A recent trailer for TimeSplitters 4 that featured a parody of Star Wars has mysteriously disappeared from Free Radical's site. While no official comment about the trailer disappearance was forth coming it appears the question may be settled in this post found on the developer's official FAQ:

What happened to the latest TimeSplitters trailer (featuring "Sir Chimpalot")?

Some people with a sense of humour deficiency bizarrely thought that it infringed their copyright. We've got better things to do than argue about that kind of thing, so we took it down instead. Rest assured, though, that Sir Chimpalot will still feature in the next TimeSplitters game.

How strange. And I hear Free Radical is even working on something with Lucas. Hope this isn't the start of relationships going south.

Free Radical Design - TimeSplitters 4 [via and thanks to Popzara for noticing the new content.]

Star Wars Battlefront III [Amazon via GoNintendo]

After all, Import Tuner Magazine loved it!

So how did destiny fare? The game is out, the scores are out, and the word is out on the ambitious first-person shooter. Does Haze deliver a nice, warm buzz, or does it leave you shaking and sweating in the corner, craving your next fix? Here's several small doses of Haze, now in convenient capsule form.

G4 X-Play
Here’s the problem — despite all of the creativity used to build the two sides in this game, Haze still plays like an incredibly average first-person shooter with some very sloppy design issues. Play as a member of the Hand and you feel incredibly naked, not to mention having to deal with very confusing level design that leaves you wandering around lost more than driving any sort of action. Play as a member of Mantel and, unless you’re juiced up, you’re pretty much just as useless.

GameTap
Sure, it has a consistent framerate and no loadtimes (thanks to its four gigabyte install), but its looks vary from "pretty good for an HD-gen shooter" to "wow, look at those textures change from low- to high-res back to low-, and check out those cracks!" The weapon pool is really scant, with just a pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle, flamethrower, and rocket launcher. Sure, there are Mantel and Promise Hand versions of each weapon, but it realistically translates into the Mantel type looking futuristic while the Promise Hand version looks budget and uses a Spanish name.

CNET
A seven-hour campaign and uneventful multiplayer modes just don't cut it in light of the far better modern shooters available on the market. The patchy quality of the entire package is surprising, considering the developer's fine pedigree. Yet Haze is a roller-coaster ride made up of tall peaks and unfathomable valleys, and it won't leave you so much breathless as disappointed with its squandered potential.

IGN
There is a litany of problems with the game, from the odd warping of allied soldiers that blink into view suddenly at arbitrary checkpoints to poor texture work. Many of the environmental textures are generic and weak, and you'll frequently see seams or tearing constantly pop up within the game, which distracts from the action onscreen. The worst example of this has to be the visuals for the flamethrower, the Dragon de la Gente, which vomits a horrid cone of supposed flame that looks visually on par with what you'd find from the 386 PC days 15 years ago.

Kotaku
There's really no reason to recommend Haze over similar titles in the PS3 library. The game feels less polished than it should, seemingly "good enough" for release after suffering multiple delays. The story is forgettable, the weapons nearly indistinguishable and the seemingly strong concepts so poorly implemented that you'll have a hard time convincing three of your friends to drop whatever else they're playing for a co-op slog through the thing.

I thought I was going crazy over the past year concerning Haze, not seeing what the big deal was all about. I'm still a bit crazy, just not regarding this particular title.

For better or worse, Haze carries the distinction of being a PlayStation 3 exclusive and has the development pedigree of being created by the team responsible for seminal console shooters like GoldenEye 007 and the Timesplitters series. Unfortunately for Free Radical—and gamers—Haze won't be as fondly remembered as those two first person classics.

Loved
Mechanically Sound: Haze is a competent shooter, with somewhat interesting gameplay mechanics and tight—not to mention fully customizable—controls. It's meat and potatoes stuff, but the gunplay works rather well. Multiplayer is similarly competent but dry, with a serviceable, but run of the mill weapons selection.
Four Player Co-op: The pop-in, pop-out co-op campaign mode worked like a charm, turning the single player mode into a full sprint. You'll fly through the campaign mode if you're with a moderately skilled crew. Sadly, cut scenes cannot be skipped and at least one runs a good ten to fifteen minutes.

