First, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway has become Gearbox's flagship original game series. How does it feel to have the third game in the series close to completion?

We're coming in for a landing! I think there are a lot of different emotions – certainly excitement. Also a bit of fear. It's like the first time we introduced Brothers in Arms when we took a risk and instead of doing a traditional corridor shooter, we challenged players to use tactics like fire and maneuver and asked them to solve each combat situation almost like a puzzle in how they led their squad and used the cover. We didn't know how people were going to react to that, so there was a bit of fear going into the launch. With Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, we're doing some other new things and some things that are different and we think they are awesome things, but can't be totally sure until we launch. So, there's a bit of fear there :)

Why did the team decide to use Operation Market Garden as the basis for Hell's Highway?

Operation Market Garden is the largest airborne invasion in the history of the world. It was a bold plan – the Allies dropped every paratrooper they had behind the German lines to open up a highway through Holland in a bid to cross the Rhine and punch into the German homeland. However, the Germans had some of their best units in the area and mounted a swift and hard counter attack that surrounded the tens of thousands of paratroopers and armored infantry soldiers that were pushing deep into enemy territory. The Operation that was meant to decisively end the war in 1944 favor of the Allies rapidly changed to being a mission of rescue and survival as the Axis forces crushed the corridor the Allies created. To the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne that were relentlessly attacked at the base of the entire operation, the corridor became known as Hell's Highway.

The mood begins with a sense impending success. Green grass and blue skies are accented with a richness and saturation that accents the feeling of victory the men had as they set out on their mission. As the mission collapses, the mood changes and deep tones and dark feelings penetrate both the story telling and the environment.

The backdrop of Operation Market Garden is a very dramatic backdrop that is perfect for the story that we felt needed to be told about Sgt. Baker and his squad.

It's like going to see the Titanic and knowing that boat is going to sink. That information only adds to the tension and drama of the experience and the catastrophe only adds to the impact and horror of it through amazing visual effects.

At E3 last year, you demoed a single player level that had a little supernatural theme to it. Is that kind of viewpoint expanded in the full game?

Sgt. Baker is the squad leader you become in Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway. In the first game, the story was about him learning to become a squad leader (which mirrored the player's experience of learning how to play the game with the ability to command a squad). In Hell's Highway, Sgt. Baker *is* a squad leader – he's a veteran and he has to confront the burden of that position. A squad leader has to make difficult choices that sometimes lead to the death of his friends. Colonel Antal, the Military and Historical Director of the Brothers in Arms games, once told me, "To be a great squad leader, you must love your squad. But, to win in battle, you must be able to risk what you love." This is a very real and difficult thing to do because death is a serious consequence of decisions. For many of these men, the burden was too great. Some men were crushed by the burden of having made poor decisions that led to the deaths of their friends. Some men had to make good decisions to send their friends to die so that the others can live or so that the mission could be accomplished. These are serious things and these experiences can push a man to the brink of sanity.

Sgt. Baker is pushed to that brink in the course of Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway. He becomes haunted by the memory of his dead Brothers in Arms.

The story helps us live through that experience and we can think about whether or not we would be able to pass that test or not. Will Baker pass that test? Will he become crushed and consumed with these feelings, or will he be able to accept them and lead his men through hell?

It's serious stuff – stuff that the men who really did this lived through in their real lives. Brothers in Arms will put you in that experience.

How much historical research has Gearbox done for this third installment?

Brothers in Arms has always been known for its authenticity and that's because we do so much to care for it. We don't just watch a few movies everyone has seen and read a couple of books. We have studied materials and official reports we've pulled from the National Archives in Washington, DC. We've walked the actual battlefields and surveyed the ground so that we can recreate it. We've collected the weapons that were in play and have fired them and recreated them ourselves. We've purchased aerial reconnaissance photographs from the British government that were taken from spy planes that flew over the battlefield during the fighting. We've collected thousands of photographs from the US Army Signal Corp and from private collection of soldiers and civilians that were there. We've also spent quite a lot of time with veterans who actually fought the battles. These men are the primary inspiration for what we do. These men are whom we must respect and dignify with our efforts.

How much of the actual Operation Market Garden campaign is depicted in the game?

Sgt. Baker's path is all over the 101st Airborne's operational area. It's a pretty wide combat area. There's a neat map that will be included with the Limited Edition version of the game (among other things) that shows Sgt. Baker's path and where the game's missions take place. It's really nice and is about poster sized, I think.

The Brothers In Arms series has always had impressive AI for its squad commands. How is it improved in this third game?

The squad has to be believable, but also has to respect Baker's authority as the leader of the squad. So, much has been invested into the AI to not only enable them to act more realistically, but also to utilize new equipment, like Bazookas and machineguns. The AI also had to be more optimal to support a maximum size of three teams under your command at one time. The enemy AI is also really interesting in that they're smart enough to look for flanks and to think about displacing (falling back) when you've got them in a pickle. But, they're a bit human too in that sometimes they make mistakes or sometimes they get in a spot where they have a difficult decision and you can see the trouble they know they're in with their behavior. One of my favorite things to do is set up a perfect flank where I've got my machinegun team suppressing an enemy unit behind some sandbags or something while I move around behind them and open up. They were so busy worrying about my machinegun team that I can often sneak around and get behind them before they even know they're surrounded. By the time they realize they're trapped in a crossfire, their only remaining option is to just die. That's a great moment – the feeling of total domination. Of course, when it comes to domination, nothing beats crushing the with a tank!

