Brothers in Arms Q&A with pictures
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Brothers in Arms Q&A with pictures
by Buliwyf » Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:17 pm
Q: Can you give us a quick overview of Brothers in Arms?
A: Brothers in Arms is about a squad leader in the 101st Airborne. It’s a first person action game where you become a Sergeant in the unit that the US Army After Action Reports said distinguished itself above all others in US Army in tactical scope and combat effectiveness during the D-Day invasion.
Using your weapons and your squad, you lead your men through eight days of the hardest, most intense and important man-to-man combat in the history of warfare.
Brothers in Arms is based on a true story and is the most authentic, realistic and accurate game about the subject matter ever made. No contest.
Q: When and where does Brothers in Arms take place?
A: The story of Sgt. Baker and his squad takes place over eight days during the invasion of Europe. You control Baker and lead his men on the real battlefields known by names like “Dead Man’s Corner”, “Purple Heart Lane”, “Exit 4” and “Hill 30”.
The real battles, the real chronology, the real weather and lighting conditions and the real environments have been recreated more authentically than ever before in any medium.
Q: What platforms are you releasing the game for? Which platform will make it out first?
A: Brothers in Arms will be simultaneously released on PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows PC. There may be other platforms announced later.
Q: What's going to separate Brothers in Arms from all the other first-person shooters out there?
A: Three things.
Authenticity. Brothers in Arms is a true story in a real place.
Squad Combat. Brothers in Arms creates a new kind of first person game that allows the player to command a fire team and an assault team using fire and move tactics.
Brotherhood. There is a deep story with interesting characters and as the leader, you’ll make decisions between the lives of your men and the success of the mission.
Q: What makes Brothers in Arms different from other critically acclaimed WWII shooters (namely Call of Duty)?
A: Call of Duty is a fun shooter, but it failed to live up to its promise. On the box it said, “In war, no one fights alone.” When I bought Call of Duty, I wanted that promise. I ended up not being alone with a bunch of scripted allies except for half the game where I was alone...
If you’ve ever read a war story or seen a war movie and you’ve thought about actually being there – being one of the guys in that squad – then you’ll appreciate what Brothers in Arms is doing. Brothers in Arms is all about actually being there in the real place and with real soldiers. The squad combat system just brings things to a whole new level.
In terms of visuals, Brothers in Arms is nicer. In terms of squad combat, Brothers in Arms offers it better and offers more. In terms of authenticity, it’s not even close – Brothers in Arms is the real thing.
Q: Did the development team have to do a whole lot of research for the game?
A: We didn’t have to, but we did. Gearbox spent millions of dollars and countless months in research. The goal was to build a time-machine. To recreate the paratrooper’s role in the Normandy invasion so we could put ourselves back there and live it.
Q: What is the development team doing to make sure the game is historically accurate?
A: The authenticity is supported by many, many efforts and by many people and organizations (some of which have officially endorsed the game as being the most authentic of its type).
On one level, we have the battlefields. To recreate these we went to Normandy several times to survey the land and get high quality digital source of all of the buildings and roads and beaches and marshes and fields and rivers and bridges that are still there. This survey and photosource was cross-referenced with official US Army maps and US Army Signal Corps photos from 1944 that we spent quite a long time locating in the US National Archives in Washington, DC. Also, eyewitnesses, veterans and experts were consulted with. The result is a recreation of the real places that is more authentic and accurate than not just other video games, but all entertainment media to date (including film and television).
Weapons and equipment have been recreated using real source. The team went to the US Ordnance Museum where Dr. Atwater (the curator) exposed us to every weapon used in the Normandy campaign. The team was able to digitally reproduce the look, operation and sound of these weapons. Innumerable other museums have helped or cooperated with development including the Patton Museum, the National D-Day museum, the Smithsonian American History Museum, several Museums in Normandy, France and others.
