Personally i would rank Airborne above pacific assault. Pacific assault had so many annoying flaws with the ai and the fact that the game wasn't even what it was supposed to be. Ea released these tech demos showing PA footage and the game was supposed to let you have almost free control of where you went on the island, when the game came out though it was just a linear corridor shooter with no free roaming whatsoever.
Agreed.
This is the video that was release talking about how you could basically trot around anywhere
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tech-video-moh-pacific/2162
Yup, I remember all of that and remember how hyped up I was because we were coming off the great Allied Assault series where, to this day, In never have logged in more hours online in a game than I did with that one.
I remember thinking: Wow, if they even give me AA in the Pacific with a buff job I'll be thrilled. And then the concepts you're talking about...I was so excited for that game.
The final product was indeed a letdown although it was "decent."
Then you had this BS from ea telling us how the game played different "everytime", even though after playing the demo a couple of times it was obvious it was heavily scripted. The ai didn't fare much better as they seemed to charge you at the drop of a hat more times than not.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/walkthrough-moh-pacific/2166
Airborne had its flaws but the airdrop made it somewhat interesting, Pacific Assault was meant to be so much more than that final product.
Agreed 100 percent.
Except now I guess a number of us can look at Airborne as the end of the "real" series if all the feedback is anything to go by.