AWW YEAH!!!
EVEN MORE ON
'DEM DUKES BOYS

So you wanna know all there is to know about the new Dukes Of Hazzard Racing For Home PlayStation game, huh? Well, here ya go, straight from Southpeak's Steve Wartofsky, Producer for Dukes Of Hazzard: Racing For Home. If you missed Part 1 of the interview, click HERE or on the link at the bottom of the page. If yer chompin' at the bit for more info, read on. In this installment, Steve talks about the Game Mechanics of the hit new title. Be sure to check out our REVIEW of the game!

Special thanks goes out to duke_lover and Ray, both huge Dukes Of Hazzard fans who helped out with some of the questions. Be sure to click on their names to check out their sites dedicated to the Dukes Of Hazzard.

PSi:

Games change as they go through various stages of development, so let me ask this: In the release version of the game, what characters and vehicles will be appearing in DOH:RFH? Which of these will be playable? Are there any secret or 'hidden' characters or vehicles?

SW:

You play as Bo and Luke Duke, but you will encounter all the major characters of the show, as well as our own bad guys, Blackjack Perril and his folks. And you'll get to drive the General Lee, Daisy's Jeep, Boss Hogg's Cadillac, and Cooter's tow truck in the single-player game; more of the vehicles from the show will be open to you in the multiplayer game as well.

PSi:

Many die hard Dukes of Hazzard fans are dying to know: Will wusses Coy and Vance be there? And if so, will we get to kill them in the game?

SW:

Coy and Vance do not appear in this game.

PSi:

The missions in DOH:RFH offer a lot of variety, from saving Uncle Jesse from masked gunmen to delivering the monthly mortgage payment in time to save the farm... Do all of these missions stand alone, or do they all add on each other to advance a plot? Is there a climactic ending?

SW:

This is a full-scale plot, supported with marvelous animation from 4-Elements Studios (Montreal, Quebec) all the way through the 27 "story" missions. And yes, there's a climactic ending, but it's Dukes of Hazzard climactic. You should feel like you've played through an interactive episode of the TV show by the time you're done with the single-player element of the game.

PSi:

I know that DOH:RFH is supposed to let you blow up things with explosive arrows, allowing players to blow out bad guys' tires, clear obstacles, take out bridges, etc. Is this done while hanging out the window of the General Lee, as in the television series? How is this handled?

SW:

Yep, we have Luke hangin' out the window to do a little bow-shooting, in ways appropriate for the show and the license. Luke will duck back into the car if conditions are inappropriate for him to be hangin' out like that, though - nice little AI feature.

PSi:

How have you implemented Dual Shock compatibility? What types of events have force feedback?

SW:

Typical for this sort of game - you get the result of impact, mainly, with some road-feel as well, for the Playstation version. We're working now on what else we can do for the PC version in this area as well.

PSi:

Will the Waylon Jennings version of the theme song play at the beginning?

SW:

Yep, that's Waylon his self! And he's The Balladeer all the way through the game, as well. Waylon was wonderful with his time and VO performances for us, as were the other members of the original cast involved and the sound-alikes we used for some of the characters.

PSi:

Will the narrator say something witty if you pause the game?

SW:

Wasn't in the plans, great idea, wish you'd told us sooner!

PSi:

How realistic will the physics model be? Are we talking real-life driving action like in Gran Turismo, a little less realistic, like in Need For Speed, or completely arcade like Hot Wheels: Turbo Racing?

SW:

Dukes is more of an arcade-style driving game, so no, our focus is very different from GT2 and the NFS series. We're also trying to appeal to a wider audience who enjoy driving games, and to newcomers to the genre as well, who don't want to lose a lot and have to deal with a long learning curve to get into a game.

PSi:

When running from the cops, we hear the ever familiar CB communication. How many characters have 'got their ears on' in DOH:RFH?

SW:

You'll hear CB communications throughout the game - it's part of our way of bringing the characters into the driving game, in a context where we didn't really have the technical opportunity to make them a part of the experience otherwise (doing real-time driving _and_ 3D character animation is a virtual impossibility at this point).