On another level we have the combat. Gearbox hired as a consultant; an active US Army Colonel who is also an author, historian and teacher of military tactics and combat protocol. His name is Col. John Antal and he has written books that are used to train officer cadets at West Point and he was the equivalent of a dean of the armor school at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. He’s taught our own soldiers and our foreign allies how to fight. In 2002, he taught the Gearbox Brothers in Arms development team how to fight. He taught us in the classroom and in the field about fire and move tactics and combat. He taught us hand signals, formation and squad level battle strategy. He drilled us and taught us standard operational procedures. Then he tested us in many different ways. This training helped Gearbox invent the squad command system that is featured in Brothers in Arms. The squad command system allows players to quickly and authentically issue fire and move orders to their squad members.
When Col. Antal retired in 2003, he joined Gearbox full time and has been working directly with the development team every day as a historian and military expert to ensure the authenticity of the game.
Q: Can you let us in on any notable technical details about the game's engine?
A: Gearbox created some new technology to help us express emotion better than ever before. The characters in the game feel like real people – which is important because the game is about Sgt. Baker and his brothers in arms. It’s almost creepy when these characters engage you in the game – they’ll look at you and talk to you with a sense of realism and plausibility that we just haven’t seen yet in a game like this.
I’m also really excited about the rendering graphics. The lighting and detail is very advanced – very realistic. Without letting buzzwords muddle into it, I think the High Dynamic Range really adds a sense of reality to the way that light plays on and around the things that are moving in the world.
Q: Will most of the standard WWII-era weapons (Thompson, MP-40/44, etc.) be available? And will there be any non-standard weapons?
A: It’s not about WW2 era so much as the actual units and equipment that was involved in the battles. The allied paratroopers used mainly Carbines, M1 Garands and Thompson sub-machine guns, although, some of the glider borne troopers carried Browning’s or Springfields into the fight. All of these weapons and more are there. On the enemy side we had a variety of enemy units. Most of the German conscripts and regular infantry used the K98 and the MG-42, with some of the squad leaders in the regular infantry being equipped with MP-40’s. But, also in the area were the 17th Waffen SS Panzergrenadiers who not only had the machine guns and rifles that the regular infantry used, but had access to anti tank weapons like the fixed Pak 36 or the carried Panzerfaust rocket launcher. The 6th Parachute Infantry (known as Fallshirmjager) also put up a fight for the Allies in the area and in addition to other weapons, the Fallshirmjager had the new STG-44 (called the MP-44 initially).
Q: Mod-making is a large part of the community now a days. What are you doing to support the community?
A: Randy Pitchford: We’ll be talking about post-launch efforts later.
Q: What kind of multiplayer features will ship with Brothers in Arms?
A: Multiplayer is really exciting in that, as far as I know, it’s the first time every human player in the game will have a squad of AI allies under his command. It’s more of a cooperative experience where a player can take his squad in against another player, or two players can team up against a squad or two on-line. The multiplayer scenarios are more like missions with objectives for each team. It’s like playing a single player cooperative game where your opponents aren’t just stupid bots, but are controlled by other humans.
Q: Will players be able to make use of the strategy elements in the multiplayer game (ex: giving other players commands)?
A: The humans are squad leaders who need to communicate with one another using their headsets (voice communication) or by typing messages in game. Each human has a squad of AI soldiers under their command and the squad command system from the single player game is used.
Q: Mixing strategy elements in a first-person shooter isn't a new idea (ex: Full Spectrum Warrior). What's Brother in Arms doing to improve the idea?
A: As far as I know, Full Spectrum Warrior is a strategy game and is not at all a shooter – you don’t actually ever get to shoot the gun in FSW. But I agree that there must have been an action game before that’s tried to use some kind of squad command. I think there was a game called Freedom Force a couple of years ago that mingled squad command features with a shooter game. I didn’t play that one, so it’s hard for me to talk about where Brothers in Arms improves.
