Play both sides of the same war as an elite Mantel trooper and as a Rebel soldier
State-of-the-art multiplayer modes let you engage in online battles and furious four-player co-op action while revealing hidden secrets in the single-player campaign
Haze comes straight from the developers of the critically acclaimed TimeSplitters series and the publishers of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter>/i> and Far Cry
Get cutting-edge gaming technology exclusively developed for PS3
Gear-up with a high-tech arsenal of vehicles, deadly weaponry, and the performance-enhancing drug Nectar
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com About Haze
Set in the year 2048 in a world where governments have outsourced military operations to private military corporations (PMCs), you play as Shane Carpenter, a newly enlisted soldier seeking fulfillment and thrills by fighting for a good cause. As the leading PMC, Mantel Global Industries offers an array of cutting-edge military equipment, including a high-tech arsenal of vehicles, deadly weaponry, and the performance-enhancing drug Nectar.
Your conflict begins in a war-torn country where you have been sent to fight a vicious rebel faction, the Promise Hand. At first all is well, but things quickly begin to look a little strange.
Expose the truth, switch sides, and break away from Mantel.
Evolve from a ruthless high-tech Mantel Trooper to a cunning Promise Hand rebel.
Uncover the truth, switch sides, and break away from Mantel's manipulative grip when you join your former enemies, the Promise Hand.
Features:
Impeccable FPS (first-person shooter) credentials
From the developers of the critically acclaimed TimeSplitters series and the publishers of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Far Cry.
Play both sides of the war
Evolve from a ruthless high-tech Mantel Trooper to a cunning Promise Hand rebel, each featuring distinct game systems, weaponry, and abilities.
You'll be equipped with the most advanced gear and deadliest weapons.
Under the influence, a Mantel trooper is empowered by Nectar.
Experience the power of a Mantel Trooper
You'll be equipped with the most advanced gear and deadliest weapons and empowered by Nectar, Mantel's battlefield-optimized performance-enhancing medication that lets you boost your fighting abilities and experience the highs and lows of drug-laden warfare. Perform fighting abilities such as Nectar Focus, Nectar Foresight, and Melee Blast.
Expose the truth, switch sides, and break away from Mantel's control
Join up with your former enemies, and lead the rebels against the Mantel army. Use your knowledge of your former teammates' weaknesses and new abilities and techniques such as Play Dead, Weapon Stealing, and the deadly Nectar Grenade.
Cutting-edge gaming technology
Exclusively developed for the PLAYSTATION 3 system featuring the Disparity Rendering System, which shapes players' views of the world on and off Nectar. Haze also features an entirely streaming experience and the Conspire AI System, in which all enemy behaviors are entirely dynamic--nothing is scripted.
State-of-the-art multiplayer modes
Fire up your console for online battles and choose from a variety of online modes, including furious four-player co-op action. Play as both Troopers and Rebels and unveil hidden secrets from the single-player campaign.
Or you can buy it from our friends at Video Game Central.
Haze FAQs and Walkthroughs Trade Your Game In Now! Give Us Your Game Review
Players:
1-4 Players; 4 Online
Category:
First-Person Shooter
ESRB Rating:
M for Mature
Release Date:
5/20/2008
Platform:
Playstation 3
Item-code:
ps3-haze
Add to Cart | Description
Next-generation gaming technology applied to a cutting-edge futuristic first-person shooter. Designed from the ground up to take advantage of next generation hardware. Prepare to be blown away by stunning visuals, hyper-intelligent AI, and realistic physics for a varied and immersive gameplay experience.
Gear up and deploy with the best of the best. Experience the devastating firepower of deadly weapons through dazzlingly rendered outdoor and indoor environments. Drive vehicles through a dense and humid jungle ravine, or breathtaking mountains, as you strive to defeat the merciless guerillas.
State of the art multiplayer modes. Fire up your console or PC for online battles on one of two carefully balanced sides. Choose from a variety of online modes including furious co-op action with your friends!
List Price: $59.99
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Availability: This title will be released on March 18, 2008. You may order it now and we'll ship it to you as soon as it becomes available!