Hated
Idiot AI: Even on harder difficulties, computer controlled opponents don't put up much of a fight. AI enemies will abandon cover in lieu of running straight at you, guns blazing. Your teammates are useless for anything but drawing an auto turret's attention, as they'll routinely walk into your line of fire, then turn on you when you accidentally shoot them. Only then do they have any accuracy, resulting in frustrating deaths.
Great Concepts Are Squandered: Haze has some interesting gameplay twists, many that you'll like never use outside of the tutorials. As a Mantel trooper, you're in no danger of running low on Nectar, nor is there a threat of overdosing, outside of one obligatory over-Nectaring that seems to come out of nowhere. As the Promise Hand, burying grenades underground—you have the superhuman ability to dig through metal and concrete with your bare hands!—is largely pointless, as you'll be better served sticking to your rifle or super powerful pistol. In fact, you'll probably be doing yourself a disservice, likely dying in the process, trying to take advantage of some of Haze's marketed features.
Bland Overload: You'll be doing plenty of giant lever pulling in Haze while traversing its dull, often ugly environments. There's noticeable texture tearing and you'll see low quality textures and models popping in and out, even in cut scenes and with a mandatory 4 GB install. There's not much variety in the guns, as each side has its own semi-automatic rifle and shotgun, with a boring rocket launcher and flamethrower that spews hideous fire effects rounding out the more interesting weapon diversions. Virtually every aspect of the visuals is underwhelming.
Grating Dialogue: After you hear one of your Mantel buddies spout out a brain-dead line like "This is the most fun I've ever had with my pants on!" or "This sure beats pumpin' gas!" again and again or Promise Hand rebels repeating "Remember your promise to Merino!" for the hundredth time, you'll wish they were all dead. There's an an odd mix of mangled rap lyrics, heavy handed philosophy and dramatic cut scenes that come off as unintentionally comedic. "Yeah, boyeeee!"? Really?
Dull Main Character: As Shane Carpenter, you're an easily manipulated rube, a clueless sergeant with a wimpy voiceover who is unconvincing in his convictions. It's difficult to emotionally invest in him as your vessel, because he's not entirely empty, just saying enough to give him a shred of unlikable personality.

Free Radical has an interesting game buried deep within Haze, it's just layered beneath archaic gameplay and half-executed concepts that it's hard to get excited about any of the eight hours spent in the single-player campaign. Those eight or so hours feel unnecessarily padded, as you'll spend a painfully long time watching unskippable cut scenes and, later, escorting a slow missile deployment system and clearing a mine field that feels like busywork. Players may find more value in Haze's multiplayer modes, if they've got a thirst for generic Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch after running through the five Team Assault levels.

There's really no reason to recommend Haze over similar titles in the PS3 library. The game feels less polished than it should, seemingly "good enough" for release after suffering multiple delays. The story is forgettable, the weapons nearly indistinguishable and the seemingly strong concepts so poorly implemented that you'll have a hard time convincing three of your friends to drop whatever else they're playing for a co-op slog through the thing.

Haze was developed by Free Radical, published by Ubisoft. Retails for $59.99. Available on PlayStation 3. Played single player campaign to completion on normal difficulty, played campaign co-op mode for five chapters. Tested all multiplayer modes and harder difficulties.

Whether or not Haze looks like just another FPS or something better, the still undated demo will give us all a chance to decide for ourselves before the game comes out. It reminds us a lot of what Criterion gave us with Burnout Paradise—a small, robust chunk of the entire gameplay experience. Good stuff.

MEDIA ALERT: HAZE(TM) - *4 Player Co-op / Campaign Demo Incoming Exclusively for the PLAYSTATION®Network*

April 15, 2008 - Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, today announced the imminent release of a fully playable demo for Haze, the new first-person shooter set in a harsh future where war is never quite what it seems. Coming exclusively to the PLAYSTATION®Network in early May, this playable demo will give gamers a taste of not only the single-player campaign in Haze, but will also allow up to four-player, drop-in drop-out co-op play online. Developed by shooter experts Free Radical, creators of the critically acclaimed TimeSplitters® series, Haze is scheduled for release exclusively on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system on May 20th 2008 in the US. Haze is rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB.

