GameSpot UK Preview

[Gobalopper]

GameSpot UK posted a great preview of Emperor earlier today. It doesn't really provide much in new content but it does have two good interviews with Brett Sperry and Chris Longpre. There are also some screenshots but nothing new there. Be sure to give it a read, below is a few of those questions:

GS-UK: With the focus on reinforcements from neighbouring territories, was there inspiration from the Risk board game?

Longpre: It was more of an inspiration in the late 1980s and strategy gaming on the PC. It was really a lot of what was happening on the table top. That's kind of where [Emperor's executive producer] Brett [sperry] was when he designed Dune 2. It's a niche market. They're very technical. They're for people like us. I still play some of those games.

GS-UK: So you can play the campaigns cooperatively?

Longpre: It is the primary new feature on the online side. It's a very popular and growing area of online play. You can sit there with a friend. One is essentially the master when it comes to choosing the territories. What we're looking into doing is defining different roles for two players to play. It's one thing to get together and say "there's two of us versus one of them, we're just going to clobber them." That's only a certain amount of fun.

GS-UK: Does making a 3D RTS make it better or just prettier?

Sperry: It's a combination of things. The opportunities as far as we see them for Emperor in 3D is unit personality. Now that we have this beautiful 3D system and particles and all these effects that we never had before, how can we make a unit, parts of the base and the little guys running around in the world have more personality, more idiosyncrasies, more reactions to what's happening to them and to the environment? There's a huge field of opportunity that 3D gets.