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We'll be adding some general reviews down below here soon so check in frequently (it's called a Bookmark, Mister!) and news about Haze as well. So don't think that we didn't earn that sale. Cheapass Gamer, Indeed! :P
While playing through the game we got speaking to two independent
Ubisoft reps. When asking both on whether the game will ever come out
for the Xbox 360, they said in a resolute fashion that the game is not
just a PS3 timed exclusive, but will never make its way onto any other platform.
This result is apparently a recent decision, but final. Sony must
have paid Ubisoft/Free Radical a nice little packet to bag this one.
March 18, 44
In a press conference today in France, it appears that Ubisoft announced Haze will be released exclusively on the PS3, initially at least. This suggests that Haze is most likely the exclusive they mentioned last week. It appears that it will be a timed exclusive, like Virtua Fighter 5, though nothing has been confirmed on that front yet.
Little is known about Hazeat this point outside of a vague release date of later this year, but considering it's from the developers of Goldeneye and TimeSplitters,
there is a lot of excitement building for the game already. The highly
unusual move of switching from multi-platform to exclusive will surely
bring additional attention to this title as well so expect the hype to
increase. We'll have more information as soon as Ubisoft can confirm Haze's exclusiveness.
Are they for real? I wouldn't be too happy if I were Free Radical.
Canadian EB Games stores are partaking in one of the most ...
intriguing trade-in offers we've ever seen. If you pre-order Haze and
return it within a week, you'll get all your money back (in the form of
store credit, of course). What could this possibly mean? It seems to
suggest that EB Games is placing a vote of no-confidence in this PS3
exclusive. Are they expecting people to return the game so soon after
picking it up?We're imagining this might not be a closed-loop system.
Imagine this, if you will: you buy Haze, get the store credit, and then
buy the same used copy you sold back to the store for cheaper, and
pocket the difference. Then, return the game again ...It won't actually
work that way, but it would be a humorous loophole to take advantage
of. (Oh, and we highly doubt American GameStop stores will be as dumb
generous.)...
Yeah well I'm not playing "Call of Duty, Man". I think that too many of these guys try to think alike, a lot like the old man probably, old farts who vote time and again for these old white guys for president... it's that kind of scratch your ass sentiment that is driving this nation into the trash heap. Think for yourself some! Don't go with the crowd... don't end up like the Baby Boomers a bunch of burnt out dried up old freaks who's only good times were when John Lennon was still alive. Make your own way!... I'm just sayin!
Hands-on with Haze
This is your game on drugs. See the side effects of Haze's mind altering meds and fresh gameplay footage
Words: Tyler Nagata, GamesRadar US
At first glance, Haze looks like a generic shooter with stereotypical marine jocks in armored suits shooting up terrorists in the name of freedom. But looks can be deceiving, and in Haze, nothing is as it seems. You’ll play the role of Shane Carpenter. Fresh out of college and full of good intentions, Carpenter joins the ranks of Mantel Global Industries, a private army for hire that sells its services for the good of mankind.
Thanks to Mantel’s proprietary “nutritional supplement,” Nectar, Mantel’s soldiers are faster, stronger and happier - making them the perfect force to fight those no good, freedom hating terrorists known as The Promise Hand. You’ll administer doses by holding down the L2 button and releasing it. The longer you hold it, the larger the dose.
When high on Nectar, you'll get enhanced vision that works like built-in infrared goggles, allowing you to quickly snipe down enemy insurgents with deadly accuracy. Increased damage and movement speed will also boost your killing power when drunk on Mantel’s combat drug.
Does the sugary sweet substance sound a little fishy? It should. Carpenter quickly learns that using Nectar comes with some dramatic consequences. Check out our video below. It features a montage of some of Nectar’s dangerous side effects, which include harsh withdrawal symptoms, delusions of grandeur, and an increased chance of coming off like a total know it all roid raging douche.
