Game Developers Conference 2012 is just about to kick off here in San Francisco, but Electronic Arts started the party off right last night with a private event.  Not only did the company show off some promising new maps for Battlefield 3, but it also stunned the audience with the first official gameplay footage from Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which wages war on store shelves this October.

After letting actual Tier 1 reps that attended the event talk for a few minutes, EA explained the basis behind the upcoming shooter, which is being developed by Danger Close.  The elite battle group once again makes a return, and lets you tackle missions from all over the world, including Somalia and the Philippines.  The game actually makes proper use of DICE’s Frostbite 2 technology, promising a high level of destruction and detail that would make the original Medal of Honor game look like a PS2 game.  And judging by what we’ve seen so far, that’s a pretty fair assessment.

The demo begins with the operations team ready to break into a dungy facility located in the middle of the Philippines.  They’ve been tasked to rescue hostages from a rogue military faction, one that’s heavily armed and not willing to give up without a fight.  But keep in mind, this is Tier 1 they’re going up against.  The world’s best.

Watching this six or so minute demo, we saw the amazing amount of detail that Danger Close was putting into the game using Frostbite 2.  The levels, while a bit darker than we expected, showed plenty of sweet opportunities, like getting an enemy in your scopes and quickly bringing them down, or throwing grenades effectively into a room to get the drop on an unsuspecting gunman.  There’s no shortage of destruction either, as you can easily blast your way through walls or destroy surroundings in the environment, like signs and lights.  At one point, a chandelier was rocked following a gun battle, still swaying back and forth in the shadows.

One cool new aspect that Danger Close is adding to the gameplay is breach tactics.  You don’t just charge into a room with a default breach, but can actually choose from various options, including choosing to kick the door in, hitting it with a high level of explosives, or asking a friend to roll in a flash bang.  You’ll have to decide the situation accordingly, and then react very quickly.

About the Author

Robert Workman

Senior Writer/Editor

Robert has years of experience in the video game industry, writing for such sites as AOL GameDaily, PlanetXbox360 and Comic Book Resources.  He can also outdrink you any day of the week.  And twice on Sunday.  Follow him at www.twitter.com/thedcd.