Medal of Honor release date revealed, war declared on CoD

Medal of Honor, EALA and DICE's modern-day series reboot, will be released October 12, 2010, almost exactly one month before Call of Duty: Black Ops releases on November 9th. It's a franchise face-off almost ten years in the making.

A little history

Medal of Honor made its debut on the PS1, but its first major hit was Allied Assault, which released on the PC in 2002. After two solid expansions to that title (Spearhead and Breakthrough), the series hit a plateau of pretty-good-but-nothing-special console and PC titles. The most recent entries, Airborne and Heroes 2, weren't nearly capable of competing with Call of Duty's stream of hits.

Above: Medal of Honor's new direction after over 10 years of World War II

The first Call of Duty game was releasedoneyear after Allied Assault, and was developedbyInfinity Ward,which had beenfounded by a groupof employees from2015, Inc., the developer of Allied Assault (what an incestuous industry).CoD was amassive critical and commercial success, and the seriesdominated thewar shooter genre from then on. It arguably peaked with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but bothsubsequent games,World at War and Modern Warfare 2, have been immense successes.

The fight is on

Come 2010, and everythinghas changed.While Infinity Ward implodes, the very capable Treyarch is pushing the CoD series forward with Black Ops. All we've seen of the game isan intriguing trailer, but we don't doubt that Treyarch can deliver.

Meanwhile, EA is on the offensive. After 10 years of WWII, they'recharging forthe spotlight with a shooter that's modern both in setting and design philosophy. WithEA throwinga healthy hunk of weight at thecampaign, and DICE on the multiplayer, there's little chance the new Medal of Honor will flop... but will it kick ass? (Black Ops' ass, specifically?)

May 5, 2010