Medal of Honor: Frontline (early impressions) (1 Viewer)

[Mitty]

Well, that just bites. :frowning:
Thanks for the info though. Maybe I'll just have to pick up Ace Combat 04, although I'd much rather fly WWII fighters.
If only Jane's would develop their WWII fighter games for consoles. :frowning:

 

[Dan Brecher]

"However, EA decided that the high-flying action would have been too great a departure for the traditionally ground-based franchise."

What a lame excuse! :frowning: I was looking forward to that... It had potential for greatness!
Dan

 

[Mitty]

I wonder if there isn't more to this story. Maybe the game tested extraordinarily badly so they scrapped it. It seems unusual to develop a game to the point of announcing it then cancel it. It seems like a lot of expense to eat.

 

[BrianB]

What a lame excuse!

Of course it is. You honestly think that's why EA cancelled it?

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

Medal of Honor: Frontline for the xbox, supposedly to be released in November, will be enhanced, no specifics, and will also reportedly feature 4 player split-screen multiplayer. At least, that's what IGN says.


Figher Command was cancelled a while back.

I rented Frontline and I won't be purchasing this game. It has a big design flaw for me, and that's no mid-game saves. If you die, you have to start the whole level from the beginning. C'mon, EA, I know the game's short, but, this doesn't help out with it's length forcing players to essentially have to restart the level.

Other caveats, I've played more than half the game, and if you're thinking that every level will have the visceral impact of the opening d-day level, you're going to be disappointed. A number of the missions are quite ordinary, very linear affairs.

And, I'm not sure what's up with the AI. After a while, I though I was playing a WWII version of resident evil. You nail a german, and he goes through an over-elaborate horrifically slow death animation before eventually falling to the ground apparently dead, or at least, so you think. Just as slowly as he falls to the ground, he just as slowly rises re-incarnated to battle yet again. This happens far too often in the game and is just plain goofy.

The control of the game via the ps2 dualshock also makes an excellent case for proponents of first person shooters should only be played with a keyboard and mouse. After a while I forgot about to trying to aim the cursor with my right analog stick and instead just centered my aiming cursor and moved my guy around to get the bead on the enemy. The ps2 dualshock is not my friend when it comes to first person shooters.

 

[Derrik Draven]

Just as slowly as he falls to the ground, he just as slowly rises re-incarnated to battle yet again.

Well, there is a real explanation behind it. I'm not really supposed to leak out this info BUT...
...those Germans are actually remnants of The Flood that escaped Halo.

 

[Rob Varto]

"The Germans are coming, ooooh the Germans!" - Mr.Burns

Just wanted to add that.
I have MOH:AA for the PC -it's been a great game so far but I doubt I will pick this title up for the PS2 or XBox - I just hate the way the game games controls with those bulky controllers. Why won't some genius release a mouse / mini keyboard combo for the console world?

 

[Jeremy Illingworth]

I like FPS games with no mid level save. When playing on difficult settings it adds challenge, instead of saving after each kill.

I tried playing a shooter on the PC with a keyboard and mouse and hate it. I prefer controllers. I must be the only one.

jeremy

 

[Ian_Fisher]

I have MOH:AA for the PC and I love it. I was going to go and pick up Frontline for the PS2 today, but with news of an X-Box version on the horizon...damn...I guess I'll just have to wait!

 

[Andrew_Sch]

Not trying to take a pot-shot at Peter or anything, but I'm just sick and tired of people trashing games just because they don't have a quick-save feature. I remember when Max Payne came out for PS2, lots of review sites took points off for that very reason. Gamers today are so spoiled, unlike back in the old 8 and 16-bit days. I don't remember anyone taking points off of Doom or Wolfenstein for lack of quick-save.

 

[Aaron Copeland]

Not trying to take a pot-shot at Peter or anything, but I'm just sick and tired of people trashing games just because they don't have a quick-save feature. I remember when Max Payne came out for PS2, lots of review sites took points off for that very reason. Gamers today are so spoiled, unlike back in the old 8 and 16-bit days. I don't remember anyone taking points off of Doom or Wolfenstein for lack of quick-save.

Well, maybe not a quick save feature, but at least check points would be nice. There is fine line between being challenging yet fun vs just frustrating. A good example of a game that crossed this line is Turok 2. That damn game had save points that were like 45 mins to an hour of game time apart. It really sucked at times. It's just frustrating to be near the end of a level and have a random grenade send you back to the beginning.

Nothing wrong with a good challenge, but crossing over to the area of cheap/frustrating can kill the enjoyment of a game. Especially for those of us who have work and other duties that sometimes end or cut short blocks of game time.

Aaron

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

First off, Max Payne did auto-saves at various points in the game and you were free to add your own individual saves. Same thing with Halo.

MOH: Frontline has a lot more problems than simply lacking a mid-level save feature, so I don't appreciate your statement, Andrew, that I'm trashing Frontline, JUST because it doesn't allow saves during the level.

