Explanation for the lack of reviews for ‘Medal of Honor: Warfighter’

The upcoming multiplatform title, “Medal of Honor: Warfighter,” is slated to come out in just a few days. So where are the reviews from the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 first-person shooter? According to a few members of the press, including GameTrailers, Electronic Arts won’t be sending out the review codes until the day the game launches.

[fermcr]

Not a good sign for the game.

[EVILDEAD360]

It's because of what happened when the last game released. EA hyped during the companies initial pledge to kill Call of Duty.

Then the game got swirled up in the whole 'Opposing Forces' controversy. It was so bad that Gamestops that were on military stores were not allowed to sell the game at one point.

All of buzz that was building around the game came to a screeching halt when the reviews came in and the game got 'average' reviews. Even though DICE helped with the multiplayer the reception for it wasnt spectacular.

This was the kiss of death as it hurt sales of the game and Black Ops went onto selling a zillion copies.

EA handles Battlefied 3 differently and now you see Medal of Honor getting the same treatment.

I honestly don't believe theres alot of momentum surrounding the game, but I did see an ad for it today during the Football game.

EA is ensuring that good or bad the reviews wont effect early sales.

Evil

[Crazay]

Well said EvilDead. I remember when that was going on there were more than a few extremely pissed off people.

[geddesmond]

RE6 proved no body cares about reviews. People didn't buy MOH because of reviews, the online was a sniper fest with 7 maps, hardly any weapons in comparison to other FPS's, it had 3 or 4 game modes and word of mouth got around about that.

Reviews or no reviews this game will still sell poorly compared to other FPS's this fall. Until EA make a worthy online MOH that can compete with all the content COD online offers, this game will stay a few mil seller.

[Straightupbeastly]

Hurt sales? Medal of Honor sold like over 5 mill copies, it sold very well. For Warfighter? It may not even reach 1.5 mill that's how low preorders are. EA is extremely insecure with their shooters now because they know they're just not that good.

[CalvinKlein]

I remember playing the demo of the lat one and thought it sucked.

Compared to the last MOH this one has been pretty low on the hype. Its pretty obvious why they dont want any reviews before the game come out, it must not be very good.

[otherZinc]

No! How about the truth...MOH absolutely SUCKED!

Tell it like it is...It frigging SUCKED!, Period!

[StrawberryDiesel420]

they're trying to sell as much as possible before the 6's and 7's come rolling out.

[gatormatt80]

Maybe so and I believe you're right... But the last MoH, even with its 7.5 metacritic average, sold millions. Not CoD millions though. I bought the last one week one, ignoring the reviews. I enjoyed the game but felt the reviews were right after I played it, it was a 7.5 game IMHO.

[Arcanine]

I was hoping the answer was. Because fps are finally dying

[jjdoyle]

embargo

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

I'm seriously beginning to hate EA.

[AzaziL]

I've never liked EA, they're like the other side of a crappy coin with Activision.

[Eyeco]

Honest to god this is the first time I've even heard of this game, I haven't seen, read or heard anything about it on this or any other site ,has EA been that discreet about it ?

The sad thing is that I remember the last game being pretty decent but it got swept into obscurity , I agree with Evildead 360 but you also have to take into account that it was released around the same time as COD and Halo Reach, that didn't help and i don't think its gonna help this year.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

No, you clearly just haven't been on the internet in a year if you didn't even know about the game at all.

[BlmThug]

Haven't seen or heard much advertising for this game :/ Worrying as this is competing with CoD which has Adverts left, right and center. Also EA has quite big pockets to fund any advertising cost's so even more cause for concern

[Fateful_Knight]

Most likely reason being that they want a fair review of MP, which won't be live until launch day. They need a functioning experience so it has a chance against Black Ops 2.

[HammadTheBeast]

I doubt it. Campaign and Multiplayer are always reviewed separately anyways, and they can turn on MP for reviewers. Isn't the beta still going on?