I don’t think that prior examples really matter, though. Or, at least, they didn’t factor into Gearbox’s design and development for Brothers in Arms. To imagine playing Brothers in Arms, just imagine playing your favorite shooter. You know how you press the fire button to shoot your weapon? Okay – now add the concept of a “command button” that is just like shooting your gun. Where you shoot is where you command – it’s like saying, “Do X at that spot!” If you “shoot” the command at the ground, your order is to move to that spot. If you “shoot” the command at the enemy, your order is to attack the enemy. It’s a one button, context sensitive command system. It is super easy to use and super familiar to anyone who’s played a game like this before.
But, it’s also super authentic. In real war, leaders don’t tell each man where exactly to stand and what direction to look in. The real paratroopers were trained soldiers. They knew what to do – how to find and use cover and how to execute general orders of fire and move.
The advantage is that now that you’ve got a squad under your command you can actually perform these authentic fire and move tactics in the game. You can use one team to fire on the enemy, pinning him down. And he’ll get pinned because the AI in the game is intelligent. The enemy doesn’t want to die and isn’t just sacrificing himself to give you a moving target to shoot at. The enemy wants to survive – he wants to kill you. And he knows how to use fire and move tactics as well. So, you have to pin him down with suppressive fire. Then, you have to use your other team to maneuver around and kill the enemy. Since you’re the squad leader, you can decide what your own part is going to be. You can be part of the suppressive action. Or you can be part of the assault team. Or you can sit back and command your team to do both roles without even firing a shot. Or you can leave everyone behind and go Rambo (your chances will be very slim – especially against the better trained units you’ll encounter in the fighting later in the eight days).
Q: When can we count on playing Brothers in Arms for ourselves? And will there be any pre-release demos that we can try out?
A: Brothers in Arms will be released in early ’05. Right now we’re looking at February and I think it’s very likely, but an exact release date will be announced as soon as we have one.
I think there will be a demo released for Xbox, maybe a demo for PS2 and some kind of limited beta test for the PC version. A demo for the PC version may or may not be available until after the product is launched – we’re working on those plans now.
A: Brothers in Arms is about a squad leader in the 101st Airborne. It’s a first person action game where you become a Sergeant in the unit that the US Army After Action Reports said distinguished itself above all others in US Army in tactical scope and combat effectiveness during the D-Day invasion.
Using your weapons and your squad, you lead your men through eight days of the hardest, most intense and important man-to-man combat in the history of warfare.
Brothers in Arms is based on a true story and is the most authentic, realistic and accurate game about the subject matter ever made. No contest.
Q: When and where does Brothers in Arms take place?
A: The story of Sgt. Baker and his squad takes place over eight days during the invasion of Europe. You control Baker and lead his men on the real battlefields known by names like “Dead Man’s Corner”, “Purple Heart Lane”, “Exit 4” and “Hill 30”.
The real battles, the real chronology, the real weather and lighting conditions and the real environments have been recreated more authentically than ever before in any medium.
Q: What platforms are you releasing the game for? Which platform will make it out first?
A: Brothers in Arms will be simultaneously released on PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows PC. There may be other platforms announced later.
Q: What's going to separate Brothers in Arms from all the other first-person shooters out there?
A: Three things.
Authenticity. Brothers in Arms is a true story in a real place.
Squad Combat. Brothers in Arms creates a new kind of first person game that allows the player to command a fire team and an assault team using fire and move tactics.
Brotherhood. There is a deep story with interesting characters and as the leader, you’ll make decisions between the lives of your men and the success of the mission.
Q: What makes Brothers in Arms different from other critically acclaimed WWII shooters (namely Call of Duty)?
A: Call of Duty is a fun shooter, but it failed to live up to its promise. On the box it said, “In war, no one fights alone.” When I bought Call of Duty, I wanted that promise. I ended up not being alone with a bunch of scripted allies except for half the game where I was alone...
