Gun Showdown Q&A

2005's Gun was a promising but flawed action adventure game set in the Old West, from veteran developer Neversoft. The game cast you in the role of Colton White, an orphaned gunslinger who went on a guns-and-ammo-heavy journey of self-discovery through the West. The PlayStation Portable game serves as an expanded take on Neversoft's original console game, with new content that's being developed by UK-based Rebellion. We talked to associate producer Chuck Park at Activision to find out what to expect from the portable version of the game.

GameSpot: What is Gun Showdown?

Chuck Park: Gun Showdown is a free-roaming action adventure game for the PSP that expands on last year's console game. You'll be challenged to go through the untamed West by shooting, knifing, and dynamiting your way through an epic story, with new wireless multiplayer and quickplay modes, missions, and gameplay features unique to the PSP.

GS: How are you folding in the five new missions? What do they consist of?

CP: The five new story missions help fill in some of the gaps in Colton's experiences on both sides of the law during his time in Empire. In these missions, Colton will earn the trust of Empire's finest by breaking up a moonshine ring and taking down a rebel gang. With the resistance, Colton wreaks havoc on Hoodoo Brown's control over Empire by robbing a bank and also protecting an innocent family from Hoodoo's wrath.

GS: How will the new missions affect the story as we know it?

CP: The new missions lengthen the story and allow players to experience more of Colton's journey to find out who killed Ned and why. The story as a whole benefits from the additional missions and makes any potential double-crosses more emphatic.

GS: Are you making any changes to the game's control to better suit the PSP?

CP: As you can imagine, the lack of a second analog stick did affect our design in bringing Gun Showdown to the PSP, but what we did was substitute the face buttons (square, triangle, circle, and X) for the aim control and tweaked it to ensure very smooth targeting. We feel that we have a control scheme that new players can easily use and players familiar with Gun (console) can easily adapt to without much difficulty.

GS: Can you walk us through the multiplayer modes and what they'll offer?

CP: We have everyone's favorite traditional multiplayer modes such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, and last man standing, and the all-new Golden Cross multiplayer mode. Since the Cross has such a special significance in the single-player experience, we created this mode where players try to take control of the Cross, while all other players try to get it themselves by any means necessary. It's a lot of fun.

In addition, we have multiplayer poker. Players can jump in and play Texas hold 'em against their friends on their own PSPs.

GS: How much did you collaborate with Neversoft on the game?

CP: Neversoft is great to work with. They've delivered not only all their assets but also direction and advice on how to make parts of the game fit together. With our engine, which can handle different code bases and console formats, we have been able to integrate Neversoft's game fairly easily. Neversoft set up a great blueprint for us to work from, and we've been able to build everything using our talent and experience.

GS: What were the challenges in converting the game to the PSP hardware?

CP: All games have their own challenges in one way or another. Fortunately, we already have quite a few PSP titles under our collective belt, so we're familiar with the hardware and its capabilities.

GS: Thanks for your time.