[Wingsfan24]

No, most reviewers don't review the game separately, some sites do, but most don't. That was part of the reason why it was so damn hard to review a game like Armored Core V in my experience. We had the game 2 weeks early, but nobody was online playing in the servers.

[Avernus]

The MP is already live. I have a friend who got it on the PS3 a few days ago. I saw her progress on Battlelog.

[Nitrowolf2]

besides the freezing and sound issues I heard from two of my buddies already, the campaign is really good. I wonder why the delay in shipping them out though. My bet the Multiplayer is the main reason (not live from what I understand)

[TENTONGUN]

im really interested in the campaign with frostbite 2. bf3 singleplayer just didnt cut it. midnight release for me. if it sucks it wont be the first time i wasted money. but i acually enjoyed the beta so...

[R6ex]

Yup!

Campaign had better be loads better than BF3's.

[Cam977]

For me, BF3's campaign was simply abysmal.

[Pillsbury1]

Why do all frostbite games freeze and sound cuts out?! I hate that on bf3!

[TENTONGUN]

are you playin on xbox? i played the hell out of bf3 and the moh beta, never happened to me. thats a trip

[lonesoul65]

I play on the PC side and never had this issue. Did have a few issues with the Origin but that is it.

[Britainz-Fin3st]

I used to play on the 360 before it broke and the sound would cut out.
Now i play on the ps3 and the sound still cuts out but for not as long. also the terrain on my ps3 version is ugly compared to 360, when im in the heli and go low to ground sometimes it doesnt load properly and looks like what gears of war does when you first jump into a game.

[eliteslaya13]

I have better things to spend my money on than generic modern war shooter #8,497,920.

If this game is actually garbage and leaves many with high expectations in disappointment, I think i'll call it quits with EA.

[bubblebeam]

Hey!! You're that Master Chief guy!! Of course you would say that, you want all the money on Novemeber 6!!

I agree though. Seems to me every game gets reviewed (fairly) by their campaign (and maybe MP) but CoD and Battlefield get a free pass and only get reviewed on MP, which is easier to do as all you need is to fork out lots of money for good servers or have enough players that you don't need them (CoD).

I was hoping this MoH would be good, but this is a bad sign.

[Cam977]

Agreedx999999

[Fateful_Knight]

It's getting hard to distinguish one military shooter from the next these days, due to obsession with "authenticity". I would love to see a dev shake things up and deliver a cel-shaded military shooter, Borderlands style.

[eliteslaya13]

Hell, even Team Fortress 2 style, we can use some variety.

[vortis]

The same part is that they're not even authentic.

I'm watching missions from Warfighter and the game just looks boring and generic. It doesn't look fun.

I agree with you that all these games trying to cash in the COD thing is just getting tiresome.

[ZeroChaos]

Insomniac Games's game Overstrike was meant to be that. Then it got changed to Fuse...

[rdgneoz3]

Yay for EA :P

[StoneyYoshi]

Does a name change mean the whole game is different??

[stevenhiggster]

From what I've read about Fuse, it seems very different to what Overstrike looked like being. Still very different to Modern Battlefield Meh.

[Pillsbury1]

Remember the game XIII? It was in Xbox 1 with cel shading it was awesome.

[IIC0mPLeXII]

More of the same, Black Friday purchase along with Need for Speed and 007 Legends. Maybe even Assassins Creed as well.

[eliteslaya13]

I along with many, many others are certain that AC3 will deliver on all fronts.

And Most Wanted is a Criterion-developed NFS. If Hot Pursuit and Burnout Paradise are anything to go by, i'm sure Most Wanted will be excellent.

[Dark11]

Well said!

[guitarded77]

Yeah, I'm holding off on buying any games right now, and I'm waiting for Black Friday where my $$$ will go a lot further. I know Amazon will have all the games you listed and a few others I want at $30. I just have to stay glued to the computer. Last year I got 13 games... this year I have a list of 7 - 8 that I want to get on the cheap.