If you’ve ever read a war story or seen a war movie and you’ve thought about actually being there – being one of the guys in that squad – then you’ll appreciate what Brothers in Arms is doing. Brothers in Arms is all about actually being there in the real place and with real soldiers. The squad combat system just brings things to a whole new level.
In terms of visuals, Brothers in Arms is nicer. In terms of squad combat, Brothers in Arms offers it better and offers more. In terms of authenticity, it’s not even close – Brothers in Arms is the real thing.
Q: Did the development team have to do a whole lot of research for the game?
A: We didn’t have to, but we did. Gearbox spent millions of dollars and countless months in research. The goal was to build a time-machine. To recreate the paratrooper’s role in the Normandy invasion so we could put ourselves back there and live it.
Q: What is the development team doing to make sure the game is historically accurate?
A: The authenticity is supported by many, many efforts and by many people and organizations (some of which have officially endorsed the game as being the most authentic of its type).
On one level, we have the battlefields. To recreate these we went to Normandy several times to survey the land and get high quality digital source of all of the buildings and roads and beaches and marshes and fields and rivers and bridges that are still there. This survey and photosource was cross-referenced with official US Army maps and US Army Signal Corps photos from 1944 that we spent quite a long time locating in the US National Archives in Washington, DC. Also, eyewitnesses, veterans and experts were consulted with. The result is a recreation of the real places that is more authentic and accurate than not just other video games, but all entertainment media to date (including film and television).
Weapons and equipment have been recreated using real source. The team went to the US Ordnance Museum where Dr. Atwater (the curator) exposed us to every weapon used in the Normandy campaign. The team was able to digitally reproduce the look, operation and sound of these weapons. Innumerable other museums have helped or cooperated with development including the Patton Museum, the National D-Day museum, the Smithsonian American History Museum, several Museums in Normandy, France and others.
On another level we have the combat. Gearbox hired as a consultant; an active US Army Colonel who is also an author, historian and teacher of military tactics and combat protocol. His name is Col. John Antal and he has written books that are used to train officer cadets at West Point and he was the equivalent of a dean of the armor school at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. He’s taught our own soldiers and our foreign allies how to fight. In 2002, he taught the Gearbox Brothers in Arms development team how to fight. He taught us in the classroom and in the field about fire and move tactics and combat. He taught us hand signals, formation and squad level battle strategy. He drilled us and taught us standard operational procedures. Then he tested us in many different ways. This training helped Gearbox invent the squad command system that is featured in Brothers in Arms. The squad command system allows players to quickly and authentically issue fire and move orders to their squad members.
When Col. Antal retired in 2003, he joined Gearbox full time and has been working directly with the development team every day as a historian and military expert to ensure the authenticity of the game.
Q: Can you let us in on any notable technical details about the game's engine?
A: Gearbox created some new technology to help us express emotion better than ever before. The characters in the game feel like real people – which is important because the game is about Sgt. Baker and his brothers in arms. It’s almost creepy when these characters engage you in the game – they’ll look at you and talk to you with a sense of realism and plausibility that we just haven’t seen yet in a game like this.
I’m also really excited about the rendering graphics. The lighting and detail is very advanced – very realistic. Without letting buzzwords muddle into it, I think the High Dynamic Range really adds a sense of reality to the way that light plays on and around the things that are moving in the world.
Q: Will most of the standard WWII-era weapons (Thompson, MP-40/44, etc.) be available? And will there be any non-standard weapons?
A: It’s not about WW2 era so much as the actual units and equipment that was involved in the battles. The allied paratroopers used mainly Carbines, M1 Garands and Thompson sub-machine guns, although, some of the glider borne troopers carried Browning’s or Springfields into the fight. All of these weapons and more are there. On the enemy side we had a variety of enemy units. Most of the German conscripts and regular infantry used the K98 and the MG-42, with some of the squad leaders in the regular infantry being equipped with MP-40’s. But, also in the area were the 17th Waffen SS Panzergrenadiers who not only had the machine guns and rifles that the regular infantry used, but had access to anti tank weapons like the fixed Pak 36 or the carried Panzerfaust rocket launcher. The 6th Parachute Infantry (known as Fallshirmjager) also put up a fight for the Allies in the area and in addition to other weapons, the Fallshirmjager had the new STG-44 (called the MP-44 initially).
