Memorable Gaming Moment 2002: Community Edition

Looking back, 2002 truly was an awesome year for gaming on all systems. We had great games like TimeSplitters 2, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Mafia, Metroid Prime and a lot more, but it was also a time when I was able to play a lot of the best games of 2001 like Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto III. With all that said, there was one game that came out in 2002 that truly blew me away, from its smooth, detailed visuals to its excellent orchestrated soundtrack. That game was none other than Medal of Honor: Frontline.

Frontline was brought to my attention because my older brother bought it around the time it was released. I didn't think that the game was going to be very special; I never played a Medal of Honor game beforeFrontline.  When I played through the opening sequence of the game - when you’re landing on the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day Invasion - it was one of the most incredible things I had ever seen in a game. The way that first level managed to immerse you into that environment, with bombs falling regularly and allied troops dying off all around you, as you were trying to suppress the enemy with your M1 Garand rifle; it was just an amazing moment for me.

Yes, I have been talking about the first level this whole time but don't get me wrong; the rest of the game was quite fantastic for its time as well. But, that first level was just something special and I can't think of many other moments in games that have made me feel the same way. The Medal of Honor series has caught a lot of flack over the years as the quality has dropped since Frontline. In my opinion, Airborne was a great game that was very fun and extremely underrated. I hope EA LA and DICE can make another truly awesome Medal of Honor game - which is due to come out later this year - but I will always remember Medal of Honor: Frontline for being one of the reasons I’m so into gaming to this day.

- Ross "Vod_Crack" Hartley

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Sadly, this was the only user-submitted memory this week, but I didn’t ask for submissions until quite late (it was a random idea). With that said, these Memorable Gaming Moments will be going on from week to week until we get through 2009. Next week is exclusively for moments from 2003, the week after that is for 2004, and so on. If you would like to contribute to these features, just send me an email by 12PM CST on the Sunday of that week (preferably earlier if you can) and you’ll become sausagedly famous. The email in question is pixelatedsausage@gmail.com and I look forward to reading your memories (that sounded rather odd). Below is a recap of the 2002 moments featured this week.

• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
• Animal Crossing
• The Playstation 2 Network Adapter
• The Getaway
• BMX XXX
• Contra: Shattered Soldier