Below: What happens when a junkie loses his fix of Nectar? He becomes angry and philosophical
It doesn’t take long for Carpenter to discover that Nectar also distorts the user’s perception of reality. In one area, Carpenter’s suit experiences a Nectar Disruption error. The once empty room you were standing in is suddenly filled with the mutilated bodies of dead victims sprawled across the floor. His previously clean hands are now smeared with globs of blood and time seems to slow down. But once his armor suit reboots and the Nectar starts coursing its way through his veins again, the room returns to its previously sterile state.
Nectar shields your eyes from the atrocities of war and it’s the way that Haze implements its effects into gameplay with its shaky camera and distorted visual effects that keeps things interesting. As Carpenter’s faith in the intentions of Mantel and his fellow soldiers wanes, Haze’s story begins to shine. Soon, he finds himself on the side of the rebels once he inevitably comes to terms with the fact that the “bad guys” of The Promise Hand aren’t strung out junkies tricked into spilling innocent blood for the good of Mantel’s bottom line.
Haze will also support up to four players in its co-op version of the campaign mode. Four player co-op in shooters is a rarity in itself and almost unheard of on the PS3. So we were really excited to see how it played. From what we’ve seen so far, it plays well enough but doesn’t seem to add a whole lot to the experience you’d get from just playing through the campaign on your own.
Sure, you and three other friends can all jump in a vehicle and revive each other if someone dies. There are also secrets that can only be unlocked when playing through the campaign with friends, but we were too busy trying not to die to find any. And yes, there are a few areas where you can split up in pairs and take alternate routes to clear an area. But in the end, protecting your friends and watching their backs will never be as fun as killing them.
For now, it looks like Haze’s biggest strengths will still be its intriguing story and the eerie side effects of Nectar. But while four-player co-op might give you a good excuse to join a few games on PSN and make some new friends, we don’t see it breaking any new grounds in the shooter genre. Since it’s a PS3 exclusive, it’ll be interesting to see how Haze is received when it releases this May. In the meantime, scroll down and click away for to see this shooter in motion.
Below: You’ll be able to craft Nectar grenades to use the Mantel soldier’s addiction against them. Notice how they turn red when they overdose and start firing randomly.
Now here's the two new videos! Don't forget to tell your friends to stop by the Haze Page on :P lost planet! The Bestest Planet in the Whole World! :P
...And oh yeah. Here are some really cool new big photos of Haze to look at.
Haze comes out on May 20th and Just now Learned that there will be a demo of Haze in early May. That's right Haze fans we'll be able to fire up the ole Playstation and see what it's like! Here to celebrate this cool news is a new photog from Free Radical! Thanks Fellas! Good Job!
You can bet that we here at Lost Planet will be getting that demo and bringing our thoughts to you about it here on the #1 Haze Page. So keep coming back and demand, I mean demand that your friends follow you! How else will they know what's up!? :P
Well now, We have a few new Haze matters to go over... first an interview with Haze Screenplay Writer, Rob Yescombe and then a new Vid from Korn who created a new song just for the Haze game. In fact the song was so good that now Korn is putting it on it's new album!
But First the interview with Rob there are some cool photos from Sprong as well!
Interviews// Haze's Screen Writer, Rob Yescombe
Link to this: http://spong.com/feature/1010976523 Apr 2008 09:26
by Mark Johnson
Rob Yescombe. This wasn't our fault...Like a neon-clad, slow-moving juggernaut, Haze is coming.
It's one of the most anticipated games for the PS3 and one of the few FPSes that might prove to be a console-seller for Sony. All that and, much to my frustration, the release date has seemed to stay forever on the horizon. Until early April, that was!
To warm up for the release, I trundled off down to London to take a look at the game and have a chat with its screenwriter, Rob Yescombe.
After Rob had stopped oggling the sports camera I was using to record the interview, we got going on subjects ranging from Haze's multi-player to which side of the game's conflict Jesus would be on to TimeSplitters. Here is what was said...
SPOnG: You've been worried in the past that certain elements of Haze weren't getting enough media coverage. Do you feel that Haze would have have benefited from having a single, high concept? Do you feel it has one already?
