For starters, what you saw was 100 percent in-game footage, says Greg Goodrich. Some of that was cutscene, but Goodrich says if you see soldiers kicking in doors, you can reasonably assume breach operations will be a part of this, plus other "cool things." Also, the "Cowboy" featured in the title graphic at the end is in fact a character in the game.

Goodrich obliquely acknowledged that, as the first M-rated Medal of Honor game, we can expect raw scenes such as the trailer's gripping conclusion (you should see it for yourself.) But: "We will always be grounded by our core tenets of authenticity and respect for the soldier."

Greg Goodrich Medal of Honor Trailer Q&A [Medal of Honor site, via Voodoo Extreme]

EA LA and DICE's new Medal of Honor may look somewhat familiar, but with higher clarity, in its debut trailer. At the very least, it looks impressively cinematic, with more suicide bombers than competitor Modern Warfare 2 brings to the table. And the beards! So glorious!

Less expected, for those of us who didn't chat up Mark Hamill on the red carpet, was Rocksteady and Eidos' reveal of the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum.

I guess we're calling this Batman: Arkham Asylum 2? That's despite the vigilante on mental institutionalized bad guy action apparently spilling onto the streets of Gotham City itself, the confines of Arkham seemingly incapable of containing Batman's rogues gallery.

The official site for the next Batman game appears to have gone live in a barebones state, hopefully offering more concrete information soon. For now, enjoy tonight's recently revealed trailers for two of next year's biggest games.

Chris Plante at UGO noticed the similarities and I have to say, he's not off by much. Facial hair - especially to that depth - is very irregular in the United States armed forces. Unless you fly a helicopter for the U.S. Marines, then anything's serviceable. (To all the Devil Dogs, I am kidding, dammit.) Add in the eyeshades and, well ... about to get a letter, much?

Fun aside, it's a convenient coincidence that Medal of Honor's Afghanistan reboot evokes the image of a Special Forces soldier who notably served there. Just leave the Marlboro Man out of it, OK?

Meet the Real Life Hero Behind Medal of Honor in Afghanistan [UGO; composite image from UGO]

"I'm not saying it's going to happen tomorrow, but in the way that Activision sort of alternates sequels of Modern Warfare and Call of Duty and owns the leadership position in FPS [first-person-shooter], between Medal of Honor and Battlefield, I want it back," EA boss John Riccitiello said in a morning interview in New York. "And we're going to get there with innovation and quality."

EA's Medal Of Honor used to be the leading brand in military first-person shooters. Activision's rival brand, Call of Duty surpassed it and has now spawned a Modern Warfare 2 that sold nearly five million copies in its first day of release.

It's no wonder Riccitiello wants to turn that around. He thinks his franchises can get there.

The EA CEO didn't detail the strategy for the Medal of Honor series, which moves to modern Afghanistan after a legacy of World War II releases, but he did enthuse about the prospects of Battlefield Bad Company 2, the March console and PC shooter also coming from EA and its development studio DICE. (Read Kotaku's recent preview of the game.)

"The first [Bad Company] did very well in its first outing," he said. "The next one is a heck of a lot better and it looks like a worthy competitor to Modern Warfare."

Not only can the game compete, said Riccitiello, but he expects it to do one better than publisher Activision and development studio Infinity Ward's latest Modern Warfare game.

"We think we've got an advantage over Modern Warfare 2 with our multiplayer," he said. "The guys at DICE do that really, really well."

What kind of advantage could EA have, given MW2's legacy of fans?

"Frankly, once you get past, sort of, four people on a map, I think our gameplay is better," Riccitiello answered. "That is a legacy of DICE and where they came from. The original Battlefield PC was a 16-on-16 product and they've optimized. The other thing is, I think things like vehicles and destructible environments are a fresh innovation." [Note from Kotaku: The original Battlefield on PC actually supported up to 64-player matches.]

Riccitiello continued: "I think the Infinity Ward guys are great. It's not about them being bad for us having to be great too. I'm a fan of a lot of our competitors' products. But if you've played Modern Warfare, and you've played the first one — and you've played the last Call of Duty — it's sort of starting to feel like they're making the same game again. And I personally think being able to control your vehicle as opposed to being able to ride on one [is good]. And I think there's something a little bit cool about taking a building out and getting the six guys in it. Personally, I get sort of a silly amount of pleasure out of it."

EA once had the war-game dominance. Whether they can wrest it back — in terms of quality, if not immediately in sales — will be seen next year.