[Holeran]

Won't be buying this until I rent it and know that it doesn't have the same input lag that Battlefield 3 has on PS3. I don't know if it is because of the Frostbyte 2 engine or not and I won't be wasting another $60 on an unplayable game again. Dice screwed the pooch on that one.

[ddurand1]

bf3 is far from unplayable.

if you want a twitch shooter go buy COD.

[Holeran]

I played the beta of Battlefield 3 and found my favorite fps to date, after having played that demo I went out at midnight launch to get the retail game only to get home and wonder what the hell happened and when was it going to be fixed. I just didn't know it would never be fixed. It's not about twitch shooters because I played Bad Company 1 and Bad company 2 until I had over 10k, kills each. They screwed up on the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 plain and simple.

[bubblebeam]

@Holeran

It wasn't unplayable, but they did screw up. Still couldn't get rid of the tearing. I don't trust EA, as they promised that they would give the PS3 extra physics (take advantage of the cell) but it seemed to me it was another false promise, copy/paste port.

I thought they might have been the first multi-plat dev to really take advantage of the PS3 cell architecture, but I was wrong....and they are liars. Never again EA.

[Pillsbury1]

Input lag is caused because of the lower frame rate. Bf3 runs at 30fps because of the advanced frostbite engine. While cod is at 60 fps which is why twitch shooters are the way they are.

[Holeran]

Doesn't work that way. The beta ran at 30fps and it played fantastic. The retail version came out and to this day they still can't fix it. They've tried to fix it 3 times and no Dice.

[FarCryLover182]

Simple.... they are worried about the game. Based on the demo it is not really that fun and it does seem pretty generic as people have said.

[nofallouthero]

that's not a good sign i wonder what they are trying to hide

[ATi_Elite]

Explanation...

#1. if you have played one modern warfare shooter then you have played them all

#2. Reviewers are too busy trying to get reviews ready for Black Ops 2

#3. Reviewers have forgotten about MOH since Halo 4 ads started appearing regulary

#4. No Zombies or Sexy outfits so therefore a no go for N4G!

#5. What game were we talking about again!

[bubblebeam]

"#5. What game were we talking about again! "

Battliefield of Duty Medalion........17

[DavidMacDougall]

I'm gonna wait till its cheap, no beta and now this makes me think its gonna be needing some patches

[Godchild1020]

I loved the Singleplayer in Medal of Honor(2010) and I'm sure I will love this one as well. The MP is just an added feature and if Its anything like the first one, i just get all the trophies answer never touch it again. I still rather this than Call Of Duty, no matter the reviews.

[Godchild1020]

I loved the singleplayer in Medal of Honor(2010) and I'm sure I will love this one as well. The MP is just an added feature and if Its anything like the first one, I'll just get all the trophies and never touch it again. I still rather this than Call Of Duty, no matter the reviews.

I need to proof-read what I the before posting.

[AusRogo]

Yeah, I loved the first one too. I can understand if people don't want Warfighter* but if its an improvement over the first, ill be sure to love it.

[R6ex]

Same here. Loved 2010's MOH for its authenticity. Reminded me of my army days.

[StreetsofRage]

The campaign is always fun for these games. Still a rental for me. Never cared for the multiplayer, especially since Halo 4 is around the corner.

[dazzrazz]

Can you imagine how many people would cancel their pre orders if reviews would be mediocre to poor and released today ? Anyway this game is gonna be in bargain bin by the next year, I don't see why would anybody feel like paying full price especially after that poorly looking beta/demo

[FarCryLover182]

I think it's safe to say that we will find this thing on black friday for $29.99 probably.

[bubblebeam]

@dazzrazz

They should bring in a law that says you must have 'X' amount of reviews a week before release.

I have wasted my money before, and you feel cheated by the publisher. Reviews aren't everything, but they are definitely a guidline to how good or bad a game usually is.

[dennett316]

Why don't you just wait for reviews to come in before buying? There's no way you should be caught out in this day and age. If they don't want any reviews before release day, then they clearly don't feel confident in the game...don't reward companies who pull that trick by giving them your money.
No review, no sale. Find a site or reviewer you trust and stick with them.

