Back when Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was released, I flagged it as a definite contender for action game of the year. And in the months since Allied Assault was released, a lot of other games have entered the running -- from Jedi Outcast to Mafia to Battlefield 1942. But, even as new contenders have risen up to vie for the prize, Medal of Honor still looms large in our minds. Each new game has complicated the decision, to be sure, but no matter how the chips fall, Medal of Honor was a superlative game.
The expansion features nine new levels, three in each of three locations. Starting in June of 1944, the first of these concerns the landing in Normandy. It seems everyone's doing a D-Day level now, but Spearhead just doesn't recreate the content from Allied Assault. Instead of storming ashore as in the previous game, this time you'll be dropping behind enemy lines the evening before the invasion. Your job is to disrupt German defenses and give the boys a fighting chance come morning.
There are twelve new maps for straight multiplayer action, with locations stretching from Holland to Malta. There are a fair mix of urban locations which was something the original game did quite well. The buildings and towns are each as believable as any we've seen in games of this type with a real sense of density and order. Spearhead even includes an awesome Berlin map if you really like your cities. For those of you who prefer less urban fighting, the woody Ardennes should suffice but there are plenty of other, less city-oriented maps.
News source: IGN
The expansion features nine new levels, three in each of three locations. Starting in June of 1944, the first of these concerns the landing in Normandy. It seems everyone's doing a D-Day level now, but Spearhead just doesn't recreate the content from Allied Assault. Instead of storming ashore as in the previous game, this time you'll be dropping behind enemy lines the evening before the invasion. Your job is to disrupt German defenses and give the boys a fighting chance come morning.
There are twelve new maps for straight multiplayer action, with locations stretching from Holland to Malta. There are a fair mix of urban locations which was something the original game did quite well. The buildings and towns are each as believable as any we've seen in games of this type with a real sense of density and order. Spearhead even includes an awesome Berlin map if you really like your cities. For those of you who prefer less urban fighting, the woody Ardennes should suffice but there are plenty of other, less city-oriented maps.
News source: IGN
What to block?
Other retail sites were also popular, with 37% admit to accessing shopping and auction sites from their desks. Only 2% confess to looking at pornography at work.
"Initially we saw the most abuse in pornography and gambling sites, now we are seeing more time spent on shopping and news sites," said Harold Kester, Chief Technology Officer at Websense.
Web obsession at work is still a real problem with a quarter of employees confessing to feeling addicted. They are managing to keep the surfing surreptious, with less than 10% of companies saying there was any problem with levels of office use of the net.
The fact that people are looking at different sites may mean that employers need to rethink their policy on office surfing. According to Websense nearly 80% of employers block access to pornography, compared to just 4% who do not allow staff to access news sites. Whatever the content, it is all lost productivity for businesses though.
It is estimated that it will cost an organisation of 1,000 employees an average of £30m each year if all its workers surfed for non-work related content for just an hour a day.
Getting balance right
UK content filtering firm SurfControl is not surprised that porn no longer tops the list of work-based internet abuse.
"In an office environment it isn't always that easy to surf for porn," said a spokesman for the company.
"People are far more likely to be doing day-to-day stuff such as looking at news and sport, checking share prices and shopping," he said.
He believes employers have to strike a balance between allowing staff access to the net and making sure they are not using up too much valuable bandwidth or wasting too much time.
Homepage homage
Robin Bynoe, partner with London law firm Charles Russell, said employers will have to live with some degree of cyber abuse in the office. Legally though they may be on a lot safer ground if employees are just looking at news sites.
"News is morally neutral in a way that pornography isn't," he said.
The real issue for employers worried about the legal implications of new technology is more likely to lie in the amount of pornographic spam in employees' inboxes, he said. Favouritism towards the news might not go down too well with employers, as My Bynoe found out himself.
"I had BBC News as my homepage but was found out and now have the Charles Russell intranet," he said.
Work surfing facts
25% of staff say they are addicted
67% admit to looking at news
24% think shopping is most addictive
Only 4% of employers block access to news sites
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.