BornOfFire
04-25-2008, 12:37 PM
For Electronic Gaming Monthly's May cover story, freelancer Joe Rybicki interviewed Sony's Seth Luisi and Slant Six design director David Seymour to get an update on what to expect from SOCOM: Confrontation (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3158587). And now that all eyes are looking to EGM's next issue (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167518), we have the full transcripts of those interviews available for the first time here on 1UP. Head over to our screenshots page (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) to check out new images from the game, and look out for exclusive new video footage on this Friday's episode of The 1UP Show (http://the1upshow.1up.com/). But for now, the uncut interviews...
With Sony...
1UP: [During the demonstration, you talked] about a lot of stuff that people have said about the first few games, and changes that people were unhappy with in SOCOM 3 (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3138600). How much of Confrontation is being developed specifically for the fans?
Seth Luisi: I think that when we were looking at Confrontation we wanted to identify what people resonated with in previous games. We identified that people were really into the urban environments -- the tight feel of them. When the environments started to get bigger and vehicles got added, it sort of took away from some of those elements. And so it's not as much trying to recreate a previous experience as much as it is really analyzing the previous games -- what worked well, what people picked up on, what people really enjoyed -- and then moving those to a next-gen SOCOM experience.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534533&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: So you say you're not exactly recreating the previous experience, but at the same time you have [the Crossroads map from SOCOM II (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=2006685)] in there and it's pretty accurate. Why did you decide to do that?
SL: Well there're a couple of reasons. It's a brand new engine; everything is being built from the ground up. That was kind of a concern to us; in order to maintain a lot of what made SOCOM SOCOM, we wanted to have a place to start. We wanted to have an environment which we can compare to -- which we know how it feels like, how it flows -- and then we can build from there. So by choosing Crossroads and bringing that over and rebuilding it, we had a direct comparison so that we could make sure that it still feels like a SOCOM game and it feels like the previous games.
1UP: What kind of changes does this new engine put into the experience?
SL: I could go on for all the changes that that adds, but obviously it's PlayStation 3 versus PlayStation 2, so we had to start from scratch. There's very little that we could use from the previous generation. It allows us to really create a next-generation quality game as far as the graphic fidelity, view distances, animation, even the density of the levels. So when you compare what we're able to do now, compared to what we were able to do before, it's pretty much night and day. That's where a lot of our concerns came in, when we're dealing with a whole new engine, whole new animation system, new movement scheme -- being able to have something to compare that to, to make sure we've maintained the feel from the previous games was really important.
1UP: And do you anticipate doing any other maps from the previous games?
SL: Well, we're looking into it. I think that we want to see how the game does with the current maps we're going to be releasing, gauge consumer feedback -- how much they like Crossroads, which is based off an older map, versus some of the newer maps we're doing -- and then really look at the response that we get from people and see what the interest level is for doing more classic maps.
1UP: How many maps are you planning on shipping with? Do you know yet?
SL: Right now we're looking at seven maps. We were initially planning on five, but we've been able to work in a few additional maps as well. So seven maps.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534545&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: And you've talked about the possibility of downloadable content. Do you have any plans in place for any sort of schedule? Like how frequently you expect to release stuff?
SL: Yes, that's something that is very important to this project as well, and we do have a schedule in place. We're trying to have some sort of update -- about once a month is our goal. It's hard for us to commit at this point, but we're trying to look at different things that we can offer for downloadable content, and we want to have it on a fairly frequent basis, where we'll have something new every month or every two months, and then a larger amount of content about every three months. That's our current plan, and we already have some things in development for the post deployment support.
1UP: What kind of things are you talking about -- obviously maps -- but what else would we be looking at? More vehicles, more characters?
SL: Definitely we're looking at characters; we're looking at weapons; we're looking at maps. We're looking a lot of lot of different things.
1UP: Did I say vehicles? I'm sorry, I meant weapons. So what about weapon upgrades and that sort of thing?
