Medal of Honor | My Beard Is Better Than Your Beard...

Our roving reporter Tom compares beards (or lack of) with Greg Goodrich executive producer for Medal of Honor.

OK so, tell us a bit about what you’ve been showing here at GamesCom.
Yeah so, in the last 6 to 8 months, we've been talking about the Tier 1 Operator, the surgical precision instrument of the U.S arsenal, their sort of “scalpel”, and we've have also talked about the Sledgehammer, the US Army Ranger side of our story in this new Medal of Honor, and at GamesCom we're showing a whole other side; the Apache Attack Helicopter Squadron, that you're able to play and assume the role of an Apache Gunner named Hawk, in the front seat of an attack helicopter, supporting the guys on the ground, and working with them to eliminate threats in the Sheikh Valley of Afghanistan. They also represent the Sledgehammer side of our narrative, and it's been great, people love it, we have had hands on behind closed doors. Did you get to play it?

Yes, I had a chance to play it earlier behind closed doors. You mentioned earlier the importance of being authentic, can you talk a bit about how you've managed to stay authentic?
Absolutely. As you know, we've talked a lot about our consultants and the guys we've been working with, we've been working closely with the U.S Military, as well as the Tier 1 Operators, but we have also spent time with the actual gun fighter Apache squadron down in California. They let us come out and record the audio of their aircraft while they hovered on the tarmac, we took photos and really spent a lot of time with the pilots, getting into their mind and what they think about, and the types of training they go through, and the dialogue in the mission that we showed here at GamesCom was actually written by the pilots. So when we strive for authenticy, everything you see, hear and experience in that level is as real as we could possibly make it because we walk so closely with those pilots.

On the topic of authenticity, it's been mentioned that Medal of Honor is a work of “Historical Fiction”, can you elaborate on that?
Well, all of our characters and storylines are inspired by real people and actual events, but it is a fictional story in the sense that the narrative is told though the lens of fictional characters, but they're in a historical event, much like a film like Saving Private Ryan. But we tell it authentically and its always about telling the soldier's story, honoring the soldier and really talking about the brotherhood and the camaraderie that the soldiers experience in these sorts of conflicts, that's what we're focusing on and the war is a backdrop to that, but it is historical fiction.

You mentioned Saving Private Ryan, have you taken a lot of influence from films and other media to draw into the game?
Actually our biggest influence comes from the guys, the consultants and the operators that we have met and listening to their stories, looking at their photographs, and the footage they have filmed and the constant feedback process with them has been very strong. But we do take things from the films that we love or TV series like Band of Brothers, Black Hawk Down, the look and feel, the type of mood and tone you want to set for a game, you pull from all sorts of experiences and part of that is film.

The game feels quite cinematic, will there ever be a chance of a Medal of Honor movie? Gee I don't know, I'm not a movie maker but if someone wanted to make the movie, I think it would make a good movie, again because it's a character story, there's great moments of high action and intense combat, but there's also moments of humour, and the human side of things, the guys, what they do and how they keep each other in check, and the banter that goes back and forth. It's a good story, that tells of the journey that these guys go through.

You talk a lot about the game being character driven, in the promo pictures for Medal of Honor have featured a character called Dusty, and a lot of people have been asking are you Dusty?
Hahaha, no I'm clearly not, I'm not that manly, no. Dusty is Dusty and he is great. We actually started growing these beards because we were going to Afghanistan to visit the troops in the spring, but unfortunately for one reason or another the trip got canceled, but we were having fun growing them so we kept them, then the Marketing Director, Craig Owens, came up with the idea of having a beard-a-thon, so now we are being paid and sponsored to grow our beards every week. We go out and people give us money every week to not shave our beards, and then on October 12th in North America when the game is released, if we still have our beards, all that money which we have raised will be matched by EA and given to the Navy Seal Warrior Fund. It's a very great charitable organisation that gives back to the families of U.S Navy Seals who have been injured in combat. It's a lot of fun and my wife keeps saying “When are you going to shave you beard and get rid of that thing?” and I keep saying you know, “honey it's for charity, I'm doing it for a good cause”.

Of all the characters in the game, do you have a favourite?
Oh goodness, yes I do. Probably Dusty because he is so closely based on one of our operators, he's a great character, he's got a great southern accent. Voodoo is another one of my favourites just because he is the pitbull of the group, he's always chomping on the bit, pulling on the leash, wanting to go and he's got a good sense of humor but he gets “his” from the other guys as well. There is a wonderful moment late in the game where “Mother”, the team leader of AFO Neptune, gives Voodoo gets his final ribbing because he's been dishing it out the whole time and its really funny. Actually the first time I experience it in game I couldn't help but laugh out load, it was really REALLY cool.

