Medal of Honor: Rising Sun update

We had the chance to get some more details on Medal of Honor: Rising Sun at a recent press event held by Electronic Arts. In the game, players will assume the role of marine corporal Joseph Griffin, who wakes up in a bunk on the USS California, located within Pearl Harbor, only to find that it's being heavily bombed by the Japanese Zeros. While it has yet to complete work on the level, the development team promises that when you reach the upper deck of the California it will be a spectacular sight with planes flying over and crashing into various objects and large billows of smoke spread across the harbor. Eventually, Joseph gets knocked off the ship by a blast, but he is shortly rescued and taken aboard a PTO boat, where he continues to fight off the Japanese assault.

In addition to visiting Pearl Harbor, the development team visited a number of other locations to ensure that the game accurately portrays Pacific theater battles. The team visited Guadalcanal, Singapore, Thailand, and Burma, and members of the development team stated that the jungles in these areas actually look quite different from one another. Of course, the changes from Frontline to Rising Sun aren't restricted to the environments. The Japanese soldiers in the game have been designed to look like their real-life counterparts, down to specific types of movements. Also, most Japanese weaponry will feature mounts for oversize bayonets, something that was commonly used in the Japanese army.

The development team has also taken a somewhat unique approach to designing the levels. First, the levels are built out in a sandbox where the designer can decide where to put enemies as well as structures such as bunkers or even vehicles. When that's finished, the development team can then do an animatic, a series of animated storyboards that give an idea of how the action in the level will pan out. These also give the designers an idea of where to put different paths or additional scripted sequences, as well as an opportunity to iron out any enemy placement issues and other potential problems.

In addition to technical changes (a new graphics engine has been designed for the game that enables the team to construct more realistic jungle environments), Rising Sun features some general gameplay additions. Players will be able to choose between different paths in the game, which can affect events that transpire in the level. Moreover, the AI has been improved so that nonplayer characters are much more adept at working in groups. In some cases, a computer-controlled character will even break off from the group, attack an enemy, and then form back up. Naturally, there are some special nonplayer characters that players will encounter later in the game, including a British special operative and a Japanese-American soldier who serves as a translator for Joseph.

The game won't showcase every battle in the Pacific theater, but it will take players from Pearl Harbor all the way to the first Army Ranger incursion into the Philippines to rescue prisoners of war in 1945. The game will also feature cooperative multiplayer, where two players can participate in the entire single-player campaign together.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun is scheduled for release this Christmas. Electronic Arts also revealed that a sequel in the Rising Sun series will be released next year and will follow the adventures of Joseph's brother, Donald, and it will have some ties to the original Rising Sun, but both games will largely be different. We'll have more on Medal of Honor: Rising Sun over the next few months.