Hands-onMedal of Honor Frontline

Following about half a year after the release of the critically acclaimed PC Medal of Honor game, Allied Assault, Medal of Honor Frontline tells yet another tale of World War II heroism. The game puts you in the role of Lt. Jimmy Patterson, the lead character from the original MOH game, which was released on the PlayStation back in 1999.

The game starts off on a hectic note by placing you in the middle of the D-Day invasion at Normandy. This level is an awful lot like the Omaha Beach level found in Allied Assault, but it comes with slightly different objectives. After being blown out of your boat, you'll have to make your way to shore, rendezvous with your squad leader, and provide covering fire for advancing troops. From there, you have to clear out some machine gun nests and mark some gun towers with smoke grenades to signal for an aerial assault. Along the way, you'll man machine guns, make your way through a minefield, and mow down a ton of German soldiers. Once the invasion has taken place, you'll settle into more traditional objectives, like stowing away on a German U-boat to steal a codebook and plant explosives throughout the sub.

The game controls like a standard first-person shooter. You use the left analog stick to strafe and the right stick to turn and look. The top triggers are used for aiming, firing, and crouching. The Dual Shock 2's face buttons are used for weapon switching, jumping, and other context-specific actions, such as opening doors, planting explosives, and so on. All in all, the control works quite well.

The graphics and sound in Frontline are extremely impressive. Even when storming the beach in the game's opening level, the frame rate remains smooth, textures look sharp, and models animate well. The moment you enter the first machine gun tower and see German soldiers manning guns and trying to shoot down the planes that are buzzing their tower is absolutely breathtaking.

EA has set the in-store date for Medal of Honor Frontline for June 6, but shipping scheduling and other factors could potentially put it on shelves a few days before that. We'll have more on EA's new shooter next week.