[TheLordOfStuff]

oh i forgot that everyone on N4G got proper retail editions of the game before release.... oh u guys didnt??

i think ppl need to give this game a bit more of a chance, MOH had an ok single player, i quite enjoyed it, tho the MP was a bit of an afterthought, but from what i have seen/read about this one they are really trying to make the MP interesting, and the fact that the single player is based off real operations could turn out to be very interesting, personaly i love bf3 (i was a cod fan before it came out, u know, one of those ppl that pre ordered all of them lol) i dunno i just think this game COULD be a good game and the MP COULD be fun, it looks promising so how about u all wait until you have actualy played it before u talk about how crap it is/will be lol

rant over.

flame suit on.

[Mutant-Spud]

Yeah for me it's not so much that these games are "crap" it's that they're all the same, MW3 is a decent game, so is BF3 but I'm sick to death of these gruff Rangers and spec ops type characters going through the same boring, globetrotting East vs West storyline, it's just so overdone and, dare I say it "James Bond".
Why not set a whole game in one theatre of war or even one battle?.
Remember the last gen games like Full Spectrum Warrior, First To Fight or Brothers In Arms?
What's more it would be perfectly possible to make an "authentic" open world 4p co-op small unit or Spec Ops game for consoles on the scale of ARMA or Borderlands and use the familiar "dumbed down" control scheme for controllers and have separate arena MP, people would eat it up.

[TheLordOfStuff]

you do make a good point, but it just really annoys me that ppl can even think something is bad....without playing it... but u are spot on, but the whole reason they wont try new things is because they dont need to, it sells as it is, very few developers will try to risk new things, maybe next gen... just maybe..

[Wingsfan24]

Ha, don't let others people's unbackable opinions affect yours. Unless someone's played the game, I don't listen to their ramble about how it's complete crap and all. If I did that on a regular basis I would have missed out on some real great games like Enslaved etc.

[DARK WITNESS]

In the same light though, I have no reason to want to give it a positive thought just for the sake of it or because others want to who have not played it either.

If we go by past experience I think I have more reason to not give it a chance then to give it one.

it is all down to opinion in the end, you have yours and we have ours.

[BXbomber]

Srry the fact that ps3 never got the beta to see how the game was some what just that alone gave me a reason not to buy this crap.

[TheLordOfStuff]

@BXbomber, ps3 not getting a beta doesn't mean anything, as for it being "crap" i didnt realise you had played it...? No?. Unless you have played the final retail release (you havnt) stop being a troll.

@PockyKing, yea i dont let random ppls comments influence what games i get its just that i find ignorance to be quite the annoyance, guess i shouldnt be hangin out on the interwebs ay? Lol but it is definitely true you shouldn't listen to ppls like that, i picked up enslaved myself, such a shame it didnt sell very well its a pretty epic game

[dennett316]

People would be more inclined to give it a chance if they weren't pulling that old trick of ensuring there's no reviews available until the launch day has come and gone.
It's a lot of money to waste on a potential dud, and if the publisher are doing whatever they can to ensure that the paying public aren't informed about the game, that sets off warning signs in countless gamers who have no doubt been burned before.
There's so much competition in the FPS market that you'd be a damn fool to blindly buy a game with no idea of how good it is. Rentals can be very hard to secure on launch day, so the publisher have actually hurt themselves by doing this, even if a game did get a 6 or 7. People will always give a game a chance if it does something that appeals to them, even in the face of a slightly mediocre review. Cutting off that resource immediately negates that chance and arouses suspicion.h

[Sheikah]

As much as I actually liked the last MOH - I am on the fence this time. ind of fed up on modern shooters.. plus, Denmark won't be sported afaik ;).

I'll wait and see how the reviews pan out - but probably wait it out till the price drops.

This, of course, because of the impending AC3 release which I am, as you may have guessed, eagerly anticipate.

