[Stryker412]

I thought some of you might be interested in this preview of the new Medal of Honor series game set in Vietnam. It's coming out for both PC and XBOX, but only the XBOX preview was up. Here is the review:

Men of Valor: Vietnam Impressions


With Medal of Honor, developer 2015 established new levels of immersiveness for first-person shooters. The World War II-based action game put you, among other places, on Omaha Beach during D-Day to a degree that it felt like you were in the middle of the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan. With Men of Valor: Vietnam, 2015 hopes to do the same thing with the Vietnam War. We had the chance to check out the Xbox version of Men of Valor at the Game Developers Conference.


In Men of Valor, you get to play as a young marine named Dean Shepherd, an African-American from Oklahoma. Set from 1965 to 1968, the game will cover major events such as the Siege of Khe Sanh and the battle for Hue in the Tet Offensive.

2015 showed us one of the major battles in the game. You start off in an armored personnel carrier, rumbling across the countryside. Inside, your fellow marines are making small talk while a stereo booms out Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" (the soundtrack will include seven or eight classic songs from the era). The APC grinds to a halt, and a voice tells you that your squad has to get out and walk to the objective. As soon as you exit, gunfire erupts from the surrounding rice paddies and the guy in front of you goes down from a head shot. After that, you'll engage in a non-stop running battle with the Vietcong. Artillery rounds will scream overhead before exploding, bullets will zing by your head, and the Vietcong will scream obscenities at you while they fire. Your buddies will go down, and it's up to you to bandage them or provide covering fire while another marine tries to carry the wounded man to cover. As you can probably tell, it makes for a very intense experience.

We were also shown an urban level, set in the gutted city of Hue. We're told that this level will have lots of gritty urban combat and plenty of snipers. That reminded us of the dreaded Sniper Town level from Medal of Honor that virtually everyone who played the game despised. In Sniper Town, you couldn't advance a few feet without getting your head shot off. John Whitmore, 2015's vice president and director of development, told us that you won't have to worry about that kind of situation in Men of Valor. The key to the game is to identify locations that provide cover from enemy fire. If you advance from cover to cover, you'll be safe. You can then lean out from cover and shoot the enemy. You'll have the full arsenal of US and Vietnamese weapons at your disposal, and the M79 grenade launcher can make short work of enemy snipers, which is quite satisfying.

The Xbox version of the game played very smoothly and kept a high frame rate, even during chaotic moments with lots of stuff going on. There are also lots of pretty graphical effects, such as heat blur coming off of fires and plenty of smoke and dust in the air from explosions. The Xbox version will support cooperative multiplayer, and it will support up to 16 players on Xbox live. In addition, the Xbox version will have extra multiplayer and single-player maps that the PC version won't have. Development is on schedule, and Men of Valor is expected to ship for the PC and Xbox later this year.

-Credit Gamespot.com

[Meltdown]

SOunds cool, but everything looks soo.... cartoony I almost want to say. Even that tank and truck in the pics just don't look right.... but it does sound cool.

[Stryker412]

I read somewhere before that this game is going to be rated M, because your NPCs are going to curse up a storm.

From a Q&A with the developer:

"We are very respectful of the conflict and are treating the game with great seriousness. War can be exciting and compelling when portrayed on the computer screen, but in actuality it is bloody, terrifying, and insane. We are aiming to create an impression of the confusion and intensity that result from a sudden firefight that includes clever and aggressive enemy AIs, friendly AIs that are genuinely concerned about their own safety, and plenty of scripted events that depict how suddenly plans can go wrong when confronted by enemy action. Overall, the game as it is developing right now is very action-packed and a bit more intense than Allied Assault, but the AI is more flexible and doesn't kill the player deterministically. Cover and concealment are more important in the jungle than they were in Allied Assault, and firing wildly out in the open will definitely not lead to success. I think you'll see a definite advance in the authenticity of the combat experience and a more player-friendly ramping of difficulty than in Allied Assault."

"A lot of the story in the game is conveyed via personal letters that the player writes and receives while in Vietnam. Often the player will hear how certain aspects of the war are being portrayed back home, and will see how they conflict with his understanding of how the war is progressing. Period music and chatter between veteran comrades and newly arrived recruits will also highlight the tension and ambivalence of the populace during the war."

"Squadmates are a crucial part of the game, and we are aiming to make them the most humanlike AIs yet seen in a first-person shooter. We think that the player will quickly form an emotional attachment to them, and really care if they survive the mission. The sense of camaraderie under fire is one of the main themes of Men of Valor.
The player will usually be in command of his squad, and he will be able to issue orders during gameplay with a very simple interface. He will be able to give his comrades general orders or issue fairly specific orders to individual squadmates. The squadmates are smart enough not to require the player's attention, but their effectiveness can be greatly increased if the player commands them well. Often, the player will find that intelligent tactical use of his squadmates will make an objective much easier to accomplish."