What can you tell us about the multiplayer options in Hell's Highway compared to the first two games in the series?

Hell's Highway multiplayer is very tactical. It's a competitive mode with two teams of up to ten players each (total of 20 on-line players). So, the matches are a bit bigger than you're used to with Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4. But they're more tactical and team oriented. You won't find any free for all or anything like that – it's a team based game. You'll be sorted into teams in a squad (with one player as the squad leaders to give commands or call in artillery in support) and you'll have an objective (depending on the map). Usually, you'll make a quick strategy and go for it. Your strategy, tactics and skill as a team vs. the other team will affect how you do. The round will be over quickly – about three to five minutes – then you'll immediately start another round where you can use the same approach or a slightly different one. It feels a little like Counter-Strike, which happens to be the most popular on-line action game on the PC. But it's different, too, in that you have different weapons and some different tactics. For example, in Hell's Highway we have destructible cover, so you can tear apart a wooden fence or something that your target is hiding behind and still get to him. You can also take down sandbags and harder cover with explosives. There are some maps in the multiplayer game that feature a tank.

Anyway – it's neat because it's very different than anything out there.

Are there any plans for a PC demo of the game before its release?

There will probably be a demo for the PC. Definitely demos for the consoles. I don't know about timing – whether they'll come before or after. We're putting all of our attention into making sure the game lands as solidly as we can.

Gearbox has expanded the Brothers in Arms series to a novel, a comic book series, a non-fiction TV series and even a proposal for a film. Was it always the intention to make Brothers in Arms more than just a game franchise?

I think Brothers in Arms is a pretty special thing. One always hopes for more, but we can never count on it. The comic book is great and is getting great reviews. Incidentally, if you can pick up a first run issue #1 or #2 of the Brothers in Arms comic from Dynamite, they might be worth more down the road. They're only about four dollars and they're really well done. They're written by Mikey Neumann, who also writes the video games, so they're totally legitimate. And, they're done as their own thing – it's not like an advertisement. If you didn't know there was a video game, you'd just think it was a great comic book about these kick ass soldiers in the middle of some serious business. The TV mini-series on the History Channel was great because we had all this research we did and only so much of it was used in the game. The TV show was able to go a little deeper with the true history in a documentary format than the game did. The game never shoves history down your throat – there's no stock footage or anything like that in the game. The game just presents it as if you're part of it, as if you're there. But the history is really amazing and deep and so the documentary format was great for that information. The novel that's coming out was written by Colonel John Antal and its published by Random House and it's very good. I read the draft just before the final draft and was totally enthralled. I mean, I love war stories, but this one really got me. It should be out in book stores around the same time the Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway video game is released. Incidentally, Colonel Antal also wrote a non-fiction history book about Hell's Highway that will also be in book stores around the same time as the game. The history book is filled with great information and photographs – all real stuff and most of it has never been printed in any format before because Colonel Antal compiled it from veterans and historians that he's known over the years. I can't wait until I can get my final, published copy.

Gearbox has a whopping four announced games in development in a variety of genres. How do you keep up with all that activity?

We're not a small studio. Also, we stagger our development cycles. You see, a team at the beginning of a project is very small, but it is huge during the peak of production. Multiple projects actually helps us maintain a balance with our extremely talented developers being able to work on different things. The other advantage is that if we only do one game, we have a certain percentage of our budget that we can afford to spend on, say, technology. With multiple projects using some similar technology, we can invest so much more there. Each game is better because we're doing more than one thing. Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, for example, features technology that was also developed for Borderlands, Aliens and other things we haven't announced yet. Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway is a great way to imagine what's in store for the future with us.

Can you give us a brief status update on Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines?

Yeah – It's awesome and it's a dream project. I can't wait until we're ready to share more. I think Sega understands how important this project is to fans like us, too.

A while back Gearbox was linked to a game version of the movie Heat. Has that project been shelved or is that still in development?

That "project" was never really started. I think Michael Mann is a brilliant director and the film was brilliant and Al Pacino and Robert Deniro and others did such amazing performances in that film. I've always wanted to do a video game along those lines, so I talked to Michael and the folks at New Regency about doing a video game and they gave me a license to do it. But I'm so busy and it needs to be done right. A couple of the top multiplatform publishers were very interested in it, too, so it may yet happen. But we couldn't commit to it at the time. It was never meant to be publicly mentioned, but some folks that helped us put the deal together were so excited about it I think they dropped the story to Variety or Hollywood Reporter or something so it became a story. I'm not sad about that – I'm just sad that I can't get started on it right now. Some day.

There are rumors of yet another unannounced game coming up. Can you give any hints about what it might be about?

Nope.

Gearbox started out as a PC developer but has moved on to become a console-PC game company. Do you feel that the PC game industry is still a viable one and do you see Gearbox continuing to make PC game titles?

I think the PC platform is a great platform. I think the best looking version of Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway is the PC version. I think we'll continue to support the PC platform for a long time. I think we're also eager to work with the right folks to help the PC platform get stronger. And, we're excited about the new and more convenient ways we can bring our games to customers and support our games on the PC.

Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Hell's Highway and Gearbox in general?

What do you think we should do for post launch support? Come to www.gearboxsoftware.com and look for our forums to tell us what you think about the games we're doing and what you'd like to see in them.