Iranian media mistakes Medal of Honor footage for real warfare

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It's been nearly six years since Electronic Arts published the 2010 Medal of Honor reboot, and yet in 2016, footage from the game is being mistaken for real life. The video above, which has reportedly circulated on Iranian television news this past month, doesn't look life-like at all, but news organisations in that country have claimed it's footage of Hezbollah commandos sniping Islamic State fighters.

French news site French24 was the first source to pick up on the hoax. Anyone intimately familiar with this MoH instalment (that's probably not many people, nowadays) will recognise the HUD elements depicted in the video, though some adjustments have been made to the image's contrast (presumably to obscure the unmistakably polygonal world of the original).

It's not the first time this has happened: just last year an Egyptian news agency used footage of Apache: Air Assault to demonstrate Russia's superiority over ISIS. Arma 2 has been used to mock up purportedly real world scenarios as well.

Shaun Prescott

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.