"The player will ride in a number of vehicles and man their associated weapons during combat. M113 armored personnel carriers, UH-1 helicopters, jeeps, and even motorcycles are featured. In co-op and multiplayer, drivable vehicles should be great fun.
Air and artillery support were key aspects of combat in Vietnam, and we will represent them fully. The player will be able to call in strikes on strongly fortified positions or on dense jungle areas he would rather not have to fight through. Mortars, heavy artillery, and of course napalm will be included."


"Characters bleed when wounded in Men of Valor. We didn't believe that we could portray a properly dark and edgy tone for the Vietnam War if the characters didn't have realistic responses to wounds. We're not loading up on the gore for the sake of shock value, but enemies will bleed realistically when shot and will display the kinds of pain reactions you would expect.

We felt this was even more important for the friendlies. We want the squadmates to feel like real people, and when you see your buddy get hit by a stray bullet, topple over and clutch his wound, and then painfully stumble off to cover, you can't help but feel some empathy."

[ICEPICK]

Sounds interesting, however, if it is like MOH WW2 i choose to stay away from it & leave my XboX for HALO2/John Madden Football

[Stryker412]

Originally Posted by ICEPICK

Sounds interesting, however, if it is like MOH WW2 i choose to stay away from it & leave my XboX for HALO2/John Madden Football

I agree. The MOH console ports are worthless. I'll be getting both MOH: Pacific Assault and MOV on PC.

[Bonez]

about the cartoony ness, their prolly early alpha builds of the textures so all i have to say is CAN YOU DO ANY BETTER ?.

and my xbox is sitting under my tv collecting dust, so i'm up for anything

[Duncan]

wtf is up with that church, it looks like it had an enema or somthing jeeze.

But otherwise, looks good.
thanks for the info

[Meltdown]

Originally Posted by Bonez

about the cartoony ness, their prolly early alpha builds of the textures so all i have to say is CAN YOU DO ANY BETTER ?.

and my xbox is sitting under my tv collecting dust, so i'm up for anything

To be honest.... no no I can not... but I don't have to when things like Farcry and BF:V are already out and Soldner is coming out in a month. Admitedly Soldner has the same level of cartooniness (is that a word?!) but it revolutionizes the industry by simply the freedom which you posses in the game, and the destructibility (another questionable word) of the environment.

MOV doesn't "appear" as of this point to do anything different than what every other FPS up to this point has accomplished. Though I will still get it for the SP campaign as I must compliment the creators of MOH for their "realistic" feel in terms of the environment (sans gfx) itself. But that's just my 2 cents. Now I'm off to buy Farcry... booyah...

[Stryker412]

Originally Posted by Meltdown

To be honest.... no no I can not... but I don't have to when things like Farcry and BF:V are already out and Soldner is coming out in a month. Admitedly Soldner has the same level of cartooniness (is that a word?!) but it revolutionizes the industry by simply the freedom which you posses in the game, and the destructibility (another questionable word) of the environment.

MOV doesn't "appear" as of this point to do anything different than what every other FPS up to this point has accomplished. Though I will still get it for the SP campaign as I must compliment the creators of MOH for their "realistic" feel in terms of the environment (sans gfx) itself. But that's just my 2 cents. Now I'm off to buy Farcry... booyah...

You also can't expect EVERY FPS that comes out to revolutionize the genre. Some games come out and are a credit to the genre. I think BF:V has great graphics, but no SP to speak of. That alone is reason enough for me to get MOV. Also, if you've seen previews of MOHA, that has some interesting additions to the FPS genre.

"Not all of Pacific Assault's soldiers are cannon fodder; some are actually with you from the beginning of the game until the end. However, if you're careless, some of your buddies may become severely wounded and drop out of action. This renders them inaccessible until the next level. Soldiers change dramatically in appearance and mannerisms over the course of the game due to EALA's highly complex character models; these models realistically present a character's skin tone, mouth (including polygonal teeth, lip-synced lips, and a fully modeled tongue), and eyes (with inset irises). War wounds are even realistic, and cuts may develop scars during the course of the game. Nearby explosions can cause soldiers to develop nasty bruises that swell eyes shut over the course of several minutes of game time. Characters even grow leaner over time. We saw a baby-faced character who was first presented as a good-natured private with a double chin. He gradually developed into a thin-faced, surly sergeant first class."

[Meltdown]

Originally Posted by Stryker412

You also can't expect EVERY FPS that comes out to revolutionize the genre. Some games come out and are a credit to the genre. I think BF:V has great graphics, but no SP to speak of. That alone is reason enough for me to get MOV. Also, if you've seen previews of MOHA, that has some interesting additions to the FPS genre.

If you aren't going to revolutionize, or do something different then as far as I am concerned it's jsut another "quake" clone. Didn't buy Farcry because I looked and all it has is DM,TDM and something called assault... not my style when I can play BF:V and get teamwork. I buy around 20 games a year or so from multiple genres (RTS,FPS,Simulations,RPGs, et.al.) and I really don't have time to waste on something that isn't going to do something completely different with the genre and playstyles. True BFV doesn't change much for FPS's in general from '42 but at only $25 and the added new features and gfx it was worth it (not to mention all my buddies upgradeing to it).

Like I said, just not my thing. Nothing wrong with MOV, just not my style.