Has there been a lot of backlash due to the current use of the warzones?
Recently there has been a bit of talk about that, but I think for the most part, once people see what we're doing and understand what we're doing, and understand what Medal of Honor is about, they will see it's about the guys, the soldiers, who they are, and what they are going through right now, then I think people will step back and say “oh this is not a game about war or politics, this is not a game about anything other than the guys on the ground and what they're going through”. The war is a backdrop and I think once people understand that they get it, but the first initial reaction people have is “why are you doing this? There's too much insensitivity”, but for example Saving Private Ryan was not a story about World War 2, it was a story about that group of characters and their mission to save that individual and everything else is a backdrop, so our story is similar in that respect. I don't want to give too much away but initially when you begin the game there is a certain goal, a certain objective and a certain reason why they are there, but then something happens, an event happens that changes everything, everyone who's involved in the storyline gets wrapped up in a different common goal and it becomes the soul focus of everybody on the ground and it's very different from why they originally went there. But like I said, it's just about honoring those guys, supporting that community of individuals and then bringing them home.

Another game that caught a lot of attention for it's use of realistic themes is Modern Warfare 2. Now there's obviously a lot of comparisons being draw between Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, how do you try to disassociate from them?
Well if people want to compare us to Call of Duty, thank you, they are very good games and our competitors are very VERY good at what they do, and I am a fan of that series, I play that series, so obviously comparisons can be made but we are different in that we focus on authenticity and plausibility, telling the soldier's story in an authentic way, and that means that the game's tone is a little bit different and that's what we offer, something different.

Have you been inspired by the Call of Duty or taken pieces from that series and improved upon them?
Well its not just them, it's every game we have played, I think all game designers and developers steal from one and other every now and again, “good artist borrow, great artists steal” and you get influenced by so many things. Certainly they've influenced us and I think Medal of Honor in the past has in turn inspired them and clearly some of those members have made Medal of Honor games in the past. I think it's good for the genre, it's good for the industry and it's good for the gamer because as long as there is competition, games will just keep getting better and better and that's a win for the gamer and the shooter fan.

Getting back to what we've seen today, you showed off the Apache Gun mission, how prominent are vehicles going to be in the game?
In single player we have shown the Apache, we have also shown the ATV in trailers but we've not shown the whole mission yet, but we've shown some of the gameplay in trailers we've put out. The Apache is a rail shooter, but on the ATV you do actually get to drive, but for the most part vehicles in our game are just a way to get to objectives, whether your riding on them or driving. After all this is a FPS first and foremost, the majority of our game is you and your gun, and your squadmates doing their thing. We are focusing on the core shooter gameplay.

Are you allowed to talk about how many hours of gameplay there will be in the game?
There's been a lot of talk about that recently, I think Craig must of said something about it, I hate being quoted on hours of gameplay because no matter what you say, somebody else could end up finishing the game quicker, or take longer. I've seen 8-10 hours being posted but i don't like to quote on hours because you're never right. But the great thing about having 2 teams, one focused entirely on single player and the other on multiplayer is you have the opportunity to build a fully fleshed out single player experience because you don't have to worry about the multiplayer and vice-versa. What we try to strive for is every minute in the game is a GOOD minute and not really worry about some arbitrary clock, but it's a good length game and it feels right. It feels like I have taken a journey and experienced a great game.

How many classes and weapons will be in the final version of the game?
Oh goodness, well we haven't announced that yet but we have shown two modes in multiplayer. We've shown Combat Mission which is the team/objective based multiplayer as well as the Assault map in the Kabul City ruins, which is more of a straight up deathmatch. We are also showing a new map at Gamescom in the mountain region of Afghanistan, it's a deathmatch map and people are having a lot of fun, but there's much more to come, including more modes, more maps but we haven't announced those yet.

What motivated the decision to split up into two teams and use two different development teams to work on singleplayer and multiplayer?
The decision was made so that we could ensure the Medal of Honor fan got the best of both worlds, you have two teams focusing on what they do best and what they are passionate about we felt we could deliver a better game, it wasn't the most economical way to do it, but it shows that EA is committed to the product and they care about the product

Will the final game come with a “VIP club” style bonus, like we've seen in Battlefield Bad Company 2?
I don't know, I honestly don't know what they have planned, there's so many different editions right now. That would be a question for our Marketing Director, Craig but truthfully I don't know.

And finally are there any plans to expand the new Medal of Honor franchise beyond this game? Will there be sequels to this etc?
I hope so, if EA allows us too and if the gamers love the game then we will certainly keep making them so long as they keep wanting them. It's been a really cool experience to be able to re-boot the franchise and take it out of World War 2, into modern times and we will see how it goes, hopefully people will respond well and if they do, then we will keep making em as long as they keep wanting them.

Mr Gregg Goodrich, thank you for your time..
Thank you.