The room in which us journalists types are hearing all this is relatively plush. There's also a weird setup with big headphones going on, where the throng have to tune them to a specific frequency in order to hear the in-game audio.

What appears on the screen, once all the headphones business is sorted out, is everything you'd expect from a modern desert-based shooter: it's very sandy and people shout "Tango Down" a lot. This particular presentation is focusing on the US Rangers, a team of regular GI Joes complete with a sickeningly sugary intro video, showing the hero penning a heartfelt note to his sweetie back home who have to get the job done.

This mission follows a familiar path - the squad have to take out a machine gun nest that's preventing some allied helicopters from landing. Destroy the nest, secure the landing site, the usual. What makes the mission more interesting isn't the action, which is fairly routine stuff, but the setting. The accusations of Medal of Honor being a copycat and riding on the coattails of Modern Warfare 2 have been flying about already, but credit has to be given to EA LA - they've done a good job at giving their game a fresh setting.

It seems strange to say this, and it's perhaps something that can only be said once you've seen the game in action, but there's a substantial difference between this game and its rival. An odd thing to say, considering the blatant similarities apparent in this game and Infinity Ward's game. Medal of Honor feels and looks like it's set in Afghanistan, especially when the squad starts making its way through a canyon, flanked by enemies on the surrounding cliffs.

In some ways, a fairer comparison would be Bad Company 2, as the in-mission chatter between Medal of Honor's characters evokes that game. There's more depth to these guys than the ones in Bad Company 2 though, with characters providing a "mag report", detailing how much ammo they've got, or perhaps even asking whether you need to restock your own bullet supply.

Despite this, it's difficult to shake the feeling we've seen and done all this before. If the game's name wasn't emblazoned all over the room we were in, it would've been tough to work out what game we were seeing. This is an issue if you're fed up with military shooters, but not if you're not. Certainly, a lot of the those attending seemed jaded and were finding it difficult to muster significant degrees of enthusiasm, much like when WWII shooters seemed all-pervading.

Though from what has been shown Medal of Honor should end up being, at the very least, a solid 'epic shooter', set in a surprisingly different environment and featuring all the bluster and bombastic action you've come to expect from this sort of game.

Another reason to be optimistic is that DICE are crafting the multiplayer component, so if everything else suddenly implodes upon itself and we end up with a game that rivals Rogue Warrior for naffness, at least we'll have a good time scrapping with ourselves.

There are still a few unanswered questions that could lower the belt on the Trousers-Off-O-Meter a bit more too, such as whether there'll be a co-op mode or dedicated servers. There are also the unseen Apache helicopter missions, which could easily turn out to be pant-shredding in their brilliance.

Lessons will surely have been learned from certain other titles in the crowded military shooter genre, so now it's just a question of how EA LA will meld the new with the overly familiar. While the trousers aren't descending below the knee for now, there's still that chance they could fly out the window given the right developments.

There have been a couple of decent games put out but the fact is, you just don't see them done that much and the few that you do see have you blasting aliens or robots. You go in armed only with weapons that the soldiers of the 's would have. It is up to you to complete seven different missions across 24 levels that include going undercover, blasting everything in sight, and sabotage. Since this game was made by Dreamworks Interactive, they were able to use all of the research from the making of the movie Saving Private Ryan so you know the historical facts are all accurate.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to battle through WWII, here is your chance to find out. I don't know where to start, so I guess I will just dive right in. This game is not the best technical feat you will ever see but it more than makes up for it in the story and gameplay. I don't know about you but I actually get tired of blasting aliens. Call me crazy but it was a breath of fresh air to actually play a FPS where the enemies were actually people instead of aliens.

I am not a huge history buff but I really found the premise of this game quite exciting. Going into Nazi Germany and getting an idea of what it may have been like in real life just added an extra air of coolness to this game.

I simply can't believe that it has not been done before now. The game is based around a number of different missions that range from sabotage to outright killing. At the beginning of the level, you will receive a briefing on your operation. The missions sound very complex when you are in the briefing sessions but the game does a good job of making the objectives easy enough to obtain. Actually, the objective portions are almost too easy to obtain.

You basically run into most of your objectives and little brainwork is required. I would have liked to have seen a little more thinking involved but this point is just minor. A quick example of a mission has you dressing as a German officer, sneaking on a supply ship, finding the ship's manifest and disabling it. Like I said, it sounds complex but the hard part will be making it past the enemy soldiers. The real stars of the game are the Nazi soldiers. Their reactions and behavior are unparalleled in any other PSX game.

Actually, the enemy AI rivals PC games and even exceeds them in some places. For example, if you are spotted by an enemy soldier, he will drop to the ground and try to roll behind some cover.

He will then peek out from behind his cover, shoot, and then roll back as quickly as possible. Another example is that some places have alarms. If you manage to kill that enemy, chances are another soldier will have heard the cries and set off the alarm anyway. It is this type of reaction that will completely draw you into the game and actually make you feel like you are fighting against thinking enemies.

There are no more enemies with scripted reactions. You just never know what they will do or what to expect. There is one more thing that the enemies will do that I feel is so cool that it warrants a separate paragraph.

Picture this: I just fought my way through some hedgerows and came out into a clearing with a supply bunker. I peek my head in the bunker and see that there are two soldiers on patrol. Being the smart fellow that I am, I decide to throw a grenade into the room and take them both out at the same time.

I pull the pin and lob the grenade. To avoid getting caught in the blast I take a few steps away from the door and wait for the explosion. A couple of seconds pass and I hear the sound of a grenade skipping across the ground next to me and then a huge explosion. What the hell? It turns out the German soldiers grabbed the grenade before it detonated and threw it back at me.

