[11.13.12] Review: ‘Medal of Honor: Warfighter’

Electronic Arts

Medal of Honor: Warfighter

Rating:

4 Stars

After rebooting “Medal of Honor” in 2010, it came as no surprise when Electronic Arts announced a follow-up title for this year. Totting the tagline “the only realistic shooter this holiday season”, it gave itself a lot to live up to; however, its predecessor proved that if any game could do it, “Medal of Honor” would be the brand. Once again, Danger Close worked closely with Tier 1 Operators, relying on them to actually write the story for the game, so they could pull from their own experiences and create the most authentic game possible.

The Fun Stuff:

Realistic it is, starting with the cut scenes. Just like “Battlefield 3”, there is an optional HD graphics download you can install, and it’s highly recommended that you do. The cut scenes are drop dead gorgeous. Occasionally, you’ll probably find yourself questioning if it’s live action or not. The graphics carry over into the game too. Although not quite as jaw-dropping as the CGI, they’re still beautiful and push the Xbox 360 to its absolute limits. Sound mixing is, once again, fantastic too which adds to the realism.

“Warfighter” also utilizes the Frostbite 2 engine, allowing for destructible environments in all the right places to add another subtle touch of realism. Wood shatters from grenade explosions and small chunks of the wall will chip away when grazed with bullets. It really shines during the door breaches. The coolest part is you can unlock multiple unique breaching animations so you can destroy that door in any way you please. Whether you decide to place a charge and blow the door to smithereens or take a tomahawk to the doorknob, it all happens in excruciatingly beautiful detail. You can spend all the time you want looking at the details too, because there isn’t any intel or collectible item you have to find during the campaign. For that, gamers everywhere rejoice.

There’s more to “Warfighter” than just shooting things. From time to time, you’ll find yourself behind the wheel – and it’s a surprisingly pleasant experience. One mission in particular, titled “Hello and Dubai”, has you driving for the entire mission. Don’t worry though; it’s anything but a chore. During one segment, the mission actually felt a lot like the ‘Burnout’ series, as it required you to take down enemy vehicles pursuing you. The driving is smooth and used just to the right amount that it’s always entertaining and never annoying.

The multiplayer has been overhauled too. You now always have a buddy who you can rely on for ammunition and healing, as well as temporary tactical advantages when they get killed. It still follows the FPS standard of kill streaks, ranking up, and unlocking new things, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as they’ve essentially become established components of any successful shooter. It’s actually a good deal of fun, and should become even more interesting next month when a new map pack tied in to the “Zero Dark Thirty” movie is released.

The Frustrating Stuff:

Unfortunately, though, for everything that “Warfighter” has done right, it seems they’ve done something wrong too. Despite the incredibly beautiful graphics, it seems they forgot – or simply ignored –the concept of “dynamic lighting”. In a game that’s going for realism, this is something that probably shouldn’t be overlooked. There’s nothing sillier and more disappointing (in a ‘realistic’ game) than realizing that your character is incapable of casting shadows, as is anything and everything else passing through lighted areas.

Taking another step away from realism, it sees the A.I. have gotten an intelligence upgrade –but not in a good way. The A.I. in the previous “Medal of Honor” were pleasantly realistic in terms of how they acted with you. Unfortunately, they’ve gained god-like intelligence on the hardest difficulties like in the rival “Call of Duty” series where the enemy knows exactly where you are before you even show up. On the bright side, you companions are equally intelligent and still just as capable of killing enemies for you like they were in the previous game.

Although having the ability to choose how you want to breach an area is really awesome, you’ll soon realize it’s purely cosmetic. No matter how you enter, it always turns out the same. Oh, and a very large majority of the time, there will conveniently be exactly 4 bad guys behind the door. It starts to feel repetitive pretty quickly.

Speaking of repetitive, be prepared for yet another training session running through airplanes. There’s even an achievement tied to completing the course with a quick time – something that should feel a little familiar to fans of the “Call of Duty” series… or pretty much any other modern first person shooter for that matter. To add to the awkwardness, this training actually takes place after completing the first mission, which throws you straight into the action and expects those unfamiliar with shooters to just deal with it. There is one awesome thing about the training facility, though. Without giving away anything about the story, it’s safe to say they do actually tie it in to the story in a very neat way.