But if a retailer offered us a no-haggle, one-week return on all their titles, such would be commendable to the point of throwing parades in their honor. GameStop, we're subtly glaring in your direction. As for when we kicked you under the table—that was for past transgressions and not passing the butter.

Haze Being Offered For Free In The US/Canada [DarkZero via GamingToday]

Gamer TV's HAZE Special Airs On Bravo This Weekend

30th November, 2007

A special edition of GAMER TV dedicated to forthcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive HAZE airs on UK satellite and cable channel BRAVO this weekend.

The half-hour show features exclusive demos of 4 player co-op, new levels and weapons including the flamethrower and a look at the technology driving the game. It also reveals a brand new twist in the HAZE storyline.

GAMER TV's HAZE special is hosted by key Free Radical design team members Dave "Big Cheese" Doak, Derek "Big Brain" Littlewood and screenwriter Rob "Big Mouth" Yescombe.

Producer Jason Kilshaw commented, "This is everything you need to know about Haze then some! "

The programme airs in the UK at the following times.

Saturday 1st December 10.00 am BRAVO 2
Sunday 2nd December 11.30 am BRAVO
Monday 3rd December 4.30 pm BRAVO

Viewers in the US will be able to see it the following week on leading premium movie channel STARZ.

The US transmission times are:

Saturday 8th December 11.00 am (ET) STARZ EDGE
Wednesday 12th December 8.30 pm (ET) STARZ EDGE

I've always felt that creative media are at their most compelling when they actually speak to the person experiencing them about their own life, and cause them to ask questions, or look at things from a different perspective, than they'd considered before. Haze certainly isn't the first game to try and do that, but it's still definitely the exception rather than the rule. I don't think we're going to cause every gamer who plays the game to look at war and violence in games in a completely different light, but I think the game will at least create a debate about those questions amongst some of the people who play it (to an extent, seeing people's reactions to some of our comments on the game, it's clear that debate is already happening), and that's an achievement enough in itself, I think.

Will Haze also fall short, or will they delivered on their promises? Only time will tell, but Littlewood's thoughts are interesting and not flying off into totally esoteric territory (frequently something to be admired).

Spinning The Moral Compass: Designing Free Radical's Haze [Gamasutra]

Well, Haze developer Free Radical Design is looking to change the payment structure for its employees, paying them extra money for the extra hours they put in. Genius. Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis tells Develop that "it's the way that the whole games industry needs to go" and that the indie developer is just adapting early. I know that I certainly appreciated my holiday overtime pay when I was foil-wrapping boiling hot candied hams as a kid! This is just like that!

Free Radical paying its staff overtime [Develop]

See, I have this theory. It's not really a theory, really, and it's not my original idea. But every year we see people excited about some new FPS. We hear its features—the way it's doing things differently. And we're generally sold (anyone remember the Prey media blitz?)

As Crecente wrote in his earlier feature, Haze is all about the asymmetric gameplay. One side is the Mantel, super juiced soldiers who have an incredible amount of battlefield awareness and general killing skill. The rebels, on the other hand, are more about versatility and adaptability than brute force.

At all times as a rebel, it's your job to figure out how to use Mantel's precious nectar against them, be it by:

1. Shooting the drug administration canister on their backs to make the soldiers overdose and go berserk.
2. Killing the soldiers and taking their drug packs, quickly modifying the technology into a grenade to make the soldiers overdose and go berserk.
3. Stabbing soldiers with a haze-covered knife to make the soldiers overdose and go berserk.

You being to wonder why the rebels can only induce control the flow of drugs one way, despite using just about every weapon at their disposal. Why isn't drug withdrawal an issue in multiplayer? Why can't the rebels grab a haze pack before killing a Mantel soldier, rendering his opposition's aim shaky, strength lower and susceptibility to damage higher?

