New Medal of Honor promises 'most authentic modern war experience'

Shrugging off years of mediocrity and partially descriptive subtitles, EA's newly announced Medal of Honor reboot will thrust players into a modern milieu: Afghanistan. Set for release in 2010 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the new first-person shooter follows the Tier 1 Operator, described as "a relatively unknown entity directly under the National Command Authority who takes on missions no one else can handle," and not described as an oddly militant member of ZZ Top. EA claims that "Tier 1 Operators from the US Special Operations Community" have been involved since the earliest stages of the game's development.

The publisher seems intent on throwing the gauntlet down in the modern war arena (do they still use gauntlets?), promising a "best-in-class single-player campaign" from the minds at EA Los Angeles, as well as a multiplayer component developed by the Battlefield veterans at DICE.

You can bear witness to the game's full unveiling during Spike TV's 2009 Video Game Awards on Saturday, December 12 at 8:00PM PT. You can witness beard in the gallery below.


Electronic Arts began the WWII shooter genre with its Medal of Honor franchise. The series first started with PS1 titles but it really came into its own with the acclaimed 2002 PC game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Since then, the series had has a number of addition games on a wide variety of platforms. However it has also taken a back seat to the games in Activision's Call of Duty franchise (developed by Infinity Ward, who originally helped to develop Allied Assault). The Medal of Honor series has never strayed from its WWII war theater but that may change according to a rumor in the latest Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine (and referenced at 1Up.com).

According to the story, EA plans to release a new Medal of Honor game in 2009 but instead of hitting the beaches in Normandy or storming the Pacific islands, the franchise will switch to a modern day setting taking place in Afghanistan. This topical switch, if true, will likely raise more than a few highbrows. We wonder if the game will deal directly with the search for 9/11 terrorist Osama Bin Laden. If so, expect to see more than a few critics of the game in the mainstream press.