Bottom Line:

For anyone who was a fan of 2010’s “Medal of Honor”, this is a must buy. For everyone else mildly interested, it’s probably still worth picking up if you can find a decent sale on it. The story and beautiful cut scenes are definitely worth experiencing. If you don’t want to divide up your time between multiple first person shooters this holiday season though, you’ll probably want to pass over this title as there are much better titles worthy of your $60 this season between “Black Ops II” and “Halo 4”, depending on which series you align yourself with.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter was developed by Danger Close Games and was published by Electronic Arts. It was released in North America on October 23, 2012 with an ‘M’ rating from the ESRB and an MSRP of $59.99. This review was based on an Xbox 360 copy of the game purchased on the release date.

Anthony Ortale writes news and reviews on behalf of Examiner.com. He does so much gaming in his spare time, it’s practically a full time job! If you like what you read here, please subscribe to his articles! You can also follow Tony on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook! If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email Tony any time at ortale.anthony@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you

[09.21.12] Best horror games - Recent hits

Randy Robertson

Halloween is approaching rapidly, and what better way to celebrate than by experiencing the best horror video games out there? Over the next few days, we’re going to list off the best games to play no matter what mood you’re in. Whether you’re looking for the scariest, goriest, or most entertaining horror games, we’ll give you a few suggestions for every category. We will also touch on the best classics, and a few recent titles that are noteworthy as well. To help compile this list, we've enlisted the help of Rob Nielsen from RedGoateeRob’s Horror Pages.

Horror games don’t have to be old to be good. Besides, not everyone has an NES on their shelf anxiously awaiting a cartridge. Newer gamers might not even have a PS2 or GameCube sitting around either, so today we’re going to stick strictly to the most recent generation of systems; or more specifically the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Sorry Wii, you didn’t quite make the cut. We’ve already scared you silly, grossed you out, given you some time to reminisce, and messed with your mind, but there’s a good variety of entertainment here. Things get a little frustrating, a little freaky, and, of course, a little fun.

‘Rise of Nightmares’

“Rise of Nightmares” brought horror to the Kinect for the first time, and it was quite the showing! Although it’s not as perfectly crafted as some of the other titles on this list, there’s no doubting that it is the horror experience for Kinect, and easily one of the best across all motion gaming platforms. It simultaneously showcases everything the Kinect is capable of while providing a surprisingly entertaining and interesting game. Needless to say, if you own a Kinect and are a fan of horror games, this is one title that absolutely should be a part of your collection. You won’t ever find yourself scared to death – due in part to the fact that you’re forced to play with the lights on – however there’s enough shocking moments to satisfy any horror fan.

‘Souls’ Series

Probably the best thing to come out of Japan this generation without the word 'Nintendo' attached to it, the Souls series is rapidly on its way to becoming legendary. Brutally difficult and unforgiving, the games in this series will test the resolve of any gamer brave enough to pop one of them into his console or download it to his PC. The first game in the series, “Demon's Souls”, set down the formula, and the second, “Dark Souls”, added to and expanded it. Debate over which of them is the better game rages across the internet and probably always will, but this much is sure: if you have the patience to face the challenge it poses, you'll find the Souls series to be some of the best games you'll ever play. They're also among the scariest; for instance, where some games ask you to fight a dragon, “Demon's Souls” will ask you to face the god of dragons - a behemoth of a thing with two sets of jaws and claws the size of a compact car. From the flocks of zombies to the other players invading your game to the Dragon God, the Souls series is a pit of terrors, each more deadly than the last.

‘F.E.A.R.’ Series

The “F.E.A.R.” series is interesting because it's sort of a chimera. Equally influenced by military shooters like “Call Of Duty”, survival horror games like “Resident Evil”, and Japanese horror films like “Ringu”, “F.E.A.R.” made psychological horror shooters a genre for the first time. Each game in the series approaches the horror from a different angle and uses its own unique mechanics to keep the series fresh. Much like 2010’s “Medal of Honor”, the AI in the series is some of the best you can find in any shooter. Just try sneaking away from behind cover when you're under heavy fire, and you'll hear the enemies yell "he's flanking!" and move to protect their exposed side. All of these elements serve to keep you on your toes when you're playing “F.E.A.R.”, reminding you constantly that no matter what you do, you're never, ever safe.

So that’s it! There’s tons of content here to get you prepped for Halloween, but this list is by no means exhaustive- there are plenty of other great titles that didn’t make the list, so get out there and find your favorite. Whatever you decide to play, just make sure you’ve got something spooky ready to go, because Halloween only comes once a year!