SL: Yeah, we're looking at what we can do. It might be some additional attachments that we add later on. There's a lot of different things we're looking at for that.
1UP: I know it's probably still a bit early, but have you given any thought to -- I mean because this is sort of taking the Warhawk model, in a way, where it's downloadable and it's retail -- have you talked at all about pricing or anything like that in terms of both the initial product and the downloadable content?
SL: We're not ready to announce pricing yet -- we're still evaluating that. But I think comparing it to Warhawk is a fair comparison.
1UP: Now we know that Zipper is also working on a SOCOM...
SL: They're working on a Socom game?
1UP: I thought that was confirmed.
SL: They're working on something.
1UP: Alright, but let me ask you this then: Do you anticipate Confrontation being put in any kind of position of competition with whatever Zipper may be working on?
SL: Well I work with all the teams. I'm responsible for all the SOCOM games that we would do, plus anything that comes out of the Zipper studio. So it's certainly a concern, but we wouldn't want to put out something that was directly competitive to either...studio's game.
1UP: I wanted to ask some questions about more specifics, with regard to the community content and stuff like that...
SL: We're working on a website for SOCOM; it's going to be socom.com (http://www.socom.com/). We were able to get the URL, which took us a while because SOCOM existed before the game. We're really excited we have the URL; we're creating basically the largest website that SCEA has ever done for a game. It's going way beyond the typical game site that SCEA does. It's going to include a blog; it's going to include frequent updates, information about the games; and then it's going to be tied directly into the game through friends lists, clans...you'll be able to manage your clan online, you'll be able to look at all your stats online, you'll be able to look and see what tournaments or games you have upcoming. So it's a fully integrated experience, something we're really excited about.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534535&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: What we've seen today is just a couple of levels in different sorts of states of completion. What are you focusing most on at this point with the overall game?
SL: A lot of it has been trying to define that gameplay experience. And a big part of that was getting up with 32 players, up and running, with all the core movement sets, with all the core basic weapon types, and then trying to optimize the performance where you can play it and get a good feel for the game. We still have some ways to go with the optimization. We're working on that, and we're getting close on that, but we've really been trying to just get the game up and running to showcase that core experience. Now there's lots of parallel work going on in the front end, in the UI -- all the things like clans, tournaments, support, as well as additional levels that are in the pipeline being developed. So everything's going along in parallel. The main focus has definitely been getting that core game up and running.
1UP: Is there any kind of perception of value with regard to downloadable content? Do you find that people are unwilling to pay more for downloadable content, or they don't consider it on par with a retail product?
SL: I think that is one of the challenges and that is one of the things we look at. It's kind of disheartening how little people value maps. I think it's the biggest addition that you can do to a game, and yet the price expectation is so low. And the amount of resources it takes to go in and create a map -- from design, art, audio, all these different aspects -- the cost is very high. So that's one of our big concerns. We want to offer additional content post release. We want to offer new maps and other things to expand the game. I think that when we start getting into downloadable content that is one of the biggest challenges.
1UP: Is there any kind of logistical issue with offering it downloadable content? Are you unable to put some things in the game that you would otherwise because you know someone is going to have wait for it to download?
SL: Waiting for it to download is not as big of an issue as skewing the audience. And this is one of the things we're always thinking about when we're planning downloadable content. It's kind of one of the reasons you don't want release a map by itself. Because if you offer six maps, all independently, you increase the likelihood that somebody is going to have one of those maps and not the other five. And then when you start playing online, you start fragmenting the online community that can play these different maps. So I think that the model of releasing map packs and things similar to that is probably the direction we're going to go because of that. We want to bundle them together, not to charge more, but to make sure that we have a more unified community. So that people, if they bought this expansion or map pack, then we know that everyone whose bought it has it. We don't have to worry about people not being able to get in a game with enough players.
1UP: Speaking of sort of logistics, is there any kind of hard and fast size limit for downloadable content on PSN right now?
