By John Walker on August 3rd, 2010 at 5:04 pm.
They promised it. We hardly dared believe it was true. But the new Linkin Park single – The Catalyst – is now available via the medium of a Medal of Honor trailer! Gather your friends, put your phones on silent, and behold the might that is: Mr Beardy Guy in live action! With some shouty tosh in the background.
It’s a peculiar mix of live-action and in-game footage, the two intercut but barely connected, the entire video a meaningless mismatch of things exploding and men falling over. It is apparently the directorial work of Linkin Park’s own Jo Hahn, who sacrifices his art for the glory of advertising, while the band shouts about how awfully hard everything is for them. Do enjoy.
03/08/2010 at 17:08 Hodge says:
You bastard.
03/08/2010 at 17:08 Alex Bakke says:
My ears! D:
03/08/2010 at 17:14 Alex Bakke says:
But seriously:
I wish there would be a game released that has the same budget as MoH/Modern Warfare 2, but has the same level of realism as ArmA2. I know it would be extremely hard to cater to the masses if this were to happen, but if it was done well, then hopefully the game would be the war-game to end all war-games.
03/08/2010 at 21:43 The Juice says:
The only problem is Arma 2 isn’t realistic. It was created by a group of people who have never shot a gun in their lives and it shows.
04/08/2010 at 02:05 Janxer says:
But it’s an absolute pain to play, so it MUST be realistic!
04/08/2010 at 20:59 Alex Bakke says:
Well, let me rephrase: It’s a lot more realistic than all the other contenders out there.
03/08/2010 at 17:15 BigJonno says:
I fully support the inclusion of big bushy beards.
03/08/2010 at 17:19 Petethegoat says:
I, the what?
What just happened there?
All I got from it is that beard-guy is a bad-ass.
03/08/2010 at 17:52 Heliocentric says:
You just spoiled the main plot point of act 3.
03/08/2010 at 17:24 terry says:
Somewhere, a 12 year old’s fist is pumping.
03/08/2010 at 17:26 Rich says:
You’re a horrible person.
03/08/2010 at 17:31 Mashakosha says:
The song wasn’t even that good, and this comes from an actual fan of their music. I tolerated Minutes to Midnight, but this? This is shit. I don’t want to hear people start flaming just because I actually still enjoy listening to their old stuff.
Anyway, the game. Lots of pre-rendered stuff there. Looks like it’s taken lessons from MW2′s “master class” (and I use that term lightly, as MW2 did do a lot right, but also a lot wrong. Running out of ideas? Kill another PC!)
04/08/2010 at 10:37 battles_atlas says:
I think the true brilliance here is in achoring popular real-world beat combo Linkin Park and the associated expectations of the music video format, within the virtual-world of Medal of Honour and its depictions of Moden Warfare. Handled badly, you’d have a jarring case of cognitive dissonance.
But they put ‘LINKIN PARK’ up in big letters at the start, and then followed it with ‘MEDAL OF HONOUR’, in the same typeface.
Boom! Two worlds rendered as one.
03/08/2010 at 17:43 Cunzy1 1 says:
They only did this to get linked on RPS. And you Medal of Hono(u)r fanboys bought it.
Hmm the captcha seems to include cuneiform characters. If this comment never publishes please tell your mom I love her.
03/08/2010 at 18:05 Rich says:
Modern Warfare fan perchance?
03/08/2010 at 18:11 Cunzy1 1 says:
I can’t tell from your lack of tone if you are serious or not. I have formulated two responses for each eventuality:
1) If you are being serious then no not particularly I didn’t even know that fans of each were engaged in a bitter internet war. I played the MoH series up to Rising Sun and the first couple of Call of Duty games. These days I much prefer my Wars Advanced.
b) If you are being not serious I say to you, your a modern warfae fan perchance more like.
03/08/2010 at 18:41 Rich says:
Semi-serious. By referring to the hive mind as MoH fanboys, you made it seem as if you were firmly in the other camp. I admit I used prefer CoD over MoH (I still have nightmares about German snipers who can miraculously see through trees), but lost interest when it left the WW2 setting.
Also, you said a mum joke (using ‘mom’). I had to say something.
03/08/2010 at 17:44 Jorge says:
Huh? What the heck has happened to Linkin Park? I know they’re considered to be a 12 y/o escapist’s band, but still they’re music was always decent.
03/08/2010 at 18:24 Alexander Norris says:
It stopped being decent pretty much the second they stopped recording Hybrid Theory.
03/08/2010 at 20:47 Red Scharlach says:
Linkin Park were never good.
04/08/2010 at 00:30 RedFred says:
@Red: Correct.
04/08/2010 at 05:32 aerozol says:
Hybrid Theory was quite fun.
Also, haha that video is terrible.
Which is good, people shooting people isn’t a fucking romance..
03/08/2010 at 17:55 Crisp says:
Well I might be in the minority here, but I think the game itself actually looks pretty good. I’ll probably end up getting it.
Not sure what to make of the song, though. If you hadn’t told me it was Linkin Park I may not have known. They seem to have changed their sound quite a bit.