Maybe a Mantel soldier, finding his stash pickpocketed, could have a set time to find a spare haze pack before they found themselves temporarily incapacitated, you know, for a helpless living corpse humping. Because that's what we mean by evolving the FPS genre.

I think Haze is, unfortunately, that sort of one-trick pony FPS that fails to explore its Big New Idea to a level that makes it rise from the pack. But then again, as our own Michael McWhertor was quick to point out:

"It's better than a no-trick pony."

By: Brian Crecente

Rob Yescombe is worried. Not that Haze won't be critically received, but that the innovative shooter might be overlooked in the pre-holiday glut that threatens to deliver half a hundred must-have titles in three months.

The challenge Haze faces right now is one purely of Yescombe's doing: Everyone is focusing on the game's fascinating story, penned by Yescombe, which seems to turn an eye on both the nature of gaming and the nature of modern warfare. But in all of the talk about the deeper meaning of Haze's plot, gamers seem to be losing sight of the fact that that's not the only thing that makes this particular shooter different.

"The fun aspects of the gameplay kinda of got buried under the fun aspects of the story," he told me. "Most games tend to pin their chances on one thing. But we have many more things. And it can be too much to consume."

There is, for instance, the story, the fact that the game will support four-player co-op and the game's use of the drug Nectar. But what Yescombe and project lead Derek Littlewood want to focus on for now is how the team has created both in single and multiplayer modes a very asymmetric experience.

"Having an actual, functional asymmetrical gameplay system, that's pretty fucking exciting," Yescombe said.

The game is divided into two types of play. When you start the game you are a Mantel soldier, which means you have elite training, the best weapons and a limitless supply of Nectar. While the drug does filter everything you see, it also provides you with some pretty significant gameplay advantages.

When you juice up on the drug, administered through a pack built into the back of your armor, you're given four very specific boosts abilities.

Nectar Perception: All of the rebels in the vicinity are highlighted in a strong orange glow.
Nectar Foresight: A sort of six sense that causes a ripple effect around grenades that have been thrown near you. It also warns you of pending melee attacks.
Nectar Focus: This sniping aid allows you to focus in on a target and, after a second, draw you automatically into a headshot.
Melee Blast: A very powerful melee attack.
Power-up: In general you can take and deal out more damage and you move and turn faster.

"If you use Nectar you are in your most effective fighting state," said. Littlewood. "You are the most powerful fighter you can be."

To make full use of these abilities you need to keep your Nectar levels at about 90 percent and every time you shoot someone you get a small Nectar boost. But with this power comes a major draw-back, too much Nectar and you go into overdose. So the trick to playing Mantel is to find that perfect balance.

"When you overdose, everyone around you starts to look the same," Littlewood said. "Your ability to not shoot is reduced. Your auto aim snaps to players."

What this means in game, especially in multiplayer games, is that literally everyone looks like a rebel when you OD and your controls will try to auto aim to anyone near your reticle. If you do end up aiming directly at someone your gun will start to fire automatically.

"You suddenly finding yourself working to not aim at people," he said.

People in a Nectar Haze also will sometimes automatically pull a grenade and start to cook it, letting the pin drop out but not throwing it. Eventually it blows up in your hand, taking you and anyone near you out.

The developers said they are playing around with the idea of adding a mini-game that would allow you to toss the grenade away if you succeed. They also are playing around with the idea of letting your teammates melee you into dropping the grenade.

While Rebels don't have the training,weapons or Nectar, they still have plenty of unique abilities.

Weapons Steal: You can melee and swipe away a Mantel players gun and then use it on them.
Play Dead: When you down to about 25 percent health you can push a button to drop to the ground and play dead. Because of the Nectar you will literally disappear from the view of all Mantel soldiers. A mini-game allows you to pop back up and dish out some damage. Succeed and you hop to your feet, fail and you stand slowly.
Scavenge: This ability allows you to convert the ammo of any dropped weapon you find to work with the weapon you are currently holding.
Nectar Grenade: You can pry loose the Nectar pack from a fallen Mantel soldier and attach it to a grenade. When you use that grenade it creates a cloud of Nectar that lasts 10 to 15 seconds. Any Mantel soldiers who pass through it or are caught in it will go into overdose mode immediately.
Nectar Knife: Creating Nectar grenades automatically covers the knife in Nectar. If you cut a Mantel soldier with it they overdose.

