Hey guys, found this online. Enjoy.

Direct Link Below, The content on here is a little different from what the mag says but pretty close to the same content overall.

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200605/N06.0503.1754.42600.htm

We spoke with Gearbox president Randy Pitchford about Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway for next-gen systems. We got all the dirt on their "first person actor" philosophy, the PS3 vs. 360 debate, new destructible environments, and advanced AI tactics. Plus check out the brand new HD trailer!

Game Informer: How long has the game been in production? Has Ubisoft’s focus on putting out a BIA every year given you too little time to improve the game?

Randy Pitchford: We started development of Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway just before Road to Hill 30 shipped. Ubisoft is a great partner for us and they have been very supportive of us and drive our brand hard. It was actually a Gearbox initiative to make Earned in Blood and to release it when we did. Ubisoft was an amazing partner in many respects. With Hell’s Highway, Ubisoft fully supports our plan to push the game forward into the next generation with next gen graphics and next gen game play. They support us knowing that some of the things we’re doing are inventions that have never been done before on platforms that haven’t been fully realized yet. That creates a degree of uncertainty that we all have to be comfortable with. What matters is the quality of the game and the experience we are trying to create for players. Of all the publishers I’ve worked with, Ubisoft is one of the best with respect to caring about quality and innovation.



GI: You’ve licensed Unreal Engine 3. How has the experience been with it? What has it allowed you to do that you couldn’t do with other tools, or with proprietary development tools?

Pitchford: Unreal Engine 3 is the best technology solution available for multiplatform next generation that gave us the foundation we needed to blow everything we’ve ever done out of the water. There are a lot of things in Unreal Engine 3 that we could’ve built ourselves, but we would much rather spend that time and money developing content and developing the game.

GI: You’ve talked about how your soldier is a first person actor. Could you discuss what this means?

Pitchford: Since the first person genre was created, the player character has actually been a disembodied camera with a gun (we call it a “view model”) bolted to the camera. The dream is to not be a disembodied camera, but an actual character in the world.

Our approach to this dream is to basically create what amounts to a third person simulation – with a character that can maneuver through the world and cast shadows, that has on his body the things that he is carrying. Also that he can interact with the world by doing things such as vaulting walls and for all of the animation and movement to look and feel natural and correct when you’re looking at it from that third person view. Then, you take that character and instead of having a third person camera, you put the camera where it should be – in his eyes. Now you have a first person actor.

Of course, we had to develop some technology to help smooth out the eyes a bit so we don’t make people vomit when they run and their head bobs all over the place. But the effect works and is very natural. When you look down, you can see yourself. You see your own shadows on the ground. You can look at your chest and see how many grenades you have left hanging off your chest. When you reach a wall and climb over it (yes, you can climb over walls), you can see your hand actually plant on the wall as you vault your legs over it. It’s really cool and it’s something you’re going to see a lot more games doing as everyone moves more completely into the next-generation.

GI: Can you explain how Hell’s Highway fits into the whole Brother’s in Arms universe? Will the Allied forces be able to fare better than they did with Operation Market Garden than they did in real life?

Pitchford: Brothers in Arms is following the story of a unit of paratroopers in the 101st Airborne division through their adventures in WWII. The first Brothers in Arms game dropped you into Normandy as the spearhead to the D-Day invasion. That was intense stuff. If the 101st in WWII could be compared to the Star Wars movies, D-Day was like Episode IV and Carentan was like the Death Star.

After the bridgehead was secure, the paratroopers regrouped and took reinforcements in England and prepared for the next big thing. That turned out to be Operation Market Garden – the largest airborne invasion in the history of the world.

The plan was a bold one. The Allies would drop paratroopers into Holland to secure a series of bridges along a road that led to Germany. Once secured, XXX Corps would race their tank divisions along the highway straight into Berlin. The hope was to end the war by Christmas 1944. The reality was that the best units in the German army were there to stop them. The counter attack quickly began to surround the bulk of the allied force and threatened to destroy it completely.

The 101st Airborne had to hold the base of the invasion against the Germans long enough to save the Allied army. If D-Day was like Star Wars, then Operation Market Garden was like the Empire Strikes Back. It didn’t go very well for the good guys.