SL: There are some limits, but they are very very high. I think you've seen demos on PSN that are up to two gigs. There are some limits to going beyond that. I think that those technical limits can be overcome, but there's also other concerns which is how long it takes for somebody to download something that's two gigs, how much room it takes up on the hard drive. Two gigs is a lot of data, and that offers a lot of flexibility to developers. So there's always going to be some limitations there.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534536&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: Do you have any idea about what kind of pack-ins you will be including with [the retail version of] Confrontation?
SL: Yes, we're definitely going to be including a Bluetooth headset. It's going to be different from the one included in Warhawk. Since we had more time for the release we've been working to create a high quality Bluetooth headset we're really excited about. I hope to be able to talk more about that soon.
1UP: And you guys are doing that yourselves, the headset?
SL: It's going to be a Sony created product. You know, there are always different types of people you work with when creating it, but yeah, it's something we're looking at creating and bundling.
With Slant Six...
1UP: So you guys did Tactical Strike on the PSP, and now you're doing Confrontation...what kind of challenges do you encounter as a studio who's picking up this very popular franchise and putting your own spin on it?
DS: Oh boy, there are so many different things to address. I mean right off the bat as soon as we heard the word SOCOM, we were really excited. There's a lot of fans, and I've personally played a ton of SOCOM. And really just the enormity of what fans expect from the franchise, and how passionate and involved the fans are...I mean when we first just discussed the idea of working on a SOCOM game I'd spend days reading forums and looking at what everyone had to say and you realize, "Oh my god." There's this huge amount of expectation, and love for the franchise. They want everything: they want it exactly the same as it always was, they want tons of innovation, they want it now. It's really really challenging. So that was a huge deal. Slant Six has a lot of depth in shooters...there's a lot of depth in the team, so it was something we were really really keen to work on. And they're really great games to make because the team has so much fun playtesting it all day. I mean I think the other biggest group of challenges was, we could see the PS3 had all this potential to really really improve the online experience...but that is really breaking new ground from a tech point of view...
1UP: For any fan of the series -- which the most vocal ones are fans of SOCOM I and II -- what do you want them to know about Confrontation?
DS: If there's one thing I would say it's that the spirit of SOCOM I and II, that's sort of the guiding principle we use as our razor when we're debating a lot of our design decisions. We stay close to that theme. Whether it's the decision to leave vehicles out of the game, focus on more incident maps, features that help with the tactical combat, close quarters combat...all that sort of stuff, that was sort of our guiding principle. There's some new stuff in there for sure; there's a lot of new stuff that is evolutionary and some revolutionary, but I think for those really hard core fans that are afraid of change, I think they'll be OK.
1UP: There was initially talk about destructible environments, which was sort of misinterpreted when it was said there were destructible elements of the environments...can you talk a little bit about that?
DS: There was some confusion about that. We did some technology tests where we were just testing the idea of blowing holes in walls and doing things like that but they really quickly break the flow and the intended design of a map. So we have highly destructible cover, we have lots of different props that break, and we have bullet penetration. You put that together and suddenly places that were safe in a very static world are not safe, and it really changes the play and changes the strategy. But actually just blowing apart walls, even though it sort of sounds compelling from a visual sort of high impact view, it just wrecks the flow of the maps. So no, we're adding a lot of destructible props and dangerous props -- exploding barrels are back, like all that sort of stuff -- but the maps always preserve their flow.
1UP: A big thing that is sort of a cornerstone of the whole community is the clans. What are you doing differently with clans and what are you sort of bringing in from what people liked about the previous games?
DS: All the core clan support features that people expect are there. But it's really been augmented, from both ends of the equation -- from a visual character customization point of view, from the fact that a clan is now themed as a real special force... So you could have a British SAS clan, or a U.S. Navy Seals clan, or a German KSK clan, and you can have access to specific authentic camo patterns and weapons, and certain things to theme that group. And at the clan level there's some control of visual customization so my clan can have specific badges or colors. At the top level they emerge with the player's customization of their look. So that really supports clan's identities and it's really fun.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534537&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
Sort of at the other end of the spectrum, the community website, the portal site that Seth was talking about, really makes it way more accessible to manage a clan and see where you stand in the rankings and so on. It's sort of everything the fans want, but it's definitely picked up a bunch of new features.
