Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for the Wii sounds like a rehash of a long-running franchise. But 32-player online battles will make this shooter unique. Will internet connectivity become a key component for a great Wii FPS? The game ships November 13, marking an overdue trend of Wii games finally getting online.

Judging from the trailer, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 looks good (albeit not HD-good). See for yourself after the break.

The next installment of Electronic Arts' Madden 08 will feature online multiplayer but will not be using Nintendo's friend code system, according to associate producer Damian Zerr in an interview with IGN.

"Madden Wii doesn't support the Wii friends system during online play," he said. "This is something we're still working on with Nintendo. For now our online play uses your EA Nation Persona to search and manage your EA Messenger account." IGN does not press further as to why EA made this decision, leaving us to only speculate the reasons why. Perhaps EA is as distraught with the system as many Joystiq readers have conveyed.

No voice chat will be available during online play, relying instead on EA Messenger for communication (details on how were also not given), but alongside DS connectivity was not ruled out for Madden 09.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Red Octane boss Kai Huang has confirmed that the third iteration of Guitar Hero will finally feature what lonely rockers everywhere have been hoping for: Online multiplayer. Huang reportedly made the comment during a Pro-G interview that hasn't yet appeared, so more details are non-existent at the moment. But that probably won't stop the rampant speculation about exactly how GH would work online.

For our part, we're interested to see how a game that necessitates split-second timing will translate to the occasionally laggy world of online play. Sure, the "online mode" could just be you and a friend playing the same song and then comparing scores, but that hardly seems like fun. Another question: Won't our fingers cramp up entering our 12-note friend code on the Wii version? We kid, of course, we don't know that there will be specific GH friend codes. But we can dream.

Friend codes. Nintendo's self-imposed restriction on online gaming has been a burden to many who want to play with their friends without having to share a different 12-digit friend code for every game. When the Wii was revealed to have a console-specific friend code, we thought Nintendo had somewhat listened to the community's grumblings. When Pokemon Battle Revolution, the first online Wii title, launched in Japan with friend codes, we realized the folly of our optimism.

Square Enix's Senior Vice President Hiromichi Tanaka empathizes, highlighting the friend code system as the primary reason they haven't brought an online game like Final Fantasy XI onto the console. In an interview with Cubed's Adam Riley, Tanaka reveals that the RPG powerhouse is now in negotiations with Nintendo about "resolving this point of contention." A publisher of Square Enix's magnitude does not necessarily guarantee Nintendo will listen, but perhaps Nintendo will ease off or at least allow exceptions for some titles.

Then again, Final Fantasy XI on the Wii would surely be profitable even if gamers were required to enter over 300,000 12-digit codes to fully experience the world. That's how much, we suspect, Wii owners our clamoring for Nintendo to join the rest its brethren in this generation.

[Update 1: As White Rose Duelist and others have pointed out, Pokemon Battle Revolution's extra friend code might be an exception and not a rule, and Elebits is a cited example where one can exchange in-game pictures with Wii friends. However, as we do not have any other details from impending online games, and Nintendo has not readily clarified, we're just not sure.]

MapWii.com is a Wii-inspired application of Google Maps that makes locating and making potential Wii friends manageable. Even better, MapWii has been designed for Wii's Opera browser. To join, you'll have to give up your friend code, nickname, city, country, and zip (all additional information is optional).

The database is limited in its current state, both in number of registrants and scope. You may find yourself with a Wii full of friends, but it's impossible to know which ones will stick without much trial and error. In this case, real-world location isn't as important as play-style or genre preference. A few more fields of required data and MapWii could go a long way toward hastening the 'matchmaking' process.

See also: Web sites step up to connect Wii owners

Despite all our grousing about Nintendo's overprotective, hard-to-use friend code system for the Wii, we assumed that the system-specific codes would at least mean the end of the DS' system of maintaining a distinct list of game-specific codes for each online game. Well, you know what happens when you assume...

IGN's recent review of the Japanese version of Pokemon Battle Revolution reveals that the game uses "a unique 12-digit friend code, different from your Wii system number," to identify you to potential online opponents. As if that wasn't bad enough, the game has "no actual lobby where you can see how many players are currently doing battle under the various rules of play," meaning it's hard to find new people to play against.

It's not yet clear whether this system will carry over to other countries or other online-enabled Wii games, but it seems unlikely to us that Nintendo would premiere the Wii's online gameplay with a setup it didn't plan on continuing in other games. Then again, that's just us assuming again...