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Medal of Honor Beta Review

It took a month, but the Medal of Honor beta finally came out for the Xbox 360.

So without further ado, my first impressions and basic overview.

The first thing you will notice about Medal of Honor is that it is a beautiful game. There are two maps available in the beta, Helmand Valley, and Kabul City Ruins. Helmand Valley is a sprawling mountainous region in Afghanistan that plays home to the Mission gametype. The Mission gametype is similar to Rush from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the assaulting team is charged with destroying and capturing a series of objectives within the map. Kabul City Ruins is a close quarters urban warzone in which players go head to head in what basically amounts to team deathmatch.

While the game visually striking, the positives really end there for me, I had a friend describe it as being “Beautiful, but basically a cheap Modern Warfare knockoff” while I don’t necessarily agree with the way he put it… he’s basically right.

Before the beta came out for any of the systems, people were describing it as a combination of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2. This description is true for the most part in that the maps are larger and more varied, while the battles still retain the intensity of close to medium range combat that Call of Duty is renowned for.

Unfortunately  Medal of Honor seems to have also acquired the worst parts of both titles. Combat is brutal and unforgiving, and with the state that the beta is in you’ll often find yourself in a state of utter dismay, as the player you just fired half a mag into will simply turn around and put two rounds through your chest… killing you instantly. Most hit detection issues are likely to be gone once the full game comes out, but it makes for a bad first impression.

In typical Battlefield fashion, your character feels sluggish, boxy, and altogether unresponsive. Having a slow character model is something you can get away with in Battlefield, but in an urban environment where a quick dash between buildings means the difference between life and a respawn… it just doesn’t work. And similar to Modern Warfare, you will frequently find your character getting stuck on the tiniest of objects. That brick that you didn’t see in front of your foot? Ya, it just got you sniped.

The weapons and weapon upgrade system are also a source of frustration for me. DICE really has a thing for separate class leveling, just as they did with BF: BC2, you have to level each class individually. With every level you gain in a particular class, you receive upgrades that add and detract stats from the stock weapon.  My biggest issue in regard  to the weapon attachment system? They really don’t add enough of a bonus to affect your weapon in any real way. The M24 (the best sniper rifle available in the beta) doesn’t do enough damage to kill anyone in a single shot (besides a headshot) adding ammo that increases the damage of your weapon still doesn’t give enough power to kill in a single shot.

Killstreaks or Score Chains as they’re known in Medal of Honor are one of the only bright spots in an otherwise unspectacular beta. By getting kills and completing objectives you earn points towards these Score Chains, upon reaching the required amount of points you are provided with a choice between two different actions. At 40 points (the first score chain requirement) you can choose between intel (which basically amounts to a UAV) and a mortar strike.   So the choice is yours, depending on the situation you’re in you might choose to boost your own score, or decide to help the entire team.

Overall the beta is anything but unique. Medal of Honor takes few positives and a great many negatives from the games it emulates. Gameplay mechanics are sketchy at best, poor hit detection and intermittent lag-spikes make a poor impression despite just being a beta. Hopefully most of these issues will be addressed before the full game releases on October 12th.

- Nick Barker

Various Halo: Reach Tidbits

Lets start this off with something simple shall we?

Yesterday Bungie unveiled a batch of avatar awards that will be available to players once they complete certain “actions in Halo: Reach.” Not particularly descriptive, I know. Luckily, we know that Bungie is fairly generous when it comes to avatar awards, so I’m sure everybody will have these at some point. Unfortunately the Noble 6 helmet will only be made available to certain lucky folks who visit Comicon, PAX and GamesCom later this summer.

In their update, Bungie also gave us quite a few more screens and details of their Armory system. Players will have instant access to a number of armor pieces with which to customize their character from day one, but will unlock various other items as they progress through the multiplayer ranks. Unlike Halo 3, Halo: Reach will feature a credit-based progression system that will play a key role in the Armory system and customization process.

On the Achievements front, Bungie has decided to use the power of achievements against the casual gamer. By pursuing and completing achievements, the player will unlock a variety of new gamemodes and features. I’m not kidding here folks, take a look.

“Achievements in Reach were designed with a few principles in mind. We wanted to leverage the power of Achievements – they are something people will chase and pursue – to expose additional features, game modes and systems that players otherwise might miss out on.”

So basically they’re forcing you to go out and complete their achievements in order to have access to features which are already built into the game. Anyone who has ever played a Halo game can testify to the ridiculousness of some of their achievements.

So the casual gamer who just got off work and wants nothing more than to sit down and play Halo for a while is denied the full potential of the game because instead of spending his time chasing achievements he’s at work putting food on the table for his family.

Nice one Bungie.