Rob Yescombe: Well, here's the single high concept – two games in one. The problem is that you have a totally unique skillset and play style and experience on both of those sides. The problem is that we've got a great high concept, but beneath that you've got another tier that is all the features from two different games to explain in one demo – which is incredibly hard to do.
On top of that, you've got the whole story and narrative side of things which we're pushing pretty strongly, as well. So, in fact, the problem Haze has is that it's got too much good stuff in it!
SPOnG: It must be tough...
Rob Yescombe: It is! Even if you can list 50 good things to someone, if the experience they come away with is, 'God, I feel confused', that's bad.
Today, for instance, you've got a good few hours to play. You can get to grips with it and understand some of the subtleties of it. But doing all the trade shows, when you're talking about demoing both sides of gameplay and explaining how it works and explaining controls and talking about the story in a seven minute demo... it's madness! But that's, unfortunately, the way that marketing is constructed. And that's not Ubi's fault, by any stretch of the imagination – that's just the forums in which you can market things... that's what's feasible to do, and that's all you can do.
SPOnG: You guys have been really active in promoting Haze yourselves, that's quite unusual in a developer.
Rob Yescombe: Well, it's not that we were going rogue. Everything we do is tandem with Ubi, but we've combined forces so that, hopefully, rather than them having to organise something with us and then organise it with you, we can speak direct as long as everyone's working towards the same direction – which we are, of course.
SPOnG: Do you have a favourite aspect of the game?
Rob Yescombe: All my stuff!
No... again, that's the great and terrible thing about it. There's so much stuff that I really enjoy – cos for me, I can get an immense amount of pleasure just from an animation, for instance, where I know you feel cool when you disarm someone – when you spin that rifle in the air, catch it, shoot them – that's fucking cool.
By the same token, I'm pleased with the bigger things – like the theme running underneath it, I think is not preachy, which I think is something we really wanted to make sure we didn't do. We didn't want people to feel like, 'God, I'm being lectured by a video game'. We wanted the gameplay to come first, and that's something we've done really well, I think.
As well as that, Derek's... sorry, Derek 'Sizzlewood', has done a great job balancing those two completely different sides. That's hard work.
SPOnG: Erm... was he always Derek 'Sizzlewood'? Because I'm sure I remember him being Derek 'Sizzlin'' Littlewood at one point...
Rob Yescombe: I change it. He doesn't like any of those names. I was pleased to hear the other day that his Mother rang him up and said, “Hello, Sizzlewood”.
SPOnG: A lot of the time with FPSes it feels like you've got a multiplayer game with a single player campaign tacked on or vice versa. Do you feel that one or the other is the core experience of Haze?
Rob Yescombe: You know, recently we were looking back through the old notes – hundreds and hundreds of pages of design documents that we've written and refined over the three years of development. The very first sheet from the very first meeting, the things we had on it were; four-player co-op; asymmetric combat, streaming – no loading screens and just the word, 'story'. Which, you know, I had to expand on... (laughs). There are things that we've had to drop, things we've added on, things we've improved, but the thing that we wanted right at the beginning was that co-op experience and that multi-player experience.
We're not stupid. We know that our lifeblood is replayability – making sure that there's a community of people online that enjoy playing together. The communal aspect of games is, most of the time, the most fun part. That's why the co-op isn't some short mission thing. It's the entire single-player campaign, no loading screens, you can sit down with your buddies through the whole thing without having to miss out anything – as if you were playing by yourself.
SPOnG: So... replayability brings us to downloadable content...
Rob Yescombe: There will be some.
SPOnG: What form will it take?
Rob Yescombe: I don't know if we can talk about it yet... Some cool stuff... I guess it's fairly obvious that we can say there will be maps downloadable and, playing some of those the other day for the first time – because the multi-player aspect - as the writer I'm not really involved with it past a certain point – the downloadable maps are fucking cool.
The maps that come with the game are great but, of course, you're learning all the time while you're still playing and finishing those. By the time we've got those set and ready we can start work on the downloadable stuff and know exactly what's going to be amazing – so all the best things are distilled into that.
