Greetings humans, Monki here with a brief talk I had with Alex Offerman, the Senior Producer on Stranglehold.

All this talk of the Ghostbusters title brought me back to Stranglehold and some interesting ideas about what the future of games. It looks like Stranglehold may be one of the key games when people talk about the development of truly cinematic titles in the future. If Akroyd and Ramis treat their Ghostbusters game with the same respect as they would a movie, I'm insanely excited about the prospects of new titles in the future.

Anyway, this interview took place shortly after the PS3 version of Stranglehold hit the shelf. Don't forget, the PS3 version contains the entire feature film Hard Boiled on the same disc as the game, not bad for an extra $10. Hey PS3 owners...pick this one up.

Monki: Why did the PS3 version of take so much longer to hit the shelves?

Alex Offerman: The Xbox 360 has been available for a full year longer than the PS3. Due to this developers have had more time to learn how to work with the Xbox 360 hardware. Since the PS3 has only been out a year, there has been less time to figure out how to best use the hardware, and we were set on using the capabilities of the PS3 to the fullest. Every new console goes through this cycle with developers so it's not that unexpected for the first PS3 title that we have shipped. We also wanted to make sure that the quality was there and not just push out a rushed version so we spent the time to make sure it was well executed.

Monki: I've heard that the Playstation version was the "intended" platform for the game aside from having Hard Boiled on the same disc as the game, what makes the PS3 version better?

Alex: Except for the PS3 Collectors Edition of the game, which featured the movie Hard-Boiled on Blue Ray, all versions of the game contain pretty much identical content. We developed the game simultaneously on all platforms.

Monki: With the inclusion of Hard Boiled on the same disc as Stranglehold, do you think we'll start seeing more developers doing things like this?

Alex: Given that you always have more cool stuff than you can actually to fit on a disk, I imagine that this will definitely be the case. From games that have movies like Hard-Boiled associated with them, to early prototype examples of the game, to behind the scenes footage of the game team at work, to commentaries from designers, programmers, actors, writers, etc, there is always plenty of stuff that can be included with the game that will add extra value to the end user, so I'm sure we'll see more of this in the future.

Monki: How did including Chow Yun Fat in the game effect the way the story was told? Did you find that players were influenced differently in any way when they were playing as his character than they would as a more generic character?

Alex: Since Chow Yun Fat was reprising his role from Hard Boiled as Inspector Tequila, it meant that we had to tailor the story of the game to fit his character, so that did have an effect on the way the story was told. We also worked hand in hand with the director and visionary behind Hard-Boiled, John Woo, as well as directly with his writers and story board artists, which also had a big impact on the story of the game. Given that we approached the core game-play and look of the game with both these pivotal persons in mind, I can't help but think that players, especially those that were already John Woo and/or Chow Yun Fat fans, were strongly influenced by playing Tequila versus a more generic character. In fact, the game would have been very different had it featured a more generic main character.

Monki: What influences went in to the making of the game? We haven't seen a whole lot of third person action titles (aside from Gears of War) lately...why go in that direction?

Alex: As a team that had recently finished the game Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, our core competency was with 3rd person action titles, so it made sense to capitalize on that. As a game directed by John Woo and featuring Chow Yun Fat, it also made sense to go 3rd person. That perspective tends to lend itself to cinematic story telling and allows us to show off the main character doing the classic slow motion, dual fisted, gun-ballet they pioneered in their movies. With both of those together, it only made sense to go with 3rd person.

Monki: Are there any plans for downloadable content for Stranglehold?

Alex: Yes, we do have plans for downloadable content. Stay tuned for more details.

Monki: Are there any easter eggs you can let us know about?

Alex: About half way through the first level, there is a hidden movie theater that the player can find that is showing some up coming game trailers.

I don't know about you guys, but having "early prototype examples" of games put on to a disc would be pretty freakin' rad. Tha'd kind of be like getting a copy of an early script along with a DVD. I'm a total geek when it comes to the behind-the-scenes stuff, so this era of super-huge discs is making me very happy.

On a quick note, due to some scheduling conflicts we've had to reschedule the super-awesome-sold-out-in-30-minutes reunion screening of The Wizard. We're working with Mr. Savage and the Drafthouse to figure out a perfect time to get him down to Austin to show him how we do it right.

If you have any questions about the screening now, drop me an email and I'll do my damnedest to get it back to you ASAP. Don't worry though, it HAS NOT been cancelled, just pushed back a few weeks. We'll be taking the extra time to fill up the screening with extra bonus goodies for everyone who was lucky enough to get a ticket. Alright, until next time, back up the tree I go!

-Monki