[Soldierone]

Be like me and wait to see if people keep playing it too. Game is worthless if people dont keep playing.

I went to Gamestop to ask how people are reacting to the game, and he said "mostly everyone is buying it just for the BF4 beta...."

[Sheikah]

Yeah.. I'll wait and see, like you - so far, I have plenty to keep me occupied :). But I could imagine the BF4 beta being a big selling point - which is amusing, because of how they handeled the BF3 beta.

In case people have forgotten, the 'exclusive BF3 beta access' was an exclusive BF3 beta access.. which came a few days before the rest of the world got access.

From a marketing stand-point, it is not a very sound move to decline free testing from the end-users - and from my experience with EA betas, they tend to open them to everyone eventually, to test both server strain as well as balancing issues. It has been that way with ME3, BF3, BFBC2 as well as MoH - I doubt they're breaking that pattern now.. But the "BF4 beta access" obviously works as a selling point, as it did when the BF3 beta was imbedded in a MoH purchase.

[urwifeminder]

Im getting it really enjoyed the beta but will get pc version.

[vallencer]

Don't reviews for a lot of big games not come out until midnight or the day the game comes out?? I'm not really sure what the problem is to be honest. I hope the story is as good as the first one. I just hope it's also longer.

[Tzuno]

It's about multiplayer the campaign is short.

[GraveLord]

No one cares anyway. Everyone is buying Black Ops 2.

[Phoenix76]

EA have messed it up yet again....
From about March 2011 till end of oct 2011, where ever you went around london there was a BF3 poster slapped about, then they release BF3 2 weeks before COD MW3 was released.
This time round...... No ad's up everywhere...... but still the release a game 2 weeks before the next cod releases!!!
Is anyone in EA actully paying any attention to what they are doing when it comes to releases?? or are they just thinking?? 'oh, these gamers are all such a dumb bunch of f***-wits that they are more than happy to fork out for two FPS war sim games within in as many weeks because they have absolutly nothing else better to go out and buy at this time of year'!!!

EA do yourselfs a favour and release your next BF or MoH around about march time. You'll generate a hell of a lot more money (possibly) and be able to keep ppl on your servers (if u dont drop them like you did last time) for much, much longer......(possibly).

[StitchJones]

It's going to be a ho hum game and fizzle out quickly. They never should have developed this game to begin with. You'll see reviews in the 6 to 8 mark at best when they are allowed to publish them after noon EST tomorrow Tuesday 10/23.

[TENTONGUN]

yeah i dont expect anything over an 8. but i like 7's and 8's. i dont nit pick as much as some of these reviewers. quite a few possible goty contenders coming out over the weeks so i understand people and there wallets. but from the footage ive seen i seriously doubt a 6 from the more trusted websites. i loved bf3, and this is pretty much the same but its a lil faster and focused on infantry. i dig that alot

[taquito]

I will be waiting a few days for reviews after MoH WF releases before commiting but...MoH was freaking great on pc, a really fun game. Very accurate controls and hit detection, excellent intense mp, Amazing visuals, butter smooth 60 frames.

of course it sucked on console, they run frostbite 2 like crap, thats why bf3 on console suck so hard, has small maps, little 12v12 skirmishes, runs like crap, jaggies, pop-in, screen tear, sub-hd 1200x704p garbage

they are too old to handle any modern engine properly
hence cod looking exactly the same for the last 5 years, that all there is in them

[Soldierone]

They did this last time too. However they went ahead and sent them to the bigger sites and just put an embargo of release day on it, and 90 percent of them broke it because they don't care.

Smart of EA to simply not send it to anyone till tomorrow.

[Cam977]

They're not doing it because they know it is a cashin of what WAS a triple-A series.

No buy.

[GuruStarr78]

The last game's campaign was ok... the sound was amazing, though... especially if you've got surround.

[Pillsbury1]

I miss the old medal of honor, with ambiance and a great story :( RIP MoH ps1