Rebels can also shoot a Mantel soldier in the Nectar pack, causing them to overdose.

And the differences between the Mantel soldiers and the rebels isn't just about their look and abilities, they did a lot of other little things to highlight their unique tactics.

During motion capture, for instance, the Mantel soldiers were all played by a former SAS soldier, while the Rebels were played by an actor with no military training.

The game's AI has also had significant work, Littlewood said.

"We spent enormous amounts of time on the AI," he said. "We basically rewrote the AI. We used the Timesplitters AI in the past, but this time we threw all of that out."

"The new AI is very much about it being adaptive and reacting to different situations. We spent a lot, an awful lot of time building two different, distinct personalities into the AI: The Rebels are more careful. The Haze are much more forward.

"You only really appreciate the interesting things when you see what it does."

Something I had a chance to do when I was at E3.

Playing through a chunk of the game I was impressed with both how easily it was to perform some of the special actions, like a weapons steal. But more importantly, I found myself surprised, a number of times, at the way an enemy reacted to my attacks.

Of course they did the whole duck and cover thing and they even seemed to back each other up. But in one area of a map, which looked a bit like a rundown apartment complex, another AI controlled rebel seemed to get tired of my poor aim and ran past me to take a Mantel soldier down with his knife.

I was also meleed more than once when tinkering with something in the controls as a bad guy stood around a corner hiding from me.

In general I found the controls themselves very tight and the map construction was both spread out and vertical in some places, the sort of combination I love in my first-person shooters.

Littlewood said the games online play will support up to 24 players online, something that's being tested an awful lot right now over at the Free Radical studios. The studio might even push out an open public beta, though that hasn't been decided yet.

"We are going to use every single last second we have to try and balance the game," Littlewood said. "You can never have enough time when you balancing a game."

In the coming months, the team plans to also shift the focus on the game from the deep and very interesting storyline, to the games nuanced and asymmetric gameplay. Hoping in the shift that gamers understand that Haze isn't about one or the other, but both.

"We are under no delusions that the market is split between people who like the plot and people who pick up on gameplay," Yescombe said.

I really doubt it. This video was shot in mid-May for one. Nothing stays quiet for that long in the industry, especially during the lead-in to E3, when you can almost imagine developers hopping up and down in their chairs like excited children with a secret they desperately want to tell.

Secondly...come on guys, it's just a blur. It could really mean anything. Maybe there is a stipulation about dev kit controllers not being shown, or they use special equipment during the development process that they'd rather not have people see. Hell, perhaps they have an odd habit of writing "FUCK" in big letters on all of their development tools and needed to make the vid kid safe.

Or it could very well be a less-than artfully hidden rumble Sixaxis, though as I said I have serious doubts. The main thing to take away from this flurry of speculation is that PS3 owners would really like their rumble back plz. THX!

From the forum post:

No actual news on the features, other than Steve Ellis says "they're 'gearing' up to insert monkeys and guns into all the wrong places"

Timesplitters PS3 confirmed. [Euro PS3 Forums via Evil Avatar]

I don't think you will see in any other game points in the narrative, in cut-scenes or cinematic gameplay moments, where people are calling you a pussy - telling you that you're not with the program, that you're a liability to the team. Haze puts in this warzone, where other people are perhaps doing things where a line has been crossed. You're going to think, 'These guys have gone too far'. And you'll have to ask yourself, 'Are you part of this now?'

...The thing is, you come up against the law of censorship, which is incredibly hypocritical when it comes to games. Because the act of putting these uncomfortable, challenging experiences into a game is somehow glorifying it. Except that other media can do such things, and still be having some sensible discourse about it.