SPOnG: In regular deathmatch, if one player makes another overdose and the player overdosing accidentally kills someone, who gets credited with the kill?
Rob Yescombe: When someone is overdosing in deathmatch their kills are credited to them, not the person that overdosed them.
SPOnG: And if you play as a Mantel Trooper in regular deathmatch, do other Mantel Troopers become highlighted by Nectar?
Rob Yescombe: Other Mantel troopers are highlighted if you're using Nectar in deathmatch (essentially the glow appears over any character that's a threat, so even in team games, other troopers who are currently overdosing will be highlighted, because they constitute a threat to you). Fact-o-rama!
SPOnG: How long do you expect the single-player campaign to take?
Rob Yescombe: If you were running as fast as you possibly could, about 10 hours. If you were slow, probably about 12, I would think.
SPOnG: I just dodged a really bad Tiffany reference... Anyway, the delay. If you look back at the original press release for Haze, it was slated for a Spring 2007 release. Why has it taken so long?
Rob Yescombe: I'll be honest. We lost the keys to the office, and we got locked out from Novemeber. And then, luckily, we knew a guy, who knew a guy who could jimmy the lock. We got in, and then we were like, 'shit, we'd better release this bad boy'.
(Pregnant pause).
Also... I mean, it's all typical stuff - we wanted to make sure the frame rate was rock solid and just to try and improve the experience. I mean, the fact of the matter is, Ubi could very easily have said to us, 'no, let's hit the Christmas market', and it would have been fine. But we have a reputation to protect, Ubi has a reputation to protect, and rather than putting out a good game, it's better to put out a great game, because that replayability, building that community, is what is going to energise the success of that game.
You can get a little splurge spend at Christmas, or you can build a brand and life long appreciation of this thing.
SPOnG: And get people to come and play Haze 2?
Rob Yescombe: Yeah. If we're lucky enough to do that, then yeah.
SPOnG: You're not working on the script for Haze 2 yet, then?
Rob Yescombe: Haze 2 is... no one's talking about it yet, we're gonna wait and see. We're not committed to anything.
SPOnG: Busy with TimeSplitters?
Rob Yescombe: That's the thing, we've got this LucasArts project and TimeSplitters 4... we're a big team, but that's still a big ask.
SPOnG: How have you found Sony through the development process?
Rob Yescombe: They've never interfered, if that's what you mean. There are these weird, kind of bogey man stories that publishers are evil, that Sony's evil, that Microsoft are evil. They're not! They recognise that people have a creative ability, that that's what we do for a living, and they let us get on with it.
Then, when we come to the end, of course, they've helped us with some of the testing in terms of getting staff in. They've just made it very easy for us to do.
SPOnG: In terms of technical stuff – getting to grips with coding for the PS3 – how have they been with that?
Rob Yescombe: The fact is that our pedigree was on the PS2. Those coders know that hardware extremely well. I think for us it's perhaps been less of a challenge – although naturally challenging because it's new hardware – but I think for us it's been less of a challenge than for some developers who haven't had that time developing on that kind of hardware.
SPOnG: And you've got rumble in there, right?
Rob Yescombe: Yep. And Sixaxis. If you're on fire, shake it shake it shake it! Also, when you're overdosed on Nectar, if you try and throw a grenade, you'll end up holding on to it, so you'll end up having to try and throw it out of your own hand. (Frantically shakes imaginary Sixaxis.)
SPOnG: Can you talk about TimeSplitters yet?
Rob Yescombe: The irony is, I can talk about it very little because we've got so much going on. The thing is, in our company, everybody volunteers ideas, and it's a very sweet open-door policy to design. However, when it comes to TS4, everybody's got a million ideas, and all of them are as valid as the next guy. So, what we have is an enormous list of great ideas that no one wants to trim anything out of. So, right now, there's no way we could have it out before the year 3000. We've got to figure out, 'how do we reason trimming out great stuff in order to make a game in time?'
SPOnG: Can you give us a hint as to what we might see parodied?
Rob Yescombe: I'll tell you something that didn't make it in, how about that?
SPOnG: OK.
Rob Yescombe: This was my idea, it was deemed not bizarre enough. A vehicle – lava tanks. The most deadly weapon in the world, made out of lava that's driven by a pirate that fires ninjas.
SPOnG: Was it the coders that kicked that back out?
Rob Yescombe: No, no. It was a mutual creative decision.
SPOnG: Veering away for a second, what do you think to Manhunt 2 being allowed to go on sale and all the controversy surrounding violent games?
Rob Yescombe: Fine. Why not? It's this bizarre idea... For instance – Cliff Richard. This is something that cracks me up. Cliff Richard was once deemed to be spawn of the devil. His music was gonna make people into monsters. Rock 'n' roll was gonna destroy the world, and now it's the same with games. 'Oh my God, games are gonna destroy the world!' Of course they're not! It's the same as anything else. It's not gonna make us into monsters. People were bashing each other's heads open as cavemen. At least now we're streaming it into something online instead.
I have no objection to Manhunt, and from what I've heard the censored version's in fact pretty tame anyway.
It's kind of an odd thing. It's one of the underlying themes of Haze, which is that I find it weirder and weirder as I get older that I pay the bills helping to make stuff in which you shoot people in the face. Whilst like any normal person I detest real violence, I love virtual violence. That dichotomy is a very strange place to find yourself as an adult.
So, yeah, playing a game like Manhunt, there's a part of me that thinks, 'God, this is a little weird'. I worry about what this could do to somebody else, but the fact is it doesn't do anything. It doesn't do anything to me, it doesn't do anything to anybody else.
SPOnG: There's been some criticism buzzing around that Haze doesn't look all that great. Obviously there's loads going on in terms of gameplay mechanics. Was there a decision at any point to focus one way rather than the other?
Rob Yescombe: How do you think it looks? What do you think it looks worse than?
SPOnG: It looks good. Not as good as, say, Uncharted or MotorStorm.
Rob Yescombe: That's the thing, though, it's kind of odd. Someone the other day who I met – someone not in the industry, a regular gamer – said 'Grand Theft Auto doesn't look that good'... are you mad?
Because it's not, 'how does it compare to Crysis', it's, 'how does it compare to itself'. There are concessions you have to make in order to make something. Of course we don't look as good as MotorStorm, because we're not a straight line where it has loading times in between. I mean, we're talking about a 12 hour streaming experience. That is fucking massive, it's enormous. And, personally, I think we look absolutely great. But we don't look as good as Crysis, because it's a totally different game, totally different hardware. Inevitably, we're going to look A instead of A+, because there's more going on in the game. The more we give you, that's the concession you make. Same with Grand Theft Auto.
SPOnG: Has anything about the use of nectar surprised you? Any of that much sought after emergent gameplay?
Shane CarpenterRob Yescombe: There are things that people have learned to do – how to use things tactically – that we didn't even think about. Like, with the nectar grenades, when they go off, they've ended up becoming almost like a mobile cover system. The rebels can run through it, but the Mantel guys don't want to risk running through it. So you can almost set up a perimeter with those, and likewise with playing dead, you can end up with these really great ambush situations, where you've got three guys who are playing dead together, and they've set up a bunch of mines nearby. So, standing up makes the Mantel guys run in a certain direction...
You've got people using these things in a clever, team-based, dynamic kind of way.
SPOnG: Some of the Mantel guys have crosses on their helmets. Is that a reference to anything?
Rob Yescombe: (Grins). It's NOT a Jesus reference! I can't stress that enough. It was just something that someone thought looked cool.
SPOnG: OK. But if The Devil were in Haze, what side of the conflict would he be on?
Rob Yescombe: (Pauses). It's a good question. He would be one of the butterflies that lands on your gun if you stand still for long enough. In the jungle, they might land on your gun. You can shake them off.
SPOnG: With the Sixaxis?
Rob Yescombe: You know, I don't know if they ended up doing that. You can just move and they'll come off. But we should have done Sixaxis. That's a trick missed. You know, you're telling me right. Maybe it does! We should find out. I can't wait to find out.
SPOnG: If it's not...
Rob Yescombe: Then you don't have to buy the game. I'll give you a copy for free.
SPOnG: Could you speak a little about the scripting process? You've said that you started with 100 pages and now you're over 1,000.
Rob Yescombe: The process is, I write, basically, a screenplay, which is the narrative structure, the skeleton, if you will. It's like reading a movie. It's like – 'this is what we want the ideal narrative experience to be. Then, on top of that, your bolting on all the mission objectives, the in-game speech...
So, as different game units are designed and developed, then of course you need to provide the sign-posting and the dialogue for that as well, so it kind of blossomed like that. But it's all centred around that initial 100-page through-line of the story.
SPOnG: The voice acting is looking good. The bit with the *******EDITED FOR SPOILERS******* was impressive.
Rob Yescombe: Yeah! That's a guy called Chad Ellis. But, other guys we've got in there – (the main character) Shane Carpenter's played by Bertie Carvel, who is playing that in a very particular way for a very particular reason. He's an up-and-coming guy... very good. We've got Rupert Evans, who you may know from Hellboy, he's the...
SPOnG: Was he Abe Sapien?
Rob Yescombe: No, he's the young guy who's looking after Hellboy. Agent John Myers. As well as that, the guy playing the rebel leader, Skin Coat Merino, is a guy who used to be quite a big star in Spain (Carlos Riera). He retired, and he came out of retirement, when he read the script, to do this! I'd heard him reading a Book at Bedtime on Radio 4, and he's got this amazing voice, so I begged him to come and do (Haze). He's done a really great job.
SPOnG: How long did you have the guys in for with the voice acting?
Rob Yescombe: One thing that was really important to me in the casting and directing was I didn't want to do what a lot of other games do, which is record all the voices separately. So, all the main characters who were in that 100-page story together, we had them all in the studio, all recording together, because some of these guys have worked in radio, so it's like a radio play, effectively. That meant that they could act off each other, instead of me recording one guy, recording a line one way, then having to explain to the next guy, 'this is how the other guy did this line.' It's much better, 'cos then there's chemistry, you know?
SPOnG: How does it compare to other voice acting sessions you've had?
Rob Yescombe: Well, Haze is my first game, but the things I've brought from spending some time in the TV and film industry – part of that was having actors actually working together. Having had experience directing people before, that's something that Free Radical gave me free reign to do. Hopefully it's paid off pretty well.
SPOnG: Can you say anything about the platforms for TimeSplitters yet?
Rob Yescombe: We haven't even decided what we want to do yet. It could be any platform. It's still paper design at this point. We haven't got to a stage where we're pitching to publishers exactly what platforms. It's still unsigned, so we wanna do it our way and then say, 'this is what it's going to be, do you want to pay money for it?'
SPOnG: Can you give us a bit of background on how you came to be writing games?
Rob Yescombe: Well, I started writing professionally 11 years ago, while I was still at university. I oddly got writing for Indian cable television. Even though no-one was watching it, it gave me a chance to get the bug.
From there, I got into TV format development. From there, I got into feature film development, script editing. The way I ended up at Free Radical was kind of weird, because I wrote a sitcom that never got made, but it got shortlisted for a TAPS award†, and Free Radical were speaking to TAPS saying 'we need a writer' and they happened to find me, and the rest is history.
SPOnG: How does writing for games compare to writing for TV?
Rob Yescombe: The main difference is it costs as much to blow up a truck as it does to blow up a firework, and that's the coolest thing about it. And even thought there are restrictions that are kind of abstract, like in a movie you can have a thousand extras and it wouldn't really cost you very much, and in a game it's much harder, rendering characters and having them do what you want with AI – it's very hard to do that. But you can have a big explosion for cheap. So it's ebb and flow...
It's a good life!
SPOnG: Long hours?
Rob Yescombe: Most of the time, the more technical you roll, the more consistently you're doing long hours. For me, I'll do long hours for a very short space in time, get a lot of stuff done, then sit on my hands for a week or so while we're waiting for that to get into the game, see if it works, then get into something else. So I'm up and down.
SPOnG: Once the hardcore coding gets underway, is there a lot for you to do, then?
Rob Yescombe: Well, that 1,000 page doc doesn't get done all at once. The purpose of having someone in-house - because, you know, a freelancer will come in, write a script and disappear – being in-house means that when something needs to be tweaked, or re-designed, or cut, or added in, it means they're not waiting six months for someone to polish dialogue that was written by a designer, instead they've got someone there who can write and have it in the next day. And that is a constantly present thing.
SPOnG: Is Haze going to be on the 360 or PC at any point?
Rob Yescombe: I don't know. I don't even know!
SPOnG: Would you be personally disappointed if it didn't make it onto either of them?
Rob Yescombe: Sure. I want as many people to play it as possible. But then, those people have the free will to go out and buy a PlayStation 3.
SPOnG: It's more affordable these days...
Rob Yescombe: And now they've got a game that'll make them wanna buy it!
SPOnG: You see Haze as that game that will make people go out and buy a PS3?
Rob Yescombe: I would really like that. A lot.
SPOnG: Will your online multi-player be better than CoD4?
Rob Yescombe: It'll be very different, because... CoD4, me and Derek were looking at it, and there's a lot they've obviously got a lot that's... not ripped off from, but very similar to GoldenEye. Things that GoldenEye did right, they've noticed and capitalised on. They've got the golden gun, of course, as well.
We're just trying to do something different. People say, 'how do you think you compare to Halo? Well, you know, there are similarities in the sense that they're first person shooters, but the core combat experience is completely different.
SPOnG: Thank you very much for your time.
Rob Yescombe: Thank you.
Now onto the Korn Story and Vid of Haze's Korn song.
Korn's Latest "Haze"
Single inspired by upcoming game now available for
download.
April 23, 2008 -
Earlier today, both Ubisoft and EMI announced that Korn's latest single, "Haze"
was available for purchase from online music sites. The single, inspired by
Ubisoft's upcoming video game for the PS3, will also be included on the enhanced
CD version of Korn's untitled album that was released on April 21st in Europe,
Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Haze, developed by Free Radical, is exclusive
to the PS3 and will be released on May 22nd.
To highlight the single,
Korn, Ubisoft and EMI have released a video of "Haze" that melds live concert
footage of Korn with clips from Haze itself. To check out the video, click on
the link below.
Here is something new about Haze. Ubisoft the games maker has created a neat little page for Hazet's to have fun on. It is an interesting page with some interesting stuff on it and a few playables... here's a post from a developer at the Haze page a Ubisoft Forums.
Hi everyone,
I thought some of you might be interested in experiencing HAZE before it's released…
Well we just played the Demo on the Playstation 3... the look an feel of the game leaves you wanting more. Haze is sure to be a hit. I liked the Magnum, it was very powerful... I changed from it to the main rifle gun a lot.
The Demo of Haze entails you and about two others as you go through some crash sites... apparently rebels have stolen the so called Nector, which is a drug that give you a sense of new powers and extra perception. I found that when I was under the drug I could kill a lot more successfully in the game.
The jungle setting was well put together and I don't think that the makers of Haze have much to worry about, this little bit of Haze leaves you wondering what's coming up next. Your fellow soldiers have alot to say and sometimes they seem to 'lose' it, like you would in any war but with the added drugs... kind of like Viet Nam or something I would guess!
At any rate it looks to be fun and we are glad to have the game coming out pretty soon, and with our Haze page here things can only get better and better with Haze!
Expose the truth, switch sides, and break away from Mantel.
Evolve from a ruthless high-tech Mantel Trooper to a cunning Promise Hand rebel.
You'll be equipped with the most advanced gear and deadliest weapons.
Under the influence, a Mantel trooper is empowered by Nectar.
0 up, 0 down 
You can bet that we here at Lost Planet will be getting that demo and bringing our thoughts to you about it here on the #1 Haze Page. So keep coming back and demand, I mean demand that your friends follow you! How else will they know what's up!? :P 
