GameOn - FPS Week starting with Medal of Honor (2010)

With tomorrow's launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops, I couldn't help but talk about some of the recent First-Person Shooters I've been playing recently.  This will be a 5-day event on the discussion of 5 different FPS games.

[Medal of Honor - Electronic Arts/DICE - PS3/Xbox 360/PC]


Source - Youtube Channel medalofhonor

I have to admit right now that I have not played the actual game.  I participated in the open beta on PC through the Steam program and am very glad I did.  Though it is not selling like hotcakes and has the multiplayer dynamics of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the game feels, sounds, and plays like no other FPS game before it.  The quality put into the audio is the most impressive aspect of the multiplayer beta I tested with a few other thousand players on Steam PC.  My laptop is not up to spec, and so I had to keep the resolution at a lower ratio.  Despite that fall back, the graphics were still breath taking and really added to the game experience.  I plan on buying this game in the future for possibly the PS3 as I want the full experience of no graphics lag, highest graphics capability, and a less likely chance to go into a online match with a hacker (I will explain that tomorrow on CoD:MW2).


Pros:
-Incredible, dynamic graphics.  I did not like the muddled, brown color schematics of the older MoH games.
-Superb, realistic audio.  I want this game mainly for the experience the audio gave me.  No other game delivers this type of excitement into my FPS experience.
-Encourages team play.  Most FPS games have players running off on their own, but this MoH forces the players to work in a line if they do not wish to have a bullet through their head each time they run forward.
-Immersive environment.  The explosions, weather, and bullets all have an impact on the experience because of how detailed the graphics are rendered and how well designed the audio travels.


Cons:
-Awkward level design (in the area the beta allowed us to play in) allows players to predict where their opponents spawn and essentially kill them the second they come in as well as having opponents funnel through 2-3 obvious paths.
-Multiplayer is dependent on team work, and so the experience of the game can change dramatically depending on the skill level of your comrades.  (I had the best experience the first time I played, and then I started to realize how bad it could be after playing a few round with people who were playing for the first time).
-Customization is extremely limited to about 24 different parts to change compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's extensive custom class aspect that has over 100+ different parts to swap out.

I encourage those who love FPS games to try this game at the very least before determining that Medal of Honor is not the game for them.  I understand that it released between Halo: Reach and tomorrow's release of Call of Duty: Black Ops; however, I believe that there is enough difference in the experience that each one delivers to buy all three and still find something enjoyable out of each one.