Medal of Honor Warfighter is EA’s latest attempt at cashing in on the Call of Duty fanbase before Call of Duty even comes out. Battlefield 3 somewhat worked last year as it provided a much stronger multiplayer component than the comparatively weak Modern Warfare 3. Black Ops 2 is looking much stronger this year, however, and EA only has Medal of Honor Warfighter to fall back on. Beyond having one of the most hideous titles in contemporary gaming, does it offer anything to the jaded military shooter fan?

Perhaps you’ll find the answer to that question in the launch trailer for Warfighter that was released yesterday. It proudly proclaims that the game’s events are based on the true story of a global plot to ship explosives into large population centers. Players will take on the role of Preacher and other Tier 1 operatives as they fight the war on terror.

As it turns out, you can’t tell how good a game is from an obviously scripted trailer with little to no gameplay. We’re in luck, however, as EA has already told us how good the game is by issuing a massive day one patch that apparently fixes a large number of problems in the retail version of the game.

New Features:

Now able to add friends and join parties while in-game.

Can invite others to your platoon or apply to join a platoon while in-game.

General Tweaks and Fixes

Multiplayer Gameplay

Removed initial delay to Spec Ops Signal Scan charging.

Snipers in Recon stance will no longer be visible to enemy RQ7/RQ11 UAVs.

Increased the accuracy of server-side aiming prediction.

Fixed an issue with “Fall Back” spawning to improve its behavior.

Fixed spawn type changing to Buddy Spawn automatically when it is not supposed to.

Call in a Blackhawk for the losing team if they are getting dominated in Sector Control.

Single-Player Gameplay

Added tutorial text to first sniper encounter to help teach player about bullet drop.

Fixed an issue where the default difficulty was set to Easy instead of Normal.

Fixed an issue where controls would become unresponsive under certain conditions.

Fixed an issue with one of the in-game cinematics.

Improved single player stability and fixed progression stoppers.

Matchmaking, Parties, and Platoons

Smoothed out the matchmaking flow between successful matchmaking and joining the player to the game.

Players can no longer join an invitation only party without being invited.

Fixed issues with joining single players together into Fireteams.

Fixed an issue where Veteran platoon members could not reach Elite status.

Platoon ownership is now automatically transferred to the most senior member/GM of the platoon when the current leader leaves the platoon.

Fixed an issue where a member that is removed from a platoon becomes its leader.

Fixed an issue where players could not rejoin the same platoon matchmaking server after playing a game on that server.

If a player leaves one platoon and joins another, their platoon card now properly reflects that change.

Fixed an issue where the platoon patch would not show up for other members if one member leaves the platoon.

Fixed another issue where the platoon patch would no longer show up under certain circumstances.

Sending a platoon invite when both players are in-game now works properly.

The above is just a small sampling of the myriad of fixes that Danger Close and EA have applied to the game in this day one patch. Even more damning is the fact that EA didn’t send out copies of the game to the press until the game shipped to consumers. Only publishers who have little faith in their product, or are embarrassed by launch day flaws, would do that.

For the player looking to get their military shooter fix, I would suggest waiting until Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. I usually advise against the Call of Duty series for its formulaic approach to the genre, but Treyarch seems to really be changing things up this time around. It’s a good sign in a genre that has refused to evolve since 2007.

If you must play every military shooter that comes out, Medal of Honor Warfighter is now available for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. It will set you back $60.