Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is the sequel to the all-action PSP launch game that did wonders for PSP in the handheld's infant era.
Developer bigBIG (as it's properly written) hopes to fill in the gaping holes of the first game by fleshing out the story and throwing in multplayer versus and co-op options. It's also one of the bigger games cropping up on PS2 at the back end of its lifecycle.
CVG sat down with lead designer Chris Whiteside to talk about how the game will achieve the blockbuster movie-feel that's promised, online, and the future of the defiantly live-and-kicking PS2.
One of the focuses of the sequel, it seems, is on making it play like an action movie. You said that you went to film studios for help on that. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Chris Whiteside: It was a bit of a gamble. With the first game, we knew exactly what the game mechanics were going to be before we started thinking about storyline. So there wasn't much of a storyline in the game.
So we got them [film production] over and asked them what we needed to do. And they went through from conception to production. They suggested that they write the storyline and we just make it, which we thought was quite dangerous in game development because you end up with a narrative-led game, which isn't what we wanted.
We wanted the player to feel like he's driving the story. So we made the decision that we would do a game based around a story, but we'd work with them on the story to make sure that they go off on a tangent. It worked really well.
You've also added multiplayer options in there. Does that include online options?
Whiteside: No.
Is there a specific reason why you chose not to take the game online?
Whiteside: It's something that we wanted to do but we have a certain amount of time to make the product, and we felt that because it's PSP - gaming on the go - the chances of the player being in school or around friends is much more plausible than online.
Online has proved successful not just on consoles but on portables too - Nintendo being keen to shout about the high online use rate for the DS. Is online not something you value highly?
Whiteside: It's something we definitely value quite highly, it takes a while for people to notice the upsurge before they jump on it. We were aware of it a good time ago, and because it wasn't included in the original design [of the game] we felt that perhaps it would be better included in something in the future where more time can be spent on the introduction of it into that game universe.
We understand the importance of community, and we want to make sure that when we offer an online package it's as good as anything else out there. That requires a lot of focus and a lot of work.
We felt that making the [single-player] action movie theme where you actually are a hero was more important for the brand at this time.
It's obviously also on its way to PS2 - after the original was PSP-only - and could be one of the bigger games for PS2 fans to look forward to on the superseded format.
Whiteside: I don't think it's been superseded. If you remember the longevity of use of the PSone after the PS2 came out - PSone was still huge for a long time afterwards. We'd always intended to do a PS2 version. It has such a huge install base, we have the opportunity to reach millions of gamers around the world. We want as many people to play it as possible. That's the ultimate goal of any developer - to have people play their games.
Speaking of the PSone-to-PS2 transition, reports often cite the PS2 outselling the PS3 as a testament to poor PS3 performance. Would you say that's fair?
Whiteside: I'm no expert on this but it's the same in many cases. If you look at the car industry, say, at the VW Golf - first you see way more mark-four Golfs than you do Mark-fives but as time goes on, you see more Mark-fives and then the Mark-six comes out. That's just the way that it works.
You always get a certain number of early adopters and I think the PS3 is doing really well with that. But to the same extent, you also have to remember, looking at families, if a dad gets a PS3, where does the old PS2 go? To the kids.
The PlayStation family as a whole is comfortable with the fact that they have three really good consoles. And I think that, in terms of lifestyle, they're all equally positioned in different areas of the market.
The PS3 is in its infancy and will continue to grow, but I think it will be a long time before the PS2 gets phased out. And that's fine because it's a consumer market and if consumers want to continue purchasing PS2 games that's great for us because it has such a big install base.
So you can see the PS2 lasting some time into the PS3 era?
Whiteside: I would have thought so, yes. I don't think that will detract from the PS3 because I think people will be comfortable having their PS2 and PS3 - like I said, each one serves a separate function. I'm no analyst, but I would say there's plenty of life left in the old dog.
That article started out well, with the history of the PSP version and the film-based design of the original game. But after that it really lost it and they started basically just pimping the PS2.
Nothing about the changes they're making for the PS2 version at all. Bit pointless that.
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