DapperCrane: With the power of the 360, LIVE and the creative opportunities that come into place with the marketplace and achievement systems, how have these things changed the way developers look at next-gen gaming since GRAW? (GRAW set the bar after the first wave of 360 games came out.)
Being in the ‘first wave’ of 360 games, GRAW was a learning experience for us in regards to the technical aspects of the 360 as well as design aspects of new gameplay elements such as Achievements. So from the technical side engineers and artists discovered new ways to push graphics on the 360 farther for GRAW2. On the design side, we were able to learn from GRAW as to what worked, what didn’t, what fans liked, and what fans didn’t like. I’m not sure if there is a fundamental change in perspective on game development, we still have many of the same goals, but now the 360 and our experience on it gives us the resources to come closer to reaching those goals.
PGT2 Turbo: Who created the idea of Ghost Recon and what inspired them to create the games?
The team at Red Storm Entertainment (a Ubisoft development studio and developers of the multiplayer portion of GRAW2) created the concept for, and developed the original Ghost Recon and has been working on the series ever since. It was inspired by the desire to bring the experience of realistic, full-scale modern war to the player from a soldier’s perspective. Previous to Ghost Recon most military games that focused on the concept of full-scale modern war fell into strategy games or other genres, so the development of the Ghost Recon series was in many ways driven by the desire to play a type of game that didn’t exist yet.
I KmaC I:Everyone, including me, seems to be obsessed with GRAW 2's multiplayer, especially the cooperative modes. Do you think that having 16 people playing the cooperative campaign introduces a unique experience to the player and what has the response from the Xbox Live community been like for this feature?
Definitely! The community response has been great. Fan feedback on the forums has been very positive and coop campaign missions are neck and neck with team adversarial game modes in online popularity. I think not only the number of players we support, but the fact that the maps and mission are designed from scratch for these large numbers of players provides a coop experience you can’t get anywhere else. There’s nothing cooler than going in with a huge group of players, breaking up into fireteams, and attacking an enemy from multiple directions.
BOOTSY9191: What do you feel are the greatest improvements in GRAW 2 over the original GRAW?
The number and variety of maps is definitely a huge improvement over the original. We were able to ship with almost twice as many in GRAW 2 as compared to the original GRAW. I’d say the multiplayer graphics are vastly superior in GRAW 2 as well. The ability to easily form and organize clans is being utilized by a huge number of players (especially for something that’s often considered a ‘hardcore only’ type of feature). Those are probably the big 3 for me, but I’m also a big fan of some of the more subtle gameplay changes we added, such as the medic feature. It’s really great to see complete strangers working together as a team more often and even risking themselves to help a buddy.
The Needler:Will you incorporate face skinning technology into future versions of GRAW similar to Rainbow Six Vegas? That was a unique feature I would love to see in more games.
Well, as usual, we can’t comment on any potential future titles. I do agree with you that it is a very cool feature and was great in R6 Vegas.
Jade:How do you develop such realistic AI in GRAW 2? Is this based on AI technology developed by your own team? What plans do you have to further improve AI in upcoming games?
Well I can’t speak entirely as to what was done in singleplayer, as I worked only on the multiplayer side of things. I can say that the way your teammates call out enemy numbers and locations was a great touch and really gave them a lot of life. The enemy AI in the coop missions come to life best from the variety of tactics they have available to them. There are lots of moments where they catch you thinking “oh they’re just AI, I don’t have to worry about them doing _____ “ and that’s when you hear a grenade land at your feet. All the AI was developed in-house and we’re always looking at ways to make it better… I’ll have to leave answering ‘how’ for another time.
Jade: What is the GRAW 2 dev team’s favourite Xbox Live custom multiplayer game set up?
You couldn’t possibly get us all to agree! That’s probably why we have so much variety in there. Recently I’ve been having a lot of fun playing Team Mission customized with the AI off and limited respawns set to 3 or 5 individual. Limited respawns are probably one of our more underutilized, but fun-as-hell settings. They make things a little more forgiving, but still retain a lot of the pacing and tension of no-respawn game types.