If the achievements required to unlock these bonuses were just the ones released in their update, I could understand it because they really aren’t that difficult to complete.

Be My Wingman, Anytime – Let a teammate spawn on you 5 times in an Invasion Matchmaking game.
Skunked – Win a game of Invasion in the first phase.
What’s a Killing Spree? – Earn a Killing Spree in multiplayer Matchmaking
I Need a Weapon – Complete the 4th mission on Normal or Harder.
Your Heresy Will Stay Your Feet – Kill the Elite Zealot before he can escape during the 5th mission.

On the other hand, if they’re based on singleplayer and firefight achievements I’m completely opposed to the concept. Some gamers just want to play through the campaign on easy, get the story experience, and move on to multiplayer. Playing through a Halo game on Legendary is no small feat, and getting to 200,000 points in firefight isn’t really a cakewalk for the average gamer.

I guess we’ll just have to see how this all plays out.

For full details check out their blog

- Nick Barker (Dr Strange Lulz)

Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade

Fairly recently Microsoft announced its lineup for its Summer of Arcade, and now we finally have the release dates for these exciting new titles as well as a nice little bonus.

July 21st -
Limbo: A stylistically innovative black and white platformer that was nominated for awards in both Art and Technical Excellence in the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival.

July 28th -
Hydro Thunder Hurricane: A hidden treasure from Dreamcast’s days of glory, a water based racer guaranteed to remain a fan favorite for years to come.

August 4th -
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair: A brand new Castlevania game? Seriously, do I have to say anything else? A six player co-op based platforming-rpg similar to Symphony of Night in both style and difficulty.

August 11th -
Monday Night Combat: A six-on-six third person shooter set in a horrific future where killing is a sport and athletes go head to head on a nightly basis, similar in style to Team Fortress, this arcade title is designed for pure fun.

August 18th -
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light: A co-op adventure which is a far cry from previous Tomb Raider titles, we’ll just have to see how it compares in terms of playability.

All of these titles will run you 1200 Microsoft Points, buying all five will get you a 1200 MS point refund, and buying four will get you 400 MS points.

For $15 each, these games are well priced and designed specifically for Summer gaming.

So go get em.

Medal of Honor 360 Beta Delayed… Again.

Unlike it’s PC and PS3 counterparts, which were released on June 21′st, the Xbox 360′s version of the Medal of Honor beta is still missing in action.

Due to unknown issues EA and DICE decided to delay the Medal of Honor 360 beta, at first it was assumed that it was the folks over at Microsoft who were to blame, but with the latest delay just announced nobody really has any idea what the cause is.

The developer had this to say on the subject,

“As for the Xbox 360 version of the beta, we are delayed and we apologize. To the Xbox 360 community, we say thank you for your continued patience. We are working to fix the issues that have caused this delay and, like you, we’re eager to get the game up and running at quality.”

Supposedly the beta will be extended for 360 users so that everyone has enough time to play before it officially comes out in October.

Unfortunately since we have no idea what the reason is behind the delay we don’t know how long it’s going to take to fix it, this is the kind of thing the folks over at EA seriously need to tell us.

-Dr Strange Lulz

The New Face Of Xbox

The first thing you’ll notice about the new Xbox 360 is that it is noticeably  shorter and thinner than its predecessor, so you’ll be able to set it up in slightly smaller areas, and with its shiny new finish you’ll want to show this beast off as often as possible.

The new built in 250 gig hard drive is, funnily enough, located at the bottom of the system. Honestly, the fact that the hard drive is built in really has no effect on the system overall, how often do you take your hard drive off anyway.

The system has a port specifically for Kinect, which I suppose is what Microsoft was referring to when they claimed the system was “Ready for Kinect”. They’ve also done a good job of adding more USB ports, there are now a total of five (Two in the front, and three at the back) and with the new ability to store game saves and profile data on USB drives they are a welcome addition.

Aside from slightly shorter load and startup times, the system’s major improvements lie in cooling, sound and wifi. The system is clearly designed to improve airflow and reduce the need for additional cooling units. As for the sound, the system truly is whisper quiet. I have a particularly loud Elite and upon starting the new 360 up for the first time almost cried tears of joy over how quiet it was.

The new Xbox 360 boasts the fastest Wi-fi available on any system to date, 802.11n. While I don’t use Wi-fi, I’ve heard mixed reports regarding the speed on the new system. A few people claimed that the connection was slower while the vast majority say that it’s a drastic improvement.

All I can say is this, the system is beautiful and performs like a  dream. While the changes are nice, they aren’t strictly necessary… so unless you’re a die-hard 360 fan who needs to have the latest and best, the decision to pick up the new system will really be up to you.