1UP: What are you doing different with the way rankings are done? There's been a lot of abuse that's been a kind of an ongoing complaint through the series...what are you guys doing for that?
DS: I think one of the biggest changes is the fact that the ranked matches are now auto-matched. Like you can not set up a room and set up a game type exactly defined to your team's best two snipers exact strengths and basically set up a honey pot and earn stats to raise your clan rankings by doing this one thing over and over again. For your clan to earn a global ranking you have to be a rounded team that plays well and has good strategies for dealing with all the maps and has rounded players that are good at a variety of different things. So what that means is that in these ranked matches I'm choosing to stake my skills and then I'm going to be pitted against another team and the better team will win.
Now for the custom games you can build all those custom games you want. You can do any kind of custom rooms -- the room system is still there, which I know is really really important to SOCOM fans. And you can do all your clan tryouts, and clan training, and everything you need to do within that room system. And even playing within those games it aggregates different kinds of stats because we track a lot of information about the player -- what his strengths are and his accomplishments -- but it doesn't directly go into this global clan ladder.
1UP: So you mentioned setting up a level specifically for your sniper's strengths...when you were showing off Crossroads with...the big expanded surroundings of that core area, you mentioned how snipers can much play a much bigger role because you have such a larger draw distance...it seems like the role of the sniper may be changing quite a bit with this game.
DS: They definitely have more opportunity to do more; the draw distance is really the bottom line. We're rendering clear across a map -- three times the size of Crossroads -- so there's all this space. What was really important was to keep it balanced and to keep the play so the heart of the play is still the same. As one example, with this expanded Crossroads, there's this really wonderful balance where we've added some height -- there's a lot of height, people remember the tower in the core of Crossroads, and then other structures...and there's more access to rooftops and there's this sort of layer where you get vicious sniper battles from the spawn points and from the towers to control this upper area and the rooftops. But because of this very dense, winding city, with its alleys and streets, when you're down playing at ground level, you're relatively protected...I think that realistic and ranged use of weapons has more room to stretch its legs but it doesn't dominate the play.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534538&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: One of the things you've added is this unique audio engine where you get better positional cues from the audio. Can you explain that a little bit?
DS: Basically you get that correct occlusion of sound. Which means that if I'm running down an alley...and I'm about to break into a courtyard and there's a gun battle raging -- you know what that sounds like. You've seen the movies, you've seen Private Ryan, you know that get that really nice soft cuing of where things are happening...but the intensity when the sound opens up and bursts out at you is when you are actually in direct audio propagation of the line of fire. So you still always know if there's more cover or still more objects between you and the engagement.
1UP: You talked about the sort of winding streets and the alleys, but at the same time you have this sniper level at the very top...and then rooftops as well. Would you say that these newer levels are becoming more open? Do you have a little more freedom in how you navigate the levels now?
DS: There's more freedom. There are more choices in where to go. There's probably some more stuff to access. There's more to learn. As much as everyone wants to see Crossroads again, and we hear that -- Crossroads is back -- but at the same time you want there to be more to learn, so that a clan coming in now to practice and develop strategies for Crossroads, there is more to learn now there is more to do with it. I think that one of the guiding principles we followed was that people need to be able to come into Confrontation and play it just like it's SOCOM [even though] there's more room for teamwork now.
1UP: You mentioned a party system, a new party system. Is there anything more to that than just a grouping chat?
DS: It's really about the social aspect of the game -- like the clans system and all the clan challenges and tournaments and ranked matches, basically that's the core of the competitive play. And the room system lets you just do all the open play you enjoy and do custom matches with your friends and do all that stuff. The party system lets a group of us just spend our evening playing all sorts of different kinds of games and travel around together. It just means, at a communication level, we can talk to each other separately from the tactical talk of the game going on, and just stay together as a group and understand what we're doing. It's just for the social -- it's fun.
