ZiaZine July 2008 : 21
stay true to the character. e most important thing about Bourne is him searching for himself as well as the strengths of the character and him being the smart- est guy in the room. We revisit a lot of scenes from the movies and we’re inspired by things from the books, but I wouldn’t say the only thing we followed was the movies. A lot of people ask what games you look at for inspira- tion. How about the opposite—what games did you look at and say, “I don’t want it to be like this!” Good ques- tion. One of the things that we got compared to con- stantly right when we announced, before we had any footage out, was Splinter Cell. We intentionally looked at it and said, “We don’t want to make this game. is isn’t Bourne.” e two reference points for being an as- there’s something ahead that he’s avoiding.” e stuck- between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place type of thing. Why should someone play the game if they didn’t like the movies? I think the game is still offering things you haven’t seen in other games, such as the cinematic gameplay. I know it’s been the buzz-phrase for years, but I can’t think of a game that’s truly delivered it. Stranglehold got pretty close, but the gameplay felt like a shooter. It was an awesome game and the cinematic mo- ments felt really well done, but I think very few games have done it, other than in fleeting moments. We’ve got hand-to-hand combat and shooting elements, and I think the transition between the two is our real strength. You can shoot a guy that’s in cover, forcing him to come out, run up and do a spring takedown on him, and immediately have your gun up again ready to take someone down. [Former SCEE VP] Phil Harrison recently said that connecting other players— whether it be through multiplayer or lea- derboards—is the future of the industry, and having a solely single-player game green-lit in the future will be difficult. Since this game is solely single-player, what are your thoughts on this? Last generation, a lot of big heads were com- ing out and saying online is the future. I mean, I probably spend two hours a day playing online when time is freed up. Let’s look at Little Big Planet. It looks awesome and I’m going to buy it the sassin in games are Splinter Cell and Metal Gear—well, now Assassin’s Creed, but that wasn’t out when we were making the game. Let’s say we threw a Bourne head on Sam Fisher [Splinter Cell’s protagonist] and had a Bourne logo; it wouldn’t feel like the movies at all. It’s slow-paced and… it’s a great franchise; I don’t mean to sh*t-talk it at all. [Laughs] Here’s your headline: “Bourne developer sh*t-talks Splinter Cell” [Laughs] As far as capturing the feel of the movies, it just wouldn’t work for us. If you look at the action scenes in the movie, Bourne will have a couple of stealth moments here and there, but it’s really about “there’s something behind him that’s pushing him and first day, but I’m curious how much user-driven content will be affecting a majority of the player base. Relying on it is a big gamble. I think it is. I think it’s something that we talk about a lot, but I don’t think it’s gained the leverage of the average Joe. ere are a lot of people buying games for the unique multiplayer con- tent found in the aforementioned Little Big Planet and Halo , but I don’t think it’s yet a key to a game being green-lit. ere are still single-player games that have great content. Most of the top games of 2007 were single-player focused. Exactly. [ JULY 2008 + monitorTHIS! + 21 ]
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