Medal of Honor Warfighter Co Op Story

We're a week away from the official first look at Medal of Honor: Warfighter during the San Francisco Game Developer's Conference, but the flow of intel trickling out of last week's reveal hasn't dried up yet. Reports on the OXM cover story are now finding their way to press, and they're revealing more details about returning developer Danger Close Games' latest plans for turning around the franchise.

After EA's first mission to reboot its storied first-person shooter in contemporary times left a lot to be desired (read our review), Game Rant approached the long-suspected confirmation Medal of Honor: Warfighter with a solid hand of skepticism. The game needs some drastically new improvements and features if it wants to make a strong return and separate itself from EA's Battlefield 3 in a positive light, rather than just driving a divisive wedge between quality and mediocrity.

So what's in the works?

According to CVG's OXM read-through, much is being done to adapt the Frosbite 2.0 engine (which also powers Battlefield 3) to fit the billing of close-quarter's combat. Where Battlefield is fond of massively destructive exterior environments, Warfighter is channeling that power to render details throughout the finer points of combat (think shooting papers off desks and splintering wood with bullets).

The report also confirms that Warfighter will support at least two new modes -- one is a currently amorphous variant of co-op, and the other is a hardcore "one-shot-kill-mode."  Both are allegedly unlikely to tie into the full single player campaign, and so the question is raised about how much either will add to the experience.

One aspect that 2010's Medal of Honor did succeed with was drafting a compelling campaign that embodied the heart of a "Tier 1" special forces operator. This was partially attributed to the real-life (and unreally bearded) servicemen who collaborated on the game. They'll be returning to co-write missions for Warfighter that will take the characters of Preacher, Mother, Voodoo, and others to a wider array of locales -- including the flooded Isabela City in the Philippines.

Multiplayer, which was better known for stirring up an international controversy than it was for being good, also appears to be assuming a different approach. Danger Close is eschewing the services of DICE and is developing the mode in-house. Rather than dealing with the infamous U.S.-vs-"Opposing Force" dynamic, the playable nationalities have expanded to British, Australian, Polish, and German operatives -- possibly a hint at the broader scope of the solo campaign as well.

It's still unclear as to how far Danger Close and EA want to push Warfighter from its underachieving predecessor. The two seem fully aware of the ground to make up ahead of them and can hopefully inject something new into lagging areas of the game. We'll surely find out more at the San Francisco event and keep you posted right here.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is scheduled for release in October 2012 for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and possibly the Wii U.

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Source: CVG