Half-Life Q&A
We sit down with Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford to discuss the latest developments in his company's latest game, the PlayStation 2 port of Half-Life.
Lately, Texas-based Gearbox Software has been making a name for itself as the premier third-party developer of Half-Life-related games. The company began its run with Opposing Force, the critically acclaimed expansion pack for Half-Life, and then followed it up with Blue Shift, another successful add-on for the classic shooter. Currently, the company is working Counter-Strike: Condition Zero for the PC and a Half-Life conversion for the PlayStation 2. Now that the latter game is only a few weeks away from shipping to stores, we took this opportunity to sit down with Gearbox president Randy Pitchford to discuss a number of details about this promising game.
GameSpot: So far, all of Gearbox's released games and projects in the works have been related to Half-Life in some way. Certainly Gearbox knows more about that series than any other developer, but do you ever worry that the company will become typecast?
Randy Pitchford: When we announced that we were working on Opposing Force, I got some questions about games myself and my partners had been involved with before Gearbox. Now, most people have either forgotten or never knew about that past. If we make quality games, no matter what the subject matter is, they will speak for themselves. In any case, Gearbox likes the Half-Life stuff. We've made some great games, won some awards, sold a lot of copies, helped out the user community, and generally made fans very happy. Who's complaining?
GS: Certainly not us. Let's talk about Half-Life for the PlayStation 2. How long has the game been in development? From what we've seen of the game, it seems to be finished.
RP: Half-Life for the PlayStation 2 started development more than one year ago. And yes, it's just about finished.
GS: How big is the team that's working on this game? How does that number compare with the size of some of your other projects?
RP: During the product peak of Half-Life for the PlayStation 2 development, Gearbox had as many as 18 people working on it. At other times in the project, the team was as small as five people. This is one of the largest teams we've had, because we've had to write a significant amount of rendering and other engine system technology specifically for the PlayStation 2, we've created an entirely new game (Decay), we've reworked all of the game's content including a complete rebuild with a fourfold detail upgrade of all the game's models, and we've added a bunch of new game modes and other hidden features for fun. This is a significant project, and we're very proud of the result.
GS: Blue Shift was admittedly a short game. How many hours will it take for an average player to complete the Decay levels in Half-Life PS2?
RP: Decay isn't as long as Half-Life, but it will probably take most players about twice as long to complete Decay as it took to complete Blue Shift. Also, Decay has some other skill tests in things like accuracy, amount of damage taken, and so on. Depending on how you do, you'll be given a grade. If you can earn an "A" grade in every mission, you'll unlock a secret that will allow you to become an alien. This includes a special cooperative alien mission for Decay and the ability to play through the original Half-Life as an alien. It is cool stuff, and it adds quite a bit of play time to the game.
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- Sierra Entertainment
- Gearbox Software
- Sci-Fi First-Person...
- Release: Nov 11, 2001
- ESRB: Mature
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