Tag Archives: Richard Gaetan

Far Cry 2 multiplayer producer Richard Gaetan has told VG247 that he expects the game’s level editor to allow users to create “hundreds of thousands of maps” after it launches later this month.

“It was always big,” said the developer when asked how important the multiplayer aspects of the game wer to overall development.

“For us, we have three games in one. We have single-player, which is huge. Then we have the multiplayer and the map editor, that will have thousands and hundreds of thousands of maps there, so that’s like another huge part of the game.”

Gaetan went on to explain that simplicity and accessibility were key when constructing the level editor.

“Our strategy with the multiplayer was that we wanted to bring cool, good, solid mechanics but are simple at the same time, so the user will easily make good maps for all game modes. That was our focus point,” he said.

“You know with the single-player being really big and deep, we could have gone with something really complex on the multiplayer side, but then no-one would have been able to do maps for it, so we said, ‘OK, make sure everything is solid, and then the user and community will take care of creating thousands of maps.’”

The game’s out for PC, 360 and PS3 on October 24. There’s a video of the editor in action after the link.

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While Epic ran into some sticky issues about allowing user-created content on Xbox Live with Unreal Tournament 3 mods, Far Cry 2 developer Ubisoft Montreal has managed to get past the problem thanks to going through the process before with Far Cry Instinct on Xbox.

Far Cry 2′s user-created content comes in the form of multiplayer maps, obviously.

“[Microsoft has] some restriction: they have some technical issues,” multiplayer producer Richard Gaetan told us when asked if user-content on Xbox Live presented a problem for the game.

“As we have the experience from Far Cry Instinct in Montreal, we encountered some issues and that’s why it was only peer-to-peer.

“And so with that experience in our background, it was a bit easier. Then we started to discuss with [Sony], and make sure it was the same for PlayStation, to make sure it was alright with them. We made sure we sent them early builds.”

As reported yesterday, maps will be either stored locally on gamers’ machines or on Ubisoft’s servers, and can be shared from either location.

Shipping on October 24, the game comes with a full map editor on PC, 360 and PS3 versions.

Ubisoft’s told us you’ll be downloading user-created Far Cry 2 maps both from Ubisoft’s servers and other gamers’ consoles: it all depends on speed.

“[The service is] through Xbox.com or PSN’s network, but it’s on Ubisoft’s server,” said Far Cry 2 multiplayer producer Richard Gaetan.

“There are two strategies, because if you created a map and then if you [set up] a match with it, people that connect to your game will download it from you.

“But if you post it on Ubisoft’s server, then players will connect to your game but they won’t have your map. The engine will select which has the best connection – is it from you or the Ubisoft server? – and then it will download it from the fastest connection.”

The Far Cry 2 map editor has been catching a lot of attention in the last few weeks, and is said to be basically the same toolset the developers themselves used to create the on-disc maps. If you’ve got the PC version, though, you won’t be playing 360 maps: all the content from the three version is to be kept separate.

“The engine at its core is the same, but the specifics for each platform are a bit different,” Gaetan added.

“The saving format is different in respects to the PC and the PS3, so its three different [formats]. But at the same time we thing that with the strategy that we have, the user can store their maps and publish their maps on Ubisoft’s server, and everyone can see the PC and PS3 maps, and Xbox maps.

“I think we’ll have enough maps for each console. We’ll be OK.”

Far Cry 2 ships on October 24 for PC, PS3 and 360.

Far Cry 2 multiplayer producer Richard Gaetan has admitted that the shooter’s online play was heavily influenced by Call of Duty 4, but that the Activision shooter’s exact formula was too “chaotic” for the African action game.

“For sure, starting last fall, it was like the new reference for multiplayer,” said Gaetan of CoD4. “We played it a lot, and people on the team played it a lot, and then we discussed. Some people wanted to be exactly like it and then we said, ‘No. Our core technology and the core mechanics of single-player are not Call of Duty-like.’

“We wanted to keep some of the cool things that Call of Duty brought – the progressions system is one thing – but then, we tried the same progression, as in you unlock weapons as you go, etc, but it didn’t work for us. It was a bit too chaotic. Our map, with the dynamics of the destructibility, the fire, the night and day cycle: it wasn’t working fine.

The team, instead, focused on elements from the single-player game and adapted them for the online side.

“So we said, ‘OK, we have some mechanics that are really good from the single-player and we’re going to bring them to the multiplayer and just adapt them.’ So, some of the animation, reloading, iron sight, we tweaked them so they’re a bit faster in multiplayer, but not as fast as another shooter,” said Gaetan.

Far Cry 2 ships for PC, PS3 and 360 later this month.

You asked. We got it answered. Far Cry 2 is set at 720p, but the game can’t managed 60FPS because it has too much going on.

“No,” multiplayer producer Richard Gaetan told VG247 when asked if the title is locked at the magic 60.

“We wish it would be 60 frames a second, but no. With the world so big – even in multiplayer the biggest maps are pretty huge – the dynamic grass that can catch on fire, the trees that can be destroyed, the vehicles in there as well, there’s so much going on that no, we’re not at 60 frames per second.”

Gaetan did confirm, though, that you’re going to get 720p out of the game.

Whether or not it’s doing 60 frames, Far Cry 2 looks staggering, frankly, both in single-player and multiplayer. Read single-player impressions here.