Afghan Wig-Out: Medal Of Honor Beta

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"

Woah. Woah. Woah. If you've clicked 'read the rest of this entry' because you think I'm going to head off on some sprawling rant about whether or not letting folk play as Taliban troops in MOH's multiplayer is a boo-boo, you're greatly mistaken. I may have played a lot of shooters, but I ain't no soldier.

What I do think is that both the mainstream reporting and EA's attempted defence of the option haven't done anyone any favours. EA looks bad, the press look like slavering, story-hungry parasites, and most of all it encourages non-gamers to think games and the people who make and play them are vile.

The question to answer is whether the game manages to justify including something that incited so much uproar and hype, whether it was intended or not. We'll find out on October 4, basically. Here's EA boss Frank Gibeau's hilariously carefully-worded statement.

“We also hope that by offering the Multiplayer Open Beta, we can clear up any misunderstanding about the patriotism and respect that are the foundation of this game,” he said.

“The Medal of Honor franchise has always shown extraordinary reverence for American and Allied soldiers — this game is no exception.”

We'll link to the beta once it's up, presumably on the official site.

It's PC-only (for now), and includes two maps and two modes: Kunar Base in Sector Control and Shahikot Mountains in Combat Mission.

So yeah.