I don't mind a little cuss word here and there, hell, I almost use them exclusively while filling out Madlibs. How it will fare with some parents will be a different matter entirely. Kim Phu

Haze Will Call You a "Pussy" [Games Radar]

Haze, Ubisoft's upcoming PS3 shooter that offers a more jaded view of future war, was actually playable at Ubiday earlier this month. There it was four consoles running the game in co-op mode, yes four. And all you needed to do was pick up the controller and a dev team member would zoink it right back out of your hands again with a deferential smile and an apology. Apparently, it was only playable if you worked on it, at least so far.

The game does look like a lot of fun, but what's different about it? Well for one, it's being developed by Free Radical and even Free Radical knows what sort of cache that carries with gamers. (A hapless reporter made the mistake of asking which Ubi studio one of the dev's worked at only to be treated to a "You think I work for Ubisoft don't you" and a hardy laugh.)

And the team famous for TimeSlpitters seems to be brining all of their skill and finesse to this latest project. First and foremost, a hopped up, and broken-toed Rob Yescombe tells me that the game is meant to challenge the way war is traditionally presented in video games including the morality of killing other people no matter the situation.

The game has you playing as a Mantel sergeant over a three-day period in a skirmish with guerrilla soldiers in South America. As a Mantel soldier you have high-tech weapons, vehicles and a nutritional supplement called NECTAR. Yescombe wasn't really clear on how Nectar boosts your fighting abilities, but it does. It also, apparently has some major drawbacks, something he also didn't want to quite get into yet.

Yescombe did talk up the game's lack of loading and missions select screens. Instead, he said, it's one long seamless experience. The multiplayer gaming features both drop-in, drop-ou cooperative play in the main campaign and the more traditional multiplayer maps which are tied together with a story of their own.

Free Radical also decided to develop their own engine for the game something that's a bit too early to spot in what assets we've been given so far.

Hit the jump for the official Q&A. Brian Crecente

HAZE Q&A with Rob Yescombe, Script Writer; Derek Littlewood, Team Leader and Steve Ellis, Director of Free Radical

When will the game HAZE be available?

[DL] HAZE will release in fall 2007.

Who is developing the game?
[DL] HAZE is being developed by Free Radical Design - the company behind the critically acclaimed TimeSplitters series. Ubisoft is the publisher of HAZE.

Could you please introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us what your function is involving HAZE?

[DL] My name is Derek Littlewood, and I'm Project Lead of HAZE. Also answering questions are Steve Ellis, who is a Director of Free Radical, and our Screenwriter Rob Yescombe.

What is the storyline?

[RY] In 2048 there is no more NATO, no more UN. In a bid to reduce their national debts, most Western governments outsource their military requirements to Mantel Global Industries - a huge multi-national corporation with their own private army for hire. As a company, Mantel has concerns in everything from plastics to petrol, engines to computers. They are involved in providing the materials or designs for nearly every aspect of modern life. However, in this story, we focus on two of their primary businesses: their armed forces, and their biomedical support systems.

Guerrilla soldiers in a region of South America have overthrown the government. Mantel is called in to deal with the problem - to restore democracy to this war-torn land. To make things easier for their soldiers, Mantel's biomedical department has developed a 'nutritional supplement' called 'Nectar' that enables the troops to fight harder and smarter.

You play as Sergeant Shane Carpenter - a good man, with good intentions. With all the best equipment, tactics and support, Mantel soldiers have it easy.

HAZE is set over a three-day period during the war. These few days will change the life of Shane Carpenter forever.

How did you first come up with the concept of the game, and how has this concept changed as development progressed?

[DL] Free Radical is renowned for innovation in First Person Shooters - and HAZE will continue this trend. We have honed our skills in delivering action-packed gameplay, and with HAZE we will be wielding all our experience and making sure that we bring something particularly exciting to the table.

From the birth of the concept for HAZE, one of our chief priorities has been to deliver a genuinely moving and emotional experience - but never at the expense of the gameplay. The narrative is packed with rounded characters, each suffering or succeeding in their own human journey.

