Now that the dust is starting to clear from all the ruckus (good ruckus) that Ubidays left in its wake, I got a chance to ask Randy some questions about his experience with the show. It sounds like he and the Colonel really enjoyed showing off the game - and rightly so!
Randy Pitchford : Ubidays was an event hosted by Ubisoft Entertainment to showcase their line-up of video games, including Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway. There were two events, one in San Francisco for North American press and one in Paris for European press and retailers. The events took place in May, 2007 and Gearbox demonstrated a recent version of Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway which will be released this winter for Xbox 360, Sony PS3 and Windows Vista and XP.
Randy Pitchford : The San Francisco event was fun. Colonel Antal and I played the game and talked with journalists all day, then there was a big party. The Paris event was a bit larger. There was a stage show and party on the first night, then the next day was spent doing demonstration in dressed booths. Our area was decked out to look like one of the villages in Holland during Operation Market Garden. It was funny. One of the people who was responsible for the decoration was trying to find a way to hide the equipment. He said, “The equipment is modern – it doesn’t look like WW2 and we need to hide it away.” Colonel Antal said, “What about the giant plasma TV here… Should we hide that too since it wasn’t around in WW2?” Heh.
I love these kinds of events because there are a lot of cool people in the gaming press that I usually only get to see once or twice a year.
Randy Pitchford : Playing the game is a lot of fun, so I had a good time messing around with different ways to tackle the wide open combat area in the backyards of houses in the town of Son in the “Five O Sink” mission of Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway.
In order to hit on key features we wanted to talk about at the events, I tended to play the demo a certain way. But with a dynamic game like BiA Hell’s Highway, when you play the same section of a chapter a few dozen times in a row, you begin to discover some variations and nuances that create some pretty interesting situations. One time, instead of ambushing a pair of German scouts before anyone knows we’re in the area, I fired a few shots in the area and watched them run to safety behind some sandbags – looking around trying to figure out where the shots came from.
Then I just brought up my bazooka team and blasted the hell out of their position. As I brought everyone forward, I was surprised to see that all the other Germans in the area just started displacing – falling back. I totally demoralized them and they all ran away. It was funny and felt great for me, but put me in a strange spot where I was demonstrating the game and had no enemies left in the area to maneuver on.
Randy Pitchford : I really enjoyed showing off how we are handling digging in with Hell’s Highway. It’s sort of this optional thing that lets you get up against a wall – like you can in real life. We’re doing it a bit differently than some of the other games that have tried it. We don’t want digging in to invite camping or to break some of the game design. But, we do want to use it to better simulate the feeling of really pressing against things when the bullets are flying.
Also – At Ubidays we showed the new threat system for the first time. We’ve always hated health bars where the game simulation says that every bullet they shoot at you actually hits you and your body and flesh is basically getting torn apart. But all you have to do is grab a canteen or hide for a second and your flesh regrows and heals itself. I think it makes sense in Halo, where it’s really an energy shield that’s recharging. But in WW2? Come on… I’m not Wolverine.
We need the game mechanic, though, because we have to tell players that they are in danger and have to do something. It’s no fun to manage health, but it’s important to get feedback about risk.
Our new system doesn’t say that bullets are ripping you apart – it says you’re in danger and are going to get shot if you don’t do something smart. Our new system provides really clear feedback that there is risk. And, when the threat feedback is happening, it also shows you what is clear and safe and you feel encouraged or compelled to gravitate towards the safe areas.
I’ll get some video clips or screenshots together and do a more in depth update about the new threat system soon enough. It’s really awesome and I think Jeramy (who created it) has really come up with a better answer to the question of how to communicate threat and risk to the player than we’ve ever seen in any FPS video game ever. That’s a bold statement, but I stand by it.
The other fun things I liked to show off is the destructible cover – shredding wooden things bit by bit is really gratifying because it makes me feel that the enemy can run, but they can’t hide! Knocking out harder cover with the bazooka is even more intense. It looks great and feels great and it’s awesome to finally feel that we’re in an environment that isn’t totally bullet proof.
And, of course, the new action cam sequences really add a lot to the experience. Sometimes, you know, you get a really spectacular grenade kill or something. It’s really rewarding to have the camera get up close and to have time slow down so we can really see everything get ripped apart. If we can get more of the gore simulation in, it’s going to be even cooler!
When I’m back from being on the road, I’ll take a moment to speak more in depth about these features and provide some video clips and screenshots as examples.
There is a LOT of invention and innovation in Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway. Yet, at every step, the team has been careful to maintain what is solid and sure about BiA.
Sorry for the sales pitch, but the results are really awesome and fun and I can’t stop thinking about it and wanting to talk about it :)
Randy Pitchford : I loved Ubidays. I loved showing the game to so many people in the press that I respect. It’s been a long time since we’ve shown the game, so it was great to come out and show what we’ve been up to.
Randy Pitchford : Multiplayer has been Top Secret since we started. LOTS of people asked me about it at Ubidays. It was hard to tell everyone, “sorry – that’s Top Secret. I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay patient on that one.”
But I think it’s going to be something fun. It certainly is different than what we’ve done in the past. I think it’s going to be great, but I’m sorry that everyone is going to have to wait a little while longer before we start talking about it. I know that a lot of people are really interested to know what we have going on with multiplayer. There won’t be much longer to wait.
Thanks to Randy for providing us with this look at Ubidays! Stay tuned with us for videos and screenshots, and more information about Hell's Highway as it become available!
