Medal of Honor: Airborne - first look

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A sharp about-face for the tired genre of WWII shooters

We got the opportunity to journey down to Los Angeles to see how EA is shaping Medal of Honor: Airborne into a lethal killing machine, and we loved what we saw. After laboring on the title for over a year, developers at EA Los Angeles have completely re-envisioned the series for the next generation of gaming technology.

Of course, there is the near-obsessive level of authenticity - when you've got a company the size of EA, you can afford to "go big" on the details even if it means flying a genuine C-47 around just to get the most accurate engine whine and deliver the exact sound footsteps make in the huge air transports. But beyond painting a vivid, almost exact portrait of WWII, EA LA is focusing on bringing a completely new experience to this well-worn genre: multiplayer feel in a single-player game.

They are looking to accomplish this in a number of ways, but the one that strikes us most is their advanced behavior system for both enemies and fellow allies. The Affordance System gives every character on the screen an expansive understanding of the tactical value of every feature in the battle. Because you begin each stage with your jump into the fray, the developers had to figure out a way to deal with giving the player their choice of starting locations - robbed of the ability to script events due to all the freedom they've given you, they had to come up with something more adaptable to keep the game both interesting and challenging.