Most games nowadays offer the ability to save during the level, especially when the levels can be quite long. The old days are gone where game designers figured that they made games for themselves and if you wanted to finish the game and see all that it had to offer, you had to be among the world's top ten players. Hell, I remember some games, where I couldn't get past the first level, they were so frickin' hard.

It's too easy to get nailed by stray hand grenades or a rocket launcher in Frontline and wind up having to go back to the start of a level you've put 15-20 minutes into. And this night of the living dead routine is ridiculous. Also, making a fps today with only a single player mode available will turn a lot of sales into rentals. Two player co-op would've been awesome. Frontline's a great premise, but, the game is not what it could've been, IMHO.

 

[Andrew_Sch]

Well Peter, after reading your comments about lack of auto-save, I sort of skimmed through the rest of your post in my eagerness to draft a rebuttal, so I missed some of your other points, my bad.:b In terms of saving, I like a checkpoint or two per level, but the ability to save at any time sort of takes the urgency and challenge out of a lot of situations.

 

[Joe michaels]

I too like anywhere saving and I wish more games would have it. When I want to stop playing I don't want to have to keep playing just because I want to get to a save point.

 

[Joseph Young]

Picked up MOH: Frontline over the weekend, my impressions:
60 frames a second, almost all of the time. On the Normandy beach, the particle effects of flying dirt and debris is most impressive. The screen shakes and the ground rocks when a lot is going on, so the potentially decreased frame rate is actually disguised a bit.
Each level is quiet linear, but has the illusion of being open-ended due to the 'go-anywhere' nature of the tasks. On the Normandy beach, you must 1) provide cover fire for 4 trapped soldiers, 2) rescue the soldier with explosives to blow through the defense perimeter, 3) take hold of a machine gun and break down the Germans' lines of defense.
I am playing on 'normal' difficulty and am currently on the U-boat.

I don't speak German, but subtitles are provided for all the essential German dialogue. The little details are amazing, from the bubbling soup on the pot in the U-boat kitchen, to the exhausted soldier sitting up against a wall, who you take by surprise. I couldn't help but think of SPR; the music and the imagery is all very similar.
All the newsreel footage is a nice touch. Despite this being a port, a lot of care was put into this game and it shows.
The sound: while on the boat before the first (Normandy) level, as the commander was talking, I rotated 360 degrees, and his voice very clearly panned from in front of me to all the way behind me. Despite not being 5.1, very immersive sound. I don't doubt that the Xbox will do this title justice, but I don't have an Xbox.
As much as I enjoyed Red Faction, the gameplay in MOH is a little more 'old fashioned.' MOH is at heart a straightforward action FPS with clear objectives, but immersive and detailed enough so that you never notice.
The lack of an autosave is irritating, but it forces you to really involve yourself in the layout of each level. In other words, with an autosave, most players would plow through each level on the first try and not notice all the care and detail that went into the game. There is a real joy in finally discovering a clever technique that enables you to break through a particularly brutal line of defense.
Joseph

 

[Dean DeMass]

Despite this being a port, a lot of care was put into this game and it shows.

Joseph,

Frontline is not a port. It was designed specifically for the PS2. However, it will be ported over to the Gamecube and X-box.

-Dean-

 

[Joseph Young]

Frontline is not a port. It was designed specifically for the PS2. However, it will be ported over to the Gamecube and X-box.

Oopsie. :b My bad. I had this impression that this had originally been a PC game, but I was thinking of Allied Assault I think.

Does anyone think that the somewhat blurry textures will be upgraded to Halo-quality for the Xbox release?

Joseph

 

[Marc Carra]

For all of you X-box'ers who are holding out for the Xbox version with 5.1 sound, I can tell you that with Pro-logic II , the PS2 version ROCKS! Even better than the D-Day beach scene, are the sub-terranian bunkers right after. Very distict rear channels and full 360 degree panning. IMHO, It's absolutely THE best sounding console game ever. And yes, I do have an Xbox. Halo's not even close in the sound department.

Marc.

 

[Dean DeMass]

Marc,
You have perked my interest. I will have to rent this and give it a go in PLII. One game that PLII did wonders for was Resident Evil on the Cube.
-Dean-

 

[Dave Bennett]

Dean,
RE on the Cube was not specifically encoded for Pro Logic 2. Having said that, it still does sounds great when I run it in PL2 though.
Rob,
Smithers save me from the Germans!
Lastly, Andrew, I'm not sure about Wolfenstein but I'm almost positive Doom had a quick save. I think the button was F5.
Edit-Forgot to add my comments on the game. The game is really dark and the textures are kind bland IMHO. Still my biggest problem is the control. I'm fine with using the Dual Shock for a FPS, but the sensitivity on the sticks is way off. Half-Life and Red Faction made use of the controller much better IMHO.