[06.13.12] Review: ‘Medal of Honor (2010)’

Electronic Arts

Medal of Honor (2010) for Xbox 360

Rating:

4 Stars

With rebooting and re-releasing proving to be all the rage these days, Electronic Arts decided they would try the same with the insanely popular “Medal of Honor” series. Despite technically being the 13th game in the series, 2010’s release of “Medal of Honor” uses the exact same name as the original game released back in 1999. That’s where the similarities stop, as everything from the logo and developer to the characters and story has received a complete overhaul.

In 1999, the single player campaign for “Medal of Honor” was set during World War II and was developed by a studio known as “DreamWorks Interactive”. Now under the new name “Danger Close Games”, the studio has decided to modernize the game with a campaign set in Afghanistan during the year 2002. The developers wanted their game to stand out from the rest of the pack by bringing the most authentic experience possible. To facilitate this, “EA” brought in several consultants from the United States military and also based the game partially on real-life operations.

To allow “Danger Close Games” to focus on the authentic storyline, “EA” called upon another one of their studios to develop the multiplayer portion of the game. “DICE”, famous for their work on the “Battlefield” series, was in charge of everything multiplayer for better or worse. It also appears as if they had some creative influence on the single-player campaign, because many key features that are synonymous with the “Battlefield” series shine through heavily in the single-player mode.

There is a lot of history and prestige backing “Medal of Honor”, but does this all add up to a great game?

The Fun Stuff:

The first thing you’ll notice after jumping into the campaign for “Medal of Honor” is how amazing the guns are. It’s not that they’re fantasy weapons or are way over-powered, it’s that they feel so much more real than other games. In most shooters, the guns look real enough, but firing them just isn’t that satisfactory. When you start unloading bullets in “Medal of Honor”, you’ll feel the most satisfying ‘punch’ behind your weapons, which no other game to date has matched. Everything about the way they fire feels perfect: The recoil displayed on the screen, the rumble feedback from the controller in your hands, and, best of all, the incredible sound effects that rip through your speakers and make you nervously glance over your shoulder for attackers.

Perfect sound effects aren’t good enough though, because without proper balance, they’d be left undiscovered and unnoticed. Luckily, the sound-mixing in “Medal of Honor” is unmatched as well. Explosions, dialog, music, and other ambient sounds all blend together perfectly to make you feel like you’re standing right in the middle of the chaos. When a grenade explodes next to your character, the screen becomes hazy and disorienting while sounds are muted almost entirely by a high-pitched ring.

If characters walk away, sound fades out naturally. If they walk into corridors, sounds echo and bounce around. Perhaps the most peculiar attention to detail in the sound comes from characters communicating via their com units. If you listen carefully, you’ll notice you can hear both the sound of their voice crackling over their headset as well as their normal voice being projected from the character model directly in front of you. It’s this absurd – yet welcomed – authenticity that helps bring these battle scenarios to life right in front of your eyes.

Fortunately, sound wasn’t the only thing “EA” was referencing in their promise to deliver the most authentic war experience to date. In-game cut scenes feel like they’re pulled straight from a documentary. The only downside is the ones in first person mode don’t ever show any signs of a weapon in your hand, so you feel more like a camera man filming the documentary than the soldier you transition into at the end of the cut scene. None-the-less, the cinematics are exhilarating and aid the realism.

Then there’s the artificial intelligence in “Medal of Honor”. Like everything else, the AI also has a significant element of realism, both with squad mates and enemies. Having allies in shooters can be frustrating thanks to poor AI’s. Cover will be blown, shots will be blocked, and missions are constantly failed thanks to the idiotic tendencies of these computer controlled teammates.

This, however, is not the case in “Medal of Honor”. Not only do your squad mates move and post up intelligently, they’ll lob a grenade with great accuracy. The most satisfying role they play throughout your trials and tribulations is in killing enemies. That’s right; they will actually kill bad guys for you! These extra characters are treated like real soldiers with real abilities instead of being used solely as pawns in a story who couldn’t shoot water if they were on the bottom of the deep end in a pool.

Not only do they fire on the bad guys, but they actually draw fire from them too. One of the most frustrating aspects of playing through the rival series “Call of Duty” is the way enemies treat you. They shoot you and only you, and also have a god-like ability to locate you before you even enter their territories. Enemy AI in “Medal of Honor” has been stripped of that ability to help amplify the realism. You won't be fired on immediately after walking around a corner, and you can actually flank enemies and sneak up on them while your computer-controlled squad mates are drawing their fire like previously mentioned.

