Free Radical sets the record straight over TS2 online
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine gets the low-down on just why online play didn't make it into the final version of TimeSplitters 2
So you've played the demo, read the review and put in your pre-order. There can be no lingering doubts about the sheer quality of TimeSplitters 2, but we still hear the odd voice querying why online play was removed. To clear things up once and for all, we spoke to David Doak, Director and co-founder of Free Radical Design, and asked him just how near they came to implementing the feature...
David Doak: "In some ways it was tangibly close, in others it was a million years away. It was always something we wanted to do, but I don't think people grasp how much effort it takes to do well. The only console game which has ever done it well is Phantasy Star Online. From day one that game was designed to be online and all the decisions were taken to make it work. Then Sega had to stump up an enormous amount of money to support it.
"TimeSplitters 2 has got the i.Link and LAN working, which basically means it has the functionality - but the whole server-side, messaging and game matching is a very different piece of software. And it's a type of software that we didn't really have any experience of. Just testing the offline, Story mode stuff is a big job. Now, when you look at online - the testing is absolutely frightening. We needed 16 people to test the i.Link mode, so to test the online mode requires Christ knows how many. It became clear to us that it was going to be unfeasible to test it properly.
Also, I think the skew of people playing online or offline is still going to be 90% offline at the moment. We have finite resources to put into a game, so do we spend a lot time polishing part of it which isn't going to reach all the people, or do we spend it making the bit which everyone is going to play really good?
"When the Online mode was announced at E3 we were still really keen to do it, but we were also starting to think 'this is just going to slip away' because it required so much work and so many people had to be involved. After it was eventually announced that we weren't going to do it, It kind of galled me that there was this backlash of people saying: "Why don't you just spend another month to make it work." Well, because it wouldn't have taken another month - it would have taken another two years!
"The other thing is the people who were working on the online stuff were killing themselves to get it working. I wish some of the people who were critical about it being cut had some window into the amount of hard work that went in. As disappointed as players who were going to buy it because it was online might have been, just think of the disappointment for someone who was working around the clock and had to, very reluctantly, say: 'I can't make it happen.' That's gutting."
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine gets the low-down on just why online play didn't make it into the final version of TimeSplitters 2
So you've played the demo, read the review and put in your pre-order. There can be no lingering doubts about the sheer quality of TimeSplitters 2, but we still hear the odd voice querying why online play was removed. To clear things up once and for all, we spoke to David Doak, Director and co-founder of Free Radical Design, and asked him just how near they came to implementing the feature...
David Doak: "In some ways it was tangibly close, in others it was a million years away. It was always something we wanted to do, but I don't think people grasp how much effort it takes to do well. The only console game which has ever done it well is Phantasy Star Online. From day one that game was designed to be online and all the decisions were taken to make it work. Then Sega had to stump up an enormous amount of money to support it.
"TimeSplitters 2 has got the i.Link and LAN working, which basically means it has the functionality - but the whole server-side, messaging and game matching is a very different piece of software. And it's a type of software that we didn't really have any experience of. Just testing the offline, Story mode stuff is a big job. Now, when you look at online - the testing is absolutely frightening. We needed 16 people to test the i.Link mode, so to test the online mode requires Christ knows how many. It became clear to us that it was going to be unfeasible to test it properly.
Also, I think the skew of people playing online or offline is still going to be 90% offline at the moment. We have finite resources to put into a game, so do we spend a lot time polishing part of it which isn't going to reach all the people, or do we spend it making the bit which everyone is going to play really good?
"When the Online mode was announced at E3 we were still really keen to do it, but we were also starting to think 'this is just going to slip away' because it required so much work and so many people had to be involved. After it was eventually announced that we weren't going to do it, It kind of galled me that there was this backlash of people saying: "Why don't you just spend another month to make it work." Well, because it wouldn't have taken another month - it would have taken another two years!
"The other thing is the people who were working on the online stuff were killing themselves to get it working. I wish some of the people who were critical about it being cut had some window into the amount of hard work that went in. As disappointed as players who were going to buy it because it was online might have been, just think of the disappointment for someone who was working around the clock and had to, very reluctantly, say: 'I can't make it happen.' That's gutting."