{"id":2009,"date":"2013-01-09T16:41:26","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T16:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2009"},"modified":"2013-01-09T16:56:54","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T16:56:54","slug":"my-top-100-37-medal-of-honor-frontline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2009","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #37 &#8211; Medal of Honor: Frontline"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2017\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=2017\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2017\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2017\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2017\" alt=\"2002 - Electronic Arts (PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 3)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/metalofhonor2cover.jpg\" width=\"380\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/metalofhonor2cover.jpg 380w, https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/metalofhonor2cover-207x300.jpg 207w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2017\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2002 &#8211; Electronic Arts (PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 3)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If <em>Call of Duty 2<\/em> was\u00a0the last\u00a0amazing World War II shooter before the genre got stale, then <em>Medal of Honor: Frontline<\/em> is the game that started the whole mess to begin with.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, the <em>Medal of Honor<\/em> franchise had been kicking around since <em>Saving Private Ryan<\/em> hit theatres,\u00a0being one of the off-shoots Steven Spielberg\u00a0contributed his writing\u00a0to (the incredible <em>Band of Brothers<\/em> miniseries was the other).\u00a0 Unfortunately, the PlayStation&#8217;s blocky resolution and short drawing distance\u00a0limited your ability to truly feel like you were wandering the streets of Paris, or&#8230;\u00a0 wherever else you went in that game.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure &#8211; I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever gone beyond the first level.<\/p>\n<p>I do own it, however!<\/p>\n<p>In any case, EA made the leap into the new generation with 2002&#8217;s <em>Frontline, <\/em>forever changing the\u00a0face\u00a0of\u00a0first person\u00a0shooters in the 21st century.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H2UFrb0MUmY\" height=\"360\" width=\"480\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After a sequence that (almost perfectly)\u00a0re-creates the first scene of <em>Saving Private Ryan<\/em> from a first person perspective, <em>Frontline<\/em> throws you\u00a0head first\u00a0into the invasion of Normandy on D-Day.\u00a0 Bullets are whizzing by, shells are going off left and right, and your Captain is yelling orders at you through the haze of battle.\u00a0 As I rushed across the sand to provide covering fire, I felt that strange giddy\u00a0mix of excitement, fear and anticipation.\u00a0 I wasn&#8217;t even actually shooting anyone yet, but I knew I was in for quite a battle.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the game doesn&#8217;t quite match the intensity of the Normandy level, but there&#8217;s definitely a wide variety of things to experience.\u00a0 You snipe, you sneak, you go through countryside villages, and\u00a0have shootouts on submarines and\u00a0trains&#8230;\u00a0 all things that we&#8217;ve seen plenty of by now, but was quite\u00a0mind-blowing\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n<p>In one of the villages you walk through, there&#8217;s an old lady on her front porch,\u00a0holding a broom.\u00a0 Instead of sweeping, she just stands there, clutching the broom in fear, trembling.\u00a0 When I first noticed her, I kinda just stood there and watched.\u00a0 It was an emotional side that I had seen in movies before, but never in games.<\/p>\n<p>Well done, EA!\u00a0 It&#8217;s too bad\u00a0the genre\u00a0had to go so far downhill, so quickly after this.<\/p>\n<p>I played the game for the first time at Abba&#8217;s place.\u00a0 After rushing out to grab my own copy, I actually went to my sister&#8217;s room to hook up my PS2.\u00a0 She had her TV hooked up to massive speakers, so I figured it would be the best way to experience the audio.\u00a0 Obviously, it wasn&#8217;t ideal, so I had to figure out a way to get this setup in my own room.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, we had an old amplifier sitting in our basement, collecting dust and not serving any purpose other than an incredibly huge paperweight.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2018\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=2018\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2018\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2018\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2018\" alt=\"...similar to this...\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/c596302_image_0.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/c596302_image_0.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/c596302_image_0-300x110.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2018\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8230;similar to this&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My parents suggested I hook this thing\u00a0up to my TV, and use the speakers from\u00a0the sound system that I\u00a0normally\u00a0used for playing music.\u00a0 They weren&#8217;t that big, but they could definitely do the trick.\u00a0 I had played lots of Tool and Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes to prove that!<\/p>\n<p>After figuring out the best way to\u00a0hook\u00a0it up to the small TV in my bedroom, I gave it a shot.\u00a0 As I turned on the PS2 and the trademark &#8220;wwhhhhhheeeerrrrrrr&#8221; sound effect came on&#8230;\u00a0\u00a0it sounded like a\u00a0bomb had gone off\u00a0next to my\u00a0head.<\/p>\n<p>In my infinite wisdom, I\u00a0hadn&#8217;t checked\u00a0any of the volume knobs on the amp beforehand, and of course, they were all cranked to the highest levels possible.\u00a0 Probably from me playing with the then-unhooked amp as a small child, perhaps.\u00a0 I wouldn&#8217;t put it past me.\u00a0 In any case, there was ringing in my ears for a few minutes.\u00a0 After the initial shock wore off (and everyone came to ask what the hell had happened), I settled in to play <em>Frontline<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>As the intro rolled along, it became apparent that I had blown something in my speakers.\u00a0 The scream of &#8220;THIRTY SECOONNNDSS&#8221; sounded like &#8220;THCHRRTCHCH CHECHHONNNNSH&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Unreal.\u00a0 All I wanted was to\u00a0get some booming stereo sound\u00a0of my own, and it went to hell in a handbasket because of my Knob Negligence\u00a0(TM, Andre Suley, 2013).\u00a0 I was beyond pissed off\u00a0&#8211; I wasn&#8217;t even able to let go of some of that rage by thrashing out on my bass!<\/p>\n<p>Gah.\u00a0\u00a0That was so\u00a0dumb.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s why <em>Medal of Honor: Frontline<\/em> is one of my favourite games.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2022\" style=\"width: 512px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=2022\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2022\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2022\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2022\" alt=\"If you saw &quot;PlayStation 3&quot; on the list of consoles it was released for, here's the why.And yes, I do own this.  Surprise!\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/ps3moh.jpg\" width=\"502\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/ps3moh.jpg 502w, https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/ps3moh-261x300.jpg 261w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2022\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">If you saw &#8220;PlayStation 3&#8221; on the list of consoles it was released for, here&#8217;s the why.<br \/>And yes, I do own this. Surprise!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; If Call of Duty 2 was\u00a0the last\u00a0amazing World War II shooter before the genre got stale, then Medal of Honor: Frontline is the game that started the whole mess to begin with. Sure, the Medal of Honor&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2009\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,32,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-playstation-2","category-top-100","category-ww2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2009"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2034,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions\/2034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}