With Sony...
1UP: [During the demonstration, you talked] about a lot of stuff that people have said about the first few games, and changes that people were unhappy with in SOCOM 3 (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3138600). How much of Confrontation is being developed specifically for the fans?
Seth Luisi: I think that when we were looking at Confrontation we wanted to identify what people resonated with in previous games. We identified that people were really into the urban environments -- the tight feel of them. When the environments started to get bigger and vehicles got added, it sort of took away from some of those elements. And so it's not as much trying to recreate a previous experience as much as it is really analyzing the previous games -- what worked well, what people picked up on, what people really enjoyed -- and then moving those to a next-gen SOCOM experience.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534533&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: So you say you're not exactly recreating the previous experience, but at the same time you have [the Crossroads map from SOCOM II (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=2006685)] in there and it's pretty accurate. Why did you decide to do that?
SL: Well there're a couple of reasons. It's a brand new engine; everything is being built from the ground up. That was kind of a concern to us; in order to maintain a lot of what made SOCOM SOCOM, we wanted to have a place to start. We wanted to have an environment which we can compare to -- which we know how it feels like, how it flows -- and then we can build from there. So by choosing Crossroads and bringing that over and rebuilding it, we had a direct comparison so that we could make sure that it still feels like a SOCOM game and it feels like the previous games.
1UP: What kind of changes does this new engine put into the experience?
SL: I could go on for all the changes that that adds, but obviously it's PlayStation 3 versus PlayStation 2, so we had to start from scratch. There's very little that we could use from the previous generation. It allows us to really create a next-generation quality game as far as the graphic fidelity, view distances, animation, even the density of the levels. So when you compare what we're able to do now, compared to what we were able to do before, it's pretty much night and day. That's where a lot of our concerns came in, when we're dealing with a whole new engine, whole new animation system, new movement scheme -- being able to have something to compare that to, to make sure we've maintained the feel from the previous games was really important.
1UP: And do you anticipate doing any other maps from the previous games?
SL: Well, we're looking into it. I think that we want to see how the game does with the current maps we're going to be releasing, gauge consumer feedback -- how much they like Crossroads, which is based off an older map, versus some of the newer maps we're doing -- and then really look at the response that we get from people and see what the interest level is for doing more classic maps.
1UP: How many maps are you planning on shipping with? Do you know yet?
SL: Right now we're looking at seven maps. We were initially planning on five, but we've been able to work in a few additional maps as well. So seven maps.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534545&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: And you've talked about the possibility of downloadable content. Do you have any plans in place for any sort of schedule? Like how frequently you expect to release stuff?
SL: Yes, that's something that is very important to this project as well, and we do have a schedule in place. We're trying to have some sort of update -- about once a month is our goal. It's hard for us to commit at this point, but we're trying to look at different things that we can offer for downloadable content, and we want to have it on a fairly frequent basis, where we'll have something new every month or every two months, and then a larger amount of content about every three months. That's our current plan, and we already have some things in development for the post deployment support.
1UP: What kind of things are you talking about -- obviously maps -- but what else would we be looking at? More vehicles, more characters?
SL: Definitely we're looking at characters; we're looking at weapons; we're looking at maps. We're looking a lot of lot of different things.
1UP: Did I say vehicles? I'm sorry, I meant weapons. So what about weapon upgrades and that sort of thing?
SL: Yeah, we're looking at what we can do. It might be some additional attachments that we add later on. There's a lot of different things we're looking at for that.
1UP: I know it's probably still a bit early, but have you given any thought to -- I mean because this is sort of taking the Warhawk model, in a way, where it's downloadable and it's retail -- have you talked at all about pricing or anything like that in terms of both the initial product and the downloadable content?
