Robin Walker, a designer for Half-Life 2: Aftermath, spilled the beans about the expansion in a recent interview with Gamespot. Walker disclosed that many H-L2 characters will return in one form or another and that the expansion would spend more time developing characters than in Half-Life 2.

The biggest regret we had about Half-Life 2 was that you didn't spend enough time with the major characters. Players spent small sections of the game with allies, and interactions with them were fairly constrained. As a result, this is the first challenge we set out to tackle in Aftermath.

Walker admitted that although there would be some new features for the multi-player mode, most of the game's goodies would be found in single player play. No word yet if there will be an unlockable "Screaming At Your Mom" bonus level. The game will likely see release by the end of the year, just in time for Christmas bonuses.

Half-Life 2: Aftermath Q&A [Gamespot] (thanks, news.botros.net!)

-SM

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