Brothers in Arms is based on a true story. It attempts to recreate true history by rebuilding the actual places and putting the right units and right equipment where it is supposed to be. Of course, your decisions will deviate from history, but this happens on the tactical level – where all the real excitement is.

GI: Previously you focused on a fire team and assault team. Will you be expanding that at all with Hell’s Highway? What other squad differences will we see in this game?

Pitchford: Sgt. Baker is the squad leader that the Brothers in Arms series is all about. For Operation Market Garden he gets moved up into a Recon unit. As part of a recon unit for the 101st Airborne he is attached at the HQ level and has access to assets that were not available in Normandy. So, in the game, you become Baker and Baker gets command of special teams that join his squad.

The special teams include a machine gun team, a bazooka team, a mortar crew and a radio operator. Each of these units has unique capabilities in how they can suppress or kill the enemy in different ways and how the can change the dynamics of the battlefield either destroying or creating flanks that didn’t exist before you ordered the special teams to do their thing. It’s a lot of power and it’s a lot of fun to use it to create an unfair fight in your favor. Nothing feels as good as total domination of the enemy.

GI: The first game didn’t really have too many destructible environments. Has moving to the next generation allowed for this? How will this affect gameplay?

Pitchford: Destruction of soft cover is one of the things that is most exciting to us about moving Brothers in Arms into the next generation. We want to see a machinegun shred wooden fences and tear down doors and things. The effect on game play is substantial. On the offensive side, you can literally take away cover that the enemy is hiding behind. That makes it really gratifying to take them out. When you’re under fire, time now becomes part of your gameplay decision when thinking about where you’re going to maneuver to attack the enemy. If you use a thick stone wall as a firing position, you’ve got plenty of time. But, if you hide behind a wooden horse cart, you may find that your cover deteriorates very rapidly. That’s bad.



GI: Obviously the visuals will represent next-gen visuals. How are you creating next generation gameplay?

Pitchford: Next generation gameplay comes in two flavors. First, we take where Brothers in Arms is strong and we push that harder than ever. Brothers in Arms has always been strong in terms of authenticity, brotherhood between soldiers and squad combat. There are huge advances on every front that directly relate to the gameplay experience. What is also interesting is when we are able to look at where the game may have been weak and do something about that. Whether it is having a perfectly accurate weapon that you can physically line up the iron sights to aim or having the ability to climb over walls (first person actor) or go prone down on the ground, there are a lot of things we didn’t do before that we’re doing now that add to the reality of the paratrooper experience.

GI: What AI enhancements have you been allowed with the additional processing power. In the last game, it didn’t seem that the ally AI took cover well enough to protect them from the mobile German forces. Will this improve?

Pitchford: AI is a really interesting problem in a squad based game. When the allied AI is really good, it makes the enemy feel stupider. When we adapt and make the enemy more intelligent, suddenly the allies feel stupider. The key to next generation AI is about naturalness and plausibility. It’s about being human.

There are a bunch of things in our next generation AI system that stand out. First, you’ve got this system that we call “stances” where the animation of a character, the postures he has and his entire AI system is derived from a state of mind that we can sort of understand just by looking at his “stance.” For example – he could be in a “stealth” stance when he knows where the enemy is, but the enemy doesn’t know where he is yet. In the stealth stance he’s down low and he is quiet. He has his gun ready and can react in an instant if he is discovered. He is looking carefully around, but is focused on what he is doing. If I approach this soldier from behind, he may whisper something to me, but remain intently focused on what he’s doing.

Meanwhile, there is another stance that is relaxed. When the guys are in a really safe spot where there couldn’t possibly be any enemies around, they loosen up a lot. Their weapons get slung or even set down. They may be fiddling with their equipment or their helmet or going through their packs or chewing gum or eating a ration or drinking from their canteen or smoking or whatever. If anything crazy happens, like a German opens up on them, it’s going to take them a moment to react because they are not combat ready. But, they are also comfortable interacting with one another and with me. If I walk up behind one of these guys, he’ll sense me behind him and he’ll turn his head and look. When he sees who I am, he may turn around to face me and then I can talk with him.

