a new game or the ps2/wii version of airborne shipped under a new name ? not known so far but this seems like a good shooter..
Medal of Honor Vanguard Hands-on
We enlist in the war and head straight into the mouth of the beast.
by Chris Roper
January 18, 2007 - World War II games continue to fight it out for supremacy on consoles and PCs everywhere, despite the fact that we've played the same battles tens if not hundreds of times already. The bright side to all this is that the games are getting better with every release - they're opening up, offering more tactical play and coming closer and closer to accurately portraying the brutality and hardship of the war. EA's latest, Medal of Honor Vanguard, looks to do just this, offering PlayStation 2 gamers an intense, strategic and rather open take on the Second World War.
A perfect example of this is seen right at the beginning of the chapter we were able to play, a scenario based around the battle at Market Garden. Your squadron rides to the battlefield in an airship while you stand in the doorway and watch the horror unfold. Other planes are gunned down just beside yours, their soldiers plummeting to their deaths. Below, you can see soldiers moving around a farm house, bullets flying in every direction. No place looks safe, but it all looks better than the deathtrap of a plane that you're in. With your parachute firmly attached to your back, you hop out of the plane.
At this point you take control, guiding yourself somewhere into the farm. This gives you multiple options for the mission and sets up how you'll play the start of this chapter. You can follow your men and stay together, making the group stronger as a whole. You can set off towards the rear of the enemy and attempt to flank them, though you'll be on your own until you're able to regroup. Or, in this case, you can head towards a silo whose roof has caved in and pick up a secret sniper rifle.
The choices don't end once you've hit the ground. The battlefields are relatively open and non-linear in many ways, allowing you to flank enemy soldiers or take them head-on in whichever way you see fit. Vanguard looks to be a game that lets you rise above the ranks or fail miserably depending upon how you approach each battle.
Along the same lines, Medal of Honor Vanguard is something of a return to the classic gameplay of the series rather than what we saw in European Assault. It's something of a spiritual successor to MoH Frontline, and we're excited about that. The gameplay feels like a somewhat simple shooter setup, with tweaks like being able to cook grenades or sprint, but it's the environments, battle setups and available tactics because of them that looks to make it a compelling experience.
Things like AI conversations also work to envelop you in the atmosphere. Along with pointing out where enemy troops are situated, you'll be able to hear both sides of the war discuss how things are going, both in small and large-scale manners. It's a nice way to keep the story moving while making you feel like you're actually part of the overall war rather than just a single battle that can feel insignificant.
Medal of Honor Vanguard's visuals also help lend a hand to the game's immersive feeling. Character detail is more than double the count of what we've seen in previous games in the series, and their animations look top-notch. There are some nice and subtle lighting effects here and there, as well as some great particle effects. And let's not forget the very expansive and detailed vista we saw from inside the plane at the chapter's opening...
Medal of Honor Vanguard looks like it could be the most compelling release in the series in some time. After having fought through the war on next-gen systems, we weren't sure how easy it would be to go back to battle on the PlayStation 2, but we're ready to reenlist. Sign us up.
