Medal of Honor didn't receive as grand of a review from critics and gamers as EA had hoped and landed an average of 7/10 on all 3 platforms (PS3, Xbox360, PC). The many trolls, haters, and fanboys had downgraded MoH by comparing it to the upcoming Call of Duty and past Modern Warfare games. I haven't gotten a chance to buy the game and play it myself, but this is what I think from the open beta:
[Medal of Honor - Electronic Arts - PC Open Beta]
The game blew away all expectations I had on this game. The graphics are amazing, the environment immerses the player into the situation with realistic sounds, smooth gameplay, and unique multiplayer experience. The multiplayer is fast-paced, but is very team orientated. This is both refreshing and the bane to the experience. The gameplay demands that you work cooperatively with your team mates in order to fulfill the objectives. Most all First-Person Shooters do not have this element within their multiplayer, despite it being a team-based game. Even in Modern Warfare 1 & 2, people will most likely run off on their own to get kills and brag about how they had to carry the team without working with the team to capture points. Well, in MoH you have to work with your team if you even WANT to get kills because of the way the level was designed.
This can also be a problem. The level is designed so that there are very few options of which path to take and it can be very open ranged. So if the opposing team played the game enough and memorized the spawn locations, it's possible to fall into a infinite loop of spawn kills. This happened a few times when I played, and I could not do anything about it. It also doesn't help if your team goes off on their own and keep getting killed. When I'm playing a good game, the team is in a line pushing forward carefully and strategically. When both teams are playing well with their team mates and there isn't server lag, the experience can be more exhilarating than many other FPS games out there. Besides lag, poor design choices for spawning, and the reliance on good team work, the biggest complaint I would have on the multiplayer for MoH would be the limited amount of customization the game allows the player to work with. I think I mentioned it before in the last post, but there's only 3 classes with only 8 levels on each class making a total of 24 customizable parts and weapons. Compared Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the amount of content is very shallow and kills a bit of the replay value from the multiplayer. Many gamers have expressed their hatred of EA copying CoD:MW2 in MoH. Well after playing the game, I can't say I agree. The gameplay feels distinctively different from MW2 as strategies change and gameplay is utilized differently during a fire-fight. In MW2, you want to keep moving and press on forward. In MoH, players will take cues from their team mates when to move up, when to support, when to cover, when to attack, etc.
Because I haven't played the actual game yet, I can't give a concrete score or opinion of the entire game. But given the chance to play open beta multiplayer, I will possibly buy the game in the future because of how impressive the experience was.
You can check the critic reviews at Metacritic.com.
Anyways, I've been reading news a lot more recently. Sure over 75% of those news are related to videogames, but it's a chance for me to learn more about the industry. The amount of changes and the pace the world moves at shows the prevalent evolution of technology and modern living (or at least the deterioration of our lives). Some quick news:
-Vindictus went Open Beta today. Sucks I don't have enough Hard drive space for it.
-Dynasty Warriors Online goes Closed Beta tomorrow. I already downloaded it.
-DotA 2 officially announced by Valve:
Need I say more? I found it funny and strange right from the beginning when they copyrighted the term "Dota" just recently. Pendragon and Guinsoo (who worked on DotA and then went to Riot Games to work on League of Legends) expressed their concern over the copyright and how it might affect the community. I understand what they're saying and how it might affect the modding community of DotA, but perhaps it's time for DotA to evolve. Valve is well known for embracing the modding community and bringing those games to greater heights, making them better (Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat, Killing Floor, etc.). Along with bringing all the original 100+ Characters from DotA, the game will be enhanced and the limitations of the Warcraft 3 editor will be taken off as Icefrog (one of the original developers of DotA and work on Heroes of Newerth) now has the resources and know-how to create the dream creation of DotA he had always hoped for. I hope I can one day do something of that nature and lead a game project of my own.
That's about it for short news I think...I read an article about story writing in videogames!
While reading through comments about the issue of Valve's copyright over the term "Dota," I found out about two games:
[Gang Garrison 2 - 2D online version of Team Fortress 2]
The gameplay is similar to games like Soldat, Gunster: Rain of Bullets, and Booster Trooper. I downloaded it, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet.
[Monday Night Combat - Xbox Live Arcade Game]
It's supposed to be a word play on Monday Night "Football" where the game scenario is like a sports game in a futuristic, Team Fortress 2-like setting with influences from DotA where the two lanes of computer AI attacks the other side with players attacking the other team while defending their main base using towers. So it's a mix of Team Fortress 2 and DotA. I gotta say that it caught my attention, but too bad it's not on PC. I'd probably buy it if it was, haha.
Lastly, despite the arguments between Infinity Ward and Activision and the rivalry between EA's Medal of Honor with Activision's Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops certainly looks impressive and is a step up from Treyarch's last CoD: World at War.
The graphics look so clean and slick! The customization is limitless, even compared to Modern Warfare 2. I'm going to have to resist buying it though since I already have a large amount of FPS games within my library of games. As someone who's going into the industry, I should really balance myself and play a wide range of genres (which means I should really play those PS2, Gamecube, Wii, PSP, DS, and PC games that are just sitting there untouched...).
I've been overworking so much that I end projects and work at 10PM or later now. I'm about to do some drawing right now too since I didn't the past 2 nights. I know I can't do everything, but I would really like to. Doing my best then, now, and in the future.