That amply bearded, box-art starring soldier is a Tier 1 Operator, "a relatively unknown entity directly under the National Command Authority who takes on missions no one else can handle," according to EA's announcement. The new Medal of Honor—known simply as Medal of Honor—will give gamers a chance to "step into the boots of these warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan."

Just like that year-old rumor said.

The all-new Medal Of Honor is currently in development at EA Los Angeles and DICE, responsible for the game's single-player and multiplayer components, respectively.

Medal Of Honor will make its video debut at the Spike TV VGAs on December 12 and hit the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC next year. Until then, the game's official web site should keep you busy.

Last week, we reported that the core Command & Conquer team would be let go following the release of Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. While Earl didn't touch on those rumored changes, he confirms that Jon Van Caneghem, formerly of Trion World Network "has recently joined EA to transform Command and Conquer with a new digital model that is going to re-ignite the fan base for this franchise."

Earl also calls EA's planned revitalization of the Medal of Honor franchise "simply stunning," writing that "[EALA studio head] Sean Decker and Greg Goodrich have been leading a re-invention" of the first-person shooter series,

"We couldn't be happier with the focus and progress these teams have shown," Earl writes.

In the internal communication obtained by Kotaku, Earl assured employees that the "new team at EALA has turned this studio into a showcase for the 'fewer things better' initiative." If that sounds familiar, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau said something similar in an investor call, saying that EA plans to focus on more of its "core IP" and proven "blockbusters."

The source tells the site, "It's a new take on the modern warfare idea — and will really help give the series the kick up the arse it needs." The game is apparently slated for February/March 2010 on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. An announcement is expected before Christmas.

The modern era is nice and all, but when is someone going to set their war game during the Civil War. You know, 30-second reloading mini-game, sawing off legs, whiskey power-ups and unlockable mustaches. Bayonetting, cannons and toothless Southern men. SOMEONE MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

Medal Of Honor: Modern Warfare incoming [MCVUK]

The currently dormant Medal of Honor series—the most recent entries, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Medal of Honor: Vanguard and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, were released way back in 2007—is certainly due for a revitalization. Whether that means a modern day reboot of the series, rumored at one point to be set in Afghanistan, remains to be seen.

Given competitor Activision and EA developer DICE's success with bringing things up to date, we wouldn't be surprised.

Gibeau didn't offer much in the way of concrete details on what a "revitalized" Medal of Honor means, much like his boss EA CEO John Riccitiello. At least we know it's out there somewhere.

Following EA's losing quarter and its the company's plans to shed some 1500 employees, close studios and cancel a dozen projects, it's not surprising that the publisher is shifting to what works.

Riccitiello said the next Medal of Honor game is "somewhere out there," but that executives on the call were "not yet in a position to discuss specific plans but will do so in due course." A modern day update to the series was rumored last year, when an alleged survey for Medal of Honor: Operation Anacoda made the rounds.

Operation Anacoda was purported to take the series to modern day Afghanistan.

The most recent entries in the series, Medal of Honor: Airborne and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, were released in late 2007. If EA does intend to put EA Los Angeles developers back onto the franchise, we're guessing an announcement would happen well after the competition releases its modern warfare shooter.

There's a key difference! Unlike licensed fare, which are forced to stick to the plot and characters of the film, these games simply take a motivational cue from an existing movie and run with it. Whether that be in terms of visual design, themes, the relationship between characters, it doesn't matter; these are just some of the games inspired by a summer blockbuster, and they wear that inspiration proudly on their sleeves.

Any others people can think of they'd like to share?

Independence Day / Star Fox 64

While the Star Fox series has tipped its hat to many science fiction staples over the years, none are as blatant as Star Fox 64's stage on Katina.

From the enemy fighters to the landscape to the protection of a prominent building from a large, saucer-shaped mothership, it doesn't just borrow from ID4, it lifts entire segments. Some people say even the music is modelled on Independence Day's score.

Just a shame there's no animal version of a wasted Randy Quaid up there.
Saving Private Ryan / Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

In 1998, moviegoers were shocked by what is still widely regarded as the most graphic, confronting sequence ever seen in a war movie. Through a use of shaky-cam and special effects, Steven Spielberg depicts the Omaha Beach landings on June 6, 1944 with an unnerving sense of intimacy, bullets whizzing past your head in surround sound, bodies exploding all over the screen.

Then, in 2002, gamers got their chance to actually take part in the sequence. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault followed the events of the film's introduction almost to the letter, from a disastrous beach landing to a deadly crawl up the beach to the storming of the German fortifications.

