Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Trailer, Interview
(destructable?) cover in Gearbox software's upcoming World War II shooter
sequel, and word on GameSpot
is that Ubisoft has narrowed the game's release date from a general August
(story) to the more specific August 26. The destructable clip is
available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers, and here is an accompanying internal interview, where Randy
Pitchford and Benny Wilson answer questions about game environments: Can
you tell us more about one of the new features in BIAHH, the destructible
environment/cover?
RP: In Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, being able to shred the kinds of things
soldiers hide behind is a big deal. Yes, it does look awesome to see bullets
tear apart a wooden fence splinter by splinter, but it is about more than just
looking amazing. You see, if the cover that the enemy is protected by is
invulnerable (as it is in just about every game you've played before), then your
only option is to wait them out or charge up on them. Brothers in Arms has
always been about suppression and looking for flanks (like real combat), but now
it's also about combined arms and volume of fire. It's intense and the feature
takes Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway to a new level of authenticity.
How does it impact gameplay?
RP: The enemy can run, but they can't hide. Wood can be shredded splinter by
splinter and hard cover emplacements, like sand bags, can be blown away with
high explosives (grenade and bazookas). It's amazing to watch and great fun to
play with. I can't believe we're actually doing what we're doing because no game
I've ever played feels this cool with destructible environments. Having
destructible environments/destructible cover changes the decisions that are made
on the battlefield and the options for winning. It changes the game quite a bit.
And there's a lot of variety too, not just in the gameplay but also in the
background, in the level design and the ways that you progress through these
environments and the tactical encounters you run into.
Can you tell us more about the development process of the destructible
environment?
BW: The very first destructible was a 12 piece checker-board prop that resembled
a fence. This was used as a proof-of-concept to ensure that we could get it to
break apart the way we needed it to and also to set memory and performance
budgets. From there we designed the workflow for getting destructible cover into
the game. It starts with the art guys modeling their pieces, setting up a
skeleton which defines how the destructible needs to break, getting it into the
engine, and level designers placing them into the levels. With that in place,
art began cranking out various destructible objects, while code had to develop a
few other components to the system like telling soldiers when the cover they're
on is destroyed, etc.
Did you meet any particular challenges?
BW: Yes, our destructible system requires interaction with many other game
systems. They have to interact with the cover and navigation system, physics,
and even some rendering tricks needed to pull it off. Each of these
considerations was a challenge of its own.
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