SL: We're not ready to announce pricing yet -- we're still evaluating that. But I think comparing it to Warhawk is a fair comparison.
1UP: Now we know that Zipper is also working on a SOCOM...
SL: They're working on a Socom game?
1UP: I thought that was confirmed.
SL: They're working on something.
1UP: Alright, but let me ask you this then: Do you anticipate Confrontation being put in any kind of position of competition with whatever Zipper may be working on?
SL: Well I work with all the teams. I'm responsible for all the SOCOM games that we would do, plus anything that comes out of the Zipper studio. So it's certainly a concern, but we wouldn't want to put out something that was directly competitive to either...studio's game.
1UP: I wanted to ask some questions about more specifics, with regard to the community content and stuff like that...
SL: We're working on a website for SOCOM; it's going to be socom.com (http://www.socom.com/). We were able to get the URL, which took us a while because SOCOM existed before the game. We're really excited we have the URL; we're creating basically the largest website that SCEA has ever done for a game. It's going way beyond the typical game site that SCEA does. It's going to include a blog; it's going to include frequent updates, information about the games; and then it's going to be tied directly into the game through friends lists, clans...you'll be able to manage your clan online, you'll be able to look at all your stats online, you'll be able to look and see what tournaments or games you have upcoming. So it's a fully integrated experience, something we're really excited about.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534535&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: What we've seen today is just a couple of levels in different sorts of states of completion. What are you focusing most on at this point with the overall game?
SL: A lot of it has been trying to define that gameplay experience. And a big part of that was getting up with 32 players, up and running, with all the core movement sets, with all the core basic weapon types, and then trying to optimize the performance where you can play it and get a good feel for the game. We still have some ways to go with the optimization. We're working on that, and we're getting close on that, but we've really been trying to just get the game up and running to showcase that core experience. Now there's lots of parallel work going on in the front end, in the UI -- all the things like clans, tournaments, support, as well as additional levels that are in the pipeline being developed. So everything's going along in parallel. The main focus has definitely been getting that core game up and running.
1UP: Is there any kind of perception of value with regard to downloadable content? Do you find that people are unwilling to pay more for downloadable content, or they don't consider it on par with a retail product?
SL: I think that is one of the challenges and that is one of the things we look at. It's kind of disheartening how little people value maps. I think it's the biggest addition that you can do to a game, and yet the price expectation is so low. And the amount of resources it takes to go in and create a map -- from design, art, audio, all these different aspects -- the cost is very high. So that's one of our big concerns. We want to offer additional content post release. We want to offer new maps and other things to expand the game. I think that when we start getting into downloadable content that is one of the biggest challenges.
1UP: Is there any kind of logistical issue with offering it downloadable content? Are you unable to put some things in the game that you would otherwise because you know someone is going to have wait for it to download?
SL: Waiting for it to download is not as big of an issue as skewing the audience. And this is one of the things we're always thinking about when we're planning downloadable content. It's kind of one of the reasons you don't want release a map by itself. Because if you offer six maps, all independently, you increase the likelihood that somebody is going to have one of those maps and not the other five. And then when you start playing online, you start fragmenting the online community that can play these different maps. So I think that the model of releasing map packs and things similar to that is probably the direction we're going to go because of that. We want to bundle them together, not to charge more, but to make sure that we have a more unified community. So that people, if they bought this expansion or map pack, then we know that everyone whose bought it has it. We don't have to worry about people not being able to get in a game with enough players.
1UP: Speaking of sort of logistics, is there any kind of hard and fast size limit for downloadable content on PSN right now?
SL: There are some limits, but they are very very high. I think you've seen demos on PSN that are up to two gigs. There are some limits to going beyond that. I think that those technical limits can be overcome, but there's also other concerns which is how long it takes for somebody to download something that's two gigs, how much room it takes up on the hard drive. Two gigs is a lot of data, and that offers a lot of flexibility to developers. So there's always going to be some limitations there.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534536&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: Do you have any idea about what kind of pack-ins you will be including with [the retail version of] Confrontation?