And it's not just the opening that models itself on Saving Private Ryan; there are subsequent levels in the game that also reference locations visited in the film. Then again, with Spielberg having helped write the events of the game, that shouldn't have been a great surprise.
Star Wars / Final Fantasy XII

Now this one, this one doesn't seem as obvious. Final Fantasy XII - a Square Enix RPG - being heavily influenced by Star Wars? But it's true.

While art director Hideo Minaba says of the game "I'll just say that I'm a fan. I wouldn't say that [Star Wars] an influence", we don't believe him for a second. The game is about a young blonde boy who yearns to take to the skies and escape the grip of a totalitarian empire on his desert home. He's accompanied by a shifty, though good-hearted pirate. Who in turn is accompanied by a stoic, furry friend. There's also an old-warrior-cum-mentor for the boy, a bounty hunter after the pirate, and even some Jawas.

Come on, Minaba. Fess up. It's OK! Everyone loves Star Wars.
Aliens / Everything

Aliens was released in 1986. And almost every single game that involves men fighting in space has taken something from it. Halo borrows from its aesthetic (Pelican dropships and assault rifles). Halo also borrows from its cast (Sgt. Johnson). Countless games have named their protagonists "Space Marines". The xenomorphs - and their face huggers - are another gaming staple. And sentry guns? Yeah, they're from Aliens as well.

It's shocking the influence this movie has had on an entire medium. As 2K's Stephen Alexander told Totilo the other day, it's so embedded in the imaginations of designers and artists that often people reference it without even realising it. Its legacy, whether artistically or in terms of its plot or gadgets, has been copied by so many games over the years that those staples - the marines, the weapons, the aliens - are now seen as part of gaming's mythology, not that of Aliens.

"My family, I think they approve because it stops me hanging around on street corners and getting into mischief, LOL," says Stanley Thompson, and yes, that LOL is all his, too. "When I tell people that I play FPS games online, they say, “what at your age?” So I tell them it keeps my mind sharp and gives me something to do other than watching TV all day."

Thompson, 70, is a member of the gaming clan *TBE* TheBritishEmpire.org (his nicknames are IraAten, IraAten*TBE* and Maybe70uk.) His preferred games are a who's who of the FPS genre — Joint Operations, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor. But he got his start as a serious gamer back in 2000 with Monster Truck Madness, and another racer. I'd love to see a 62-year-old guy racing monster trucks online. It's way more hilarious than getting your ass shot by someone old enough to have a living memory of World War II.

An Interview with a 70 Year Old FPS Gamer [Gamezine]

Yes, that's a PlayStation 2 game; the original PlayStation release was titled Rayman 2: The Great Escape. That either means one of three things: someone erred on the submission side, there are some title revisionists at Ubisoft, or Sony's going to start releasing PlayStation 2 games for download via the PlayStation Store, starting with Rayman 2: Revolution. Yes, that last one sounds suspect.

Regardless, we're checking in with Sony while setting our graphical bar low enough to play through Medal of Honor whenever that's made available.

Anyway, EA have decided to mark the occasion by releasing a boxed-set Special Edition of the 5 PC games in the series - Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Medal of Honor Spearhead, Medal of Honor Breakthrough, Medal of Honor Pacific Assault Director’s Edition, and Medal of Honor Airborne.

You will also take home a soundtrack CD, strategy guides, DVD documentaries and interviews with WWII veterans (doubtless overjoyed by having their memories turned into a video game) and other MoH bits and bobs for just $39.

It is out now in the US - no word yet on a rest-of-the-world release.

The Operation Anaconda subtitle refers to the U.S. military operation of the same name, in which U.S. and Afghan forces targeted al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains of Afghanistan.

MOH:OA is said by the (machine translated) survey to feature front line combat, sniper duties and "drone attack" command gameplay, as well as 60 customizable weapons. Sadly, it does not appear to feature giant anacondas, Ice Cube or the line "There's snakes out there this big?!"

Medal of Honor en Afghanistan [JeuxVideo via Joystiq]

Very inspiring, one supposes? The plot thickens, though, when you learn that the music's composer, Christopher Lennertz, is one hundred percent Team Obama.

Lennertz told GamePolitics that there was just a mix-up over rights, and nothing illegal took place. But how does he feel about having his creation used to support a candidate he opposes? Hit the jump for his comment:

I have been receiving many emails and calls for the past week regarding the use of my music in a national television ad for John McCain's presidential campaign. The ad is called "Safe" and prominently features a track entitled "Casualties of War" that I wrote for Medal of Honor: European Assault. While I do not control the ownership of this piece, I am extremely disappointed its placement in this commercial. I did not authorize the use and was not made aware of the situation. Regardless of party affiliation of support, I would like to think that someone who believes in the American ideals of business and creativity like Sen. McCain supposedly does, would not want to disgrace or inflict any hardship or ill-will on the artists who create in this country by using their works to promote products and agendas which with they disagree.