Our Art Team is the envy of the games industry. Our guys are world-class, and HAZE has provided the perfect forum for them to step out from the trademark art style of TimeSplitters and to really show what they can do. The realism of the environments in HAZE is really going to blow you away.

The game is definitely very close to our original intention. So in terms of development, our ongoing task has simply been to find as many intelligent ways to facilitate that action/emotion experience as possible. Ubisoft's input has been invaluable thanks to their own experience in creating tactically rich, narrative-led experiences.

What are your ambitions with this new franchise?

[DL] We want to redefine the intensity and variety of emotions a player can experience in an action FPS. We want HAZE to become the definitive next-gen shooter and maintain Free Radical's reputation for developing some of the best games in the world.

How will it differ from other next gen shooter games within the Ubisoft titles and within the competitors?

[DL] HAZE takes a unique and challenging point of view on the presentation of war in videogames. The themes of the narrative cover dangerous topics - the ethics of war as entertainment; how we absolve ourselves from the responsibility of shooting another human being, just because we're told to. It's edgy stuff.

I can't say too much about it even at this stage, but it asks questions and raises issues that are worth debating long after you've finished the game. Visually, HAZE will certainly set a new benchmark, but we believe it will also set a precedent for the quality of writing that we believe should exist in the next generation of games.

HAZE is jam-packed with fresh gameplay concepts - Mantel provides a top-of-the-line high-tech combat package, including the latest ballistic weaponry, vehicles and explosives. However, the jewel in the crown is NECTAR, "a bio-medically engineered nutritional supplement"which enhances the performance of Mantel's troops.

Nectar provides you with distinctive fighting abilities that are key to your success as a Mantel Trooper. We meticulously developed these 'Nectar Abilities' through carefully analyzing how players approach First Person Combat - you'll see them in the gameplay demo!

As Mantel will tell you, Nectar is great! But between you and me, it has some unnerving drawbacks that the Promise Hand has been known to take advantage of...

It seems that there are still lots of mysteries un-revealed, what are you guys hiding?

[DL] Plenty! There's more to HAZE than meets the eye, and there's certainly more to Mantel too. In fact, every aspect of the game holds a surprise, secret or twist - the storyline, the gameplay, the graphics. Nothing is safe!

I can't say too much about this yet, but there is a dark underbelly to Nectar too. It's influence can get unpleasant if used improperly...

Who do you embody?

[RY] Sergeant Shane Carpenter - a young soldier with his heart set on doing the right thing.

Will the player be able to play different characters?

[DL] The single-player experience is all through Shane's eyes. But in multiplayer, you and up to three buddies can play through the main narrative in co-op.

Who are the main enemies in this game?

[RY] The rebels group, known as 'The Promised Hand', are led by a vicious would-be dictator called Gabriel 'Skin Coat' Merino.

Merino earned his nickname thanks to the coat he is said to wear - made from the flayed skins of his POW camp inmates.

How does the player progress through the game? Is it one seamless world, a series of levels, etc?

[DL] It's a completely seamless experience - no loading screens, no missions select screens. This was a core aim from very early on in the project, because we're trying to create a realistic, immersive game world - and there are no loading screens in real life, my friends! We wanted to give the player a real sense of continuity throughout the game, so rather than simply jumping from one location to another, you'll catch a ride in a Mantel vehicle to get there instead. Think of it as a road movie through a war.

What weapons and devices are available to the player to execute the mission?

[DL] Mantel manufactures a wide range of technologically advanced ordnance, all of which will be available to you as you play through the game. Thanks to their extensive biomedical support you'll also benefit from regular Nectar administrations, making you the strongest and most powerful soldier on the battlefield.

Can you give details on the various online features available?

[DL] First up we've got cooperative play through the main campaign. This has always been a feature we felt added real replay value to the TimeSplitters games so we were really keen to retain it in HAZE. Besides, any gamer and their friends interested in coop will be in for a treat with HAZE - which is why we're offering for the first time in the FPS world a real, entire 4 player coop mode ! It means that the single player campaign is entirely playable with 3 of your online buddies. Cherry on the cake is : you can jump in and out of your friend's game seamlessly.

