Recently we had an interview with Randy Pitchford, the President of Gearbox Software – developer of the Brothers in Arms franchise and more. Today the interview goes on, NG-Gamer presents to you the second part of the exclusive interview with Randy Pitchford. Brace yourselves for more details concerning the newest chapter of the Brothers in Arms franchise – Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway!

NG-Gamer: Will Joe Hartsock, the main character of Brothers in Arms:
Earned In Blood, also feature in the game and what role will he play in
the game?

Randy Pitchford: Hartsock is a very important character in the series.
In Brothers in Arms Road to Hill 30, we became Baker, who was promoted
to Sgt and squad leader just before the invasion. Hartsock and Baker
were peers before that moment. At the end of Road to Hill 30, we find
Hartsock getting promoted to the same rank as Baker... At that moment,
Hartsock and Baker are peers again, each with a squad to command (and
you commanded Hartsock's squad in Brothers in Arms Earned in Blood).
In Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, you are Baker again and you are
working with Hartsock as a peer. Hartsock is helpful at times,
competitive at others. The two may feel that they are best friends,
but they also have conflictions. These are complex characters. Simple
things may frustrate them. Yet they would give their lives for each
other. They are not really family by blood, but they feel a bond that
can be stronger than family. Their relationship is very meaningful
with respect to the core title of the game: Brothers in Arms.



NG-Gamer: Gearbox is using Epic's Unreal 3 Engine to create some
astonishing graphics for the BiA game. Judging the first footage, this
seems to be a great choice. However, Hell's Highway isn't the first game
using the Unreal 3 Engine. There are other games, like Gears of War,
running on this engine. Do you feel the Unreal 3 Engine is the best
choice to get some great graphics? And other than that... do you feel
BiA3 will get the most out of the engine?

Randy Pitchford: Unreal Engine 3 is a perfect choice for us for
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. For our purposes, Unreal Engine 3 is
the best technology on the planet. It's not cheap, though, so we
understand why some haven't upgraded or are looking to justify
alternatives that tend to come up short in one way or another.

NG-Gamer: One of the trademarks of the BiA franchise is of course the
tactics used during the game. BiA was probably the first war themed game
to combine tactics and shooting action, if I'm not mistaken. Of course
there were also lots of other non-war themed games in the tactical
shooter genre like for example Rainbow Six. The tactical system used in
previous BiA games was very good, but some people said that it was still
too limited. Will there be changes made to the tactical system?



Randy Pitchford: There is a trade off between having a squad command
system that is easy to use and one that lets the player do everything he
can imagine. We made it a priority to bring squad combat to the masses.
We wanted to make sure that our brand of squad command and control did a
better job of allowing the player to simulate the real tactics of fire
and maneuver. But, we wanted to make sure that the system was very easy
for anyone to use.

Now that we have established the system, we can expand upon it in very
interesting ways for players who are looking for new depth, but we can
do that without forcing any complexity for any users who may actually
prefer if things were more simple to use.

The command system still remains as simple as shooting your gun. Just
aim at something and use the command button. If you're aiming at the
ground, your command is "Move to that position!" If you're aiming at an
enemy, your command is "Attack that enemy!"

Now we can expand beyond that a bit for people who want more control.
For example, imagine you're holding down the command button and aiming
the command ring. Then, before you let go of the command button to
execute the command, you press the jump button. When not issuing a
command, the jump button would cause Baker to jump. When issuing a
command, the jump button now has the context of telling your squad mates
that you wish for them to take the fastest path towards the location -
even if that means exposing themselves by jumping over walls. This
will cause guys to leap over the cover they were hiding behind and race
towards the objective you designated.

That concept applies to the other player actions, such as "throw
grenade" or "crouch" - you can imagine how when these actions are
applied to the context of a squad command that they affect the order
that you intend and how the squad responds to that order. Issuing an
attack command with the grenade button added in will, you guessed it,
ask your men to hurl explosives into the enemy position! It's really
cool stuff, and it's still super easy to use and it isn't even required
if some users don't want to fiddle with it.



NG-Gamer: How will enemies, the Germans, react when they spot you or when
they're in the middle of a hefty battle? And probably as important... what will the Ai of your team mates be like? So basically, what's the Ai like?

Randy Pitchford: The AI is being evolved in a few major ways. First,
we want the friendly and enemy characters to behave more like humans.
That means that they can make good decisions and they can make less than idea decisions - they can make mistakes. Our efforts on this front
have been about making them care about each other and about other things
that we normally would consider to be emotional influences - those kinds
of things have in the past have been hard to build algorithms to
simulate. Another thing we've invested a lot in is navigation and the
AI that is involved in characters finding their way about. Consider
that the difficult part of a allowing thing in the environment to be
destroyed isn't the problem of making things destroyable - it's the
problem of navigating a dynamic environment.



We've also invested in logic relating to the different postures that soldiers take depending upon the situation. A soldier who is in a safe place and is relaxed will have his weapon slung and will be less alert than a soldier who is
in a combat area. A soldier on patrol will notice me and look at me
when I am near him, but isn't going to stop for long to have a
conversation with me - he's going to keep his eyes on the areas he
thinks could hide a threat. When the squad is being stealthy, everyone is whispering or being silent (using hand signals). Everyone stays very low and crouch-walks or crawls around in a prone position. Maximum cover is used as the stealthy squad maneuvers. When the characters use different postures in the game, it influences not only their visible appearance through their animation, but also their decisions and AI.

NG-Gamer: Will there be any new weapons in the game and how will these weapons change the way of playing the game?

Randy Pitchford: There are new weapons in the Market/Garden campaign.
Our philosophy is that if it was in the battle, it's in the game. One
significant new feature relates to the introduction of what we call
"special teams" - these are guys in your squad that use machine guns,
bazookas, mortars - that kind of thing... They have new weapons, too.



NG-Gamer: It seems that buildings and stuff will be destroyable. Will this
have any effect on the game itself and if so, in what ways?

Randy Pitchford: It's really rewarding to destroy the cover your enemy
is hiding behind. The feature of being able to command heavier weapons
is pretty important to the battle because those heavy weapons can be
used to destroy things that are in your way or are protecting the enemy.

NG-Gamer: With all due respect but despite the clear efforts put in
multiplayer in previous BiA games it never seemed to be enough to make
the game also a popular online hit. How will you approach the
multiplayer side of Hell's Highway?

Randy Pitchford: With the first two BiA games, we took the approach of allowing you to command squads on-line. Every human player had a squad of soldiers under their command and they could use those soldiers to
engage in fire and maneuver tactics.

We're doing something really new and important with respect to
multiplayer for the next generation. The first thing everyone should
do is just completely forget everything we've ever done before.

Soon we'll talk about what we're doing with multiplayer in more detail.

NG-Gamer: What will be the biggest improvement that BiA3 has to offer compared to previous games?

Randy Pitchford: The game is improved in many fronts. The
next generation look and feel we've developed and the power we're able to
harness from the Unreal Engine 3 makes Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway
the best looking war game - period. Also, Brothers in Arms is the only game of its type offering true squad combat. So, we're improving that with the addition of new special teams and destructible cover. And, there are lots of neat improvements throughout the interface – like the ability to go prone and being perfectly accurate when aiming down the sights.



So far this second part of the interview with Randy Pitchford. Keep in touch with NG-Gamer as we'll soon serve you the last chapter of the interview - a final chapter of this interview with maybe a bit of a climax...