javierdlopez

EA's reboot of the Medal of Honor series created some excitement for those of us who enjoy playing military shooters. During this year's E3, EA unveiled their plans for a Beta release the week following E3 to those customers who pre-ordered Medal of Honor. I figured I'd go ahead and pre-order the game via Amazon as I could easily change my mind later on anyhow.

So the day before the beta was set to be released, EA tweeted that the 360 beta would be delayed a week due to unnamed technical issues. I normally play multiplayer games over XBL, so I figured I'd go ahead and wait. Well, it's been a month and with no word in over 3 weeks, I figured I'd go ahead and redeem my beta code and try out Medal of Honor on the PS3.

First of all, let me say the PS3 is a funny console. I've been wrapped in Red Dead Redemption for 3 weeks, so I can't remember the last time I'd turned on the PS3. I was immediately greeted with dreaded PSN firmware update notification. So before I can download the beta, I'm forced to wait 30 minutes for a firmware update. After 30 minutes, I go to PSN, input my code and begin downloading the 700 meg demo. Wait another 40 minutes (I can download 700 megs off of Usenet in 5 minutes, BTW) and install the beta. As soon as I fire up the beta, the game quickly prompts me to download an update, an additional 200 meg file that takes close to 20 minutes to download. Geez, what a pain in the ass.

So once I'm done downloading, EA and their infinite wisdom as me to create an additional EA Online acct. Only I already have an EA online account. I actually have two separate accounts, and the form won't allow me to simply log on with my current account. Luckily for me, I have a 3rd email acct. that's tied to my DSL service, which I use to let me into the game.

The way I understand it, EA has one developer who's working on the single player separately from the multiplayer. The two games are truly separate. The multiplayer is being built by DICE, the same guys that have worked on the Battlefield series. DICE makes a good multiplayer game, when it works. So the MOH multiplayer beta is not indicative on what you'll get as far as a single player experience.

First of all, although the game looks and plays well, it feels extremely generic. It could be that I need to give it more time in order to have it grow on me, but from my limited play time, it just didn't grab me. DICE, it seems, has decided to copy what Infinity Ward created with the Modern Warfare series. The action seems quicker, bullets do not arc the way they do in the BF series and the controls have been revamped to mimick the COD series controls.

On the down side, the game doesn't have any personality. The destructible environments that make Bad Company 2 so much fun are gone as well. There simply wasn't anything that made me want to spend $60 on MOH, that's for sure.

So as a result, I pulled my pre-order. I'm guessing I'll still play MW2 until hopefully Respawn Entertainment brings some new and innovative to the table.