An Interview with Real Time Worlds

Want some new nooz on how Real Time World’s Crackdown is shaping up? You might want to pay attention, not only is the creator of Grand Theft Auto on the project, but word has it you can pick up an invite to the Halo 3 beta by picking up specially marked copies of the game as well. Here’s a snippet from a recently conducted interview:

Q: Will there be a punishment for a player committing repeated criminal acts against innocents?

A: Collateral damage is acceptable up to a point, but beyond that the Agent will be warned to minimize civilian casualties. If players persistently ignore warnings then an APB goes out to the local police force, the Peacekeepers, to take down the rogue Agent. The higher the AgentÂ’s skill the greater the onslaught heÂ’ll have to endure for his sins. Taking flight to the rooftops can be advisable at times like this.

The gangs actually perform in a similar way – kill too many of them and you piss them off, kill a boss and you really piss them off which results in hit squads that track you down and, if successfully dispatched, become a great source of skill development.

Q: Was there any difficulty implementing the multiplayer in an open world game?

A: Definitely! Everything in the solo game is pushed to the limit. We have an environment drawn to the horizon and heavily populated with characters, vehicles and various other objects that can all be influenced by a powerful physics engine. Duplicating the entire solo experience for the co-op game by making sure nothing is left out has been our greatest challenge. In addition, the programming team begged us to keep the players together at all times. However, we wanted the core goal of player freedom to extend to the co-op game, so players can go anywhere and do anything anytime. The programming team also insisted that we shouldnÂ’t include vehicles that travel at well over 200mph in a fully streaming environment, let alone a co-op one, but we did it anyway! The list goes on, and weÂ’re delighted that we pushed the programming team so hard that they delivered the seemingly impossible.

Q: Will there be new content and things to do in the coop mode, or will it be the same as the single-player game?

A: ItÂ’s exactly the same content, but itÂ’s often been said that itÂ’s twice the game!

Q: Many people have labeled Crackdown a “GTA wannabe”. How do you feel about this kind of statement, especially when you were involved with the original GTA?

A: Well, in so far as itÂ’s what Dave Jones always wanted GTA to be, I guess thatÂ’s true! ItÂ’s a shame that so many action games set in open urban environments have been attempting to offer nothing more than a GTA style experience. It means that a game like Crackdown comes along and people immediately assume that it functions in the same way. The Crackdown team really enjoys the GTA games and, as you stated, many of them have been involved in their development. So, we know weÂ’re offering a very different experience.

Via Xboxyde

Want some new nooz on how Real Time World’s Crackdown is shaping up? You might want to pay attention, not only is the creator of Grand Theft Auto on the project, but word has it you can pick up an invite to the Halo 3 beta by picking up specially marked copies of the game as well. Here’s a snippet from a recently conducted interview:

Q: Will there be a punishment for a player committing repeated criminal acts against innocents?

A: Collateral damage is acceptable up to a point, but beyond that the Agent will be warned to minimize civilian casualties. If players persistently ignore warnings then an APB goes out to the local police force, the Peacekeepers, to take down the rogue Agent. The higher the AgentÂ’s skill the greater the onslaught heÂ’ll have to endure for his sins. Taking flight to the rooftops can be advisable at times like this.

The gangs actually perform in a similar way – kill too many of them and you piss them off, kill a boss and you really piss them off which results in hit squads that track you down and, if successfully dispatched, become a great source of skill development.

Q: Was there any difficulty implementing the multiplayer in an open world game?

A: Definitely! Everything in the solo game is pushed to the limit. We have an environment drawn to the horizon and heavily populated with characters, vehicles and various other objects that can all be influenced by a powerful physics engine. Duplicating the entire solo experience for the co-op game by making sure nothing is left out has been our greatest challenge. In addition, the programming team begged us to keep the players together at all times. However, we wanted the core goal of player freedom to extend to the co-op game, so players can go anywhere and do anything anytime. The programming team also insisted that we shouldnÂ’t include vehicles that travel at well over 200mph in a fully streaming environment, let alone a co-op one, but we did it anyway! The list goes on, and weÂ’re delighted that we pushed the programming team so hard that they delivered the seemingly impossible.

Q: Will there be new content and things to do in the coop mode, or will it be the same as the single-player game?

A: ItÂ’s exactly the same content, but itÂ’s often been said that itÂ’s twice the game!

Q: Many people have labeled Crackdown a “GTA wannabe”. How do you feel about this kind of statement, especially when you were involved with the original GTA?

A: Well, in so far as itÂ’s what Dave Jones always wanted GTA to be, I guess thatÂ’s true! ItÂ’s a shame that so many action games set in open urban environments have been attempting to offer nothing more than a GTA style experience. It means that a game like Crackdown comes along and people immediately assume that it functions in the same way. The Crackdown team really enjoys the GTA games and, as you stated, many of them have been involved in their development. So, we know weÂ’re offering a very different experience.

Via Xboxyde