03/08/2010 at 18:07 Rich says:
I was thinking the game looked good until the last two trailers were released. Demonstrates the power music can have.
03/08/2010 at 17:56 Chorltonwheelie says:
Using Linkin Park to promote your efforts is the perfect way to rebut all the tired old clichés of games being the preserve of spotty, bedroom ridden nerds with burgeoning persecution complexes.
Genius, well done.
04/08/2010 at 01:25 Gabe McGrath says:
I feel any replies after ^^^^^^^ this one ^^^^^^^ will be superfluous.
Respect.
03/08/2010 at 18:02 Rick says:
I presume this game will continue the Medal of Honour tradition of ignoring any allies involved in the war bar some cute resistance chick? Though obviously with less Michael Giacchino music.
03/08/2010 at 18:03 Calabi says:
That makes me laugh for some reason. “Look you can keek arse wiv sum weally cool musik man!”
You’ve got to give them some credit, there trying to do something different. Albeit they picked the entirely wrong area, the music instead of the derivative setting and gameplay. I’m sure people will fall for it in droves though.
03/08/2010 at 18:07 D says:
Where is my 5-0 dub? I refuse to watch this trailer until I am linked properly.
03/08/2010 at 18:25 Man Raised By Puffins says:
Oh, if you insist…
03/08/2010 at 18:43 Plopsworth says:
This one works quite well. A couple of good syncs. Shame about the length, but the ending fits too.
03/08/2010 at 18:48 airtekh says:
I’ve seen this Five-O meme on RPS a few times now. Did this originate on RPS or did it come from somewhere else on the interwebs?
03/08/2010 at 19:10 Man Raised By Puffins says:
Pretty sure it’s an RPS-only in-joke, spawned in this comment thread as a reaction to the silly Dragon Age “New Shit” trailer. The original mash-up can be found here.
03/08/2010 at 21:33 Psychopomp says:
/wave
03/08/2010 at 21:59 Man Raised By Puffins says:
And yes, I do believe it was Psychopomp here who first broached the idea.
04/08/2010 at 04:19 Tunips says:
Not having seen the Linkin Park version, I have to say that was a pretty cool trailer
03/08/2010 at 18:11 Monnbrun says:
No one else needs to take the piss out of Linkin Park nor this game. Mr. Walker has done a fine job of it. I will say this however: go away Linkin Park!
03/08/2010 at 18:34 Bungle says:
Someone needs to tell Mr. Beardy Guy that he’s a computer programmer and not a real solder. Definitely not a rock star.
MoH is gonna flop because its makers have no idea what gamers want.
03/08/2010 at 21:38 Psychopomp says:
You seem to be under the impression that this isn’t what the average gamer wants.
You are depressingly wrong.
04/08/2010 at 10:29 battles_atlas says:
@ Bungle
You have far too much faith in humanity
03/08/2010 at 18:35 Jambe says:
That manged to be terribler than I thought possible (terr ih buhl er). Wish that were a word.
03/08/2010 at 18:36 DrGonzo says:
What? I’m just confused after watching that. What was it?
03/08/2010 at 19:02 Flappybat says:
The unreal engine single player looks so much better than the awful Bad Company based multiplayer.
03/08/2010 at 19:10 Daniel Rivas says:
I’ll give them this: they seem to have grasped that Afghanistan is a really beautiful country. I sort of want a hillwalking-simulator set in that environment, because I’m weird like that.
Linkin Park, though. God, I thought they were rubbish even when I was twelve. They have not improved since.
I mean, I went to Pink for my moody pop-for-twelve-year-olds. Ach, at least they’re not Slipknot.
03/08/2010 at 19:12 pakoito says:
Too frivolous to my tastes, war isn’t cool, being a soldier in a war zoneis the uncoolest thing ever.
03/08/2010 at 19:23 Shazbut says:
It’s the soundtrack to a game that lets boys play soldier without the discomfort of actually getting out of the chair or having friends.
Seems about right to me.
03/08/2010 at 19:54 Daniel Rivas says:
Ouch!
But yeah.
03/08/2010 at 19:38 Rond says:
Heard about this trailer a dozen of times. Why do they keep calling it Linkin Park MoH trailer? Am I supposed to like Linkin Park? Is general FPS player supposed to? I’m asking because I can’t see even faintest connection between Linkin Park and Medal of Honour.
03/08/2010 at 20:22 stahlwerk says:
I’d guess both LP’s and MOH’s target demographic overlap and tend to have lots of disposable money (i.e. allowance), so the day after the idea of merging them was pitched by that intern at EA, it was “wear your dollar-contact-lenses to work” day.
03/08/2010 at 20:32 Rond says:
Can’t wait for the Spiderman Battlefield 3 trailer, then.
03/08/2010 at 21:13 Clovis says:
Don’t gamers who get an allowence think of Linkin Park as a bunch of old men? Hybrid Theory is like 10 years old now.
03/08/2010 at 22:26 yhancik says:
OLD MEN
04/08/2010 at 05:10 D says:
^^ I love how every comments thread recently gets one of these.