How cool is that? No more stupid enemies who just stand there and get caught in the explosion. These guys act like they really don't want to die. And one more thing, German Shepherds like to play fetch with grenades. Keep that in mind when throwing grenades around dogs. Another thing that they made a great attempt at was the point specific damage. This means that if you shoot someone in the leg, they will hop around in pain and grab the leg you just shot.

The reason that I say they made a great attempt at it was because it was not quite as accurate as I would have liked and sometimes it lead to frustrations. For example, I would use the sniper rifle to shoot enemies in the chest'I would be zoomed in and lined up for a chest shot, I'd pull the trigger but it would hit them in the arm.

Another example is that some of the enemies wear combat helmets and if you shoot them in the helmet, it will fly off but not hurt the enemy. I noticed, though, that if I had a clear shot at the neck, I would zoom in with the sniper rifle and shoot at the neck but it would hit the helmet alerting the enemy to my presence and wasting a bullet.

Like I said, this was a great idea and it worked some of the time but it would have been better if they had just made it a little more accurate. Although not entirely accurate as outlined in the last paragraph, you are presented with some very detailed stats at the end of a level.

You are given a ranking between one star average and three stars excellent. This ranking is determined by the number of enemies you kill in a level and how much health you have remaining at the end of the level. It also tells you how may shots you took and how many hit the enemy, as well as how many times the enemy shot you. The coolest part is that it gives you a breakdown of where on the body you shot the bad guys, how may shots hit the right leg, left leg, right arm, left arm, groin, head and chest.

Like I said, it is not entirely accurate but it is still really cool. The game does have a few multiplayer modes but they were definitely not the high point of the game. Actually, there are some frame rate issues that really make it not much fun. If you are looking at a game simply for the multiplayer aspects, I would look elsewhere because you will be disappointed. If only this was a PC or Dreamcast game.

But alas, it is a Playstation game and it is not the prettiest game out there. Pixels abound and darkness shrouds the game. Some of the darkness actually helps the atmosphere but there is no hiding the fact that the game does not look great. Don't get me wrong though, by Playstation standards, the game is slightly below average but not terrible. The thing is, I found that after a while the graphics really didn't matter because I was so involved in the game that I could not care less what it looked like.

This game is far and away the best First Person Shooter on the PSX and it is my favorite game to come along in quite some time. While the enemy AI is cool and there are lots of neat extras, this game is not a technology wonder by any stretch of the imagination but it really did not matter to me.

The concept and story of the game kept me glued to my PSX and I just could not get enough. All I can say is that I hope EA and Sega make up so they can create a version of this game that looks better plus fix the pin-point aiming and it could be one of the best games ever.

As it stands, it is still one of the best PSX games I have played in a long time. Are you ready to rise above and beyond the call of duty?

Medal of Honor from DreamWorks Interactive and Electronic Arts is a 3D first-person shooter that puts you deep behind enemy lines to stymie the Nazi war effort. To ensure that Medal of Honor adheres to its historical background, DreamWorks based each of the game's 30 missions on real sorties of the OSS. From what we've seen, there will be plenty of missions in which you'll need to not only accomplish your objectives, but also to get out alive.

To that end, the game is painstakingly detailed. To combat the Nazi menace, you can use up to 15 different WWII era weapons--specialized arsenal like sniper rifles and anti-tank rockets, or more general purpose firearms like shotguns and the formidable BAR Browning Assault Rifle.

There are also missions which require you to go incognito and infiltrate enemy territory. Beyond Castle Wolfenstein anyone?

Historical details aside, Medal of Honor is also backed by impressive gameplay elements. Controlling your OSS Ubermensch is easy and intuitive. By utilizing both sticks on the DualShock controller, you can easily move, strafe and "mouselook. Equally as dynamic is the enemy Al, which transitions between several states of "being.

Throw a grenade at their feet and they'll scuttle it back to you with a kick; or one guy will sacrifice himself and cover the grenade to save his compadres.

They even turn tail to run for help. That's when you shoot them in the back. For two-player modes, Medal of Honor supports splitscreen head-to-head, cooperative and a unique version of "Hot Potato" with a live hand grenade. Hopefully, the splitscreen frame-rate can keep up with all the action.

Yes, war is hell, but Medal of Honor can be pure heaven. You played an American super-soldier who single-handedly took on the entire Nazi regime, eventually fighting a mech-like Hitler. It was a fantastic game for its time-and in no way accurately represented the goings-on of the second World War. You drop in and take out key locations like munitions depots, giant cannons, chemical weapons plants, etc.

Sounds cool, and it is. Missions take you to various locations around Europe, on land and at sea. You'll sneak around the countryside in France, make your way around an underground fortress in Germany and even sink a U-boat in the middle of the ocean, among many others.

In some cases, you even disguise yourself as a Nazi officer. It's especially creepy when a Nazi soldier strongly asks to see your papers while readying his machine gun.

If he recognizes you as a spy, you're German Shepherd meat. Fight your way through the cities, engaging in intense gunfights and gradually regaining control of the Atlantic. The mission of the protagonist's squad is to establish a beachhead for a successful invasion of Omaha Beach. On the European front, the character jumps out with a parachute behind enemy lines, conducts diversions and engages in mass firefights.

You have to stop the German soldiers' advance during the Battle of the Ardennes. Opponents try to defend Berlin, but their success depends on the user's actions. The gamer joins a U. Army sergeant and listens to John Baker's instructions. Battles will take place in urban areas, plains, and among natural landscapes overrun by explosions and flames.

User will take advantage of 48 elaborate World War II weapons. Each weapon model is researched and presented in an authentic way. The war will take place over a vast territory, starting in North Africa and pumping occupied France with the very heart of Germany. War Chest features two minor mods, Breakthrough and Spearhead, which bring new equipment, territories, and side quests. The player is able to summon air strikes or artillery by naming specified points to attack.