As an American, I have the utmost respect and admiration for our troops and all of their sacrifices. In fact, much of the inspiration for my music in this piece came from having a grandfather who served this country honorably as an officer in World War II. I respect John McCain for his service to this country, both in the military and in Washington, but I do not and have never supported his candidacy nor his agenda for this country. I am dismayed that my music has been used to promote his platform and even more disappointed that a candidate who claims to be the best voice for American entrepreneurs and business owners in this troubled economy so flagrantly ignored the most basic values and tenents of copyright and intellectual property...

As an artist, business owner, and patriot, I proudly support Senator Barack Obama for the Presidency of the United States of America...

Medal of Honor Music Used in McCain Campaign Ad, But Composer is an Obama Supporter [GamePolitics]

We historians are a little protective of our respective domains — but a constant (and well-deserved) criticism we lob at each other in general is that through various means, we deliberately make ourselves inaccessible to the average, interest layperson. Over at Terra Nova, Nate Combs takes up the question of historical video games, referencing a great 2006 New York article by Niall Ferguson (Harvard professor and historian) on the 'state of play.' The answer? Pretty damn bad, at least when looking on from the Ivory Tower:

So why do I hate Medal of Honor? The trouble is—and the same could be said of nearly all its competitors—it’s profoundly unhistorical. It’s what’s known in the games trade as a first-person shooter (FPS) game. As a player, you take on the role of Lieutenant Mike Powell of the U.S. Army Rangers. You see the battlefield—a Normandy beach, for instance—from his vantage point. As Lieutenant Powell, you do pretty much what you feel like—which is to bag as many Germans as you can. In reality, an officer’s principal concern on Omaha Beach was somehow to maintain the cohesion of his unit in the face of a lethal storm of steel.

He does go on to have some slightly more positive things to say, but Combs' takes up the issue — the boardgames that generally do a better job of 'playing with history' frequently provide a lot more 'meat' for the historical stew:

Where I think these board games triumphed was in their ability to communicate history as a coherent model: history as a system of rules. History as an interlocking LEGO set of measured hypotheticals and realities. Players moved the pieces around to see what happens. If it was only an amateur's recollection, it was a rich one.

(This historian would offer that when you actually see history as a system of rules, you wind up with modernization theory, but for the purposes of play — it's useful. Let's just stay away from a Reischauer's Making of Modern Japan when thinking up new titles)

So where's the difference between board games and console or PC games?

... historical simulation games were never big business, not in the way mass entertainment console gaming (for example) is. Another way of saying this is, perhaps, to say that these games were largely developed for and by amateurs.

One could only suppose that if more video game product were developed by amateurs that we might see more history, more playing with history, and - to cite Niall Ferguson's claim - a greater appreciation in society of the lessons of history.

Considering the relative popularity of ahistorical FPS that use the trappings and 'hardware' of historical settings, I can't imagine 'real' history will ever be big business — but maybe someday. A historian can dream.

Playing with history [Terra Nova]; How to Win a War [New York]

Zero Punctuation: MOH Airborne [theescapist]

Medal of Honor Heads to Portables [1Up]

I have a bit of a jones for neurology, neuroscience and any other variation of suffix that tells me the exact composition of starch and electricity that bakes the noodle inside my head. So cue Developing Intelligence, an excellent neurology blog that recently posted about the influence of Video Games on mind development.

Look, I'm not going to lie to you: it's full of neurology jargon, interesting to those who are interested in it, excruciating to those who never will be. So summary: video games are good for your brain!

VGPs were also found capable of tracking two more objects on average than nVGPs in a multiple-object tracking task. Similar to the findings discussed above regarding nVGPs and VGPs, the differences only became apparent at levels of higher load, such that nVGPs showed larger performance decrements than VGPs.

As for the precise mechanism which is enhanced in VGPs, and which results in the benefits in the tasks reported above, the authors suggest two possibilities. First, it is possible that VGP's simply have more durable memory traces. A second possibility is that VGP's have an increased "cycle speed" (their words, not mine) with which they refresh existing representations in working memory, thus translating into increased memory capacity.

VGPs stands for 'video game players', natch. The games used were Medal of Honor and Tetris. Check it out, if you're so inclined. Florian Eckhardt

Video Games - Mental Exercise or Merely Brain Candy? [Developing Intelligence]