from them during the mission but of course it’s not ‘infinity ammo’ so you’ll have to borrow wisely.(...)
Multiplayer
* Multiplayer is 24 players per map
* There will be dedicated servers
* This is an enhanced Frostbite engine (enhanced to do what MOH needed)
* Platforms are Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
* Featuring a SPECTATOR mode to assist tournament play and observation (but still takes up a player slot in game)
* Improved hit box (arms and body are separate) and while sprinting the head IS in the hit box (aka skeletal hit box)
* Faster bullets (muzzle velocity is more real world accurate)
* Accuracy is increased due to line of sight acquisition and lack of bullet physics to impact ballistic performance (put the sight on the target and thats where the round is going)
Seven full pages of goodness.