Shooting on the Move like a Boss in Medal of Honor Game

Enter The Wobble Zone

Medal of Honor Warfighter is a popular first person shooting game that highlights military spec ops in action. Most of the game is on shooting while on the move, though its only a game. Our audience have asked is shooting on the move the same in the game as in real live? Greg Goodrich developer for the MoH game met up with Larry Vicker to get some real insights to what its really like, so that he can incorporate into the game.

Larry had Greg and Dan from the MoH toting a 416 AR with and w/out a suppressor shooting at steel from stationary and moving either laterally or towards the target. Each of the phases progressively has the shooter firing single to multiple shots to auto bursts at various ranges.

Here’s what he found out – the “wobble zone” comes into play for both types of weapons (handgun and assault rifle) while on the move. The idea is to get a control over this wobble zone in order to be accurate and fast.

Greg: So I’ve been making games for nearly two decades now, and a lot of guys in this building are in the same boat. For a lot of us, Medal of Honor has become a very personal experience, and certainly the most rewarding for me in my career. Clearly, our main job is to entertain, and to create a slick first-person shooter that’s entertaining and engaging and driving a narrative in a very cinematic way. But there’s also something else we strive for, and for us, if we can also leave the gamer with a little bit of knowledge, and a little bit of understanding for the types of guys that are out there doing these things on their behalf, so when they lay their controller down and put their head on their pillow at night, you know, just for a brief moment, they may realize that at that very moment, there’s someone overseas, laying everything out on the line. And that’s real sacrifice. And again, if we can educate our audience on that, it’s a pretty cool thing.

Larry: Another thing I wanted to show the developers is, what it was like to shoot on the move in the real world. I know in the game they do a lot of shooting on the move as you can imagine, but in the real world it’s a whole different ball game. That wobble zone we’re talking about with the handgun and even with the rifle, that’s really gonna come into play here, you gotta get a handle on that. You also gotta understand what kinda accurate shots I can make on the move, where does semi-automatic play into it, when does it turn into suppressive fire mode, something like a red dot sight’s gonna make all the difference in the world in being able to put them where they need to be, and I want them to get a real, first-person taste of that on the range.

Ok Greg, one of the things I’m gonna take you through here, is the difference between shooting static and shooting on the move. Because as you know, medal of honor, classc first-person shooter, you do a lot of shooting on the move. A lot easier to do in the video world than it is in the real world. And you’re gonna see not only the difference between shooting static and on the move, but the difference between shooting static and on the move with semi vs. fully automatic. We’ve got here an HK416, freshly-done in brown cerakote, very nice, and we’ll just see how it shakes out.

Greg: Perfect, let’s do it.

Larry: Alright. If you would, load it up. Ok, start ready-low, finger straight, weaon on safe, and then on the beep, you’ll come up to semi in this particular drill.

[Beep]

[Shooting]

Larry: Now, same thing we just did but with burst.

Greg: Ok, let’s do it.

Larry: Full auto on it. [Beep] [Shooting] Actually, pretty good job. The first two, you had two-on one-off. The second series of targets -the third and fourth- you had three-shot bursts on both.

Greg: Right on.

Larry: Now we’re gonna do exactly the same thing you just did, but with a sidestep. Just think about a badguy down there with an AK shooting at you. You wanna be constant moving. On your right. Standby.

[Beep, Shooting]

Larry: Ok. Real good on the first three. The last two, you were off. No doubt because of the bounce. Alright, now, we’re gonna do the classic videogame mode, and go full-auto. We’ll see how it shakes in full-auto.

Greg: Rock ‘n roll.

Larry: Movement and full-auto. It’s an interesting mix.

[Beep] [Shooting]

Larry: Ok. First one, because you started static, was good. And then from there, it kinda went downhill. You saw two things working against you: Movement, and the tendency of the gun to rise on full-auto fire. And that combination means, at distance, shooting on the move fully-automatic is really cool in a videogame, in the real world it’s almost no value what-so-ever. Digging that gun?

Greg: Love it. Absolutely love it.

Larry: Four-sixteens a pretty cool gun, kinda near and dear to my heart.

Greg: Yeah, you designed it, correct?

Larry: I was involved in the design. And as we know, it had a fairly significant piece of history here recently.

Greg: Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much.

Larry: Cool you’re very welcome man. I’ve got more shooting to do.

Greg: Alright.

Larry: Comin’ at you.

Larry: Alright, we’ve got another one of my EA Medal of Honor bros here, now we’re gonna take you through the SCAR. Very similar drill to what we did with Greg, but you’re gonna be moving forward after we do static. First thing is, I want you to come up, one on each,

Dan: Right.

Larry: Then we’re gonna do two on each, then we’re gonna do burst on each. Then we’re gonna do the exact same shot sequence, but moving forward. So you get a little taste of what it’s like shooting on the move going towards a target.

Dan: Alright.

Larry: Alright. Go on up.

Dan: Ready!

Larry: And one on each, standby. [Beep, shooting] Nicely done. Now let’s do two on each, semiauto. [Beep, shooting] Through a couple on the second shots you kinda got this movement going and it was throwing you off. You gotta look down the sights and press through each one. Don’t get into the slap mode or you’ll throw ’em off even static.

Dan: Ok

Larry: So now, same thing, burst. Go. [Beep, shooting] Ok. Gotta get a technique, gotta get aggressive behind the gun. Now remember, next time you do it, you’re gonna be moving forward.

Dan: Ok.

Larry: So now, when I give you the beep, moving forward, one on each. [Beep]

Dan: I’ve been shooting my whole life, hunting, then I went to the military for a few years, and then there’s a shooting school out here I got involved with about five years back. I’ve been making shooters for about the last ten years, so my hobby is shooting and making videogames is my occupation, so they actually stitch pretty well together, and I’d like to think that a lot of that comes through in the game, you know, that we make. A lot of the guys that are making the games about shooting, and they’re actually doing it, there’s a lot of little subtle things that’ll get in that maybe you don’t even notice you’re putting it into the game, but it’ll make it in there.

[Beep, shooting]

Larry: Alright, let it hang, come on back. You’ve shot it now on full-auto, try to get that two-shot burst. Look at that. Aright? You ready? Standby. [Beep, shooting]

Dan here has a totally new appreciation for what it takes to shoot this particular weapon on the move, both semi and fully-automatic.

Dan: Roger that.

Larry: It’s a little bit easier in the game, isn’t it?

Dan: Yes.

Larry: Well it takes a while to master it. If you don’t mind, I’ll demonstrate, doing a little bit semi and full-auto.

Dan: Alright, here you go.

Larry: Alright, I’ll try semi first. [Shooting] Alright, now, we try some auto. [Shooting]

[Outro]

Sources: Greg Goodrich, Vickers Tactical, Electronic Arts