If he was in a different, more combat alert stance, he may have not noticed me behind him or he may have ignored me. The whole AI system per character is influenced by the disposition or “stance” of the character.

I also hinted at the notion that these guys are more human. They will make mistakes. It seems like a simple thing, but try to think about how many times you’ve seen an AI character in a video game actually stumble and fall and then get up and keep moving. Sometimes humans make mistakes and it is these little imperfections that help us identify people as being actually human.

It’s pretty neat when you’re in the game and you see a guy trip and then another guy who may be near him helps him up and then they keep going together. You can imagine there is a little system going on in the game for the character that says, “Guess what – it’s time for you to make a mistake.” And the guy will trip. And then there is another system that is running with the other characters that says, “Hey – your buddy just tripped and he’s right next to you… You should be the one who helps him up.” And these are little systems that are all just working and making decisions and it’s not always the same what decision they make and different situations and contexts heavily influence the decisions. It’s just taking the concept of virtual people – human people – and pushing into the next generation.

GI: How do you plan on expanding your online feature set? We know you’re planning on having a lot more players, but how do you plan on structuring battles?

Pitchford: We are very excited about the multiplayer game, but we’re not talking about it in detail yet. What I want everyone to do if they’ve ever played any Brothers in Arms multiplayer is to just erase what that means from their minds – erase expectations. We’re turning multiplayer on its head with Hell’s Highway.

GI: Have you thought about how to make Xbox Achievements interesting with BIA, instead of just something tacked on?

Pitchford: I think the achievement system is really interesting. I have a lot of good theories about the psychology that is behind them and how to use them effectively. We’re still a ways from implementing the achievements in the 360 version, but I’ll go ahead and share some of my theories.

There are a few classes of things that should be achievements. One class is what I call a “badge” – this is an award or honor for some specific experience or behavior that is relevant enough where it should be displayed for others to see. Another class is what I call a “carrot” – this is used to motivate someone to try to do something. Badges are given because of something special that has already been accomplished that deserves some bragging right and carrots are dangled out there to encourage you to accomplish something.

Another developer whom I respect added to my theory with the concept of “entitlement”. Entitlements are granted simply for completing portions of the game. I suggested that carrots should be numerable and should start frequent and become less frequent as the game progressed. Carrots should account for a huge amount of the total achievements that can be earned. Meanwhile, badges are more rare. Perhaps only 20% of the total achievements are badges. And, lastly, entitlements should be something that reward just for experience. At least 50% of the total achievements should be earned on a complete play through of the game. Most of that should be because of entitlements.

Anyway, the fun bit is linking up that theory with all of the different metrics and options and accomplishments that exist in a game as complex as Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway. It should be as fun to hook up as it will be to unlock them all!

GI: Since now you’re entering the next generation space, have you thought about switching BIA into episodic content?

Randy Pitchford: This is an interesting question because the surprising answer is that Brothers in Arms is already episodic. Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway is episode 3, which is going to be the best episode. There is a story that is progressing. There are game to game connectors in plot and circumstance. We just haven’t broken our games into smaller bits and sold them more frequently.

Gearbox is totally invested and committed towards evolving the craft of storytelling in interactive entertainment. It’s a tough problem and as an industry, we all have a lot to learn. But, we’re excited to push it. We’re excited to be able to commit to a progressive episodic story that fits really well with the existing ways we’re all comfortable consuming video game entertainment.

I mean, we could have sold Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings one chapter at a time. Instead, we’re given the tale in volumes. Brothers in Arms games are like volumes and the chapters in each volume are like the pieces of episodes. Either way, we’re still more comfortable with our expectations and our habits going to the store and buying the game. We know what we’re comfortable spending and what kind of quality experience we expect to get for our money.

I suppose we could explore different ways to make money off of the episodic content we’re creating anyway, but we’re game developers not publishers. So, we’ve been much more occupied trying to innovate the craft of game making rather than trying to innovate the business models to sell them.

Someone just informed me this is old news -_- sorry guys. But i hadnt seen it so maybe some of you may still have enjoyed reading it. There is however an interview in the May 07 issue of Game Informer for anyone intrested.

This was new to me, so I appreciate it! With the lack of info out, even old news is good news. Thanks for posting.