Q: Mod-making is a large part of the community now a days. What are you doing to support the community?
A: Randy Pitchford: We’ll be talking about post-launch efforts later.
Q: What kind of multiplayer features will ship with Brothers in Arms?
A: Multiplayer is really exciting in that, as far as I know, it’s the first time every human player in the game will have a squad of AI allies under his command. It’s more of a cooperative experience where a player can take his squad in against another player, or two players can team up against a squad or two on-line. The multiplayer scenarios are more like missions with objectives for each team. It’s like playing a single player cooperative game where your opponents aren’t just stupid bots, but are controlled by other humans.
Q: Will players be able to make use of the strategy elements in the multiplayer game (ex: giving other players commands)?
A: The humans are squad leaders who need to communicate with one another using their headsets (voice communication) or by typing messages in game. Each human has a squad of AI soldiers under their command and the squad command system from the single player game is used.
Q: Mixing strategy elements in a first-person shooter isn't a new idea (ex: Full Spectrum Warrior). What's Brother in Arms doing to improve the idea?
A: As far as I know, Full Spectrum Warrior is a strategy game and is not at all a shooter – you don’t actually ever get to shoot the gun in FSW. But I agree that there must have been an action game before that’s tried to use some kind of squad command. I think there was a game called Freedom Force a couple of years ago that mingled squad command features with a shooter game. I didn’t play that one, so it’s hard for me to talk about where Brothers in Arms improves.
I don’t think that prior examples really matter, though. Or, at least, they didn’t factor into Gearbox’s design and development for Brothers in Arms. To imagine playing Brothers in Arms, just imagine playing your favorite shooter. You know how you press the fire button to shoot your weapon? Okay – now add the concept of a “command button” that is just like shooting your gun. Where you shoot is where you command – it’s like saying, “Do X at that spot!” If you “shoot” the command at the ground, your order is to move to that spot. If you “shoot” the command at the enemy, your order is to attack the enemy. It’s a one button, context sensitive command system. It is super easy to use and super familiar to anyone who’s played a game like this before.
But, it’s also super authentic. In real war, leaders don’t tell each man where exactly to stand and what direction to look in. The real paratroopers were trained soldiers. They knew what to do – how to find and use cover and how to execute general orders of fire and move.
The advantage is that now that you’ve got a squad under your command you can actually perform these authentic fire and move tactics in the game. You can use one team to fire on the enemy, pinning him down. And he’ll get pinned because the AI in the game is intelligent. The enemy doesn’t want to die and isn’t just sacrificing himself to give you a moving target to shoot at. The enemy wants to survive – he wants to kill you. And he knows how to use fire and move tactics as well. So, you have to pin him down with suppressive fire. Then, you have to use your other team to maneuver around and kill the enemy. Since you’re the squad leader, you can decide what your own part is going to be. You can be part of the suppressive action. Or you can be part of the assault team. Or you can sit back and command your team to do both roles without even firing a shot. Or you can leave everyone behind and go Rambo (your chances will be very slim – especially against the better trained units you’ll encounter in the fighting later in the eight days).
Q: When can we count on playing Brothers in Arms for ourselves? And will there be any pre-release demos that we can try out?
A: Brothers in Arms will be released in early ’05. Right now we’re looking at February and I think it’s very likely, but an exact release date will be announced as soon as we have one.
I think there will be a demo released for Xbox, maybe a demo for PS2 and some kind of limited beta test for the PC version. A demo for the PC version may or may not be available until after the product is launched – we’re working on those plans now.
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