In Haze's new developer video with David Doak, we find out more about Nectar, the "secret weapon" of the game. He talks about how the "supplement" works, and the advantages and disadvantages you'll have when using it. Doak also talks about why Haze is going exclusive on the PlayStation 3.

The chemical booster Nectar is both an advantage and disadvantage on the battlefield. For one thing, while it boosts abilities, it can also make you screwy over time. Doak goes further on how it applies to the story in the video. He also gives one reason on why Haze is exclusive to the PS3, saying that in terms of rendering, the PS3 is unsurpassed.

Haze is currently scheduled to be released on November 19 for the US.

HAZE may be about the most elite Mantel troopers enhanced by the effects of Nectar, but it isn't about going "all gung-ho," blasting everything that moves and isn't clad in a Mantel combat suit. Thinking shooters and feelings aside, much of the design of HAZE (coming out first for the PlayStation 3, then for the Xbox 360 and PC) is based loosely on just you.

 

Unlike much of the American shooters, where the it's all about the hero in you, your gun and the nameless baddies you steamroll through, HAZE doesn't revolve around that. In fact, it doesn't even revolve around the conflict or the war; instead, it revolves around the soldier fighting someone else's war.

"It's not John Wayne. And a lot of videogames are John Wayne," Free Radical's David Doak explained in a recently published interview with EuroGamer. But he did admit that most gamers will be buying the game to experience another typical shooter, so HAZE will incorporate mechanics for gamers to jump in shooting from the start right to the end.

But then that would only remain skin-deep for HAZE. In fact, Free Radical wants to slowly convince the player that it provides a lot more than just mindless shooting. "We have to somehow change your opinion about that as you go through, and make you uncomfortable about it, make you pleased about it, make you upset or whatever," said Doak.

Click on Full Article for more of Doak's views of what they're doing with HAZE.

Despite spearheaded efforts by local and regional development studios in Europe to create a more competitive avenue for the European games industry, it appears that they are still severely hindered by their own local government. For the UK, Free Radical Design's David Doak sees that the government is more focused on looking down on the industry instead of encouraging growth.

 

"The UK Government needs to do something more useful than just criticising violent content in videogames," Doak said to Games Industry in an interview. Free Radical Design, makers of the highly-anticipated Haze for the next-gen consoles and PC, is one of the region's top and most vocal of developers. Doak added:

Here's an industry that 20 years ago we led the world in - through bedroom rock-and-roll development on the early home computers - and now there's a very real chance that what is now a real profession is going to be driven out of the UK because they don't make any concessions to it.

He criticized the British government for establishing fervor for the British movie industry, for example, and for financially supporting it, and yet wouldn't do the same for the game industry. "They'll stand around watching videogame developers losing staff," Doak commented.

The biggest of game development contracts usually go to other countries such as France and the immensely supportive Canada, which happens to currently drive its economy with the welfare of the game industry in mind. He even mentions that developing regions which are bearing potential game development resources, such as Shanghai, are now even being looked at as opposed to established studios in the UK.

"They drive up the cost of our business, and that makes us less appealing to other people, and even on a wider level, individual people are getting headhunted and pulled away - lots of people go to Canada, because that's a nice place," said Doak.

France-based publisher Ubisoft also has the biggest of its studios in Canada, and is the primary reason why Free Radical chose to collaborate with the European publishing giant for a title like Haze (for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC).

"If we're going to build something significant, it needs to be something that matters as much to them as it matters to us," Doak commented.

Here's some more multimedia goodies for you coming from Ubisoft's new AAA shooter for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, Haze. So we have here a bunch of cool screenshots that will give you an even better look at the world set in 2048, where you play Shane, a newly enlisted soldier out to fight for the good cause.

But that's not all we have for you today. We also have two videos for Haze. The first one is the official trailer from the Ubidays 07, wherein you see Shane narrating his personal story, and pretty much summing up for us what the plot of Haze is really all about. Meanwhile, the second video will give you David Doak, Free Radical's founder, giving a commentary on what their aim was for Haze. He also goes to talk about the Backstory and the Nectar System.

Anyhow, we don't want to keep you any longer from these treats, so why don't you go ahead and have your fill? Just head on over to Full Article for the rest of the screens and the videos. Enjoy!

In case you haven't heard, sci-fi FPS Haze will be getting 4-player co-op. On top of that, it's going to be available for both online and campaign modes. During the recent Ubidays conference in Paris, Free Radical Design director David Doak confirmed this feature, supposedly supported on all platforms that the game gets released in - that's PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

More than that, the director continues to say that their game won't be hacking at certain formulaic elements that are usually tackled by other titles. Turns out that the game would be "truly a bit more mature without being gory." Now how's that supposed to be? You could say that Viva Pinata's mature, in the sense that it's got incestuously breeding worms; so, does that mean Haze will also get "mature" worms too? Harhar, we kid.

As reported by EuroGamer, Doak explained to the press that Haze is "not just about war itself, it's about your perception of war." So it's like we're playing mind games now, huh? A bit of some psy-war going on, then? Not much of a "Halo 3 for teenagers" now is it? But we're not here to compare apples and oranges...

In any case though, all this talk about how they've handled the game has done nothing but make us even more curious.

GamesIndustry.biz reports while CiRCLE Studio's closure has yet to be made official, a number of studios in the region - including Free Radical Design, Swordfish Studios, Rebellion and Eurocom -  have already begun talks with some of the studio's former staff.

CiRCLE Studios, which was founded by industry veterans Jeremy Heath-Smith and Adrian Smith, was reported to have gone into liquidation Tuesday.

David Doak, director of Free Radical Design, based in Nottingham, confirmed this, saying that CirCLE's closure "means that we are now talking to some ex-CiRCLE employees." Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley also revealed that they are currently talking to "some selected individuals who have sent in CVs direct to our Rebellion Derby [offices]."

According to GamesIndustry.biz, sources close to CiRCLE revealed that Birmingham developer Swordfish Studios is another interested party, demoing a new title at the studio the very afternoon that employees had been informed of their redundancy. Swordfish announced a new studio devoted solely to next-gen games late last year.

Recruitment firms are also said to be hovering over the studio, as is Pirates of the Caribbean developer Eurocom, a company situated in the same city as CiRCLE.