One of the top action games of the past year (and a Gamers' Temple Award of Excellence winner), Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, will soon be getting an expansion game.  Whether you enjoyed the original for its engrossing single player campaigns or its fast-paced multiplayer action, the expansion game will have something new for you.

First let's look at what's new for solo play.  The expansion game will ship with three new missions of three parts each, for a total of nine new levels.  The first mission will take you back to the Battle of Normandy on D-Day.  Unlike the original game, you won't be storming the beaches this time around.  Instead you will be dropped behind enemy lines on a mission to disrupt the enemy rear and to sabotage some of the German coastal defense guns. 

Next you will find yourself in the Ardennes, the heavily forested area that has been the site of many a major battle throughout history.  This time it's the Battle of the Bulge, and you'll have to fight the bitter cold and dwindling American supplies as well as the Germans and their heavily mounted, last-ditch counterattack.

Finally, you will be a part of the Fall of Berlin as the Russian steamroller tears through Eastern Germany in 1945.  Will you be playing the role of a Red Guard?  No, let's just say that you will be the same American soldier that you've played the prior two missions, and that you have some special work to accomplish in the black hearted core of Nazi Germany.

What about multiplayer?  Well for starters the expansion will bring you 10 to 12 new multiplayer maps, including Arnhem Bridge and the streets of Berlin.  In addition, there will be 5 to 10 user created maps that will be included by EA in the game.

New maps are not the only change in store for the game.  The expansion will introduce British and Soviet weapons to the game, and let you play as a soldier in one of these armies.  In addition, there will be new classes of weapons such as smoke grenades and portable heavy weapons.  The latter will allow you to grab the machine guns that you could use in fixed positions before and actually move them around the map.  In a nod to realism, don't expect to be able to fire a heavy machine gun from the hip.  Carrying a heavy weapon will slow you down, and you'll need to set the weapon up before you can man it and begin firing.  You'll also need to be careful about where you place the weapon, as once set-up it will have a limited firing arc.

You'll be able to buy this expansion in November of 2002, and will need a copy of the original game in order to play.