Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Ah, time for fresh manshoots. The Medal Of Honor beta is open and ready to accept you. You should probably sign up there if you want to shoot some men.

What you should definitely do, however, is read Ian Bogost’s scathing analysis of EA’s decision to drop the “Taliban” name from their game:

“Medal of Honor is just another well-produced first-person shooter, one that invokes a recent war as a marketing gimmick to accompany an equally generic plea to “support our troops.” Playing as the Taliban never mattered anyway. It was just a menu item, so no big deal to remove or rename it. Just a marketing tag on the box. Just a clever hook to spin free publicity, and just an inconvenient but essentially irrelevant feature to drop when the Army brass raised its eyebrows.”

There are some big implications tied up with EA’s marketing awfulness, as Bogost explains. Read.

I’m not sure what the fine array of gentlemen, gentlewomen and gentleothers who frequent this site of ours think of EA’s upcoming Medal of Honor reboot. However, you may put your opinion, whatever it is, to the test in ten days’ time. On October 4th, EA are holding a three-day open beta for their Call of Duty rival. They appear to have two intentions:

1) To make you buy the game
2) To clear up “any misunderstanding about the patriotism”
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And not just by the spelling. Yahoo news are reporting that British defence secretary Liam Fox has urged retailers not to stock the next Medal Of Honor game, due to players being able to take on the role of the Taliban in the game’s multiplayer. “I am disgusted and angry,” said Fox. “It’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.” EA have apparently responded by telling The Sunday Times that the game simply reflects the fact that there two sides in the conflict.

Personally I’m more uncomfortable with a politician urging a blanket ban on anything than I am with the any tastelessness or insensitivity presented by the game (which neither I nor the British defence secretary have played), but I doubt his words will make much difference in the face of the cold hard cash to be made from the forthcoming shooter. Also, I do wonder whether Dr Fox has been made aware of the game simply to provoke this kind of reaction.

UPDATE: EG reports that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is distancing itself from Fox’s statement, saying that it’s a “personal view”.

Medal Of Honor, the forthcoming series restart from EA, was revealed in June by Eurogamer to allow players to play as the Taliban in multiplayer gaming. A tabloid sensation with young people being encouraged to join terrorist organisations? Perfectly normal online gaming that doesn’t represent real life? Or simply awkward taste?

“It’s a game.”

say developers DICE.

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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.

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We know nothing about Battlefield 3. Nothing. We don’t even know if there’ll actually be battlefields in it or not. Why, they might well be war-meadows instead. Or fight-commons. WE KNOW NOTHING. That hasn’t stopped EA from announcing a beta, and using it as a lure to make you buy the new Medal of Honor. Not just its standard copy, oh no. Purely its limited edition. Which is one more degree of abstraction than I believe we’ve previously had from betas’ original purpose.
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Sure, while they’re all playing Starcraft II the rest of us have to find something to do. How about grumbling at a band? Did you even know Linkin Park were still going? It was only this afternoon that I was ranting at my poor, disinterested girlfriend that it’s a travesty that Linkin Park were ever so popular, while no one’s heard of Idiot Pilot. Silly singy/shouty pop plop. Well, apparently I’m completely out of the loop, as EA’s response to Modern Warfare, the relaunching of Medal Of Hono(u)r, is to feature Linkin Park’s new single, The Catalyst.

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Spike TV’s Video Game Awards took place last night and EA tool the opportunity to run their trailer for the rebooted Medal Of Honor. I’ve posted it below, courtesy of the all-seeing GameTrailers. It’s all looking very modern.
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Cor, big gaming news: EA have announced Medal Of Hono(u)r is to return next year, all up-to-date and modern. What they’ve done here, you see, is they’ve taken a popular WW2 series and updated it to present what I’m going to call “modern warfare”. And frankly, good. Because I liked the Medal of Honour games even if they weren’t quite the most cutting edge, and the splendid Medal of Honour: Airborne was lost in the noise of Call of Duty’s reinvention. You should buy it. Although not at that price – cripes – that’s what it cost new! But to the new game. So, what do we know so far?

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Our roving, investigative, and surprisingly tall reporter Quintin Smith has reviewed Medal of Honor: Airborne for PC Gamer, and it’s gone up on their site.

I link it because, well, it’s one of the best written reviews I’ve read in ages. And the game’s rather fun too.

“I responded by throwing all my grenades in random directions and leaping behind a piece of cover that turned out to have a Nazi behind it. A rifle-butt duel followed that had all the grace of a ladies’ slap fight, but when the Nazi did the polite thing and died I realised I had a perfect view of a fuel tank. Bemused, I proceeded to detonate the thing with a few shots from my rifle.”

I’m reviewing Medal of Honor: Airborne (it’s for someone else, so thoughts on it another time – briefly though, it’s pretty good, pleasingly non-linear but fairly silly).

I just stumbled across this.

It’s a Nazi Super-Soldier. In Medal of Honor. Gas mask, experimental chaingun and everything. He took about six grenades to kill. I can’t stop laughing.