What makes Medal of Honor: Airborne different from the rest of the FPS crowd is, well you know, the air drops. Each mission begins with an "In the Plane" sequence that ends with you getting out of the plane from several thousand feet in the air. Once you're out of the plane, there is no loading time or sequenced mission objectives (even saving the game is seamless), and it's up to you where to land.

We have a new trailer today that shows off some of the combat and a bit of a drop sequence, and makes us think about how the new vertical elements of the game will come into play. Rex Dickson, Lead Designer on MOHA says, "Essentially, almost all of the playable space in a mission is your drop zone. You can choose to drop anywhere you want to."

Dropping onto an enemy objective or behind enemy lines would be considered a "high risk" drop, according to the development team, but any area, big or small, can be a landing zone. Some types of drops have been given names by the team, for example a "Stunt Drop" would be "flying through a window or damaged section of wall." Our favorite drop would have to be the affectionately named "Drop Kick Drop" which is floating down on top of an enemy and smashing into them with a melee attack.

Our video doesn't actually show anyone getting whacked in the face by the butt of a parachuting soldier's gun but showcases the impressive looking combat, instead. We noticed how the player in the video tends to utilize higher ground and one instance when another soldier drops out of the sky in front of him. We're guessing that MOHA will have us looking up quite a bit more than we're used to, and being able to flank people from the air could add huge levels of strategy to the game. Look for the game to be released around the end of August, and until then just work on your fear of heights.

May 22, 2007