03/08/2010 at 20:20 ReV_VAdAUL says:
This whole Linkin Park tie in became depressing / scary for me when I realised the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan now probably grew up listening to them.
03/08/2010 at 20:27 Daniel Rivas says:
Yeah.
Although, have you seen Generation Kill? Made by the creator of the Wire, based on the book by an embedded reporter.
I love the idea of the super-macho marines singing Britney Spears and Weezer.
No idea of how realistic that is, but still. Love it.
03/08/2010 at 21:44 Alex Bakke says:
Did they ever sing Weezer/Britney? Avril Lavigne, Tainted Love (Not a band, but yeah), Minnie Ripton. Never heard Weezer.
03/08/2010 at 23:06 Daniel Rivas says:
Teenage Dirtbag got a look-in, I’m sure.
That was Weezer, right?
04/08/2010 at 00:34 RedFred says:
No, no it was not. That was WHEATUS. A god awful one hit wonder band.
FAIL.
04/08/2010 at 17:55 Daniel Rivas says:
Was it?
Fucking hell.
03/08/2010 at 20:30 Bluepixie says:
MoH and Linkin Park: – i.e. I will not be playing this game. Having said that, Eminem featured on the MOD2 trailer and Marilyn Manson on the Dragon Age one. Damn. :(
03/08/2010 at 20:34 Anonymous says:
WTF??, video games got bigger budgets and still produce the same crap.
03/08/2010 at 21:52 MrTambourineMan says:
Linkin Park are terrible. Hating them since 2000. Oh, and they’re even worse at “directing” movies – even very short ones, they probably couldn’t produce a decent picture, let alone motion picture…
03/08/2010 at 22:09 Cunzy1 1 says:
Caught out. Sorry I frequent a lot of foreign english-ish sites so your mom comes naturally to me. No…that’s not what I meant.. not your actual mum.
You know what I mean.
03/08/2010 at 22:10 Cunzy1 1 says:
Reply failed. Build more farms.
03/08/2010 at 23:20 Sup says:
In some way this trailer targets a certain part of my brain which still finds explosions and this kind of stuff cool. So I enjoyed the trailer, but I am probably still not going to buy the game.
PS: Don’t care about the band, the music matched the trailer that’s good enough for me.
04/08/2010 at 04:16 EthZee says:
I tend to agree with this attitude; I don’t usually care that much whether a certain track or album is considered bad because it’s performed by a certain musician/group, as long as the music itself is good.
That said, I won’t be watching this trailer. Except the 5-0 version (SYNCS PERFECTLY)
04/08/2010 at 10:01 dethtoll says:
I’m with you, bro. Somewhere along the line Linkin Park stopped rolling their dicks around on a synthesizer and ditched the rapper; I was expecting something a lot worse, but then again I haven’t listened to anything they’ve made since Hybrid Theory came out and I graduated high school. But somehow, despite my being nearly 30, my musical tastes seem to be regressing some back towards the adolescentia of people who are only just now beginning college. Secret and Whisper, anyone? That and I never really hated LP like I did System of a Down or Slipknot or any of the other stereotypes of the day.
I’m not so sure about the game itself- I’m not a fan of MoH by any stretch of the imagination, and I have to wonder about the whole Al-Qaeda multiplayer thing- but the trailer seemed to hit all the right buttons. I dunno, maybe I’ll give it a look; every time I tell myself I’m sick of modern combat bullshit my mind starts drifting to squad formations and house-to-house searches.
03/08/2010 at 23:44 Dhatz says:
LP is less of a deal than Big Pixel Zombies
04/08/2010 at 03:38 pupsikaso says:
Good song, but video is garbage =/
04/08/2010 at 07:18 Spacewalk says:
These guys obviously didn’t get the memo stating that Bodies by Drowning Pool was the go-to for horrible video game trailer music.
04/08/2010 at 07:44 ceb says:
@ Walker: Its kind of interesting that they try a Bondesque twist on the launch. Intersting that a fairly known band now think its nice to be cobranded with a game. That cant be all bad.
So nice concept, interesting development, poor taste?
04/08/2010 at 07:44 rei says:
Gaming for me is a religion and Medal of Honor is the shit.
04/08/2010 at 09:17 HOPEnSPIRIT says:
The Juice says: August 3, 2010 at 9:43 pm The only problem is Arma 2 isn’t realistic. It was created by a group of people who have never shot a gun in their lives and it shows.
Get you facts straight, they make simulation games for the military. DUH!
http://www.bistudio.com/simulations.html
04/08/2010 at 11:09 Lambchops says:
Craaawwwllliing in my skiiiii-iiiiin!
04/08/2010 at 13:29 MadMatty says:
How awful.
Have you guys never heard of Korn?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_hIojjA3A4
05/08/2010 at 04:02 Martin Kingsley says:
Afghanistan hill-walking simulator! YES! You, my friend, have instantaneously crafted a concept that has rocketed STRAIGHT to the top of my Do Want list. My enthusiasm makes this comment seem facetious, but I promise it isn’t.
05/08/2010 at 04:04 Martin Kingsley says:
That, of course, was aimed at Daniel Rivas. Why, reply function, why do you desert me in my time of need.