NEW WARHAWK Q&A
IGN: Twisted Metal, War of the Monsters, Jet Moto... these are all games the team has become famous for. What was it about Warhawk that made you want to revisit it first for the PlayStation 3?
Brian Upton: Incognito has been trying to figure out a way to schedule production for a Warhawk sequel for years, but there was always some other project that wound up being a higher priority. Once we heard news of the PS3, we looked at the production calendar, we saw a window of opportunity, and we jumped on it.
IGN: Most of the areas we've seen so far have been few in number (mostly taking place over or around water). What sort of environments can we expect to see in the final version?
Upton: The environment we showed at E3 is an island military base off the coast of the main continent; about 5% of the total play space. In addition to the island, we'll have a variety of distinct regions and cities created to specifically provide a playground for the Warhawk. For example, our mountain area has these huge towering peaks and deep, deep valleys. We wanted to give the player lots of terrain to fly around through - it's a rush that you don't get from other aerial action games.
IGN: How many ships and vehicles can be displayed onscreen at once?
Upton: Hundreds! Actually, we've done tests where there are too many enemies on the screen! After a certain point it turns into total chaos and it's hard to fly for 5 seconds without slamming into another plane, which obviously isn't very fun. As we tune each of the missions we're trying to keep them as crowded as possible and still be fun and playable.
IGN: Word on the street is that you only had a week or so to prepare for the tilt function at E3. Is that true? How has the feature been improved upon since we last saw it?
Upton: Actually, Incognito has secretly been working with Sony on the tilt technology for a while, but it wasn't until the last few weeks before E3 that they received a working controller. As for improvements since then, right now we're integrating the aerobatics system so you can use it to perform cool stunts like loops and spins, as well as testing out other gameplay in our ground modes.
IGN: Are your ships the same throughout the whole game or can they be upgraded? Also, will you only be able to control one sort of tank? We did see a motorcycle in the conceptual drawings...
Upton: You will be able to upgrade the Warhawk as the game progresses, getting bigger and better weapons. When the player gets on the ground, aside from all the hand weapons, there will be a variety of drivable vehicles, tanks, jeeps, etc that the player will have access too. We'll have more details later. But unfortunately, the motorcycle is no more. Maybe in the sequel...
IGN: Can you tell us about the different kinds of weapons that players will gain access to, and what are some cool examples of what they can do.?
Upton: We can't reveal everything this early! Like all good shooters, we'll have a solid number of weapons in Warhawk. Between the on-foot weapons, the ground vehicle weapons and the Warhawk upgrades we'll have 15+ different weapon types.
In addition to straightforward toys like machineguns and homing missiles, we've also got some more exotic stuff like the lightning shell we showed at E3. Tap the fire button quickly and you can use it like a bug-zapper, popping individual fighters out of the sky. But hold the button down and charge it up and you can unleash localized lightning storm that can knock out a whole fighter wing in one shot.
IGN: When playing single-player, will users be the only soldier on the field for their side, or will they have wingmen, AI-assisted buddies, etc?
Upton: One of our biggest goals is to create a sense of ongoing "ambient warfare" around the player. There will be lots of friendly AI around helping the user but they won't be under the player's control. First and foremost Warhawk is a shooter, so we want the player to be able to focus all his attention on shooting enemies and blowing things up. We don't want him getting bogged down in trying to micro-manage the guys who are backing him up.
IGN: Are missions open-ended in that you can switch between airships, land vehicles, and on-foot stuff at any time? Or are stages structured to follow specific vehicle types?
Upton: We never lock the player into using a particular vehicle or weapon, but the missions are broken down into air and ground missions.
IGN: Okay, with that in mind, one of the hardest things to do when developing a game with as many pieces as Warhawk has to be the assurance that all of its elements are equally strong. How are you making certain that the on-foot and vehicle segments are just as good as the airship bits?
Upton: This is a hard question to answer. How do you ensure any part of any game is fun? Just play it over and over, weeding out the boring parts, and polishing the good bits - it's something we do internally every day.
IGN: Will multiplayer maps give users the option to use whatever method of attack they want (be it vehicle or on-foot), or does each map follow a specific theme and selectable vehicle type?
Upton: Player freedom plays a big part of our online multiplayer modes. The multiplayer maps are completely multimodal and you can switch freely between air and ground vehicles during a battle.
IGN: Cool. Speaking of multiplayer, what kinds of modes can we expect to see? We know that up to 32 users can go at it at once...
Upton: Right now we're still experimenting with different multiplayer game types. We'll definitely have the classics: deathmatch, team vs. team, capture the flag, etc...
IGN: How about the storyline? Who is your character, what does he do, and what's happening in the world around him?
Upton: You play a fighter pilot named Zack Archer who winds up assigned to the Warhawk almost by accident in the middle of a surprise enemy attack on your home base at the beginning of the game. The rest of the game follows Archer and his friends as you fight against the invaders to liberate your homeland.
IGN: There has been some debate as to what Warhawk is compared to the original, so help us settle the argument. Is the game a remake of the PS One title, a sequel, a parallel universe tale...?
Upton: It's been so long since the original (more than ten years) that we didn't think a sequel made any sense. We like to say it's a "reinvention." We took the core play experience -- the hover and flight mechanics of the Warhawk itself -- and created a brand new world around it. We borrowed a number of little details from the original, though. If you played the original you'll definitely find yourself saying "I remember that!"
IGN
Sad. 
