STACK NZ Mar #60

FEATURE

GAMES

take the care to make sure that you can hear the bolt carrier group (BCG) sliding back and forth in a noisy fashion in the right weapons, if you know what to listen for. When I sit in an audio review and listen to the sounds as they describe the work involved, I’m always in awe at how much thought and detail is put into it. I should mention that Frostbite is an amazing tool – it really unlocks the power of the artists and designers, allowing us to quickly prototype and iterate on a wide range of things – it’s especially powerful for weapons, with a hundred values per gun that can change the feeling and experience in-game. How do you capture the sound of an RPG? Is this something you borrow from accumulated audio from other Battlefield titles? As you can imagine, it is tricky to capture the sound of an RPG. We didn’t capture a new sound for this game, but rather are using one captured for Medal of Honor – with some new tweaks to it, to make it sound great for our game. Will all the same weapons be available in both single and multiplayer? Yep! There might be some different mechanics in where you find them available for use, though, and of course AI are rarely as creative in their strategies as players are. I have several favourites – because of the weapon differentiation, it’s not “one size fits all”, and if you take the wrong gear into the fight, let’s just say you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. Luckily, in Hardline we have multiple Loadout slots on the customise screen so that you can create several presets to save your favourite configurations. When playing the game, do you have a favourite weapon, or weapon combo you like to use? Personally, I sometimes go for style in addition to substance – I like to roll the AKM bare-bones as my catch-all, with the wooden foregrip and ironsights only, because I think it looks badass (and I can go 5:1 with it). If I’m in a close-quarters situation, I love to use the FMG with a red dot and silencer – it’s a terror and looks wicked. If I’m out in the open, I prefer a DMR like the Saiga to pop shots off at distant targets, maybe with a compensator to manage the recoil. Finally, for a variety of settings like a solid battle rifle like the HK51 to handle enemies at

over the place. It also allows us to give each weapon a specific character, as the other weapons in that class do things like change their effective damage per second (DPS), their engagement range, or other attributes. The most important step is probably iteration, however. We play these over and over and over, and constantly tweak them based on player feedback until they both feel right and we see the right data reflected in the collected metrics. We’ve made a couple of changes from BF4. We’ve modified the recoil on the weapons, making them more skill-based, but at the same time making it easier to understand the effects of your shots. We’ve made your selections of weapon attachments more crucial than ever, with more differentiation between the attachments. We’ve increased the power of submachine guns as a category, truly making them a viable close quarters option. And there are a few more changes hidden in there, as well, but you’ll have to find those for yourself. Do you recruit weapons experts to brief the team on the functionality and abilities/ restrictions/limitations of each weapon? Absolutely. There are a few of us on the team with extensive experience and training. Luckily, this kind of expertise is acquired in addition to our other skill sets, so it’s not required to have a full-time expert available for consultation. Throughout the course of our careers, we have consulted many firearms experts – the guys who actually know and use these things – and have a fairly encyclopedic knowledge from a practical perspective. One of our designers is even a certified armourer. Do any of the devs undergo weapons training to familiarise themselves with how guns react when fired? Not specifically for this project, but yes, in general it’s a requirement for designers to understand how weapons work, feel, and are handled – Battlefield is known for its authenticity,

• Battlefield Hardline is out March 20

In general it's a requirement for designers to understand how weapons work, feel and handle

and we have to uphold that tradition. Not only that, but our job as designers is to bring you experience you might not otherwise be able to have, and recreating all of the details as perfectly as we can greatly helps immersion. We've had a taste of the weapon audio at E3 last year and with the recent beta, and it was certainly impressive. What is involved in creating the audio for the game? Are the weapon sounds simply accessed via a sample bank? There’s a lot involved in recording weapons. From capturing the sounds of live fire in all modes – single, burst, automatic – to the impacts and ricochets, and all of the sounds of the action (reloading, bolt carrier group movement, and so on), suppressors, etc, there’s a ton of recording that has to be done. Our audio engineers then take all of the pieces and make sure they sound great in game – gunshots don’t transfer directly or easily to game space. They

different ranges – I flick between semi-auto and

fully automatic to help manage the recoil of this beast, but always try to roll the stubby grip on it.

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