Game Review : Medal of Honor ( PC )

Intro :

In one sentence.. This is a remarkable game from a large historical franchise that I would recommend. My comments for the moment refer specifically to the Single Player, as that has been my point of encounter so far. The multi-player is still definitely on my to-do list provided I can find regular, decent, local servers.

There seemed to be a considerable issue around there being a Taliban faction that consumers were allowed to side with on the multiplayer. I have not tried the multiplayer so it might not be fair for me to comment, but purely from an artistic stand point I feel that is was blown a little out of proportion. Playing as a taliban member does NOT represent the player’s beliefs or plans in my opinion. As with all arts, media and entertainment, it serves only as a form of expression of a singular point of view. The interpretation ( not the truth ) is in the eye of the beholder.

Regardless, here is a quick breakdown of my view of Medal of Honor ( 2010 ) :

Game Play :

Apart from a system crash initially, this game was smooth and immersive. If this game was developed for console originally, it did not feel like it. The PC version had all the decent bells and whistles such as configurable graphics and controls ( that might sound like a given, but its a luxury for PC releases these days ).

The game serves as a linear first person shooter and you play as multiple characters. This among other features seem to be borrowed (atleast in style) from the Call of Duty game style. But it has taken and used the game style well. Elements such as playing with team members  feels real and fluid and their is a decent amount of character that adds to the game-play experience. I would almost describe this as an interactive movie more than a simulated environment. The game is extremely linear which is not necessarily a bad thing if done right.

There are some minor bugs which do unfortunately detract from the realism, such as a grenade behaving like a sticky mine instead of rolling or bouncing down a hill. But the DICE team got the average game play very very right.

The game rules are usually very clear although execution is not always clear. And for a game style that lends itself to shooting skills over problem solving, I find this undesirable. This is however not a frequent occurrence.

The artificial intelligence is largely what I would expect from this game style. Not incredible but I might dare say it was sufficient. There were certain stages where the AI should have responded more realistically ( certain times they should have responded to your sneaking around and didn’t ). But there was a degree of adaptivity and variation in the gun fights which I did enjoy.

Score : 8.5

Effects :
Visual :
Although probably not the best release out of the 2010 first person shooters, the graphics was outstanding and fun. Out of all the game elements, I think graphics is very high up on my importance list and there were many times I noticed the visuals and thought “awesome”.

Unfortunately there was a great deal of tearing in the cinematic sequences that are extremely distracting. But I never noticed them when I was in control which on the whole is preferable. Certain blurring of the faces of team mates and one or two lighting bugs which were intermittent at best still aren’t enough to discredit this game’s value.

Audio:
The sound is spot on. I found it to be accurate and well synchronized ( on the whole ). With that said, I didn’t notice the sound much. Which I think is a good thing. It should contribute to the enbironement and it should not break you out of the immersive atmosphere you are in. The sound track was also clean and well rounded giving a serious tone to the game.

Score : 8.0

Story Line :

I think this part of the game’s design and implementation is by far its strong point. I completely got into the game’s vibe and atmosphere because of a well written story line. Some of the missions do seem to detract from the core story line with out really giving away a decent sub-plot, but not one part of the game could be cut out without removing some of the end result in terms of story completeness.

You basically play two characters involved in various battles as part of the 2nd Middle East conflict. Despite the world view of the conflicts in the region, war can never be a great experience and you can’t help but feel sorry for the protagonists. An interesting point of view where you take part in the plight of the conflict and struggle that these soldiers go through is clear and engaging.

Its clear that DICE went through a fair deal of effort to put a story together worth watching.

Score : 8.0


Miscellany :

Considering the price of this game genre as of late, the game was reasonably priced considering the scope and quality that you get. I only wish all publishers\developers took the moral high ground in terms of value-for-money.

Multiplayer :

I regrettably never put a whole lot of effort into the multiplayer. I tried to get into multiplayer sessions on a few occasions and regrettably I just couldn’t find a decent local server, and the international servers have ping times of ATLEAST 220ms which is just too high for me personally to even try ( I try aim for atleast <100ms ).

The Sum of All Parts :

I would have to say this game is smooth, the story line is serious, and the faults are faint if at all noticeable. The game meets a AAA standard and it was tough to stop playing. My only regret is the FPS culture as of late, is to have a game under 10 hours.

Last Thoughts :

Although this post is very late after its release, if you have not played it yet and are looking for a shooter that is meaty and fun, give it a try. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Also note I have not included an average score. It just didn’t feel right to make an average out of criteria that are not easy to establish a relative value to the whole.

Ciao :-)

Blogging - A Randomly Periodic Event

When I originally started blogging it was with the hope that I would be able to do it regularly, say around two to three times a month. Obviously looking at my first volley this is not the case. Life often dictates the circumstances and when life gets insanely busy then obviously you begin to prioritize and blogging for me personally is not THAT important.

Another thread of thought connected with the blogging process is that I was never really completely happy with the general layout of the blogger pages. I have been considering WordPress as a replacement as it gives a bit more flexibility in terms of page layout, such as the abililty to use tabs without needing mess with the markup of the site. I want to have different categories for blogging and unfortunately blogger is just too restrictive. So I thought I would look at WordPress, but it turns out it is more of a deployment tool, and does not include the hosted environment such as blogger. Hosted servers etc. don’t grow on trees. So I will need to think about this a bit.

Regardless, I have some very small programming projects I will do my best to post on here and hopefully have a download for the completed versions of the project within the next two weeks or so, and some rough game reviews even sooner ( HOPEFULLY ).

Ciao All