E3 Best In Show- Part I

For the past week the Los Angeles Convention Center has been home to the biggest event in gaming, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Apart from World Cup matches I’ve spent this entire week looking at every piece of footage, every interview, and every demo in order to get some idea of which games were going to astound and which would disappoint.

Best RPG: Deus Ex Human RevolutionOn any other day I would give this to Fallout, but the variety of ways you can complete a mission and long term consequences depending on how you do is far more important to me than the name of a developer (The same reason I’m not falling all over myself about RAGE). Fallout: NV looks nice but it’s the exact same engine as Fallout 3, gameplay hasn’t really changed, and to me it just seems that they’re playing this one safe.

Best Sports Game: NBA Jam

Best Racing Game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Best Shooter: Medal of Honor

Ok Ok, don’t shoot me, let me explain myself. The guys over at Treyarch displayed a decent amount of footage at E3, the problem I found was that none of it actually looked fun… at all. It just seemed like they were trying to one up Infinity Ward and coming up short (“Modern Warfare 2 had a nuke? Ya… well… we nuked the whole planet, this game takes place on a terraformed Mars, booya! Ya we went there!”) So you’ve got a chopper, sweet. But I know from experience with every one of your games that the gameplay footage shown was on the easiest mode possible, and that you almost died… every time you showed it off. Anyone who’s ever played World at War will tell you that Veteran mode is one of the hardest things they’ve ever done.

Medal of Honor footage was entirely multiplayer and frankly, 30 seconds of multiplayer footage looked a hundred times more fun than the idiotic chopper level in Black Ops. Medal of Honor seems like it will be the perfect balance between COD and Battlefield, while maintaining some of the scope of the Battlefield games they’ve also managed to introduce the close quarters intensity of COD. Take a look at the beta on June 21st.

Best Platformer: Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Best Fighting Game: Marvel vs Capcom 3

Best Action Game: Assassins’ Creed: Brotherhood

Take one-part Assassin’s Creed add one-part Multiplayer and you’ve got a winner folks. The multiplayer for AC: Brotherhood remains true to it’s origins, allowing players to do all the things they would normally be able to do in singleplayer and then using those abilities to kill your friends. Scarily awesome.

Unfortunately I actually forgot to get my press registration in on time this year otherwise I would have been there, luckily I’ve learned my lesson and I guarantee I’ll be there next year.

XCOM Trailer

The X-Com series started off with a bang, 1993′s UFO: Enemy Unknown (Also known as X-Com: UFO Defense) was a massive hit that has truly stood the test of time, having been named the #1 PC game of all time by IGN… twice (Most recently in 2009). After three successful turn based strategy games Microprose decided to change the formula behind their game by making a space based combat/strategy game, followed by a run of the mill first person shooter… effectively killing the franchise.

Caddies and Aliens? Yes please. Check out the Trailer.

Now nine years later 2K games, specifically 2K Marin (The developers who brought us Bioshock 2) are making a play to revitalize a PC classic by bringing XCOM to the next-gens.

In 2K Marin’s latest game, you take on the role of FBI Agent William Carter and are charged with studying and defending against the alien threats that have begun to plague the US. In stark contrast to the horror of Rapture, XCOM takes place in picture perfect 1950′s America.

In an attempt to incorporate both of their previous gameplay styles XCOM will be a mix of strategy and combat. The strategic element comes into play in the form of Research. Using a camera and a similar mechanic to Bioshock 2 players will take photographs of the aliens and their technology, this in turn will reward the player with new weapons and information about the alien threat to aid in your investigations.

Take a gander at the XCOM website, it sure is swell.

Investigation plays a large role in XCOM, you’ll track down leads and eventually enter a large area in search of alien phenomena, once in the map players will scour the area for clues that will hopefully lead you to the alien menace.

From what we’ve seen of combat it seams like a HUD is non-existent, but we’ve only seen a single trailer so it’s unclear whether one will be in the final product. In another parallel to Bioshock, it appears that the player will be treated to a variety of weaponry, ranging from a standard pump-action to a grenade in the form of a “Blobatov” which is used to burn the ink-like blob creatures we’ve seen so far.

Hopefully 2Khas what it takes to bring a PC classic into the future… or the past, and judging by their previous games it’s safe to say they have a good chance of pulling it off.

keep looking »

Recent Articles

• Medal of Honor Beta Review
• Various Halo: Reach Tidbits
• Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade
• Medal of Honor 360 Beta Delayed… Again.
• The New Face Of Xbox
• E3 Best In Show- Part I
• XCOM Trailer
• Killzone 3 Teaser
• Mass Effect Movie
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Trailer and Pre-Order Bonus

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