Red Faction Preview

AT: Tell us more about the game's vehicles. Hovering fighter craft with a chaingun sounds interesting... Any new vehicles you care to reveal, since ECTS?

JT: We hope the vehicles will add yet another wrinkle to the rapidly changing landscape of first person shooters. Without giving anything away, we can say that there are many gameplay areas being designed to take full advantage of each different vehicle, keeping the players on their toes and spicing up the action even more. Parker will be fighting Ultor through land, sea, and air, with specific challenges for each region.

AT: Come to think of it, did you include the chaingun as one of the player weapons?

JT: Though the chaingun is not available to Parker outside of the fighter, players will still enjoy the arsenal of automatic weapons available to them. We've included assault rifles, sub machine guns, and heavy machine guns that fire some mean armor-piercing rounds, as well as a wide variety of other weapons with various melee or explosive effects.

AT: The constant terrain deformations must be causing some major problems, at least as far as the AI. How are you coping with the challenge?

JT: The added liberty players will get from Geo-Mods definitely makes development more complicated. From a level creation standpoint, the designers can control what areas can be modified and how severely, if at all - we can therefore create environments that will let a player leave a satisfying path of rubble in his path but protect regions critical to their advancement from game-breaking modification.

The AI will also respond to geomods as well; hide behind cover, and that high powered turret just may blow it out from in front of you. Duck behind fallen geometry, and the goons firing hot lead at you might circle around to get a clearer shot and pin you down. The challenge here is to make sure our enemies react realistically and logically with the dynamic environments we set the player in.

AT: Care to reveal an example of weapons' balancing in Red Faction? Yeah, you could put a simple "NO", but that would be too easy. :)

JT: We have a wide variety of weapons in Red Faction that players will find useful in different situations throughout the game. Sometimes bouncing a grenade around the corner will be a lot safer for Parker than sticking his head out and peering into a hail or bullets. Or the player might find it easier to plant a remote charge on a wall and detonate it from a distance rather than try to hit it at a perfect angle with the rocket launcher. Overall, we want the player to enjoy using the entire arsenal that will ultimately be at their disposal without detracting from the fun of cutting loose with their own personal favorite. Parker's adversaries aren't exactly slouches in the firepower department either; just about anything you throw at them, they can throw right back at you.

AT: How is the development coming along? Any news on the playable demo?

JT: Development is moving on schedule - the entire team consists of hard-working, motivated individuals who are dedicated to gaming and delivering a product everyone will be proud of. Players can expect more details on the availability of a playable demo as we get closer to release, some time after the holiday season.