SL: Yes, we're definitely going to be including a Bluetooth headset. It's going to be different from the one included in Warhawk. Since we had more time for the release we've been working to create a high quality Bluetooth headset we're really excited about. I hope to be able to talk more about that soon.
1UP: And you guys are doing that yourselves, the headset?
SL: It's going to be a Sony created product. You know, there are always different types of people you work with when creating it, but yeah, it's something we're looking at creating and bundling.
With Slant Six...
1UP: So you guys did Tactical Strike on the PSP, and now you're doing Confrontation...what kind of challenges do you encounter as a studio who's picking up this very popular franchise and putting your own spin on it?
DS: Oh boy, there are so many different things to address. I mean right off the bat as soon as we heard the word SOCOM, we were really excited. There's a lot of fans, and I've personally played a ton of SOCOM. And really just the enormity of what fans expect from the franchise, and how passionate and involved the fans are...I mean when we first just discussed the idea of working on a SOCOM game I'd spend days reading forums and looking at what everyone had to say and you realize, "Oh my god." There's this huge amount of expectation, and love for the franchise. They want everything: they want it exactly the same as it always was, they want tons of innovation, they want it now. It's really really challenging. So that was a huge deal. Slant Six has a lot of depth in shooters...there's a lot of depth in the team, so it was something we were really really keen to work on. And they're really great games to make because the team has so much fun playtesting it all day. I mean I think the other biggest group of challenges was, we could see the PS3 had all this potential to really really improve the online experience...but that is really breaking new ground from a tech point of view...
1UP: For any fan of the series -- which the most vocal ones are fans of SOCOM I and II -- what do you want them to know about Confrontation?
DS: If there's one thing I would say it's that the spirit of SOCOM I and II, that's sort of the guiding principle we use as our razor when we're debating a lot of our design decisions. We stay close to that theme. Whether it's the decision to leave vehicles out of the game, focus on more incident maps, features that help with the tactical combat, close quarters combat...all that sort of stuff, that was sort of our guiding principle. There's some new stuff in there for sure; there's a lot of new stuff that is evolutionary and some revolutionary, but I think for those really hard core fans that are afraid of change, I think they'll be OK.
1UP: There was initially talk about destructible environments, which was sort of misinterpreted when it was said there were destructible elements of the environments...can you talk a little bit about that?
DS: There was some confusion about that. We did some technology tests where we were just testing the idea of blowing holes in walls and doing things like that but they really quickly break the flow and the intended design of a map. So we have highly destructible cover, we have lots of different props that break, and we have bullet penetration. You put that together and suddenly places that were safe in a very static world are not safe, and it really changes the play and changes the strategy. But actually just blowing apart walls, even though it sort of sounds compelling from a visual sort of high impact view, it just wrecks the flow of the maps. So no, we're adding a lot of destructible props and dangerous props -- exploding barrels are back, like all that sort of stuff -- but the maps always preserve their flow.
1UP: A big thing that is sort of a cornerstone of the whole community is the clans. What are you doing differently with clans and what are you sort of bringing in from what people liked about the previous games?
DS: All the core clan support features that people expect are there. But it's really been augmented, from both ends of the equation -- from a visual character customization point of view, from the fact that a clan is now themed as a real special force... So you could have a British SAS clan, or a U.S. Navy Seals clan, or a German KSK clan, and you can have access to specific authentic camo patterns and weapons, and certain things to theme that group. And at the clan level there's some control of visual customization so my clan can have specific badges or colors. At the top level they emerge with the player's customization of their look. So that really supports clan's identities and it's really fun.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534537&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
Sort of at the other end of the spectrum, the community website, the portal site that Seth was talking about, really makes it way more accessible to manage a clan and see where you stand in the rankings and so on. It's sort of everything the fans want, but it's definitely picked up a bunch of new features.
