Medal of Honor Heroes - multiplayer hands-on

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The only 16-on-16 battlefront that you can take anywhere

Everyone's familiar by now with the Medal of Honor series and its extensive attention to detail. The sights, sounds and overall experience of the franchise drown you in authenticity, making it one of the most popular shooters on consoles today. But for this PSP version, the biggest draw isn't the presentation - it's the 32-player, fully online deathmatching, a feat no other PSP game can match today.

First, we chose which side to fight for. Do we climb into the Allied forces' trusty paratrooper clothes or stitch on a swastika and rain lead down on the free world. Gamers naturally prey upon Nazis, so it's in the order of things to go with the Allies. Then it's just a matter of selecting a firearm (including Honor staples like the Thompson, shotgun, rocker launcher and various sniper rifles) and into the trenches we go.

Bam. Dead. The moment our feet hit the virtual Italy floor, we were capped. A short respawn later, the game's on and the chaos of this massive capture-the-flag excursion is truly felt. With so many people actively sniping, tossing grenades and sneaking through underground tunnels, it's easy to ignore some of the gameplay issues that bring the fun down a notch. But just a notch. A tiny one.

As with any FPS on PSP, the lack of two analog sticks means you have to use the face buttons to look around. A fine fix in 1997 when we played Turok for the first time, but now it's hard to swallow.

Brett Elston
Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.