Another exciting characteristic of the enemy AI is the way they react to bullets. Even those with Kevlar armor don’t just absorb shots like a magic bullet sponge. Instead, if you hit them in the chest with a rifle, they’ll get knocked over backwards like they took a punch from Muhammad Ali. Likewise, those who take shots to the arm or leg will cry out in pain and reach for the damaged body part. They may even stumble over or just drop the grenade they were about to toss. If you land a headshot, it will always be an instant kill, and you’ll know it thanks to a little icon that pops up at the bottom of your screen.

There are many other small details that make “Medal of Honor” feel realistic as well. À la “Battlefield”, the environments in the game are destructible to a certain degree. Another nice touch is the ability to grab ammunition from your squad mates if you run low. Make sure you listen to their callouts in battle though, because if they say they’ve run out of ammo, they mean it, and you won’t be able to resupply from them so you’ll need to conserve your ammunition the best you can. With patience, this can be done thanks to an overly-generous aim-assist in single player when you scope in. To balance this out though, it has to be after a complete scope-out followed by a minor delay; so you can’t just pump the trigger and abuse it like in many other shooters.

The Frustrating Stuff:

“Medal of Honor” attempts to keep things exciting by frequently changing up what you’re doing. Throughout the campaign, you’ll jump between four characters:

- Rabbit: A U.S. Navy SEAL
- Specialist Dante Adams: A U.S. Army Ranger Specialist
- Deuce: A Delta Force sniper specialist
- Captain Brad “Hawk” Hawkins: An Apache Gunship gunner

This frequent change is detrimental to the story in “Medal of Honor”. Although it creates lots of variety, this variety makes it difficult to have emotional ties to any of the characters in the game, hindered further by the extremely short lifespan of the campaign, which clocks in at roughly 6 hours even on the hardest difficulty. Despite the near constant action in the game, it can sometimes be a challenge for “Medal of Honor” to keep your attention.

In an attempt to make up for the short campaign, “Danger Close Games” offered an additional game mode known as “Tier 1 Mode”. Sadly, this will likely only be utilized by those who want lots of replayability from the single player portion and those who have a love for “Hardcore” game modes. “Tier 1 Mode” is essentially a level by level time-trial for the single player campaign with an all-or-nothing attitude. The problem is there's no way to hurry through any pre-canned animations that characters have nor is there an option for allowing yourself to continue on from a checkpoint when dying while accepting the time spent retracing your tracks as a penalty for dying. Instead, if you die, you have to start the mission all the way over with a new timer.

While this may be welcomed by those who want the more difficult experience, it’s also a deterrent to those who aren’t seasoned veterans of shooters and may have struggled with campaign. There’s also no additional reward gained outside of one achievement for completing all levels under par and the chance to top the leaderboards.

Multiplayer is a solid experience, assuming you like the “Battlefield” multiplayer, although there are a few minor details that left a little to be desired. The most notable from a gameplay perspective is the inability to go prone online. It exists in the single-player campaign but somehow is absent once you head online. Another concern rises for ‘completionists’ who are seeking to 100% this game. There are quite a few achievements tied to multiplayer, and although they’re nothing necessarily too difficult to complete, many are nearly unattainable at this point simply because the multiplayer servers are almost entirely deserted.

Bottom Line:

“Medal of Honor” is definitely short and sweet, but the realism is unrivaled by any military shooter to date. The replayability is short-lived due to the nearly non-existent online community, but don’t let this overshadow the exciting single-player experience the game offers. If multiplayer is all you’re looking for, you’re best off purchasing “Battlefield 3” as you’ll find a nearly identical game but with a much more active and dedicated community. Those who like a well put-together single-player first person shooter experience shouldn’t deprive themselves just because of the length. Thanks to a “Platinum Hits” re-release, “Medal of Honor” is now available at a much more appropriate and affordable price given the current status of the game. More so, if you have no interest in the multiplayer, feel free to pick up a used copy for even cheaper as there’s no need to pay the premium to get an online pass.

Medal of Honor (2010) was developed by Danger Close Games and DICE, and was published by Electronic Arts. It was released in North America on Oct. 10, 2010 with an “M” rating from the ESRBand an MSRP of $59.99. This review was based on a copy of the game purchased after the release date.

Anthony Ortale writes news and reviews on behalf of Examiner.com. He does so much gaming in his spare time, it’s practically a full time job! If you like what you read here, please subscribe to his articles! You can also follow Tony on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook! If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email Tony any time at ortale.anthony@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you