1UP: What are you doing different with the way rankings are done? There's been a lot of abuse that's been a kind of an ongoing complaint through the series...what are you guys doing for that?
DS: I think one of the biggest changes is the fact that the ranked matches are now auto-matched. Like you can not set up a room and set up a game type exactly defined to your team's best two snipers exact strengths and basically set up a honey pot and earn stats to raise your clan rankings by doing this one thing over and over again. For your clan to earn a global ranking you have to be a rounded team that plays well and has good strategies for dealing with all the maps and has rounded players that are good at a variety of different things. So what that means is that in these ranked matches I'm choosing to stake my skills and then I'm going to be pitted against another team and the better team will win.
Now for the custom games you can build all those custom games you want. You can do any kind of custom rooms -- the room system is still there, which I know is really really important to SOCOM fans. And you can do all your clan tryouts, and clan training, and everything you need to do within that room system. And even playing within those games it aggregates different kinds of stats because we track a lot of information about the player -- what his strengths are and his accomplishments -- but it doesn't directly go into this global clan ladder.
1UP: So you mentioned setting up a level specifically for your sniper's strengths...when you were showing off Crossroads with...the big expanded surroundings of that core area, you mentioned how snipers can much play a much bigger role because you have such a larger draw distance...it seems like the role of the sniper may be changing quite a bit with this game.
DS: They definitely have more opportunity to do more; the draw distance is really the bottom line. We're rendering clear across a map -- three times the size of Crossroads -- so there's all this space. What was really important was to keep it balanced and to keep the play so the heart of the play is still the same. As one example, with this expanded Crossroads, there's this really wonderful balance where we've added some height -- there's a lot of height, people remember the tower in the core of Crossroads, and then other structures...and there's more access to rooftops and there's this sort of layer where you get vicious sniper battles from the spawn points and from the towers to control this upper area and the rooftops. But because of this very dense, winding city, with its alleys and streets, when you're down playing at ground level, you're relatively protected...I think that realistic and ranged use of weapons has more room to stretch its legs but it doesn't dominate the play.
http://www.1up.com/media?id=3534538&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3158587&sec=IMAGES) SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all SOCOM: Confrontation screens.
1UP: One of the things you've added is this unique audio engine where you get better positional cues from the audio. Can you explain that a little bit?
DS: Basically you get that correct occlusion of sound. Which means that if I'm running down an alley...and I'm about to break into a courtyard and there's a gun battle raging -- you know what that sounds like. You've seen the movies, you've seen Private Ryan, you know that get that really nice soft cuing of where things are happening...but the intensity when the sound opens up and bursts out at you is when you are actually in direct audio propagation of the line of fire. So you still always know if there's more cover or still more objects between you and the engagement.
1UP: You talked about the sort of winding streets and the alleys, but at the same time you have this sniper level at the very top...and then rooftops as well. Would you say that these newer levels are becoming more open? Do you have a little more freedom in how you navigate the levels now?
DS: There's more freedom. There are more choices in where to go. There's probably some more stuff to access. There's more to learn. As much as everyone wants to see Crossroads again, and we hear that -- Crossroads is back -- but at the same time you want there to be more to learn, so that a clan coming in now to practice and develop strategies for Crossroads, there is more to learn now there is more to do with it. I think that one of the guiding principles we followed was that people need to be able to come into Confrontation and play it just like it's SOCOM [even though] there's more room for teamwork now.
1UP: You mentioned a party system, a new party system. Is there anything more to that than just a grouping chat?
DS: It's really about the social aspect of the game -- like the clans system and all the clan challenges and tournaments and ranked matches, basically that's the core of the competitive play. And the room system lets you just do all the open play you enjoy and do custom matches with your friends and do all that stuff. The party system lets a group of us just spend our evening playing all sorts of different kinds of games and travel around together. It just means, at a communication level, we can talk to each other separately from the tactical talk of the game going on, and just stay together as a group and understand what we're doing. It's just for the social -- it's fun.