We've also got a variety of objective-based multiplayer maps that will support a great numbers of players online. The really cool thing about these is that they aren't just standalone experiences - each is objective based, with its own miniature story that ties into the main narrative of the game.

How is it to develop on PS3? What can you do with this console that you couldn't do with previous-gen consoles?

[SE] It's great. Working on PS3 has allowed us to create vastly superior environments that verge on photorealism - full-screen effects, High Dynamic Range (HDR) and obscenely complex shaders. Its more challenging than ever before, but the power is greater than anything else that's out there.

Why did you choose to develop your own engine rather than license something like the Unreal engine?

[SE] Developing a next-gen engine is no easy task, but we wanted to be completely in control of the games that we are making rather than having to put up with limits that were imposed by a third party. After we finished our previous-gen development, we threw away everything, and set about creating the ultimate next-gen engine and toolchain, designed to meet our needs from a technical and artistic point of view, and fit in with our development pipeline. I think the results speak for themselves, and Haze is just the beginning.

How about parallelism? Does the engine support multiple processors?

[SE] Yes, it has to. The architectures of PS3, X360 and high-end PC's are fairly different, but they all have one thing in common - parallel processing. The challenge for us has been in designing a solution that will work well across the platforms.

What is your experience with next-generation development? Is it harder or easier than previous generations?

[SE] It's much more expensive, and much harder on many levels. From a management point of view, trying to get 100+ people to share the same vision and all pull in the same direction is harder. From a development point of view, the quality bar that we are aiming for means that everyone has to produce better work than they ever have before. Of course that is harder.

Have you encountered any significant design or technology hurdles during development, or perhaps have some entertaining anecdotes?

[SE] There are always design and technology hurdles when making a game - some days it seems like that's all there is! Parallel programming is fairly new territory, so that has been a challenge. Other unexpected challenges have been in dealing with the vast quantities of data that is now involved in developing a game. We've had to create several fairly complex distributed systems for things as diverse as lightmap generation, asset conversion, compiling the code, and even our backup system - a bespoke linux-based system that provides instant access to over 50 terabytes of data in over 1 billion files. An entertaining anecdote? Our AI characters used to be able to bounce grenades off 5 different walls to land directly at your feet. The challenge has been in making them fallible.

It's about what's happening in the world today - it's ludicrous, and how can you make something that doesn't reflect that? Well, you could bury your head in the sand and make Halo 3, but the fact of the matter is there are more important things at stake.

Apparently, Haze is a modern warfare "satire" in standard first-person shooter's clothing. Who knew? What I do know is that Bungie must be feeling like the kings of the FPS mountain lately. Michael McWhertor

Haze dev calls for more videogames with mature messages [Games Radar]

Free Radical is currently grinding away on the next-gen shooter Haze, also for the 360, PS3 and PC. No word on whether the next Battlefront will hit other platforms, but considering the franchises history, a PC and PlayStation version seems likely. Michael McWhertor

Free Radical scoops Battlefront [CVG]

If you're riding steerage on the cruise to next-gen gaming, part of the "One Console Future" crowd, and your primary console is going to be the Nintendo Wii, you won't be joining the rest of us at Free Radical's ritzy Haze party. The Timesplitters and Second Sight dev says they're just going to require a little more horsepower under the hood for their next-gen FPS.

Is there going to be a Wii version?
There are currently no plans for a Wii version of Haze. Sadly, the cutting-edge technology we're using requires more power than the Wii has available. If we could, we would.

Dang. This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone clued into the Gamecube II's unimpressive technical specs, but could give Timesplitters super-fans pause when making their purchasing decisions. Still, while it would make sense for future entries in the Timesplitters brand to be built on the in-house developed Haze engine, we've heard more than once that Gamecube development tools fit nicely with the Wii. A Wii Timesplitters could still be a reality, but it will always be Haze's dumpy, dateless little sister. Michael McWhertor

Haze FAQ
Haze Official Site