Cor, big gaming news: EA have announced Medal Of Hono(u)r is to return next year, all up-to-date and modern. What they’ve done here, you see, is they’ve taken a popular WW2 series and updated it to present what I’m going to call “modern warfare”. And frankly, good. Because I liked the Medal of Honour games even if they weren’t quite the most cutting edge, and the splendid Medal of Honour: Airborne was lost in the noise of Call of Duty’s reinvention. You should buy it. Although not at that price – cripes – that’s what it cost new! But to the new game. So, what do we know so far?

The game, named only Medal Of Honor, is planned to arrive some time in the next year, and to be set in the most contemporary of settings, Afghanistan. Set to be jam-packed with war for the foreseeable future, Afghanistan is 2010’s Iraq. It’ll be interesting to see how the game handles this, whether with sensitivity or balls-out realism.

It’s been in development for a while, the secret somewhat blown last month, and EA now explain that “Tier 1 Operators from the US Special Operations Community” have been consulting on the game since it was first conceived. They are, I’m reliably repeating, super-soldiers who work under the National Command Authority. They’re elite types, and so presumably get involved in the more interesting campaigns. Quoth the press release:

“Inspired by real events, Medal of Honor reveals the mission of today’s most elite soldier – his will, his mindset and his uncompromising professionalism. The Tier 1 Operator is the most disciplined, deliberate and prepared warrior on the battlefield. He is a living, breathing, precision instrument of war.”

The single player campaign is being handled by EA LA, while Battlefield developers DICE are taking care of the multiplayer. Here’s a bit more press release bumph from EA LA VP Sean Decker:

“EA has always been an advocate for telling the soldiers’ story. The new Medal of Honor follows that tradition. We felt it was important to tell the story of today’s war and today’s elite soldiers via today’s most relevant medium – videogames. We are so proud to bring together two powerhouse development teams to make this game a reality; EA Los Angeles and EA DICE. Medal of Honor promises to be an unforgettable entry in the modern shooter genre.”

More details are to be revealed during Spike TV’s 2009 Video Game Awards on Saturday, 12th December at 8pm. For American types, at least. The official site is here. And can we all just take a moment to properly appreciate that beard.

PS. I’d never be so horribly cynical after the second sentence of this post, but m’colleague Richard Cobbett tweeted this: