Fatal Inertia EX Interview

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Eurogamer: One of the original game's strong points was its physics-based weapons - will there be any additions or refinements there?

Mike Bond: Oh, we've definitely tweaked the behaviour of the weapons to make them easier to use, more effective, and to account for the game's much higher speeds. The Force Blasts and Rockets, two weapons that can be used for boosting, have been dramatically improved to give the player a lot more oomph when they use them. The Smoke Bomb is now much more effective (and much cheaper to render) and the Force Shield now causes damage when it touches an opponent. We've also made changes under the hood to the weapons to improve performance and generally smooth out behaviour.

Eurogamer: Apart, obviously, from distributing it via the PlayStation 3 Store, what kind of use will you make of PlayStation Network?

Mike Bond: We've implemented online play for up to eight players (even in the demo!) with voice chat and a skill ranking leaderboard. In FI EX, players can do single races or series races (like a mini tournament) where the original only had single races. In addition, if a player is connected to PSN while playing any mode in the game, their lap times will be uploaded to a global leaderboard. Of course, we've made sure to separate Time Trial records from other game modes to make sure that players can display their unassisted times as well.

Eurogamer: There were concerns with the 360 version about frame-rate, particularly in the demo version. How does the game perform on PS3?

Mike Bond: Yeah, the 360 demo didn't run well and we really regret releasing it when we did. The final game performed substantially better but still often dropped frames. In FI EX, we've dramatically improved the frame-rate again and I think players will be pleasantly surprised. This combined with a significantly higher game speed makes for a much, much nicer experience.

Customise your ride. That's what I'd do.

Eurogamer: Why bring Fatal Inertia to PlayStation Network rather than making it a boxed release as it was on Xbox 360?

Mike Bond: We feel that one of Fatal Inertia's greatest strengths is its online feature-set. Having watched the growth of the PlayStation Network's user base, we felt that it was an excellent fit for a game like Fatal Inertia EX. In fact, when we release the demo on PlayStation Network it will include a significant online multiplayer component.

PlayStation Network also allows us to make Fatal Inertia EX highly visible and easily accessible to a large audience for a fraction of the cost of what a retail version would be. Gamers will be able to try the demo for free and then instantly unlock the full game from the menu. The result, we hope, is that many more people will try the game and, once they play it, will be more than willing to click the purchase button.

Eurogamer: How much will it cost?

Mike Bond: This hasn't been set in stone yet but I can assure you that there certainly won't be another title that has a comparable amount of content for a similar price.

Eurogamer: Will you be supporting the game with downloadable content post-release?

Mike Bond: No plans have yet been made for providing downloadable content. FI EX already contains much more content than other games (59 tracks in seven huge environments!) at the same price point so we think players will be entertained for a very long time. However, if gamers really demand additional environments or tracks, I wouldn't entirely rule it out as a possibility.