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AusGamers: We’re here with Tim Jones. Tim Jones from Rebellion. Tim can you first give us your role and then a little bit of a spiel about AVP?


Tim Jones: I'm Tim Jones, Project Lead on Aliens vs Predator for Rebellion. Aliens vs Predator is a very important title for Rebellion, having done the original Jaguar version back in the 90’s and the PC version back in 99' -- that's when I joined the company, to work on that one. So it's a real thrill for me and the company to be bringing it back to a new generation of gamers some ten years later.

With what we can do with technology these days and the way games and narratives can play out; it's really exciting for us.




AG: Do you think with the extension of time and the advance in technology and also the fact that basically we can see anything we want in movies nowadays, that the fan expectation has put a lot of pressure on you guys, surely?


Tim: Ah, we can take it [laughs]. But yeah, absolutely there is a lot of pressure and a lot of expectation. We continue to be amazed at how excited people are for this title and the buzz we’re getting and the feedback we’re getting from showing off what we are doing here at E3. Everyone seems to be really really pleased with what we are doing so hopefully we’re doing something right.


AG: I’ve noticed in the demo there is a fair amount of... I mean, the tech looks great, the dynamic lightning looks incredible, but in turns of dynamism, how much are we looking at scripted vs... I wouldn't say open world but, how much recourse do you have to deal with the stuff thrown at you?


Tim: One of the key things for us about the game is, particularly for the marine gameplay where we're really trying the recapture the sense of fear that a lot of people experienced on the first PC version in particular; recapturing that. It's not good if you just sort of walk around a corner, you get killed by an alien and then you return to checkpoint and you're like "ok that alien is going to be right around that corner again" -- that kind of spoils the scare.

So what's really exciting for us, with the sophistication of the AI and the way things can be randomly placed at times, it really keeps the player on their toes; you never know what to expect and literally, we've played these demos over and over and over and it's different every single time and the aliens still take us down quite frequently and make us nervous.

So yeah, it’s great fun; and when you see certain AI factions like the Aliens and the Marines go up against each other, you never know quite how it's going to turn out because one thing or another can change the course of the battle. Whether it's the player intervening or just one of the AI that decided to do something slightly differently, it's really exciting.




AG: Did you guys have any kind of, I guess, barriers in creating this? It's become its own franchise obviously with the movies whereas the comics kind of ran with themselves for a long time. We you guys constrained or totally let free?


Tim: It's been a thrill and obviously we're real fan boys ourselves, real obsessives about the franchise -- both the expanded universe: the comics and all of the movies -- and what we've done is picked an area in the timeline which is familiar to people; just after the events in Alien 3 so the Colonial Marines and the Company are still very present in the universe. But that's allowed us the freedom to really deliver a new narrative, a new story that brings a few new things to the franchise.

Working with 20th Century Fox, they've been really great partners for us; they've been really accommodating and they seem really happy with what we've proposed. They seem to really understand that we really understand the franchise and it's been really great working with them. In particular they've been able to offer us all the original sound samples and loads of production artwork and all that sort of thing so we can make sure everything is just spot on; just the way it should be.

AG: Alright Awesome. Well thank you, we're going to have to wrap it up there, but cheers!

Tim: My Pleasure. Nice to Meet you.

You can find more details about Aliens vs Predator in AusGamers' in-depth preview.