Alain Tascan: behind the dialogue of Army of Two

Soldier of Fortune-esque title with a next-gen polish, Army of Two will be making its way to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime this 2007. If you’ve grabbed the team briefing vid trailer we handed to you a week ago, you’d know this title doesn’t just pack tactical, team-based gameplay; it’s also about all the lovin’ in-between.

Now here’s a game that gets right down to the innards of actually being teamed up with a living, breathing and talking partner. Unfortunately, with the wrong combination, you could catch a case of the “Abbott and Costello” syndrome. Such is the case with Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem – two former Army Rangers who now provide their much needed skills as souped up bodyguards or military reinforcements.

Now while the trailer did sport a good pack of one-liners to fill a box of large fries, Alain Tascan, Electronic Arts‘ Montreal Studio General Manager, says that characters might not be as chatty as the one-and-a-half minute trailer. In fact, he said in a phone discussion with Newsweek‘s N’Gai Croal that the game’s dialogue is still being tinkered with. Like the game’s music, the character’s dialogue will be added in the end.

But will they keep the humor? That’s a definite yes. The constant interaction in a game that screams teamwork is enough to warrant some form of bond between the in-game duo, but not in the context that MTV thinks it to be (laugh it up MTV). Tascan said once to Level Up, “Humor is one of the most difficult things to get right. We want to add some humor to the game to differentiate it from the competition. Because shoot shoot shoot and hide is not all we want to do.”

Soldier of Fortune-esque title with a next-gen polish, Army of Two will be making its way to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime this 2007. If you’ve grabbed the team briefing vid trailer we handed to you a week ago, you’d know this title doesn’t just pack tactical, team-based gameplay; it’s also about all the lovin’ in-between.

Now here’s a game that gets right down to the innards of actually being teamed up with a living, breathing and talking partner. Unfortunately, with the wrong combination, you could catch a case of the “Abbott and Costello” syndrome. Such is the case with Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem – two former Army Rangers who now provide their much needed skills as souped up bodyguards or military reinforcements.

Now while the trailer did sport a good pack of one-liners to fill a box of large fries, Alain Tascan, Electronic Arts‘ Montreal Studio General Manager, says that characters might not be as chatty as the one-and-a-half minute trailer. In fact, he said in a phone discussion with Newsweek‘s N’Gai Croal that the game’s dialogue is still being tinkered with. Like the game’s music, the character’s dialogue will be added in the end.

But will they keep the humor? That’s a definite yes. The constant interaction in a game that screams teamwork is enough to warrant some form of bond between the in-game duo, but not in the context that MTV thinks it to be (laugh it up MTV). Tascan said once to Level Up, “Humor is one of the most difficult things to get right. We want to add some humor to the game to differentiate it from the competition. Because shoot shoot shoot and hide is not all we want to do.”