the road to Hill 30

Total Video Games recently posted a Q&A with Gearbox's president Randy Pitchford who talks more about the upcoming Brothers in Arms. Since I last visited this game a sub-title has been added: "The Road to Hill 30". I'm sure this is the ultimate objective of the squad, as the game only takes place over the eight days that follow the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

In the interview, Pitchford once again trumpets the lengths Gearbox has gone to make this the most realistic World War 2 shooter to date: "While I’m not sure that realism is the only way forward for all games, it is the only way forward for a game like Brothers in Arms." I remember being incensed at the decision to eliminate friendly fire, as something that basic should be part of any war shooter game that makes such heady claims to realism.

In a forum post he responds to those questioning this decision, stating that in close quarters it will be impossible to shoot your squad mate. However, if you are a fair distance apart, there is a chance you will hit them - but it will never be fatal. Instead, the AI-controlled character will simply react to being shot. This behaviour sounds very similar to the final levels of Half Life 2, where you are in command of a squad of resistance fighters, and a decent compromise, I suppose. But then Pitchford mentions the "Authentic" play mode, which will be much less forgiving, though he never actually implies it will be possible to kill your squad members.

Regarding the squad AI, Pitchford says that they will "engage the enemy as they were trained, dive behind the nearest cover and alternate fire while guys reload or reposition themselves." The more Gearbox talks about the field tactics and command instructions, the more it's starting to sound like what I was introduced to while playing Full Spectrum Warrior. If Gearbox can even partially recreate these AI behaviors, I'll be very impressed. This also leaves room for you to control your character and explore the field instead of having to micromanage your fireteams.

In the Gearbox official forum, Pitchford hints at bullet-based weapons not even having crosshairs drawn on screen. Instead, you will actually have to use the weapon's ironsights, correcting for distance and pulling the trigger as you would a real gun. I read that Col. John Antal, the game's military advisor, took all of the programmers out to a firing range with some of the era's weapons to get a feel for what they were really like. To this end, the weapons will even have a bit of kick to them, adding another dimension to compensate for while firing. I don't think their intention is to create a simulator, but it seems to me firing the weapons in this game will actually take a bit of skill, and not just twitch reflexes.

Probably the biggest question that remains for me is what engine they're using. When I first saw the screens I have to admit I was impressed, but they felt too good to be true - modified, even. And the overall haziness and washed out textures on the blocky looking uniforms made the multi-platform release of the game entirely obvious. Though Pitchford gives us a hint:

Gearbox licensed technology from the best engine developers in the business. Then, we modified the engine with lots of custom technology to allow Gearbox to make the game it had planned to make. The Gearbox graphics technology allows the team to render Normandy as vast and accurate as we could imagine it – to take the player out of the corridor and into the real world. New technology also allows facial expressions and emotions that really help express these characters. And, there are many technology inventions in artificial intelligence that I’ve spoken about above.

My best guess at this point is that they've licensed some technology from our friends at id software. I'll admit that Doom 3 animated facial expressions believably (Bertruger's cutscenes come to mind), though not as eerily accurate as those in Half Life 2. And the outdoor environments in Doom 3, though not as common, were handled quite well. Given the amount of street fighting and battling through hedgerows that will take place in Brothers in Arms, the Doom 3 engine will have a chance to show off something that isn't a confined space.

Gearbox has released another trailer, this one even more Hollywood than the last. I'm not really a fan of when a game trailer takes an overly melodramatic approach, unless it's meant to be the introductory video for the released game. The fact that no real examples of BIA's varied gamplay are shown just make it feel contrived. That being said, most of my reservations have been cleared up at this point and it appears that Gearbox has at least thought about the many options to make Brothers in Arms the new benchmark for realism in World War 2 shooters, while still managing to keep it accessible. And pre-ordering the game will get you a bonus "Making of" DVD, something that I'm extremely interested in knowing the creative process that went into developing this game.

raining from a hapless cloud

More Brothers in Arms

• Gearbox does World War 2
• Brothers in Arms gameplay preview
• Tanks in Brothers in Arms
• more Brothers in Arms details