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At War with Warfare
Next year sees the two war heavyweights go toe-to-toe on the frontlines. But which will reign victorious?
Written by David Scammell, 04 December 2009
2010, then, will see the two warfare FPSs facing off against each other in the always popular "Fall" period, but while Call of Duty seems like a shoe in for the crown, dig a little deeper and it might not be that clear cut. Whether by design or chance, EA has a modern day Medal of Honor going up against a historically set Call of Duty. A look at the sales figures shows how much more gamers favour the modern weaponry, but what will be interesting is that we should get to see whether Call of Duty is successful because it's 'Call of Duty', or whether it is about the quality of the game, or the setting. Modern Warfare put a rocket up the success trousers of the Call of Duty series, but did it do that because it was modern, or because it was good? Or both?
And if it could do it, can EA replicate it? There's a reason for the reboot, after all; a candid admission from EA that Medal of Honor just wasn't working. That its once-key series has been floundering ever since the dizzy heights of PC wonder Allied Assault is evident simply by a brief visit to Metacritic, a tool by which EA resolutely stand by to determine the success of its titles. And, of course, that Medal of Honor's sales figures have supposedly dropped faster than Katie Price's pants is yet another reason for EA to warrant the move out of the mid-20th century battlefront.
But why target 2010? Well, just as Medal of Honor is drags itself out of the trenches and moves to the present day, Call of Duty will jump into the TARDIS and go back in time: a job listing posted on Treyarch's website earlier in the week strongly suggests that Call of Duty will once again be taking us on a tour through history. And yes, we did say Treyarch, that handy stopgap useful for filling in the times when Infinity Ward can't make it. We won't stoop to bashing Treyarch, though. They did a decent job with World at War, at least.
So EA has landed itself an opportunity to fill a gap in the market, to steal away some of those customers happier shooting people with AK-47s and M16s than MP40s and Panzerschreks. Gamers looking for some modern warfare next year (notice the lowercase), will in fact be playing Medal of Honor and not Call of Duty, which just strikes us as backwards.
360Zine Issue 55
For our latest Call of Duty coverage, click here to download 360Zine Issue 55 for free.That Battlefield developers DICE are behind Medal of Honor's multiplayer also provides evidence that EA mean business when it comes to stealing Activision's thunder. But will MoH just be a reskinned Battlefield? It's obviously way too early to tell.
And what about that 'Fall' launch timing? Well, it's a telling indication of EA's confidence in their reboot, given the firm's blunt admission at their recent winter showcase that 2009 was 'the year of Call of Duty'. Will Medal of Honor really be that good, or is EA confident that the inevitable Call of Duty 7 just won't cut it?
While Call of Duty will clearly pull because of its name regardless of what Activision do, we're actually more inclined to go along with the former. EA has made it clear that quality is the name of the game from now on, and we've already seen that put into practice with the recent Need For Speed: Shift, another flailing franchise given a new (and impressive) lease of life via a reboot.
There is, of course, one key difference between that and MoH that we feel we should point out. Shift was crafted by an entirely different studio to previous NFSs; Medal of Honor's still being handled by series creator EALA. Will EA be able to inject life into the series without the creativity offered by a new studio? Only time will tell.
So 2010 will see a spectacular showdown between the clash of the titans; a heavyweight brawl; an Ali vs. Tyson. How could a floundering series brought out of retirement possibly hope to compete with the successor to the 'biggest entertainment launch of all time' TM? In theory, the outcome seems fairly black and white. In practice, it may not be that simple.
Unless, of course, everyone ends up buying both.
Call of Duty coverage available in 360Zine Issue 55 - click here to download it for free!
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